bookaneering

The Newberry Library Booke Fayre

2009-07-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

One of two great book events in Chicago every year, and I like to think of it as a fair cousin (you'll pardon me) to the Printer's Row festivities. Printer's Row is a more gallant being, a little bigger, a little fancier, as evidenced by its Printer's Ball, which kicks off the fair every year. The Newberry is quieter and more decorous--its books come from donations, which are religiously collected year-round and then spread before the public once every July in an array of fine, tall-ceilinged rooms. Rather than a Ball, the Newberry hosts a Bughouse Square Debate on the Saturday of the fair (which runs from Thursday through Sunday without fail). I'll admit that I've never attended the debates, although the square itself (rightfully, if not as imaginatively, named Washington) is a thing of beauty, fountain, benches, and all. (Last year we witnessed here a trés chic wedding, very small, seemingly unaware of the book frenzying across the street.)

To return to the rooms, however, it should be noted that perusing the Newberry as a work of architecture stands alone as a reason to take advantage of this event. In 1887, at its inception, the Library was transient for a few years before arriving in its permanent home, Henry Ives Cobb's Romanesque building at 60 West Walton Street. To gain access usually one must be a student with a decent amount of writing amassing behind him; for the rest of us, these marbled halls are free and free for roaming during the Fair weekend.

I tend to head straight for Literature, in a corner room to the east. Hardback is graciously given to the walls, while paperbacks line up on a table. Philosophy is oh-so-conveniently located on the same table, and other tables boost paper signs: Psychology, Social Issues, Biography, as well as VHS tapes and cassettes--and even vinyl--giving the place a garage-sale aura of arcana. There's nonfiction of all stripes, and the lowly Fiction, too, in other rooms, but literary thrillseekers are encouraged to visit the Rare and Antiquities room (or maybe it is called Collectors, but either way, you get the picture). I have it from a Very Good Source that touching books is good for them; the oils on our fingertips keep the pages from drying out and cracking and other such sad events. Yet I can understand the motivations behind the glass and, frankly, am grateful.

To call the Book Fair moderately priced is do it a disservice. I picked up an Iris Murdoch, a collection of Thomas Mann stories (for a friend), an Edith Piaf record (for another friend), John Gardner's Grendel, Woolf's Orlando, and a final book that shall remain nameless. My total? $5.

Newberry Library Book Fair
60 W. Walton St

Chicago, IL 60610

Mid-July yearly

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Moe's Books

2009-07-05T01:32:00.000-07:00

Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, CA

It seems fitting that I am starting with Moe's, as it was the first bookshop to exert a magnetic pull over me. It's been a Berkeley institution for fifty years now, three blocks from the university with a distinctive red-and-white awning and four floors of used books inside. When I was a kid, my dad would occasionally take us to Berkeley, where we'd browse around the record stores and roam through Moe's. (Another Telegraph Avenue favorite, Cody's Books, has unfortunately since shut down.)

Over a decade later, Moe's remains one of my favorite destinations in Berkeley. It's a bookstore that you can easily visit once a week: Its collection is broad and deep, and new books constantly arrive.

Inside, Moe's is wonderfully spare: the walls are cinderblock and the staircases concrete. Bookshelves cover every wall, and stools for reading or standing on migrate around. Past the counter (which is constantly hemmed in with recent purchases) and down a half flight of stairs you will find children's books, science fiction, and new books. New philosophy and theory lurk in a corner, while new literature and bestsellers take places of pride against the wall.

If you go up a half-flight instead, tables of poetry and graphic art books welcome you to the literature section. Fiction runs along the north wall and spills over into carts; poetry occupies the freestanding shelf next to it. It's all used, and very comprehensive. I have rarely if ever not found an author represented. And if I can't find what I want, it is usually there the next month.

The next floor is dominated largely by philosophy: If you take the back stairs up, you pop out next to a wall of philosophy texts. The university clearly feeds (and feeds upon) this section: When we visited, one shelf was packed with everything ever written by Walter Benjamin. (Some poor frustrated grad student must have just finished - or given up? - a dissertation on Benjamin, and vowed to never read him again.) However, this section tends to be picked clean rapidly. The hot texts never stay for long. Running parallel are shelves for sociology, politics, economics, urban studies - mostly from a leftist perspective, which is fitting given the store's history. Comic books live a shelf further back, opposite religion, and while science sections are usually ill-tended in second-hand bookshops, I noticed that the mathematics section was quite well-rounded if academic.

The toilets are on this floor, and customarily open to homeless Berkeley residents as well as patrons.

I don't usually stray to the fourth floor, one-third of which is devoted to Moe's Antiquarian section. The rest is mainly history - and as far as I can tell it is also a good section.

Without exaggeration, Moe's is one of the best bookstores I have ever been in. Perhaps it's just long familiarity speaking, but I think that the atmosphere is just right: It's sparse but airy; clearly dedicated to books but not claustrophobically packed with them. The books are carefully selected, well-categorized, and there is enough turnover to make frequent visits interesting.

On this occasion, I picked up two books that I had been hankering after for a while (Empire by Michael Hardt and Tony Negri, and The Long Twentieth Century by Giovanni Arrighi) and one on a whim (the awkwardly titled Parecon, by Michael Albert). The guy behind the counter commented on how lucky I was to find the Arrighi used - and then turned right around and struck up a conversation on language poetry with A. Which reminds me: The staff are also knowledgeable and engaging, perhaps in conscious tribute to the civic-minded and eclectic founder, Moe Moskowitz.

Moe's Books
2476 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley CA 94704

Open 10am - 10pm every day

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Pegasus Books Downtown

2009-06-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

Corner Shattuck and Durant, Berkeley, CA

Despite a colourful mural depicting Oscar Wilde and ilk on the building’s side, the entrance to Pegasus Books isn’t promising at first glance. Inside, shelves are not exactly organized, and floors are not exactly dusted, while long fluorescent bulbs bathe everything in compromising light. But past this exterior the concept behind Pegasus is entirely aesthetic. Small but selective, the bookstore holds a number of gems, long-coveted books and those you didn’t even know you wanted.

Beautiful, large-format, full-color art and photography books share space with a wide selection of magazines and journals, not what you would find at a newsstand but oriented towards visual arts, literature and music. Likewise, high and low culture comfortably sit side by side. In fact most of the sections at Pegasus appear informed by pop culture, from books on Daniel Johnston’s artwork to critical pieces by Slavoj Žižek, whose work takes up an entire shelf. Rather than philosophy you can take your pick from critical theory or veer off towards religion or psychology. Psychology expands to include sections on the occult, and the elusive “metaphysics” has a set of shelves as well.

Regardless of your stance on pop culture, the fiction stands solidly on its own, even if it doesn’t hold the intrigue of some other sections. Poetry and New Poetry occupy two separate shelves, and the latter houses not only small publishers and chapbooks but more avant-garde work that never fails to delight an enthusiast. The staff know what’s what—while purchasing Christian Bök’s Crystallography, I exchanged thoughts about the author with the guy behind the counter. Undoubtedly the readings, authors checking in at least every few weeks, also contribute to the knowledgeable atmosphere without introducing stuffiness.

While it isn’t the best-stocked or most reliable bookstore in Berkeley, it’s precisely the possibility of finding some novelty that draws me to Pegasus. The atmosphere falls behind the content, but the staff make up for it; besides, they have a public bathroom and a relaxed policy about bags. The store stocks used, new, and remainders, but you can also order books online. I haven’t visited the other two branches—one on Solano in Berkeley and one in Oakland. The best selection is rumored to be the Solano location, and I have to say I’m curious to see how the smaller store’s qualities stand up in larger quantities. Who says Berkeley’s a one-bookstore town, after all?

Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94618

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9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. Friday - Saturday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday

...two bookaneers!

2009-06-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

We are similar indeed: our vocabularies tend to infiltrate and proliferate in each other's company. Other times our vocabularies appear irreconcilable, only to end up in the same conclusions. We take turns on the seesaw of anxiety--first I'll be calm, then you'll be. Above all, we're not too similar to be balanced.

A--that's me--has her BA in English and philosophy. She's currently strung between Wellington, where she writes and reads, and Chicago, where she writes and reads and is paid for it. She's in the midst of an eternal summer, having been travelling between these hemispheres for the past year. A prefers poetry to politics and philosophy of language to philosophy of nature--or, as the kids call it, "science." Above all she likes intersections of things that she likes: music about Dante's Inferno, or novels where you meet Wittgenstein at a garden party.

Current reads: Relating Narratives: Storytelling and selfhood by Adriana Cavarero, The Aeneid translated by Robert Fagles
Past reads of note: Nicholas Mosley, Allen Grossman, Nabokov, Roland Barthes's The Pleasure of the Text, Christian Bök

We are...

2009-06-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

The people who will be behind the eyepatches. We are alike: We both enjoy books, booze, and brews. We both have wanderlust and degrees from Williams College in Massachusetts. We both scheme and read widely.

We are dissimilar: P has degrees in political science and mathematics, is a nonfiction fiend lately, and works for the New Zealand government. He is currently in Wellington, NZ. He knows his way around the politics, theory, and "social science" sections and can bumble happily through science, math, and contemporary fiction without revealing too much glaring ignorance. He is oddly knowledgeable about the comics section.

Currently reading: Hellboy (Mike Mignola), Archaeologies of the future (Frederic Jameson), Parecon (Michael Albert), Nicholas Mosley, Jonathan Coe
Technically reading, but seem to be on hold: General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (JM Keynes), The Politics of Friendship (Jacques Derrida), The Long Twentieth Century (Giovanni Arrighi), Post-War (Tony Judt)
Perpetual reference points: David Harvey, Walter Benjamin, Kingsley Amis (at least, his writings on booze), JL Borges, Moomin, Slavoj Zizek, Douglas Adams

Exercise One

2009-06-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

This is, or will be, a place for reviews. Everyone reviews books, of course, but in the age of online purchases we often fail to think about the places we buy them. So we will be reviewing bookshops, with a focus on independent and locally owned stores.

Who we are: Peter currently lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and Anne in Chicago, Illinois. We expect to keep moving around, however, quarterdecks crowded with tomes and crow’s nest on the lookout for more.

Yarrr.