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| Nice-looking bookstore, yes? |
The opening sentence of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is comically poignant.
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
For affluent people of the 21st century, the same could be said of holiday travel. A blond, permanently sun-tanned acquaintance has effervesced for months about family plans to spend Christmas on a Caribbean island. She has revealed every tiny detail about the coral reefs, the allegedly fun snorkeling outings, and the incredible shopping.
She asked about our travel plans.
"We might go to Barnes and Noble," I said.
It's not that I wouldn't like to travel, but the pandemic has curtailed my plans for two years. On the folly scale, I give myself a 6 out of 10, but I am not quite mad enough to hang out at airports during a pandemic, or enjoy being squeezed hip to hip with masked strangers in a middle seat.
Where do we glamorous readers go for Christmas if we're not at the airport? That is what we want to know. To the bookstores, dashing through the snow? We've already chosen our gift books, which are festively wrapped and stacked under the mini-tinsel tree.
Of course I long to go to bookshops in other towns. And yet I recall too well my trip to Iowa City last fall. Book stalls were set up on the tree lawn outside The Haunted Bookshop, but the store itself was closed to customers - open for browsing by appointment, $25 an hour.
There are alternatives to haunting local and regional bookstores, of course. If only I could get on a plane... I would love to spend a day in New York at the Strand. But my husband hates New York, and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without my husband. How about Boston? No, BOWASH is also prohibited. Chicago is nearby, he says. But I protest that the raw wind in that gray city could whoosh us right into Lake Michigan. And I checked the Chicago weather forecast: GALE WARNING.
As a book lover, I find solace in reviews and book blogs. And I enjoyed a recent book column in the TLS, with the title, "Secondhand in Church Street, Foyles staff stifled, Rex Warner at the crease." The columnist had visited the Church Street Bookshop in Stoke Newington, London. I love the Russell Hoban quotation she says is posted on a bookcase: “Sometimes I, for example, have the delusion that this shop is a business, then I come back to reality and realise that it’s just an expensive hobby.”
So if I ever travel again.... But I can only go to Church Street Bookshop if I can get there by tube, preferably on the green or blue line - I believe I've navigated those before!
I don't miss planes. I loathe the way the customers (we) are treated. So I'm not sure how much I miss travel since travel is punctuated at the beginning and end by a humiliating and now disease-causing ordeal. Where I live there are now few bookstores: what was left from the ravages of buying books on the Net was in my area erased by lockdown. Those who have lasted have turned themselves into community centers, with readings, groups, lectures &c. We do need community centers, yes.
ReplyDeleteFlying is a hassle, but our transportation system is SO BAD HERE. A few years ago the governor turned down a grant that would have built a railroad to Chicago and given us a super-fast train! I'm so sorry to hear about bookstores closing. The pandemic HAS ruined some businesses. Yes, you're right, the surviving stores do turn themselves into "community centers," though the readings are often virtual, which is less appealing.
DeleteI think the Church Street Bookshop in Stoke Newington (that's the only one in the world, I think) is the last survivor of several second-hand bookshops in Church Street, as far as I know. I used to go now and then - it's a long way from my part of London and second-hand bookshops are like lawyers, the more there are in a neighbourhood, the more people use them - but haven't been for some years. It's nowhere near the underground, but in those days the 73 bus went past the shop.
ReplyDeleteWell, thanks for the bus number! I don't know if/when I'll ever get to London, and I might not go to Stoke Newington for one bookstore, but it's another one for my travel list. I wish I could take a one-day book-SHOPPING trip in London, but the planes just don't fly fast enough. Good for the planet that they don't, I suppose.
DeleteOne of my favorite bookstores in Chicago is Powell's, in Hyde Park near the U of Chicago. It's up the street from a store with only new books called 57th Street Books, which is sort of underground and worth seeing for that and other reasons. Both are just a few blocks from Lake Michigan... but even with gale force winds I happen to think its worth it. But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I travel, I plan my trip around bookstore stops -- there's the Dusty Shelf in Lawrence, KS, that I adore for its mood and the many surprises to be found there. The Janes Adams bookstore in Champaign-Urbana, IL, has this wonderful third floor room and amazing selection. Jackson Street Books in Omaha blew me away! Not that I look down on Omaha, but I didn't expect to find such an eclectric and erudite selection -- came home with George Sand, some Chekhov's, and other hard to find stuff. Dunaway books in St. Louis -- also wonderful! And Tattered Cover, kitty-corner from Denver Union Station is fantastic, even if it's a new store. I prefer used, and that's not just because of the pricing.
Needless to say, these bookstores imply my route. I have been back and forth between Michigan and Colorado, visiting family, more times than I can count. And I've stopped in Iowa City, at both Prairie Lights and .... is that big old-brick house, is that the Haunted one you are talking about? I stopped there too, one time. Great store!
Have you ever read "The Bookshop" by Penelope Fitzgerald? It's wonderful -- everything by her is. Her 1988 novel, "The Beginning of Spring" is a sublime and subtle work of art.
I am adding all these bookstores to my list. Lots of places to go in the midwest. But Chicago calls for spring.:)
DeleteI love Penelope Fitzgerald. I really should read this again.
Happy Christmas!
//but the planes just don't fly fast enough// I flew on Concorde once, and she was magnificent! Environmental issues aside, a delight and an enchanted trip. And fast!
ReplyDeleteGood lord, I'm impressed, Gina! Were you up there drinking cocktails with the President and First Lady???? Actually I had forgotten all about the Concorde.
DeleteMy husband booked the trip on Concorde as a birthday surprise for my 43rd birthday. The Concorde had flown to Huntsville, AL for a benefit trip for the Huntsville Hospital Foundation. We flew from HSV to JFK and then on to Paris then returned via London on a 747 which was most different from the outbound leg. We were in coach but it was still very nice. Two engineers surrounded by doctors and doctors wives, we were such different people in love with the aircraft and not with our own mythologies. The cabin crew changed into white linen jackets to serve the dinner course. (sometime i really should write it all down while i can still remember it and write about it.)
ReplyDeleteThat must have been so much fun. What a thoughtful husband! I love the idea of the two of you thinking about the engineering. If I ever get a chance, I must fly on the Concorde.
DeleteHave a Happy Christmas, Gina!
Happy Christmas to you too, Kat!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas Kat, and thanks for enriching my year with your blog
ReplyDeleteGoing to a bookstore is indeed traveling. Reading, in fact, is a form of travel. We must just use a little more imagination.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all, a little late! Yes, Deb Nance, I agree that going to a bookstore is traveling. I only wish there were more of them these days.
ReplyDelete