Serving Up Books

Mark Twain: "All you need is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."

I was fortunate enough to make a new friend last year.

"Friend" is used loosely. She and I have never met and most likely, never will. My new friend is Wendy Welch, author of "The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap."

From the first page, I liked Wendy's storytelling. Her writing style is conversational and comfortable as she shares stories about her new life as a bookseller and author.

Wendy and her husband, Jack, moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and opened Tales of the Lonesome Pine Used Books. They had several strikes against them. First, the economy had taken a major hit. Second, the town was viewed by the residents themselves to be too small (5400 residents) to support a bookstore. Third, and most important, neither Wendy nor her husband had any experience running a bookstore. Her professional life included working in an unnamed United States government agency that is sometimes referred to as the Snake Pit (your guess is as good as mine). Jack formerly headed up a college department in Scotland, where they had lived for five years.

They fantasized about the literary life and living in a town with tree-lined streets. They imagined themselves as colorful local characters, with Jack wearing a baggy Mr. Rogers-style sweater while charming everyone with his Scottish brogue. In the end, a lunch fueled by chips, salsa, and generous amounts of sangria sealed their fate. They bought an Edwardian mansion (built in 1903, with one working bathroom) and on the first floor, created a used book store in a town that eyed them with suspicion and a bit of amusement.

Wendy brings the reader along as they build a solid clientele, offend a local clique, serve Scottish shortbread to lucky shoppers and host a ceilidh, a group dance for all ages.

The book is wrapped up with literary recommendations. You may agree with Wendy's lively reviews or bristle at her thoughts on classics such as "Moby Dick" (thumbs down) or "A Tale of Two Cities" (thumbs up).

Wendy's blog: 

http://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/ 

If you happen to be in Virginia and visit the book store, say hello to Wendy for me. The store's address:
404 Clinton Avenue East, Big Stone Gap, VA.

          It's all about books...

Judging a Book by Its Lover - Leto, Lauren. You'll like Leto...or not. She has strong views about why we read the books we do and what that says about us. And she's not afraid to write about the big names: Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, Cormac McCarthy and Marcel Proust. Examples of Leto's beliefs: fans of Thomas Pynchon are also fans of J.D. Salinger. Nervous fliers will enjoy James Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice." And, "The Berenstain Bears" is loved by a "wild, hyperactive kid who gets kicked out of class for laughing too hard at things that aren't funny." Leto is tough and hilarious.

Book Lust (series) - Pearl, Nancy. A librarian by training, Nancy is a reader's dream come true. She provides us with book ideas for every reading interest including spy thrillers, exotic travel locales, and cat fiction.    

Read This! - Weyandt, Hans. Have you ever wondered what books booksellers read? This is a collection of varied lists from bookstores in Boston, Denver, Iowa City, and New Orleans, to name only a few. Which author is mentioned the most often by the booksellers? William Faulkner. How about this - Liberty Hardy, who sells books in Portsmouth, New Hampshire's RiverRun, reads 25-35 books per month. The book includes a book store checklist (for those of us who love lists) and a few pages for notes. 

Under the Covers and Between the Sheets - Joyce, C. Alan & Janssen, Sarah. The authors invite us to join them in learning more about topics ranging from Pippi Longstocking, pulp fiction, and books that changed the world.

Reading Like a Writer - Prose, Francine. Why do we read certain books? What makes fiction really pop for us? Prose teaches us how to be good and discerning readers. 

How Reading Changed My Life - Quindlen, Anna. A voracious reader, Quindlen shares her passion for reading as well as her lists of top 10 books - what books would she save in a fire or which books make teens feel more human or which books will she always love? For that last list, she includes "My Antonia," "Phantom Tollbooth"  and "Jane Eyre."

Literary 100 - Burt, Daniel. As with all "greatest" lists, there will be heated discussion about Burt's top 100 books. This is a solid list for reading classics again, or for the first time.

Twenty-five Books That Shaped America - Foster, Thomas C. Another "list" book for a spirited debate. It may be more fun to debate what Foster left out, not what he included. What do you think about "Little Women," "My Antonia" and "The Maltese Falcon" making the list? 

Don't Know Much About Literature - Davis, Kenneth. This book is perfect for trivia nights. Example: what novel, originally titled "The Romantic Egoist" made F. Scott Fitzgerald an overnight success? Or, what series has been challenged in schools for "promoting witchcraft"? Answers: "This Side of Paradise"; "Harry Potter." Find out more about Camus, Baldwin, Yeats and Dickens.  

Writers Gone Wild - Peschel, Bill. Theodore Dreiser was not the world's best party-thrower. It's doubtful that Ernest Hemingway ever sent Wallace Stevens a birthday card after the two men had a brawling fight. And I finally understand why I've never finished "Lord of the Flies" - for more on William Golding, check out page 155. 

Literary Rogues - Shaffer, Andrew. Another book on those wild and crazy writers. It's a wonder Charles Baudelaire, Jack Kerouac, and John Berryman found any time to write - they were busy leading sometimes reckless lives. Writers often have had lives much more colorful than any of their characters. 

The Delights of Reading - Bettman, Otto L. Quotes and fun facts about writers, both famous and not-so-much. Did you know that Mary McCarthy believed "Madame Bovary" best represented the modern American woman or that Winston Churchill said that writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle?

Hothouse, The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America's Most Celebrated Publishing House: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux - Kachka, Boris. Why should we care about the publishing giant F,G & S? These authors are the reason: Joan Didion, Robert Lowell, Flannery O'Connor, T.S. Eliot and John Berryman.  

Living With Books - Dupuich, Dominique & Beaufre, Roland. What do we do with all of our books? This book is an enabler to keep buying books and stacking/shelving/displaying them. 

A Reader's Book of Days - Nissley, Tom. This book will last the entire year - I'm reading it a day at a time. Births, deaths and accomplishments of writers are all included in Nissley's 410 pages of facts. 

...and book stores

Shelf Life - Shea, Suzanne Strempek. You'll read this memoir with alternating laughter and tears. Shea was recovering from breast cancer treatment when she took a job in a friend's book store. She was in good company - her own books were on the shelves. I recommend reading her novel, "Selling the Lite of Heaven." Or her nonfiction work: "Sundays in America."

My Bookstore - various. The subtitle says it best: writers celebrate their favorite places to browse, read and shop. If you're wandering around Green Apple Books in San Francisco, you may come across Dave Eggers in an aisle. Or, meet Elin Hilderbrand in Nantucket Bookworks in Nantucket. Ann Patchett writes about her experiences at McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan.   

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores - Campbell, Jen. Now we know - weird questions and comments in bookstores are common in both America and Great Britain. Campbell, a bookseller in North London, started a blog just to compile all the weirdness. Examples: "Do you sell bed sheets?" "Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?" And this winner - "Can I return this book? I'm allergic to ink." 

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap - Welch, Wendy. "Yes, they are commodities, but we still handle other people's books with care. There's a whole lot of life in them and not just in the words." WW