Gifts of August Come Our Way

On one back road this week I noticed goldenrod beginning to flower and was startled this morning, on a more travelled road, to see bracken fern turning yellow and brown. So soon! Summer is still here, however, and the beauty of prolific coneflowers in my meadow attests to that fact. When the last of the coneflowers begin to fade, I will mourn their passing, sorrowing over their brief bloom, but then blue and purple and lavender and pink and white asters will take their place and gladden my heart in their turn.

Our TEA guest this past week was heart-gladdening writer Karen Anderson, who brought leaves from “God’s begonia” for audience members to take home and root. There is a lovely story in her book, Gradual Clearing, about Karen’s “missionary” work with a begonia that has, in her words, taken over her life. I look at the single innocent leaf on my front porch table, resting quietly in a water-filled cream pitcher, and wonder how much of my life it may grow to fill. Should I be alarmed? For now I am simply grateful to have met Karen Anderson at last, after hearing her on the radio for so many years and gratified that she was willing to come to Northport and that she was pleased by her audience at Dog Ears Books. I asked her to sign a stack of books for bookstore customers yet to come, as it is the perfect birthday, thank-you, or holiday gift.

Friday is slow-down time for me. Bruce is back in the shop after a couple weeks away for family reunion, and I celebrated my Partial Day Off (PDO) by hanging laundry outdoors at a leisurely pace (rather than in my usual predawn rush), followed by al fresco lunch under green leaves rustling in the breeze. Then clean sheets on the bed, clean tablecloth on the porch table, and small pockets of my little world gradually become more orderly. What a lovely gift it is to pause for half an hour on a quiet August day and do little more than watch leaves toss gently in a refreshing breeze! How would I ever have survived 25 years as a bookseller without the occasional backup of my loyal volunteer?

And now, already, tomorrow — Saturday the 11th of August this year is dog parade day in Northport! Can you believe it’s that time already?

The Speech I Should Have Given

On October 7, author Jerry Dennis and artist Glenn Wolff came to Dog Ears Books for the Leelanau County launch of Jerry’s ninth book, The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes. I decided almost at the last minute to combine the book signing with a birthday celebration for Dog Ears. (The bookstore turned 18 on July 4, but there was no time to stop for a bookstore birthday party in the middle of summer.) After the event, Jerry asked if I was pleased, and I realized I was only disappointed in myself, for not giving a gracious speech introducing my guests of honor and reflecting briefly on my bookstore’s long life. So here it is now, the speech I should have given.

Welcome, friends, on one of the most beautiful fall afternoons ever in northern Michigan, and thank you for joining us indoors on this occasion. I know it isn’t easy to come inside on a day like today! I do, however, offer you the best of reasons, and that is to welcome as guests to Dog Ears Books author Jerry Dennis and artist Glenn Wolff from Traverse City. Our primary reason for gathering here today is to celebrate, honor and welcome Jerry’s ninth book, The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes, illustrated by Glenn Wolff. Jerry and Glenn will be happy to sign books for you, with personal inscriptions if you like, and we also have prints of Glenn’s illustrations on hand available for purchase. It is so exciting to have them here! Three cheers for Jerry Dennis and Glenn Wolff!

A second cause for celebration is that Dog Ears Books turned 18 years old this past summer. I’d like Dog Ears to get to 20 years and beyond, but why wait to celebrate? We’re here now! And as the man says, “Life is uncertain--have dessert first!” I hope you will have a generous piece of birthday cake--chocolate or coconut or both--made by David Chrobak of the Old Mill Pond Inn.

People ask me all the time what I think about the future of books and bookselling, but no one knows the future ahead of time. Will electronic reading devices kill books? Somehow I doubt it. Will Internet selling kill bookstores? I don’t think so. But then, on this lovely October day in 2011, no one knows what future years will bring.

When newspapers first appeared in the 1600s, London booksellers feared that newspapers would put them out of business. It didn’t happen. When television took over the United States in the 1950s, many people predicted the end of reading. That end didn’t come about.

I could go on for a long time about printed, bound books and e-readers, but this is a party, and we have guests of honor, and I want you to spend the evening visiting with them. I do want to say that eighteen years ago, in the little shed down Waukazoo Street next to Woody’s Settling Inn--the shed now completely gone, as Woody’s is also completely gone—I never imagined, in my wildest dreams, that Dog Ears would grow and flourish as it has. I never imagined having as guests in my bookstore writers and artists of the stature of Jerry Dennis and Glenn Wolff and others I have had this year and in recent years. The generosity of creative people overwhelms me, and the public response gratifies me.

And as I thank you all for being here today and thank Jerry and Glenn for coming to Northport, there are two other people who deserve very special thanks. One is my husband, artist David Grath. He has been, in his own words, a “donkey for literature” for all the years Dog Ears Books has been in existence. He has schlepped and hammered and advised on decor and arrangement and done whatever needed to be done. This bookstore would never have been born in the first place without his “perfervid imagination” and hard work. So three cheers for David!

The other angel of Dog Ears Books, for well over a decade now, is Bruce Balas. Bruce began volunteering in the bookstore back on the corner of Mill and Nagonaba. He and my son, Ian, helped David and me move from the corner into 102 Nagonaba, now the home of Dolls and More. He is a reader, a book collector, a tireless and unfailingly cheerful assistant, and without him I would never have a day off all summer long. As David always says, “What would we do without Bruce?” So three cheers for Bruce Balas!

Steve Jobs wasn’t around to give me advice 18 years ago, but somehow I must have intuited the advice he would have given, which boils down to “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” Bookselling has not given me wealth, but it has given me a very rich and rewarding life. Dog Ears Books has been very, very good to me.

Thank you all again for being here.

This was to be my one-thousandth post of Books in Northport, but for some reason the number is now at 999. Whatever! I am calling this Post #1000 and give thanks to anyone reading it for visiting. Thanks for regular followers for reading and commenting since 2007. Sarah would thank you, too, if she knew how. If she had the concept. If she had a clue.

Guest Blog: Bruce Goes to Toronto for Henty Meeting

Here’s another contribution from Bruce Balas of Omena, Dog Ears Books volunteer for a solid decade:

Recently Judy and I flew to Toronto for a gathering of the G. A. Henty Society. George Alfred Henty, the object of the gathering, was a writer of historical novels in England from 1860 until 1902. His historical adventure stories, written mainly for young people and full of action, made him the most popular writer of his time. And since his books are historically accurate, they are still very popular today, especially with the home school families. In addition, in Victorian England where they were originally published, his books were beautifully bound and as a result are very collectible.

There is a “society,” headquartered in England, with a branch in North America, consisting of the people who collect his books. Our North American branch meets at least once each year to trade books around, share information we’ve learned about Mr. Henty and, of course, just socialize.

In addition to the conference itself, Judy and I got to spend several days exploring Toronto. The city has a lovely park along the north shore of Lake Ontario, a dynamic downtown and a wide variety of cafes, bookshops, and museums, with a very European feel. This area is small enough to be easily walked from the University in the north all the way down to the lakeshore. We enjoyed it very much and recommend a visit.

Guest Blog: Bruce Reads Salman Rushdie

Today's guest blogger--surprise, Bruce!--is Bruce Balas of Omena, the bookstore angel (disguised as volunteer) for lo, these many years. When Bruce decided to stay home on Monday and continue his reading of Midnight’s Children, I asked him how it was going, and since he gave me permission to quote him, I decided his detailed reply would be my new blog post.

Part of the problem is that Rushdie is erratic in his story telling and wanders all over before he gets to the main thread of the story. For instance, he will say that in this chapter he is going to tell about so and so, but before he does this, he has to tell about how his mother got the flu and as a result had to move in with her uncle-in-law for three months and found romance but was caught in the act and chased out of the house by her angry husband, and so the main character was without a mother for three months, and the resulting loss of his mother’s love has affected his personality in such a way as to alter his reaction to the sequence of events highlighted in this chapter substantially enough to require a full explanation and so on and so on--blah, blah, blah.

I have figured out how to skip over those bits without it affecting the main thread of the story. To look at the book at first and see 500 pages of his ramblings is rather daunting. On the other hand, his has an interesting writing style, and the parts about the history of India are good, so I have chugged on and now, having read over 300 pages, am getting into it. Tell whoever is also reading Rushdie [I told him someone I talked to recently is struggling with The Satanic Verses] that it took me over 200 pages to figure him out, but it becomes worth it. Besides, think what an attention-getter it will be at your next cocktail party when you drop into the conversation that you’re reading Rushdie!

What do we think? Should Bruce be assigned to read Proust over the winter?