The Magic of Bookstores

 LUCY BURDETTE: I am certain I am not the only person reading this blog who has an obsession with bookstores. Whenever I visit a new town, a stop to the local bookstore will always be included. Each store has its own personality. Of course, I check to see whether my books or the books of my writing friends are there. Often bookstores are small, and the number of books published every year is enormous, so I am not disappointed if I don’t see familiar titles. It’s a special bonus however, if I do! This year I stopped at the Midtown reader in Tallahassee with my sister, and also visited The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia. While at a family wedding last weekend, we went to Sherman’s Maine Coast  in Damariscotta, where we spotted a full shelf of Barbara Ross books and also Jenn’s Love at First Book. Here is what I found at Thiemers Magazin in Copenhagen. Hooray, Jenn is everywhere!

I feel particularly lucky to have wonderful independent bookstores in both of my hometowns, RJ Julia in Madison CT where I often have a launch party, and Key West Island books and Books and Books in Key West, both of which are extremely supportive of local authors.

Though I don’t do nearly the amount of touring that our own Hank does, I visited two amazing stores in the past month. Jeff Kinney (the writer) established An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts. This store is absolutely magical!

And as I mentioned on Wednesday, John and I stopped at Ann Patchett’s Parnassus in Nashville while we were there for the Bouchercon conference. We found Jenn again!

This reminded me that my first real job out of college was working as a clerk at a bookstore. Sometimes I dream of owning one myself, but then I remind myself that I should have thought of this 20 years earlier lol. Instead, I will visit as many stores as I can reach, and support them with as many purchases as my nightstand can hold!

How about you Reds, are you hooked on bookstores as well as books? Any favorites to tell us about?

Where to Find Your Next Great Read

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Debs has gotten us off to a great start on reading in the new year, talking about what we’ve read in 2022, weighing the pros and cons of book journaling, and sharing suggestions on audio narrators you should be listening to. I want to shamelessly piggyback on her excellent work because I kept running into the same issue when I was talking about these things: where do you find your next great read?

In The Before Times, I used to go to one or another of the several independent book stores we’re blessed with in the Portland, Maine area. Or I would spend an hour or two browsing the shelves at one of the local libraries. I often attended professional events like Book Expo America, the American Library Association annual conference, and regional meetings like the New England Booksellers Association’s. In other words, I was encountering newly published, to-be published and new-to-me reads all the time. Or if not all the time, at least often enough to accumulate piles of TBR tomes.

Now? Not so much. All our local libraries offer remote check out - I can order a book and pick it up. The same thing for my favorite bookstores. Call me Overly-Cautious Octavia, but I don’t linger anywhere where the vast public is in, out and hanging around. And even if I were fine with browsing, it feels more like recreational shopping to me, which I was never a fan of, and am less so now. I want to get in, get what I want, and get out. 

All this is a long-winded way of saying I need help finding places for recommended reads! Of course, right here at JRW we have a tremendous resource in all our widely-read members, and every time we have a “what are you reading?” conversation, I’m taking notes. But where else can I go? Where do I get information on the new non-fiction I haven’t heard of, or the most-anticipated science fiction, or upcoming releases of authors I already love but don’t track? 

Reds, what are your resources? Where would you point readers?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I’m completely interested in all of your  answers to this! With Mystery Scene Magazine gone (sigh), and the NYT Sunday Book Review so elite, where do you all go? How do you hear? Of course I read reviewers I love–and some of them are right here on JRW! And I know I can rely on them. So keep those reviews coming, AND if you have a site, you darling reviewers, put it in the comments!

Because of course I am always looking for new, I am so lucky to host CRIME TIME on A Mighty Blaze and First Chapter Fun–and I have to say ,both are wonderful ways of finding new books!  The bookers (big insiders in book/bookstore/publishing world) on Crime Time schedule the interviews, so I get the benefit of their expertise and connections–that’s how I got introduced to Deepti Kapoor, and Jordan Harper, and Brendan Slocumb and Chris Whittaker and Janice Hallett and Lisa Jewell (now my absolute idol) a whole list of other fabulous authors early in the process. The bookers really know their stuff!  

Same on FCF–we get pitched constantly by people/publicists/publishers who want their authors showcased, and so there’s always a stream of new people. And authors who are already favorites will provide advance copies.

So this can work for YOU, too! Just come to CT or FCF and see who you’ll meet. This week, Deepti Kapoor and Mary Kubica on Crime Time and Pam Jenoff on First Chapter Fun. VoiIà. Your next great reads.

HALLIE EPHRON: I swear by CRIME TIME on A Mighty Blaze and First Chapter Fun. Hank you are such a great resource. It somewhat fills the hole left by so many mystery bookstores that have closed. And I depend quite a bit on my fellow Reds and our amazing commenters to cast a wide net. 

Conferences! Gosh I do hope we get back to feeling comfortable about going in person because there’s no better place to meet new authors and talk to a gazillion readers and find out what they’re enthusiastic about.

LUCY BURDETTE: The one place I will not give up shopping is my local bookstores, Books and Books and the Key West Island Bookstore in Key West, and RJ Julia in Connecticut. Besides browsing in the actual stores, I subscribe to all of those newsletters, so I always get the latest on what’s coming out next. I don’t like to buy books from Amazon, but I do use their algorithms (If you liked this, you’ll like that, etc.)

Other than that it’s word of mouth–I adore our reading blogs here–so many good ideas, and you figure out who has similar taste!

 

JULIA: Lucy, I've been to RJ Julia Booksellers several times, but in my head, it always comes out Raul Julia's Book Store! 

JENN McKINLAY: I let the books find me. Seriously, I don’t think I have ever actively looked for a book in my life. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It’s just that I grew up in libraries (Mom was a librarian), then I became a librarian, and I don’t know how or why but books just find me, much like every stray critter in south Scottsdale. And usually, the book arrives just when I am meant to read it.

RHYS BOWEN: Hank, you are doing us a great favor by hosting A Mighty Blaze and First Chapter Fun. And my fellow Reds are great with recommendations.

I am lucky to live near two magnificent bookstores, Book Passage in Corte Madera and The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, where they have author events every single night. Barbara Peters of the Poisoned Pen will often host a new author with an established one and I’ve learned about quite a few first time books that way. 

 

Also like many of you, I get sent upcoming books to read and blurb. Some of these are just okay but some are wonderful.

But the most fun thing is to browse when I am in UK. WH Smith, bargain table! Such fun finds and books I wouldn’t normally choose.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, I am seconding Rhys on WH Smith in the UK, ditto Waterstone’s. The first thing I do when I fly into London is check the book racks at the airport WH Smith’s. (And the last thing when I fly out, for the plane, of course. Otherwise, books seem to find me. Here on JRW, of course, the biggest source.  FCF and A Mighty Blaze, newsletters from The Poisoned Pen and Murder by the Book and blogs by favorite reviewers. And I have to confess that I am addicted to Bookbub (that is a whole other blog..) and I can’t count how many authors and series I’ve discovered because something was on sale for $1.99 and it sounded interesting.

 

 

JULIA: Dear readers, it's your turn now - where do you find your next read? Is it in real life, online, or in the media? I'll add your suggestions to the front page here as they come in! 

Book Addicts Unite

Lucy in 2009

LUCY BURDETTE: I confess that I am greedily, unredeemably addicted to books. I can’t wait to enter each new world created by an author, visit places I’ve been (or haven’t,) and root for my new friends, the characters. I might own more books than I can finish in a lifetime, but hmmm, what if none of them were books I wanted to read at that moment? I have suffered a bookless panic twice--both times abroad. The first time, I carried a stack of books in my luggage that I judged would last me more than a week. But I got sick and spent more time reading than I'd expected. And we were in Barcelona, so the selection of English books in bookstores was quite limited. Ack! Ack! A ten-hour flight home with nothing to read? Impossible! The second time my new Kindle failed--on the first day of the trip. I had to read whatever anyone else in the group had finished...

So I can’t help buying books at every store I visit. Over the last two weeks of December, I hit the Key West Island bookstore and Books and Books in Key West, RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison CT, and the Strand bookstore in New York City (twice, because I was afraid I might've missed something the first time through—it was very crowded, you understand, and that made it hard to browse.) 

This bookish greediness might help explain why I have volunteered five times to judge the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award contest for best mystery of the year: twice in the best novel category, once in young adult, once in best TV series (OK those were DVDs not books,) and this year in the middle grade mystery fiction category. One of the bonuses of serving as a judge is that you receive your own copy of every book submitted. (In the first photo, you can see part of the loot I collected during my 2009 best novel tenure--we had to whittle the winners down from over 500 books.) 

Here’s part of my current TBR stash—I didn’t buy all of them, some were Christmas presents, and that was followed by a big birthday (they’re all big at this point…) The six on the top right I tore through and loved right after the MWA reading was concluded. 

Inquiring minds must know, what’s on your pile? I have a niggling feeling most of you share my addiction…And how do you choose what's next? AND PS, SEND ME A PHOTO OF YOUR TBR PILE AND I'LL TRY TO POST AS MANY AS I CAN ON SATURDAY!! raisleib at gmail dot com

And PPS, don't forget to come back tomorrow for our JRW book discussion of Bel Canto!