The Big Book Sale

Well, I missed the Big Book Sale in San Francisco for the first time in 5 years or so, but I had a good excuse. Each year around the last weekend in September, the San Fran Public Library holds a book sale at Fort Mason, and even though it’s a 7 hour drive, I try to be there. What other library book sale can say they have over 200,000 books for sale?  Yes, you read that right—it has to be the biggest library book sale in the country. And on Sunday, everything is $1 or less. So for an avid reader such as moi, this is an event (especially considering the dearth of quality book stores in Del Norte county--it ends up being roughly a year's worth of book browsing for me, unfortunately).

A few years ago, I went down with about $60 in hostel petty cash, with plans to start a book exchange (I believe the slick venture kids call that “seed money”). And I came back with about 50 great books. Or at least ones that I think are great. I don’t know if it says something about my tastes that many of them are still here, three years later. Right next to our Laundry area is the sign for “Need a Book, Take a Book; Have a Book, Leave a Book."  And right below the sign are the books.

Sure, I came home from that trip with some of the stuff the popular kids are reading—Grisham and Harry Potter and so forth. And they disappeared pretty quick. But each time I pass by the book swap, I see those books that I know are great—The Contortionist’s Handbook and The Tetherballs of Bougainville and others. Ones that I had read and loved and couldn’t pass up for a mere $1 and bought figuring sure, maybe no one has heard of the authors, but if they at least open to the first page and start reading, then they’d be hooked. They would “take a book.” And they do take a book. But it’ the latest Sue Grafton, Y is for Why are these other strange books here?

Oh—my excuse for missing this year? My wife and I were in the middle of giving birth. But hey—there’s always next year.

Best in Show?

I forgot to mention some good news from last month:  I had submitted a few poems for the 2009 Del Norte County Fair (theme "Cowboy Boots and Country Roots").  Yes, it's not just bunnies and cows and apple pies--you can submit poetry to the good ol' county fair.  And yes, I do say on my website somewhere that "I don't do poetry." But you just can't submit novels or travel stories or children's book (for adults) to the county fair.  So I took a few really short stories and re-formatted them to add more line breaks.  And off they went.

Well, I may need to change that note about whether I do poetry (in fact, it might be gone now), because in the adult poetry section, I received the Best in Show and First Place ribbons, for my submissions "Orange" and "Noodles." And just to be clear, when I say "adult poetry" I don't mean poetry of an adult nature.  They had a division of poetry by adults and another for poetry by kids.  Though it might be more fun if they did have an adult adult poetry division.  But then the kids might think it's unfair because you can't have a children's adult poetry division.  That just wouldn't be cool.

In other fair news, I also received a first place in the digital photography division for one of my banana slug mandalas ("Slugdala #3").  So whaddaya know--an award winning poet and artist. 

But will anyone buy my novel?

Free writin'

Just a quick note to say that this coming week, we will celebrate 100 years of Hostelling International and 75 years of HI-USA (formerly HI-AYH). Here at the Redwood Hostel, Kaci and I will have a series of activities to commemorate the big occasion.  But since she and I are both writers, one evening we will be sponsoring a travel writing free write. If anyone is in the area and wants to stop in, it will be Tuesday, August 25, at 8pm.  For a full description, go here.

What's going on here

I posted this on my Facebook page a month or so back, but since not everyone is a "friend," I thought I'd post a note here.  It's not about writing, but for anyone interested in what Kaci and I are doing in Redwood National Park, the Medford news ran a segment on our little hostel by the sea.  Check it out here.  (And no, you won't see me in the video--I had school that day.)

Percival Everett does it again

Several years back author Percival Everett was on the cover of Poets & Writers magazine, about the time I was trying to see how many books I could read in a year (answer: 72 if I don’t have a job for a few of those 12 months). While perusing the library looking for slim books to up my count, I found a book with his name on it. I don’t think it was all that thin of a book, but I thought “Hey—this is the guy from the magazine” and I took it home. And I’m glad I did because I found my new favorite author.

I had never heard of him before that P&W cover story, and to this day, I'm fairly certain none of my friends know who he is. Which means, of course, I’m not doing my job in convincing them to read his books. Or maybe I just know that his writing is not for everyone. Sure, his novels are some of the smartest funniest works out there. But not everyone likes smart and funny. No offense.

My first Everett novel was Erasure, about Thelonius “Monk” Ellison, a writer of experimental novels that don’t sell. His editor begs him to write something that will sell, focused on black life. So Ellison writes a joke, a parody of what the editor wants, basically as his way of saying “screw you.” Of course, it’s not taken that way. Rather, everyone thinks it’s a shocking and realistic portrayal of the African-American experience. And so it does become a bestseller. Everett’s novel is a critical examination of the state of both publishing and race relations. And it’s very funny.

Since that time (I’m guessing early 2004), I’ve been reading two or three of his books each year. Which means I’m about halfway through, as he’s written somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-25. Usually I don’t read them new because I’m cheap (or maybe poor). So I get them at the library. But I had a gift certificate to my favorite northcoast bookstore (Northtown Books in Arcata), which I’d been saving for a special occasion (saving the certificate, not the bookstore). And when I heard that Everett had a new novel out, there was the occasion presented.

His latest is called I am Not Sidney Poitier after the lead character in the book. No, the character is not Sidney Poitier—he’s Not Sidney Poitier. Due to his mother’ death, Not Sidney ends up with a huge number of shares in TBS, Ted Turner’s company. In fact, without parents, Not Sidney ends up living with Ted Turner. Well, not exactly. He lives on the same estate, but rarely sees Ted. He’s mostly left to his own devices, though Ted often provides random non sequiturs to the young Not. The novel follows Not’s travels as he confronts racism, wealth, and more, and his life somehow parallels the scenes from Sidney Poitier movies (though at one point Not Sidney has a few interesting meetings with a college professor named Percival Everett).

I won’t say much more about this work, but I’m not sure why Everett isn’t more well known. I feel he’s just as good at bending genre conventions as someone like Jonathan Lethem. Don’t get me wrong—I love Lethem’s works, they're brilliant (though maybe I’ll save that for another post). But for his wide range of styles and content, for his humor, and for his biting satire, I’ll take a Percival Everett novel any day