Open and Closed

"For the historian, there are no banal things."  I love the bright orange cloth cover of this book on a subject I didn't even realize was a subject. 

In local bookstore news, Pilot Books, a small "indie lit" store on Broadway closed this month after being open for two years.  They had a goodbye party with readings the weekend before last.  Left Bank Books has re-opened after renovation (earthquake retrofit) of their space in The Pike Place Market.  They are having a benefit art sale and social hour at Gallery 1412 just up the street at 1412 18th Ave. on Friday, June 3,  6:00 - 9:00 pm (free!):  

Come on out and support your local independent, worker-owned anarchist book store!  Left Bank Books is currently celebrating 28 years of rabble-rousing and radical book-nerding, and recently went through a difficult temporary relocation due to renovation at Pike Place Market.  They are back in their old space again, but they still need your support and love! 

This will be an art show of works done by the Left Bank collective and friends, that will all be for sale, probably via silent auction.

Free to attend!  Snacks and beverages will also be available for a small donation.  Please come check out all our amazing creative talent and support our project!  Also, if you have anything (including sculpture, knitted goodies, etc.) you'd like to donate/show please email directly to gardensnotgrass@riseup.net

Reading Notes 

I just finished a novel called Model Home by Erich Puchner.  This was a fast read, a not-necessarily-plausible story of a family going through some pretty melodramatic changes in the eighties, including the father investing (and losing) all their money in a housing development by the dump, affairs, punk rock, running away, and an explosion.

I'm also reading Granta #109, Work.   In an essay called "Life Among the Pirates," writer Daniel Alarcon describes the widespread publishing of unauthorized editions of books in his native Peru.  In Peru, most people can't afford to pay $20 for a book, but they might be able to afford the $3 pirated edition.  Alarcon visits street  book peddlers, actually hoping to find his own book for sale as a pirated copy.  It was really crazy to read about a place where books are so scarce and valuable, given the glut of books so easy to find in the U.S. at book sales, thrift stores, and online for a penny.

Help Desk

Our friend and former staff member Nathan has updated Retail Hell on our website, adding the fourth and fifth rings of Retail Hell to the already existing three rings.  We pulled out the actual composition notebooks all these entries were originally written in by hand, and reminisced about old Pistil days.  We were so young then, as attested to by the photos stuck in the store journals.  Pictured below are Sean, Tim, Amy, and Nathan.

Robin from Caffe PettiRosso played this YouTube video for me when she heard I was going to be taking a class on the history of the book.  Hey, this was new technology not so long ago.