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Marias Bookshop's blog
The Word: Psychasyncollaboradditive
We think the word psychasyncollaboradditive is supercalifragilisticexpialidoscious.
Author Interview with Novelist Kirk Farber
We picked Kirk Farber's brain a bit when he was here recently for a signing of his debut novel Postcards from a Dead Girl. Betcha didn't know the book was based on a song by a band called The Bees, did you?
The Word: Shibboleth from LOST CITY OF Z by David Grann
Here goes...The Word, episode two. This time, Shay's got us pondering shibboleths, inspired by David Grann's tale of high adventure in the deep jungle, Lost City of Z.
The Word: "Coruscate" from THE BONE PEOPLE by Keri Hulme
We love words so much around here that we decided to create a new series of videos about 'em. Here's the first one, featuring Shay waxing poetic about the merits of coruscate, which he happened upon in one of our all-time favorite books, Keri Hulme's gorgeous novel The Bone People.
We Love This Book! THE GIRL WHO FELL FROM THE SKY
Heidi Durrow's beautiful new book, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky has quickly become a Maria's Bookshop favorite. Here's a video of Joe and Libby explaining why.
Jumping on the Bandwagon...
The end of a year brings a truly overwhelming number of "Best-of" lists, often arbitrary, pretty much always spiced with the list-maker's personal opinions. This is all well and good, but I have to admit to finding these lists to be little more than a way to get people to argue in a blog's comments and tell the list-maker that they have no idea what they're talking about and should probably dash out their eyes, etc. This stuff gets pretty heated. Combine that with the fact that we're closing down a decade and the lists and the ridicule pile up. I personally find these lists useless, often self-serving, and rarely even remotely close to what I would personally choose...and therefore, well, wrong. Heh.
All that being said, we thought maybe we could throw out a moderately self-serving Top 10 Books of the Decade list. My favorite characters in novels are often those who are walking examples of Kris Kristofferson's "walking contradiction." So... why the heck not? Everyone else is doing it.
Gonna do something a little different, though, and give you the top 10 bestselling books at Maria's Bookshop for the last decade. Nothing arbitrary, nothing judgmental, just stats, baby. This is pretty much the list of Durango's favorite books of the last decade-- and that's a list we can get behind.
Without further ado, we give you:
Maria's Top-Selling Books of the... 2-Aughts (or whatever we're calling them)
10) The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. You know this one. If you were in a reading group, you read it, you loved it, you bought 10 for your friends, tried to get your husband to read it, failed, but convinced him to go watch the film at the Abbey and cried the entire time, while he covered his tears with mumbles about allergies. Not a surprise, this one.
9) Durango by Maureen Keilty. A local publication by a great local lady, this book is an homage to the quirkiness of Durango and tourists love it.
8) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. You may not recognize this title since when you came in and asked for it, you said, "Cake, Salmonella, Hula Hoops" and we nodded knowingly and handed you this one. It's so popular, and has been for the last few years, that you can come in and say "Camels, Shoe Polish, Karate" and you'll walk out smiling with Eat, Pray, Love...exactly what you asked for. This one always cracks me up.
7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. The presence of this book on this list just warms our hearts. This book, above all others, you could have very easily bought for a ridiculous discount from, well, pretty much everybody. It's virtually impossible for us to discount books like this and keep our doors open for you, but the fact that this book is on this list says so much about the amount of support Durango gives its local businesses. Our Potter Release Party raised a ton of money for our great local library, too, and that's all 'cuz of you.
6) Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Truly, the quintessential Durango-dweller novel. Action-packed, philosophical, humanitarian-minded, quasi-Buddhist... It has it all, including what may well be the most gripping opening paragraph of all time.
5) The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Judging from the number on this report it would appear that you already own one of these and have bought a few for friends. Wow. This one makes sense, though, from what I know of my fellow Durangotangs. We live here to be free of certain societal trappings, a decision that doesn't leave us with much of a map. You eschew the capitalistic urge to own and obtain and your life goals become harder to measure, etc. and henceforth.
4) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. There was a period of time in which it felt appropriate to just hand a copy of this book to every person who walked into Maria's, since they were looking for it anyway. This was, for me, one of those books that I started around bedtime and finished in the wee hours, out of breath, stunned and achy-eyed. Judging from the passionate love so many of you have for this book, I'm guessing that I wasn't alone.
3) Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Durango embraced this book and the mission of its author so passionately that he was compelled to write about his visit here in his latest book, Stones Into Schools. Mortenson gained well over $100,000 in donations, based merely on the strength of this one book, on the strength of this one guy's amazing story. Incredibly, incredibly inspiring.
2) Fire in the Sky: Colorado's Missionary Ridge Fire by The Durango Herald. All right, so this one right after the last one kinda just got me kind of teary-eyed. I moved to Durango the year of the big fire and I was stunned by how this community came together to help the hundreds of people who lost their homes, to feed and shelter the firemen who saved hundreds more... I think this book is on the list merely because so many of us had a hard time believing that this thing had ever happened and we needed documentation, proof, that it was real, that when nature exerts its force, our humanity huddles together in a protective circle until it passes.
1) Hiking Trails of Southwestern Colorado by Paul Pixler and John Peel. Pretty sure all locals have this book, and the active tourists who come through each Summer and Fall have their copies, too. A testament to our active population and to the beauty of our place, this book is BY FAR our biggest seller, and we love that it is.
And there it is, the list built by our customers over the course of a heckuva decade. Thanks once again for choosing to buy your books locally.
Our Anniversary Celebration
We are immeasurably blessed to be part of such a warm and supportive community. Thank you Durango! Here is a video that shows some of the highlights from our 25th Anniversary Celebration.
25 Things...
So, it's our 25th year in business. The big Silver Anniversary. As a big thank you to our community, that's you Durangotangs, we'll be having a HUGE sale this Saturday, October 17th '09. 25% off everything in the store.
(There have been a few very nice articles in the local rags that we'd like to acknowledge with our most heartfelt thanks: this one from the Durango Telegraph, and this one from the Durango Herald.)
You guys, the Durangotang family, are amazing. It's truly an honor to be a part of this overwhelmingly supportive and intellectually stimulating community. We're constantly amazed at the breadth and width of Durango's intellectual interests and hope that we can continue to support those interests for decades to come.
Both of the articles linked above say quite a bit about our past, and rightfully so. A varied and intelligent group of amazing people are responsible for the Maria's Bookshop we know and love. We wanted to give a bit of insight into the Maria's of today, though, with a list of:
25 Things You May Not Have Known About Maria's Bookshop
1) A boring one first: We generally have about 45-60,000 books in the store, all jam-packed into just over 2000 square feet.
2) Bookseller Clint used to draw Scooby Doo and, one of my personal favorites, Captain Caveman (!), for Hanna-Barbera. He often stresses that this was pre-Scrappy, an important distinction, because, as everyone knows, Scrappy completely ruined that show. Clint now sports a wit so quick he often emits sonic booms. (From his mouth.)
3) Chances are, if it's happening in Durango, we're selling tickets for it. If you're bored you could just stop in and say, "Do you have tickets for..." and just kinda taper off and we'll get in the drawer and start rattling off everything that's happening in town for the next two weeks. Fun!
4) Bookseller Jeanne has reportedly never been photographed without a ladder. She has international calendar model exposure, in fact, perched on said ladder. This is not in any way strange or disturbing.
5) The literary arts are not the only arts we support. We're blessed with a few large expanses of brick wall that we use to display local artists' work as much as possible. Here's a shot of Shay somehow levitating in front of one of his incredible wire sketches.
6) Bookseller Chris used to be a backup singer for Hawaiian superstar Keali’i Reichel; one of the "original" back up singers no less. We think Chris wore a shirt at this time (despite, well,just click on the link) but reports on this are unreliable. There have been rumors of ti leaf skirts.
7) The Maria's staff sports a total of 50 years of bookselling experience. (It was easy for Andrea to remember her number because she got hitched to Peter the same year she started working here.)
8) Bookseller Shay often comes to work directly from the Animas River where he practices the time-honored tradition of ripping fish lips. He has a boat, which makes the rest of us jealous and vengeful, but he doesn't know this.
9) Maria's Bookshop bought over $5000 worth of parking tokens last year.
10) Receiver Meg apparently "plays a mean Pyro in Team Fortress 2." Pyro apparently sets opponents on fire, judging from the flamethrower. Meg also ran a marathon in San Francisco but is "not a runner." Meg is relatively sane despite these things.
11) This website has a "Gift Ideas" section. Constantly being updated and added on. I mean, you could always do a gift card, but this section's pretty fun. There's even a section in case you're not sure what to get someone who just dumped their loser boyfriend.
12) Bookseller Pat, who probably recommended your favorite book to you, was almost kicked out of Catholic School. She also taught here in Durango for about 30 years. Everyone loves Pat.
13) Everyone also loves Bookseller Joni. Joni is a lot like Pat. Joni was also a Park Ranger in Yosemite, which means that if you don't watch your fires she'll throw a riled up bear at your face.
14) Maria's is only closed about 4 days out of the year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, the day we get our floors refinished, and...and...hmph. That might be about it. We're open a lot. A LOT.
15) Julie buys the kids' books and the, well, the stuff that's not books. Cards, toys, and all that fun stuff. Julie will pretty much read anything if it's about food, and her lemondrop cocktails are no longer allowed at staff parties.
16) Maria's is often cited as the greatest bookstore the world has ever even imagined existing, apart from Borges' whole "infinite library" thing, but that was a library not a bookstore, and I don't think you could buy anything from it or it wouldn't be infinite anymore. Infinity is hard to wrap your head around, though it's easier with one of Julie's lemondrops.
17) How about this: Our staff goes through about 6 lbs of chocolate a week. 6lbs/wk, which translates to 24 lbs a month, for a GRAND total of 288 lbs of chocolate a year. Round that out, average it, whatever, and that basically means that the 15 or so of us eat almost 2 booksellers a year... if booksellers are chocolate--and you are what you eat, so there you go. Disclaimer: To our knowledge there are no actual cannibals employed by Maria's Bookshop. Under dire circumstances, however, nothing is out of the question.
18) Libby made this website. That in itself is pretty cool, but she also does our events, community out reach stuff, co-op (an ugly and complicated thing that isn't fun to talk about), donations and other things-- all while raising a caped avenger and a T-rex. Libby's tough like that.
19) Booksellers are very lucky in that we get advanced copies of upcoming books. This is the greatest perk that mankind has ever devised and worth the vow of poverty that all of us in the book industry must take. We often get a copy of something that multiple booksellers are excited about but we're all such gentle and loving people that no one at Maria's has ever been shivved over an advance. Maria's is a *safe* work environment.
20) Kathleen has a good laugh. I don't mean "has a good laugh at your expense," I mean a genuine laugh. She reads a lot of books, too, owing in part to that whole advance copy thing. You should come in and tell her a joke. Laughter is the greatest of things.
21) Helen (doesn't have a link. Ya want a link, Helen? Stay a full year instead of traveling the country and we'll see what we can do) was once a rapping starfish. Nobody's entirely sure what this means, but she has a theatre career and is the music director for the upcoming live showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Helen sings while she shelves books, and not as quietly as she thinks.
22) One of us, who shall remain nameless, (please, please don't insist on a name) spent about 4 years as a hot tub salesman in Denver. This profession leeched the soul from said poor schlub. He is now dead inside. So it goes.
23) Andrea is the co-owner of Maria's Bookshop (with the aforementioned Peter) and won the 2005 Gordon Saull Outstanding Bookseller of the Year Award, an award given by the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association. Andrea was also President of this association for a while, before she had her kids. Andrea is the beating compassionate heart of Maria's. That last sentence may well make her tear up a little, but that's not why it was written.
24) This year, Grandma'sDead is one of our biggest selling books because YOU, dear customer, are slightly twisted. We find this quality charming. Conversely, this year Maria's has sold (hundreds) more of Right of Thirst than anyone else in the country; this, dear customer, is because you care about the world and about great literature, and for this we are eternally grateful.
25) We have beehives on our roof. Not sure what else to say about that. I'm hoping to someday dance a jig wearing a beard of bees, but that's neither here nor there.
There may well be more Lists of 25 Things coming up. 25 is a large number, though, and I'd personally like to thank Carver's Brewing Company and their Colorado Trail Nut Brown for assisting in the completion of this particular list.
We Love This Book! Video Review of Jim Lynch's Border Songs
Sometimes several booksellers on staff just fall in love with a book. That's the case with Jim Lynch's latest novel, Border Songs.
We are creating videos, like this one, to share our passion for books with you. Multi-talented bookseller Jeanne is the one who put it together, and it features some lovely music from Durango's bluegrass stars The Badly Bent (thanks, guys, for letting us use it!).
What do you think?
Banned Books Week
The American Library Association's Banned Books Week has been dedicated to protecting our First Amendment rights and raising awareness of the rampant use of censorship as a political tool for decades now. The issue truly is an important one for libraries, who take the brunt of the assault, but this is a cause in which both librarians and booksellers are in complete agreement. The Freedom to Read is of paramount importance.
The free-flow of ideas is crucial for the betterment of our society. Ideas that antagonize, disgust, illuminate, highlight or reenforce are all part of the greater dialogue. It makes no sense to only read ideas with which we agree; how then do we grow? Sure, there are books out there, books on our shelves, that are abhorrent and volatile. So it goes, to quote the oft-banned Vonnegut.
What it comes down to, most often, is morality: One person, or group of people, wish to impose their morality on the masses. The hubris is appalling. What makes the morality of one group more just and fitting than the morality of another?
A librarian from Douglas County recently had a patron ask him to remove the book above, Uncle Bobby's Wedding, from the shelves. Here is his incredibly thoughtful, gentle and just response. Please read it.
Here at Maria's, we do get requests to remove books. Not many, but every now and then someone will disagree with a book and think that we should make it less visible, and therefore less available, to our other customers. These can be difficult conversations, of course. One of the more common books lately that people have disagreed over is Jay Asher's beautiful and very difficult-to-read young adult book, Thirteen Reasons Why (a book that every high school student should read). In it, a high school age girl has committed suicide. A few weeks later one of her classmates receives some audio tapes explaining that since they're listening to these tapes, they are one of the thirteen reasons why she decided to commit suicide. It's obviously a difficult subject, but I think there are plenty of kids out there who may be in trouble and may NEED someone to talk to. If a kid sees the world refusing to talk about these very real emotions, they may be less likely to talk to someone about them, with potentially disastrous consequences. The book explores the ways in which the things we do may have consequences that we never dreamed were possible.
Here's a video trailer for the book.
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