You may recall that local indie publishing house and bookstore Reading Frenzy launched a fundraising effort back in January: together with Kickstarter, they needed to raise $12,500 to reissue Crap Hound #4 and keep the Reading Frenzy boilers chugging along.
Not only did they reach it, they blew right by it. As of right now, they’ve raised $14,492 (and there are still 4 hours left to chuck a few bucks in the pot for your very own copy of the issue.)
Congratulations, Reading Frenzy! And thanks to all and any Reading Local Portland readers who contributed to that goal. We look forward to seeing Crap Hound when it comes out.
Jedediah Berry is the author of The Manual of Detection, just released in paperback by The Penguin Press. Part Calvino-ish fantasy, part Doyle-esque mystery, Berry’s debut novel has been lavished with praise and awards. (The New Yorker said that it “weaves the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka.”)
Berry is an assistant editor at Small Beer Press and an admirer of umbrellas. You can read the first chapter of The Manual of Detection here, and you can hear Berry read from the book at Powell’s on Hawthorne tomorrow, Thursday 2/11, at 7:30 pm.
We caught up with him in the middle of his reading tour to talk about glögg, Gore-Tex, and the mysteries of genre.
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Powell’s has released the winners of their Puddly Awards contest. Readers from all over got a chance to vote on the best book of the last decade. The list is long and in many cases overlaps with the Powell’s employee’s list. The top ten in each list have been given special discounts for new copies, 30% off to be exact.
The winners of the past decade in Fiction and Non-Fiction are:
Fiction – The Road by Cormac McCarthy
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Nick Flynn packed Powell’s last night for a reading from his new book, The Ticking is the Bomb, a memoir about becoming a father for the first time while immersed in the stories of Abu Ghraib detainees.
Flynn traveled to Istanbul in 2007 to hear the testimony of Iraqi prisoners who were tortured by American military personnel in the Baghdad prison. This book, like his last one, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, is written in brief sections that hang together like poems, koans, or songs. (Flynn called his selection of pieces a “playlist,” and laughed that he’s been following Patti Smith’s reading tour for weeks. “She’s playing for free. How do you compete for that? Patti Smith playing for free at a reading?”)
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In Other Words Women’s Books is a beloved mainstay of Portland’s independent literary scene. For more than sixteen years, IOW has been selling books, building community, and helping Portlanders “find their feminest” on the corner of NE Killingsworth and Williams.
We talked to Katie Carter (Program Director) and Amber Rowland (Store Director) about what IOW is up to these days, where it’s headed, and what you’ll find if you drop by to pick up a book or shoot the breeze.
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The last time I was in Microcosm Publishing’s zine store located in the ActivSpace building on SE Main, I spent more time keeping the lil’ guy at bay than I did actually browsing for new books. The reason being that the store was so small that no matter where I positioned myself, he was always within reach of one book rack or another. And since one of his favorite things to do is pull books off shelves, it became a constant battle between the two of us.
Since then Microcosm has relocated the store to a larger space within the same building, while also adding a “zine trike.” What is a zine trike? Exactly what it sounds like, a zine store mounted on a trike. While the trike is used as a display shelf on Portland’s many rainy days, any time the sun comes out you can spot the trike out and about finding new readers. Have I mentioned before how much I love Portland?
Microcosm’s zine store offers all the zines and books Microcosm publishes, such as the DIY guides and Powell’s bestsellers Make Your Place and the Zinester’s Guide to Portland, but it also carries thousands of self-published zines and small press titles. The store opened 18 months ago, right before the bottom dropped out of the economy, and has since managed to hold on through some rough patches. In fact they continue to buck the general malaise that hovers over the economy and the book industry specifically, and according to Microcosm’s Jessie Duke may be looking to expand the store front yet again.
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I first stumbled upon Looking Glass Bookstore while on a trek with my wife to visit the Sellwood antique stores. As we were walking down the sidewalk I saw a sign that had the word “book” in it, which always peaks my interest. I also noticed that this sign was attached to a red caboose, which further heightened the level of curiosity. After negotiating a time limit with my wife (she knows that I can literally become part of a bookstore if I don’t have some “time frame for withdrawal”), I walked up the steps and ducked through the door into the caboose.
Once inside I was immediately disappointed that I had only negotiated for 15 minutes, because this store was much more than what it appeared from the outside. Well into my browsing mode I became even further disappointed as I realized a considerable portion of the store was dedicated to my favorite genres: politics, history, sociology, ecology, etc. Barely able to make it through the first few sections before I began visualizing my wife checking her watch, I took one for the team and vowed to return for a more thorough grazing.
I have been back a few times since, and am always impressed when I go. The store definitely has an opinion and a personality, which is exactly what a store this size should accomplish. I would say that if you are of a conservative political persuasion, you may throw this store in with the whole “vast liberal conspiracy.” Although if you were opened minded you would find books to suit your tastes as well.
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Three books for two bucks. I am not a Wharton trained economist or anything, but I believe this is a pretty good bargain. Yes, McKenzie Books is not your typical “indie bookstore”. In fact I don’t think they would even think of themselves as a “bookstore.” But they are local, and they do have a daily book sale consisting of a couple shelving units restocked daily. The price range on the books? Starts at .50 cents and goes up to $3.00. The selection though small, is surprisingly well rounded. Not some place you would want to spend all day, or even an hour. But to check in once a month for a few minutes and find Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim” for two quarters, isn’t a bad proposition.
Of course this is assuredly a loss leader for McKenzie. A way to get you into the door, where you can then find out about what it is exactly they do, since they aren’t a bookstore. You see they primarily buy and sell books through the internet, with a proven niche in the student textbook market. Started by “Breanne and Jim” in college when they weren’t getting what they considered a fair price for their used textbooks, it has now grown into a staff of 30 “dedicated to enhancing lives by offering educational and entertainment value through quality used and new books.” They are a member in good stading with the BBB, are committed to “green business” principles, and give a portion of their “profits to fund classroom projects on DonorsChoose.org.”
If you are looking to sell your books, you can use their sister site Cash4Books.net. There you can get a quote for the books you would like to sell from their site, and take them down to their storefront, or mail them out using a slip printed off from their site. Either way they pay you for shipping, yes even if you walk them in they will give you what it would have cost to ship them. Check the site for books in demand.
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Broadway Books
Burritos and books. Who knew that all it would take to get people to buy books is the promise of meat, cheese, beans, and rice wrapped in a warm tortilla. Of course there was a little bit more to it than that. A son’s love for his mother, Portland’s love and ethos for all things local, and a little bit of social networking, all led to smiles on the faces of the owners of Broadway Books come Christmas time.
If you didn’t hear about the “Burritos for Books” story, you can see the original post here. That led to this, this, this, and this. Which in turn led to this and this. After that you knew it wouldn’t be too long before the “First, Live, and Local” crowd caught on. It truly is an amazing story, and in the end it really was never about the burritos.
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I’m sure that a lot of you had relatives in town for the Holidays. So where did you take them? OMSI? The Portland Zoo? Multnomah Falls (not unless you worked out a deal with ODOT)? What else is there? If you are like every other Stumptown host, you probably took them to see the “largest independent book store in the world”, the Powell’s City of Books store on Burnside. No grudges here, Powell’s is a wonderful creation we Portlanders have to call our own.
For the serious book lover though your next stop was probably (or should have been) another fantastic peddler of the hardback that residents of Portland can rightfully call their own, Annie Bloom’s.
And so it goes for this charming and thoughtful Multnomah Village mainstay. It’s not easy living in the rather large shadow cast by the “Burnside Behemoth.” Not only has Annie Blooms been able to do so, they have thrived by: using thought behind their book selection; being located in the truest part of Portland; nurturing a local and dedicated customer base; and in some ways by being what Powell’s is not, your neighborhood bookstore.
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