Friday, August 21, 2020

The Booksellers


If you're reading this via email subscription, be sure to click here to see the accompanying video trailer and recorded interview with the film's director.

by Laurie Allee

Click above to watch the film.
Do you miss browsing used bookstore stacks?  

I found the next best thing!  The Booksellers, directed by D. W. Young, is a documentary film made especially for bookworms. 

Antiquarian booksellers are a weird bunch.  Part collector, part obsessive, part sleuth, part entrepreneur and totally, completely, ALL book nerd.  The Booksellers is a fascinating peek inside a world populated with eccentrics, intellectuals, historians, sentimentalists and the keepers of a medium that is literally crumbling and turning to dust.

While I wish the film ventured beyond the East Coast-centered traditional -- nothing about the equally zealous comic book, hip-hop, manga, pulp and film script collectors, -- I adored getting an insider's glimpse at this dusty, dreamy book world. 


Adam Weinberger gets lost in a library (Film still from The Booksellers)

I also appreciated the diverse group of antiquarian book collectors featured in the film.  If you think they're all old white guys with patches on their tweed jacket sleeves... think again.  Sure, there are a lot of those guys, but you may be surprised at who else is avidly, passionately selling and collecting old books in the 21st Century...and who was a big part of its heyday in the mid 20th Century. 


Watch D.W. Young and Peter Bolte discuss the film below:


Monday, August 3, 2020

Great Books on Pandemics: Fiction Edition


The Books With Laurie 
Pandemic Reading List
Fiction Edition!


By Laurie Allee
For those of you reading this via email, click here to see my accompanying original video.
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COVID-19...
Is it one book or a series?

I think it's safe to say it's not a short story.

We bookworms have an advantage when it comes to sheltering in place, staying safe at home and easily handling lockdowns.  My friend (and fellow avid reader) Katey put it this way:

"To be honest, my life hasn't really changed that much under Covid-19."

I can relate.  Even in the healthiest, most social of times I'm used to curling up in a corner of my house or garden, and disappearing into a great read. 

I've been doing a lot of disappearing in the almost five months since California declared a state of emergency.  While I've always said that books change lives...they might actually save them during our current crisis.  If you don't have to go out, then don't go out.  Instead, find your corner and start reading. No mask required.

So, let's put the novel in novel coronavirus.  

I present you with a fiction-lover's list of Great Takes on Pandemics: