under the (dust) covers

Bought some new books over the past few days. First off is one I hadn’t heard about except for vaguely (bad bookseller, no cookie), and that’s Drew Hayden Taylor’s Motorcycles & Sweetgrass. I’m super excited to dive into this – I love everything that he writes. Years ago, as a wee university freshman (hard to fathom, I know), I read his essay “Pretty Like a White Boy”, and it ended up striking quite a chord. Especially because, as I am often heard to say, I’m the whitest Indian you’ll ever meet. I’ve now read other things under his umbrella – Me Funny and Me Sexy, though no fiction until now. I’ve heard that Motorcycles & Sweetgrass follows in the tradition of Thomas King, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.

The second piece added to my collection is actually a replacement for a well-loved book. I first read Walden as a teenager, and totally embraced it. I read it constantly for years following, and a few years ago I settled into a hot bubble bath with my copy of it (as I was wont to do), cracked the cover, and lo, all the pages fell out into my bath. I didn’t end up replacing it, but this weekend I had a really excellent walk and conversation in which Walden came up. Today I found an inexpensive copy with a pretty cover, and decided what the hell, might as well replace an old favourite.

How about you? Are there authors whose books you will buy without question, regardless of content? Do you have any old favourites that you’ve literally worn to pieces? (Do other people have a collection of paperbacks that have warped due to being dropped in the bath?)

Specifically, in chick lit.

I freely admit to enjoying a chick lit book now and again. I think it’s a completely legitimate genre which will have it’s fans and detractors, as all genres do. I will gladly pick one up when I need something light and fluffy that I know will have a happy ending (which is pretty often — it balances the ecclectic non-fiction.) But I’ve really started to get cheesed off by the fact that the main female characters are almost always so goddamn stupid.

In particular, I just finished Talking to Addison and am now reading Amanda’s Wedding, both by Jenny Colgan. In both, the heroine (and I use the term loosely) is completely and utterly shite at her job, relationships, friendships, etc. I can’t actually think of a redeeming quality in either of them, and can’t figure out why they get the guy at the end of the novel.

I will admit to liking some of her male characters, which is why I went on to the second book after finishing the first one. Then again, I almost always identify more with male characters in books more than female characters. I’m sure this says more about me than about the writing style. In fact, in these two books, we have guys who are engineers, physicists, and computer programmers (and a couple of lawyers, but really. Lawyers. I’m sorry, are my prejudices showing again?) which probably explain why I identify with them. I may run a bookstore now, but I’ve contemplated all three careers in my life (and studied for two of them.)

So how about a chick lit book with a heroine who is an engineer? Or even just a smidgeon of common sense, if we can’t have book learning?

A couple things that I’ve been discussing with people lately ended up merging today and giving me a bit of an idea for a self-challenge.  The first was this article about a book blogger who decided to read and review a book every single day for a year.  The other was that the Tell-Tale Clerk has decided to take part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for those of you not in the know.)

I’m hugely impressed by anyone who can commit to either of these challenges, even if I can’t.  For one, I can’t write to save my life.  But I love the idea of spending a month celebrating books so I’m going to declare November to be NaNoReMo — National Novel Reading Month.

I am going to read a book for every day in November. To be specific, I’m going to read 30 books during the month, not necessarily one every day, and I can’t narrow it down to just novels as I’m a bit of a non-fiction whore. But that’s my challenge to myself. What challenge can you make for yourself?

The Giller shortlist is out and I’m ecSTATIC that one of my staff picks made the cut!  Fall by Colin McAdams is a fanTASTIC coming of age read with a creepy and yet awesome twist!  I loved it!  I’m mostly excited about this because I’ve never once enjoyed a prize winning book… and now I have!…. well it hasn’t won yet… who CARES?!~  Apparently I have taste!

For those of you who perhaps care about the OTHER books on the shortlist… here you go: http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/

I am horrendously amused by the fact that we are being allowed to put Diana Gabaldon’s new book “Echo in the Bone” out 3 days early due to the fact that Walmart broke the embargo…

I keep thinking that this inaugural post should be witty and informative, telling you all about how we’re a bunch of crazy people who work together at a bookstore and explaining why we started this blog.  But really, I think all I really need to say is…

BOOKS!  \o/