Over the weekend we pulled in a huge load of books, so once again, we need you to come buy them. An enormous load of hardcover detective novels and thrillers is still coming out of the boxes even as I write. A great batch of colonial and post-colonial American history, as well as a good batch of titles on the history of slavery. Bulletins at any second…as usual.
Dear Customers. We need your help. We are buried in art books! Just got in an entire bookcase of terrific art books, much on Russian art, many topics, and lots and lots and lots of them. You must please come and buy art books. We are drowning. We need the shelf space. It would be a kindness. And you’d know so much about art! Likewise, a large and serious library of Christian studies–serious theology, reference, history, much of a Russian base–has landed with a large thud and is still being unboxed. Much unusual stuff, many unusual titles–excellent for serious study. Now’s the chance! Come quickly. Buy books.
The Barn is honeycombed with sections reflective of our determined individuality and left-handed sense of humor. Some sections are scholarly and useful: Medieval and Renaissance Literature, for instance, Downstairs with the Medieval History, running from Mandeville to Margery Kemp, the Decameron to Tirant Lo Blanc; or Arthurian Literature, from the ancient grail romances to current retellings, reference books and studies. And some begin to shade into the left-handed humor realm, like a section of Vamp Lit, the current craze for Vampire romance novels, labelled “Books That Bite”. Downstairs again we have Wealth and Glamour, or Lifestyles of the Painfully Rich. Our nice selection of books on Napoleon Bonaparte is labelled “That Pestiferous Little Corsican”. Part of our Sixties History bookcase is marked “Radicals, Anarchists and Other Troublemakers,” for those in hunt of Hunter S. Thompson, Noam Chomsky, and those other folk who insist on telling us that all is Not As It Should Be. In the Downtown store, we have Rationalists, Skeptics and Other Killjoys; you know, the people who look unimpressed when you tell them that the Beast of Goom is in your cellar, drinking your Diet Coke. We have shelves of Cryptozoology–Bigfoot and his oft-photographed brethren–marked as “Odd Beasts and Beings” and “Funny Weird, Not Funny Ha-Ha.” One of the fun parts of working at the Barn is getting to run wild while labelling the shelves. So come run wild yourself–within the bounds of law and decorum, of course.
We used to think of the winter and spring as, you know, the quiet times. Remember those days? Nowadays the winter particularly is for projects: rearranging, rebuilding, rethinking, rewiring, the works. Anyone visiting right now will find a lot of work has been done in the last month. Bookcases are being rebuilt left, right and central in order to squeeze more books in. Browsers in the Barn basement will notice Denny and Chuck’s work as master carpenters: the whole left side of the floor has been rearranged, rebuilt, relit. It means, among other things, that Randi doesn’t have to get Glenn anything for Christmas, ever ever again. So if you come in and things look a little different in places, it’s not illusion.
Certainly books have been coming in by the truckload, carload, cartload, bagload, boxload. A big collection we just finished unloading had a great selection of American history, and almost the entire series of the Library of America in slipcase, which we’ve put out for $8 apiece. (Ha! Beat THAT.) Art books, music biographies (best lot we’ve ever seen–composers only Aaron and Jimmy have heard of), art books, etc. etc. Loads of books in all categories coming in every week. Come make space on the shelves.
Last note is a sad note. Many people had fallen in love with Mosby, the bull mastiff puppy we adopted back in the fall. He suffered from a spinal problem common to large dogs, which reached his breathing centers, and he passed away a few weeks ago. We’ve had many kind and sympathetic remarks and we appreciate them all. Mosby was one of those great eager goofball dogs who charmed everyone who met him, except for a few people he knocked down by accident. We’re going to miss him terribly.
The summer is now upon us like a mack truck. The crew of students we had last summer is back in force, for which the full timers are on their knees crying hallelujah. Come in, browse, say hello, buy a book, eat a cookie. The gardens are sprouting.
As mentioned in a previous blog, we’re trying to wind down on some of our video stock: with that in mind, from now until Sunday November 29th, ALL VIDEO TAPES WILL BE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS APIECE. Here’s a great chance to fill in some gaps in your collection or take a shot on that movie that your friends insisted you’d love but which fills you with doubt….
Also, from Monday, November 23rd, through Sunday, November 29th, we’ll have hundreds of current travel books on sale for a dollar or two. We’ve picked up a big load from Lyons Press and would like to move them quickly–here’s a chance to discover that place you didn’t know you really wanted to go…..
Move quickly!
Times change, and the Book Barn lumbers along, trying to keep up. We’ve noticed that both movies and books on tape have not been selling very quickly for us, and we are pretty much going to leave off buying them. The exception would be for the old Hollywood classics of the Bogart-Wayne-black and white period and rare or interesting foreign classics. Books on CD and movies on DVD are still welcome, but the tapes are going to be phased out.
Just in, after the big collection of needlework and crafts books of a couple of weeks ago, is a nice shelf of books on history of the American West. Come take a look. Pardner.