Ask-Steve.com

Outstanding Neil Gaiman interview

I had the great pleasure of seeing Neil Gaiman speak here in Portland just over a year ago. If you have the chance to see him, don't miss it.

I have a lot of friends who follow his work closely, so I want to let everyone know that there is a great interview with him on Bookslut.

Read the interview now and hear from Neil about:

The stupidity of signing for everyone.
The loveliness of Brazilians.
His open relationship (with his fans).
Avoiding cat enemas.
The effectiveness of cat pheromones.
His odd relationship with Kathy Acker.

And that's just the beginning...

An Interview with Neil Gaiman | Bookslut

I saw Jack Hirschman read at City Lights Books in San Francisco

It looks like 70 is the new 60. I went with a friend to see Jack Hirschman read from his latest tome, The Arcanes, at City Lights Books in San Francisco. Jack Hirschman is 73 years old, but is as spry, energetic and clear-spoken as I imagine he must have been a decade or two ago. The newly appointed Poet Laureate of San Francisco spoke of his recent trip to Venezuela and his participation in an event featuring poets from all over the world. His enthusiasm and passion were riveting. The only bummer came when I went to buy a signed copy of the book: They were asking $64 for it! As much as I wanted a copy, I just couldn't justify spending $64 on it.

From the City Lights website:

The Arcanes represent, in Jack Hirschman’s vast poetic production, a fundamental and extraordinary element, the most advanced point of his questing. It comprises 126 long and orchestrated compositions, collected from more than thirty years of a particular poetic inquiry, which ground the political engagement and social themes, ever present in his poetry, with stormy leaps of mind, heart and soul, and personal events and references...

The Arcanes look at the life and at history, at the happenings and changes in the contemporary world, at the decline and agony in western civilization, at the role of new systems of communication, at the struggles of the new movements, at the horrors of wars that are never just. But Hirschman always succeeds in giving a sign of hope, confident as he is in human beings and above all in poetry.

Before going to the reading, we had a pint of Stella at Vesuvio. The thing that caught my eye the first time I walked past on a previous trip down was the lettering that runs along the front of the building: "itching to get away from... Portland, Oregon." I still don't know what that means or why it's there.

Beat Generation dwindles, but Hirschman remains - SFGate.com

Can indie bookstores survive? What's their value?

Slate has an interesting article, dated May 15, that bears the title: "What Are Independent Bookstores Really Good For? Not much."

As I write this, I'm sitting in The Fresh Pot -- and independent coffee shop located inside the Powell's Books on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland. I love Powell's Books (for the most part). The article notes that "...indie stores are not all intellectual powerhouses like Powell's in Portland, considered by many to be the best bookstore in the United States." Powell's reputation for championing liberal causes has been tarnished by labor disputes with its employees over the years, but it's still a great place overall.

What if Powell's Books was to go away? Would you miss it? I don't see that happening anytime soon, but hundreds of smaller independent booksellers around the country are at risk. I've written articles admonishing readers to "put your money where your house is" and support local merchants -- but I still buy from Amazon.com. There are times when Powell's is asking double what I can pay Amazon for the same book. I don't have an unlimited supply of cash, so I have to take that into consideration. Also, as the article points out, the reader reviews, one-stop access to a number of editorial reviews and other information make Amazon.com an incredibly helpful resource for book lovers -- especially those who need a book on a given subject, but don't know what's out there and which one to buy. You can spend 30 minutes comparing 10 different books on Amazon.com and ultimately get one that you know is good based on all the information you've found and feedback from people who have already read it. At a bookstore you're likely to get about two minutes with an employee who almost assuredly hasn't read the book. And if the book is very far outside the mainstream or the store's area of specialization, odds are they won't have the book in stock.

So what is the value of independent bookstores? The number one thing for me is the ability to walk the aisles and savor the experience of being surrounded by books. When I see a book that jumps out at me for any reason -- the color, the font, the artwork, the author, the title -- I never know what's going to grab me -- I can pick it up and heft it, flip through it, caress it. It's an almost spiritual experience that I just can't replicate online. But is that going to make me buy every book there? Will it make me may more money -- often much more money -- every time I want a book? No, it won't.

I love bookstores. It's one of the first things I look for when I visit a new town. But they have to find ways to add value and differentiate themselves from the many alternatives readers have today. Some ideas:

- Hold regular events that bring people together, into the store
- Serve coffee and tea; it doesn't cost much and people can't get it from a website
- Offer places to sit and free wireless Internet access; include a computer or two if you can
- Hold regular readings by area authors
- Offer an area where local groups -- book clubs, writing groups, etc. -- can meet
- Offer discounts when you can; you can't get the volume discounts that the majors get, but do what you can
- Pay wages that will attract quality, knowledgeable staff; these people will generate repeat business from regulars
- Have book release parties the way music stores have CD release parties; the author doesn't have to be there

Other ideas?

1968 babies are special

I have never been more proud to have been born in 1968 than after reading the book by Mark Kurlansky named for that year: 1968: The Year That Rocked the World. I went with a friend to see Kurlansky speak at Powell's Books in downtown Portland a week or so ago. You never know whether or not a writer can speak. Kurlansky can speak and I knew I wanted to hear what he had so say from the start.

He talked about how one of the questions he gets frequently on book tours is whether or not he likes book touring. He said he does and that it's largely because of the people he meets along the way. He said most everyone he meets likes to read, knows that George Bush is a criminal and should be impeached, and knows that global warming is real and must be addressed.

He is currently on the road promoting his latest release, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. Hearing him talk about it definitely made me want to buy the book, but I was there to hear him speak and have him sign a copy of 1968. When I got up to the table to have him sign the book I told him that his book made me more proud than ever to have been born that year. I read what he wrote in my book as I was walking away: "'68 babies are special."

I knew there was a reason I liked this guy.

===============

About the book:

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com

Many of us are still haunted by the events of 1968. Just two weeks ago in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean recalled the '60s: "When I was 21 years old, it was the end of the civil rights era, and America had paid an enormous price. Martin Luther King had been killed. Bobby Kennedy was dead. . . . But it was also a time of great hope. Medicare had passed. Head Start had passed. The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. We felt like we were all in it together."

Mark Kurlansky echoes Dean when he writes: "The thrilling thing about the year 1968 was that it was a time when significant segments of population all over the globe refused to be silent about the many things that were wrong with the world. . .. And this gave the world a sense of hope that it has rarely had, a sense that where there is wrong, there are always people who will expose it and try to change it."