Thankfully Reading Weekend

This is the best idea I've seen in awhile...

The Fountain Bookstore is a little wonky as a retail establishment as we're not all that busy on the weekends being in a downtown business district.

That means that I have weekends off most of the year to read!

So, unlike my fellow retail warriors, I will be able to participate in this event enthusiastically and without guilt for not being in the shop.

Join me!

"Welcome to the very informal Thankfully Reading Weekend. Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelves gets full credit for coming up with the idea. She happened to tweet that she was going to have a fairly quiet U.S. Thanksgiving weekend and was hoping to spend much of that time catching up on her reading. Almost immediately Jen from Devourer of Books and Beth from Beth Fish Reads chimed in, saying what a great idea that was. And thus the birth of Thankfully Reading Weekend, which will start on Friday, November 27 and end on Sunday, November 29." Read More Here...

I'm looking for suggestions for a big, fat, new novel to swallow whole that weekend. I've already read Wolf Hall and loved it, so that's out as is the new John Irving which is great if you're a John Irving fan...probably not as fun if you're not.

So, post here or come by the shop and tell me what you'll be reading. I'll post to #thankfulreading on Twitter.

Now you have an excuse to spend a few moments away from your family (they'll be watching football anyway) and have some quality YouTime. Your bookseller approves.

Lee Bros.: Will You Marry Me?

...or (in order to keep from violating several state laws and generally accepted social conventions) maybe you could just come sign at my shop?

I got a preview copy at the store a few months ago and have since purchased a hardback for myself and it is definitely my present of choice for this holiday season.

Perhaps I should just list the top 10 reasons for my devotion....

1. Lemon and Cucumber Pickles
I think I went through about 8 quarts of these myself this summer. I also took jars to garden parties for friends. (great on a grilled burger!)

2. Celery Julep
Refreshing! About the only summer libation I prefer as much is The Green Lantern.

3. Cheese Relish
A variation on pimento cheese made with Swiss, capers and banana peppers rather than cheddar and roasted red peppers. Is it good for me? No. And I don't care.

4. Radish Butter
So weird I had to try it. Lovely on rye toasts. Pretty as the magenta picture you painted. Stunner for entertaining.

(have I said thank you yet for the fact that none of the recipes so far take more than 10 minutes to prepare?)

5. Oyster Soup
While it will never replace the traditional oyster stew that I eat every Christmas morning (a deeply simple recipe from my mother that just means Christmas to me), this charmer of a dish will be a staple for the rest of the year's special occasions.

6. Skillet Green Beans with Orange
Boring old green beans for dinner? Not anymore! Inexpensive and gorgeous in a plain white bowl.

7. Pimento-Cheese Potato Gratin
Say goodbye to mac and cheese. This is my new comfort food. How do you two stay so svelte? Dancing on that porch you're always mentioning, I guess.
Whoa! Just checked my Facebook mail and there's a thumbs up there for this recipe from an editor of Blackbird Magazine (and confirmed foodie). That's almost a little creepy.

8. Smoked Shrimp with 3 Dipping Sauces
Now I know why I bought that stovetop smoker!
(It's an illness...I know...I'm trying to stop...but honestly a stovetop smoker is absolutely a necessary item for any kitchen...along with the 10s of dozens of other random items I seem to have accumulated....well, maybe not the quesadilla maker with the handle shaped like a chili pepper...I told you...I'm sick.)
And you're so conscientious for kindly giving instructions to make your own MacGuyver-style if people don't have one.

9. Fig and Bourbon Compote
Equally versitile as a dessert topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream or as an condiment for roast pork. Yum.

(cue the angel chorus)

10. Whole Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Onions
Sounds boring, right? I thought it did, but the true test of any cookbook (or any cook) is the humble roasted chicken. Mainstay entree of the suburban family and the single bookseller. Affordable, available, and so, so easy to $#&* up...usually by trying too hard.
My 99 year old Eastern Kentucky Granny gave me her cast iron skillets when she quit cooking (and you fellas know how important a gift like that is...it was the only thing I asked for when she moved to the home). The bird sits proudly in one of those coal-black, seasoned beauties and looks (and tastes) like a million bucks. Genius.

So, I apologize for missing our two first dates:

• BookExpoAmerica 2008 Fried Chicken Party (I was stuck in a cab on the Brooklyn Bridge)
• SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) Trade Show 2009 dinner...I was supposed to be at your table, but I got the flu

Let me make it up to you by hosting a party for you and every foodie in Richmond. Trust me. I know them all.

Cheers, Boys. And thank you.

The Verdict Is In: My Most Successful Love Affair

Nobody expects love to be perfect.

Well, I did at one time, but I think I was 12. Oh no, wait, 11. By the time I'd turned 12 Richard H. laughed at me in 6th grade when I expressed my undying devotion in the auditorium before the day's classes started in middle school.

Your loss, dude.

Since then, I've just expected it to be somewhat less than the excrutiating anguish of, say, a full afternoon of waxing.

Hey...keep your expectations low.

Despite this strategy, most of it has been kind of on par with said grooming torture.

Then I watched this really silly video...

...and realized I'd been in love for 16 years. Well, maybe 14. Took me a couple of years to warm up to the idea.

Richmond: I love you.

There. I said it.

Has it been easy? Hell no!

Everybody's been with the one who you can't take to the party because of all of the embarrassing stuff in their pasts that seems to keep coming up. (Oh God, the New York Times. Really? Yes, yes, New York friends. I live in that Richmond.)

So, I was watching this video of a couple of bank dudes, off work in their skinny jeans and tats, and it started me thinking about the whole thing. I was at first annoyed, then bemused, and by the end I was seeing stars and hearts, bouncing around my home office like Pepe Le Pew.

And they didn't even hit most of my favorite things about my adopted city.

I'll save the infuriating stuff for a later day. (There's plenty). I'm trying to impress you with the object of my devotion, ya'll.

In no particular order:

The Kids
Richmond is home to a major university, 2 important colleges, a medical college and a whole lot of 20-somethings who started college and just decided to hang out instead. Most of these institutions are in the city proper giving it an energy that frankly sizzles. Keeps me young.

The Old Guard
Yeah...sometimes the FFVa (first families of Virginia) get on my last nerve trying to hold on to that precious Southern past (let's face it folks...it wasn't that great except for your bunch). But there is something truly inspiring about the dedication of this class to keep Richmond looking like the majestic city it is. If it weren't for them, there would be an Applebee's Downtown. Give them their props. Pat their bow ties. It's great to live somewhere where seersucker is worn without irony.

The Food
I'm almost embarrassed at our choices of fine food and in this town. What impresses me even more is the bloodthirsty debate that ensues every time someone starts recommending restaurants. (Surely a future blog post). The fact that people get so riled about a subject that most people in other towns spend as much time considering as their daily shower is a beautiful thing. Why are all these phenomenal foodie people and restauranteurs here? I have no idea.

Spring
Having not visited every city on earth, I cannot verify that Richmond is the most beautiful city in the Spring that exists. But if I were a poker player and I had Richmond's Spring as a hand (complete with that Ace-in-the-Hole-Everybody's-Party Easter Parade we have every year) I'd bet my life savings, such as it is.

History
To quote my best friend comedian Lord Carrett, "Welcome to Richmond! Where if you fell off a horse in the Civil War, you're somewhere blocking traffic." I'm cool with the driving hazards. My favorite image of the city which I see a few times a year is two birds perched on the ears of Stonewall Jackson's horse on his monument.

Public Spaces
Everybody's got a big back yard in Richmond. Doesn't matter if you live in the dinkiest little studio in the Fan. Between the greenway running down the center of Monument Avenue to Maymont Park to Byrd Park, if you want a few minutes to yourself with nature: it's yours. Safe, clean, uncrowded and beautiful.

People
I've met the best friends of my life in this city. From the sweatiest house-painter to the flakiest artist, the most sarcastic bartender to the savviest lawyer. And it's the kind of city where they could all, in fact, be the same person. Yep. It's weird like that.

Which brings me to my favorite thing about Richmond of all....

Much like the best life partner one could hope for: Richmond allows you to be yourself.

If you're unhappy here...well I'm sorry to say, it's your own fault. I was pretty unhappy here for the first two years, but it was because I refused to see that everything I needed was here for the asking. And most of it free of charge or very, very cheap.

And Richmond is still small enough, still needs enough work, that you can be an active part of any change you want to make in it. There's no challenge in a partner who's perfect.

Here's to growing together for a very, very long time.

(We are not registered as of yet, but are accepting gift certificates to any locally owned businesses or restaurants. Thank you for celebrating with us!)

Vampires Pay My Electric Bill

I don't come from a literary background if you're talking about my education. I spent my college years learning how to feed beef cattle. I was an animal husbandry major.

One of the things that makes me most proud of my bookstore is that it's a place where you can feel free to read anything and not be judged...(sorry, snotty English majors...there's no jobs for you here). Yes, we've got an English major or two on staff, but they enjoy fantasy, action novels and the whole host of stuff you love on vacation and in your favorite curled up reading chair.

I think a lot of people don't frequent indie bookstores because they think they're supposed to be picking up Proust and pretending to enjoy it. Take a look at our staff picks and you'll see that we're reading what you want to read.

Nothing wrong with trying to be well-read, but I'm never going to tell a single mom who has three kids and two jobs that she's a lower person because she doesn't feel like reading Hawthorne. (In my opinion, one of the best things about being an adult is that no one can ever force me to read Hawthorne ever again!)

Any reading is improving your life.

That being said, I had a bad bug last week...so bad I was on enough drugs I couldn't read.

My friend Jean loaned me (actually, she kind of tossed the dvd to me in an effort not to touch me) the first season of True Blood when I was sick last week. Charlaine Harris signed at Fountain the day she got the HBO contract.

Super fun. The books are awesome too.

If you want to read the classics, I applaud you. I read a few a year...I love Colette, Faulkner, Camus, Orwell.

The rest of the time I read stuff that entertains me. I love action novels where lots of things blow up. So do my booksellers and I love them for it. I'm currently reading a great mystery with a drag queen detective from Turkey.

Come in and play with us. Reading is our play.

God bless the vampires and the zombies...dead though they may be, they definitely contribute to the Fountain bottom line.

Come see Maggie Stiefvater on Wednesday...she does werewolves and killer faeries. She's a Virginia author who's enjoying great success so we hope you'll come celebrate with us.

See you at the shop. Our booksellers are waiting to serve.

Months too late to be relevant, but maybe in time for the video...

I liked The Watchmen. I read the book and the movie actually made sense.

Better ending than the book.

Here's the deal: I was speaking to a group in Charlottesville about books in general and the topic of books-into-moves came up.

A woman was flailing her arms about The Watchmen. She had taken her 12 year old grandchild and his little girlfriend (!) to see it. She had major issues with all of the male frontal nudity.

I didn't know what to say. I said, "It's blue...I don't think it counts". She was not amused.

Here's my question: in a movie where a pregnant woman gets shot, there's a higher body count than Vietnam, replays of the Kennedy assassination and monks burning, etc....why does this woman have a problem with a giant blue...well, you know what I'm talking about? And why were there 12 year olds in an R rated film in the first place?

There are a lot of things a bookseller doesn't anticipate addressing on a daily basis. I have to say, the giant blue schlong is one of them.

As I'm writing this, I have to be amused..but geez. Get over it. And what's wrong with Spiderman? Get a babysitter. Play Scrabble. Legos. There are options.

So I toast the creative parent (grandparent) for any activity that denies succombing to a kid's need to see the latest superhero movie...they are changing. Maybe read together or something.

Just a thought.

Meanwhile, if you haven't read The Watchmen...it's a great novel. Forget it's a graphic novel. It's just a great book. And see the movie...preferably without the tots.

Maybe you've been wondering....

...about the Books and Brews book club that used to be on the old website that's always "full".

Well, it's a book club that started as a store thing and turned into my personal book club. Diana, Jean, Albert, and Suzanne and I have cohesed (not sure that's a word) into a unit that makes my month every month.

There have been other members over the years, but we're the core.

I pick the books. I'm a little dictatorial that way, but it takes the pressure off everyone else. And we're on a journey together through books that is amazing.

This group refreshes me and renews me and tonight was no exception.

The Natural History of the Senses is a book that is particularly personal to me. It's a guide to life for me so bringing it into books club was very personal.

I'll share a passage with you:


"When you consider something like death, after which (there being no news flash to the contrary) we may well go out like a candle flame, then it probably doesn't matter if we try too hard, are awkward sometimes, care for one another too deeply, are excessively curious about nature, are too open to experience, enjoy a nonstop expense of the senses in an effort to know life intimately and lovingly. It probably doesn't matter if, while trying to be modest and eager watchers of life's many spectacles, we sometimes look clumsy or get dirty or ask stupid questions or reveal our ignorance or say the wrong thing or light up with wonder like the children we all are. It probably doesn't matter if a passerby sees us dipping a finger into the moist pouches of lady's slippers to find out what bugs tend to fall into them, and thinks us a bit eccentric. Or a neighbor fetching her mail, sees us standing in the cold with our own letters in one hand a seismically red autumn leaf in the other, its color hitting our senses like a blow from a stun gun, as we stand with a huge grin, too paralyzed by the veined gaudiness of the leaf to move."

So, here's the deal. Start your own book club if you don't have one already.

If you do and they only talk about their ex-husbands and get tipsy, call me. I'll come to your book club and get you on track. Free of charge. I love to do that and I bring lots of free books and tote bags and stuff.

Book Club isn't going to change your life, but it will make it more meaningful if you treat it right.

Next month we're reading The Annotated Mona Lisa and bringing in printed off copies of our favorite paintings. One month we read about the history of perfume and brought in our favorite scents...(much to the dismay of the chef and owner of the restaurant where we meet). Book club doesn't have to be about books about cranky people with problems...though we've done tons of those too. Loving Frank was an awesome discussion.

So call me at the shop and I'll get you started. 804-788-1594.

Do I dare to eat a peach?

Well, no. Not today.

Found something more adventurous!

Thank you, once again, to Tyler Florence.

Tyler was a guest at Fountain a couple of years ago for a signing and, to be honest, I was skeptical. How much could this pretty boy tv presenter know about food?

The Answer? Everything.

To this day, his cookbooks are my go to guides for meals that never disappoint.
I've even trusted his cookbooks for recipes that I've tried on first dates without testing them first. (I think the test I need to come up with is who I go out with on dates...)

None of these romantic efforts have worked out in the long run, but it wasn't the food (which actually made a couple of candidates difficult to ditch).

Tonight's dish was The Ultimate Ratatouille. Try it out.

Another favorite for when you're just feeling like gaining a little weight (and we all want that, don't we?) is Baked Rigatoni with Eggplant and Sausage. You can diet tomorrow. Really treat yourself and get your homemade sausage from Belmont Butchery if you live in Richmond.

If you missed it awhile ago, Tanya was featured in Bon Apetit as one of the premier maverick butchers in America. I think I bought my weight in cured meats there yesterday. Thankfully, there is red wine to combat the cholesterol.

The Best Job In The World

Everybody's job looks better from the other side.

And I used to wish for the life of my friend Shelly. She's a marvelously talented and well-known painter. Having not one iota of artistic talent, the goal was unrealistic in the extreme.

Spent a bit of time with her tonight and talked about peaches.

Peaches. Peaches. Peaches.

She was recently doing a still life class on them. Her house was filled with peach pie, peach ice cream, peach tarts, peach sorbet, and yes...Bellinis.

And fruit flies.

You can have too much of a good thing.

So, yes. I do have The Best Job In The World.

And here is my favorite primer on art....this book will teach you how to tell the difference between the Impressionists and there's even a great architecture tutorial inside. It's a classic for a reason. Very happy it's still in print.

What the...?

Was looking up books for our sci fi book group for possible selections for the fall and the two classic works of Alfred Bester are out of print. That is not right.

Buy them here. And here. Meanwhile looking for suggestions to add to our list.

And don't even get me started on the lack of availability of Stanislaw Lem. Dang.

I'd love to hear about some newer authors that are comparable. Focusing on philosophical sci fi. Looking forward to your suggestions and there's still room in the group if you want to join us.

A Country Girl is Revived

In starting this blog, I wanted to say a little about how I feel about books. Because I am not a writer, I often find that someone else has expressed something much better than I ever could, and this day is no exception.

So I'm giving over the podium to one of my favorite writers who has managed to say in his blog what I've spent a couple of hours fighting to articulate.

Thank you Silas House.

From the blog "A Country Boy Can Surmise"

"I love books. I love reading them, but there is even more than that.

Touch. I love how cool the pages are when you first open them in the mornings. Or how warm the pages are if you’ve left it out in the car for awhile in the summer, like something baked the exact right length of time. The endpapers and the spine and the little letters that are sometimes imbedded in the cloth, a kind of Braille for book-lovers.

Smell. The new ones: people talk about a new-car scent all the time, but what I love even more is a new-book scent. They should make little deodorizers of that aroma to go under one’s car seats. And the old ones: they smell like history, and rain, and the skin of all the people who loved them before, and every room wherein they lived.

See. Yes, of course we see them when we read them, but I love seeing them on the bookshelves, too. Or lying about, covering every available surface, stacked on the stairs, on the nightstand, on the kitchen table, on the kitchen counter, on my desk, a haphazard pile beside my desk. I once had a guest room whose walls were completely lined with bookshelves full of my favorite books. My guests all said that they had the best sleep there, and inquired about the mattress. I told them it was the books. Now my dining room table is surrounded on three sides by bookshelves. They make any meal better by their very presence. They are the best décor, and multi-purpose at that.

Hear. Taste. I could go on with the other two senses, but that’s a whole different ballgame (because if you’re a true reader you can hear the stories even long after you’ve finished the book; and sometimes you can taste the tang of the ink, even if you don’t try), and besides, the touching, smelling, and seeing are enough. Books are enough to sustain us, period."

See Silas' books here.