Bookish Odds & Ends for Those Long Coronavirus Nights

Time to share a few bookish odds & ends I've enjoyed reading in the last few days (complete with links back to the original source articles):

Capitol Hill Books

1. I suppose this is not "legal" in about 90% of the country right now because of all the "Stay Home" orders out there, but what a great idea this is. What used-book bookstore fan would not enjoy an hour inside a bookstore all by themself?Washington D.C.'s Capital Hill Books recently allowed its patrons to book one-hour appointments to do exactly that. To get an idea of just how great this would be, take a look at Slate's "One Last Trip to the Bookstore." 

"I started on the first floor - history, mostly. When I found a book I wanted to buy, I merrily tossed it to the floor; the store was mine, after all, and I didn't need to carry my growing pile along with me today. I ran my glove-clad finger across spines like a stick across a fence, stopping at each title that seemed even a little bit interesting."

2. How about a reminder of how good it was back in the good old days before the word "quarantine" was on the tip of everyone's tongue...you know, all the way back to mid-March 2020.  Bill Hayes describes heading downtown to buy a book. Can you imagine? Read "Walking in the City Before the Bookstores Closed" at this Lit Hub link. 

"No one was allowed inside - Troy was sequestered behind the counter and Miriam was on the floor, standing halfway from the entrance - but if you'd 'Just call out the title of the book' you were looking for (or the author, or the genre), they'd find it for you. And they did!"

3. One Michigan library figures that your dogs are probably just as bored as you are right now. After all, they are not seeing their friends either. To fix that, the Ann Arbor District Library hosted a virtual-park event for dogs last Saturday. Rich Retyl, the library's AADL communications manager put it this way, " I think dogs are feeling a little left out." (Honestly, I think they are all in dog-heaven right now, trapped inside with their owners almost 24-7 for the foreseeable future.) Here's the "videoconference for dogs" scoop from MLive.com.

4. From the Guardian, comes a gathering of novelists who want to help you choose "books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape." Contributors include Hilary Mantel, Marlon James, Kazuo Ishiguro, Mark Haddon, Ayòbámi Adébáyò, Colm Tóibín, and a host of others. If you're looking for something to read during our more-or-less national confinement, this is a good place to start: "Novelists pick books..."

5. Wondering how authors are coping with our new stay-at-home culture? Well, wonder no more because this article from The Bookseller paints a pretty clear picture for you. And it's not a pretty one. Click here for "Lockdown: the author's perspective."

"Many authors live in a perpetual state of anxiety. Anxiety our books won't sell. Anxiety we won't get a new deal. 
Anxiety our reviews will suck.

So it goes without saying the past few weeks have taken those anxieties to a whole new level."

I hope you find some of these links interesting, and that they offer a little bit of a change-of-pace to the rest of your day. Hard to believe this is just the beginning of the fourth week of all this voluntary house-sitting for our own houses. Keep reading. Keep smiling. Stay well.