Happy New Year!
Welcome back everyone!
Brussels was wonderful. Cold, but lovely. I did my best to stay warm by swilling cup after cup of gluwhine (if you order it "avec rhum", it does twice the warming duty) and stopping in to a shop every half mile or so. I rode a Ferris wheel, watched people ice skating, bought some goodies from the stalls and tried to soak in a little Christmas spirit. Given that I am an angry old man, it didn't soak in very deep or last very long. I am just as frustrated by human contact as I was when I left.
I thought about telling you all about the trip and boring you to death with tales of my holiday adventures but I will spare you the blah-blah-blah and actually tell you about an event. The calendar is filling up again and the staff have been bored stiff without having to set up chairs and read books to prepare for events. I feel like I would be doing them a disservice if I didn't mention an event.
On Thursday January 3rd, at our Penn Quarter location, Jane Rhodes is going to tell us all about her new book. It is called Framing the Black Panthers and unless you crawled out from under a rock yesterday and have no clue as to who the Panthers were/are, you will recognize the cultural impact they had on the U.S. It may be something as simple as Tommie Smith's black-gloved fist raised in the air at the 1968 Olympics or it might be a bottle of hot sauce you bought made by David Hilliard. Even Marvel Comics jumped on and invented a super hero called the Black Panther. (Still being published) Excepting Modernism, no other movement has impacted society like they did. Once they started getting a bit of news, the leaders and members of the Panther Party exploited every word in the press and leveraged it to their advantage. Love them or hate them, agree or disagree the Panthers made a mark.
Jane is the Dean for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and chair of the American studies department at MacAlester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, so she knows a little bit about race relations in America. If I can get out of the office in a timely manner, I will be there to here what she has to say about this one. Anyone with an interest in social politics, American History or if you just want to figure out how to start a movement in your hometown, should brave the cold and get their butts to Lansburgh on Thursday night. 7pm start time, get there early and grab a glass of wine from Footnotes Cafe.
Oh, one last note. I read this today on Shelf Awareness:
AND!
Not bad. In the top five for commitment to reading and in the top ten for bookstores. The only way we can stay there (or move up) is if you good people keep going out and buying books. Thank you once again for keeping me at my desk and working. If you stop buying books, it is right to the local Wendy's for me. I noticed Five Guys was hiring this weekend... Maybe they need an event coordinator.
Keep reading!
Brussels was wonderful. Cold, but lovely. I did my best to stay warm by swilling cup after cup of gluwhine (if you order it "avec rhum", it does twice the warming duty) and stopping in to a shop every half mile or so. I rode a Ferris wheel, watched people ice skating, bought some goodies from the stalls and tried to soak in a little Christmas spirit. Given that I am an angry old man, it didn't soak in very deep or last very long. I am just as frustrated by human contact as I was when I left.
I thought about telling you all about the trip and boring you to death with tales of my holiday adventures but I will spare you the blah-blah-blah and actually tell you about an event. The calendar is filling up again and the staff have been bored stiff without having to set up chairs and read books to prepare for events. I feel like I would be doing them a disservice if I didn't mention an event.
On Thursday January 3rd, at our Penn Quarter location, Jane Rhodes is going to tell us all about her new book. It is called Framing the Black Panthers and unless you crawled out from under a rock yesterday and have no clue as to who the Panthers were/are, you will recognize the cultural impact they had on the U.S. It may be something as simple as Tommie Smith's black-gloved fist raised in the air at the 1968 Olympics or it might be a bottle of hot sauce you bought made by David Hilliard. Even Marvel Comics jumped on and invented a super hero called the Black Panther. (Still being published) Excepting Modernism, no other movement has impacted society like they did. Once they started getting a bit of news, the leaders and members of the Panther Party exploited every word in the press and leveraged it to their advantage. Love them or hate them, agree or disagree the Panthers made a mark.Jane is the Dean for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and chair of the American studies department at MacAlester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, so she knows a little bit about race relations in America. If I can get out of the office in a timely manner, I will be there to here what she has to say about this one. Anyone with an interest in social politics, American History or if you just want to figure out how to start a movement in your hometown, should brave the cold and get their butts to Lansburgh on Thursday night. 7pm start time, get there early and grab a glass of wine from Footnotes Cafe.
Oh, one last note. I read this today on Shelf Awareness:
The top 10 overall, as compiled by "researcher Jack Miller, who for five years has been ranking the nation's largest cities based on their support for and commitment to reading":
Minneapolis
Seattle
St. Paul
Denver
Washington, D.C
St. Louis
San Francisco
Atlanta
Pittsburgh
Boston
AND!
The top 10 cities in the bookseller category, which ranks for every 10,000 people the number of retail bookstores, number of rare and used bookstores and number of ABA members, are:
Seattle
San Francisco
Minneapolis
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Portland, Ore.
Pittsburgh
St. Paul
Cleveland
Washington, D.C.
Not bad. In the top five for commitment to reading and in the top ten for bookstores. The only way we can stay there (or move up) is if you good people keep going out and buying books. Thank you once again for keeping me at my desk and working. If you stop buying books, it is right to the local Wendy's for me. I noticed Five Guys was hiring this weekend... Maybe they need an event coordinator.
Keep reading!
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