LIBRARY SALE SERENDIPITY ... BOOK SHOPPING TRIP ... GALLEY OF THE WEEK ... TAKING THE PISS

(Messing around with some new and different post formats to liven things up a bit around here.  File these random thoughts under "Works in Progress")

1)  On style: It's a sickness, really, but even with all the books that show up here every week, with all the shelves of unread material demanding my attention, with all the favorites I'd like time to reread, I still can't pass up a library sale when I see one.  Saturday was the Pacific Palisades branch book sale, and I was running errands nearby, so I stopped in for a look.

Library sales tend to run heavy on popular fiction and outdated non-fiction (Does anyone really need a copy of Windows ME for Dummies, however cheap?), neither of which much appeal to me.  But there are always a few gems hiding in the boxes and this time was no exception.  I found a hardcover edition of a Saul Bellow short story collection I'd never heard of, Him With His Foot In His Mouth and other stories.  (Three bucks.)  But the real find of the day was the "Revised and Expanded Edition" of The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. (Also three bucks.)

Now, this volume is of special interest to me for a couple of reasons.  First, I have always been fascinated by style books.  When I was managing editor of the Washington Square News, the NYU student newspaper, I knew the AP Style Manual (which we followed) pretty well front to back.  The other editors would often ask me before looking things up themselves, and I loved sorting out questions about whether time should a.m. or A.M., and when one could use an acronym on first reference and so on.  (The Times advises if an acronym exceeds four letters, only the first letter is capitalized, so Unicef, not UNICEF.)  My tattered copy of AP Style still sits on my shelf nearby. 

I'm doubly interested as a contributor to the New York Times Book Review who has occasionally run afoul of its sometimes Byzantine preferences.  When I wrote my first review, I suggested my bio tag read "Mark Sarvas hosts the literary weblog The Elegant Variation."  The use of "host" as a verb set off rounds of emails as we struggled for a suitable alternative.  I remember then wishing I had a copy of the stylebook myself for reference.  I didn't know it was publicly available.  Of course, the first entry I went to was for "host":

host.  Do not use host as a verb except in direct quotations.  In news articles, people should not host parties or broadcasts, just as no one guests them. 

I really do eat this sort of thing up, am endlessly interested in this sort of minutae.  (For example, only the parent company of Barneys New York - Barmey's Inc - takes an aposotrophe.)  As I make my way through the book, I'll share any especially amusing or interesting entires I come across. 

2) On libraries (of a different kind): I've been thinking about libraries a lot lately, the personal kind, not the public kind.  A few months before Clara was born, Orhan Pamuk wrote an essay about his father's library for the New York Review of Books.  After reading it, I began to think about my own library differently as well.  I'd always been proud of my personal library, even as I admit the vanity that attends such enterprises.  But I remember being especially pleased when my wife told me, about a year earlier, that the thing she loved most about the books was that whenever she saw a book talked about or referenced somewhere, especially a classic, she was confident she could walk up and find it in the house.  She's likened it to living in a library - though not always fondly, especially when the silverfish pop up.  But in the main, I know she approves.

Reading Pamuk's piece, I began to realize that I had built something that will be available for my daughter one day, if she is so inclined.  She will be able to discover the literature of the world in her own home and, if she wishes, she can take ownership of it all one day.  My bequest. That has made this enterprise seem a bit less self-indulgent to me.

But I realize she is unlikely to start her reading career with Proust.  (At 44, I'm just getting to him myself.)  And so when we took a stroll into the village this weekend, we stopped at Village Books, our wonderful local independent, and added a few children's staples to the library.  The day's haul included:

• Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

• Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey

• I Am A Bunny, Richard Scarry and Ole Risom

• Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd

• The Story of Babar, Jean de Brunhoff

• Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake

• The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams and William Nicholson

The selection is a cross-section of my favorites and Mrs. TEV's, along with a recommendation or two from the bookseller. I imagine you can guess which are which.  And not that TEV readers need the reminder, but this is why I love independent stores.  The bookseller was tremendously knowledgeable about her subject and about the store's inventory, suggesting Ducklings when my first choice, Blueberries for Sal wasn't in stock, and locating Mrs. TEV's obscure childhood favorite, I Am A Bunny.  (Interestingly, Mrs. TEV's experience was that the Sendak was not unversally popular among the girls she knew, that it was more a boy's favorite.  To me, it was always THE indispensible book of childhood - but yes, I was a boy.)

If there are books you think Clara's shelf must contain, feel free to add them in the comments box below.  We'll be back at Village Books next week.

3) Galley of the Week.  In which I begin a new feature.  As must be painfully obvious, I get more books than I can read and write about, but it never fails that each week the mail brings at least one title that makes me shove everything aside and at least crack open.  Those galleys immediately go to the top of the list, but even that top can take a good long while to get to.  So I thought I'd begin sharing with my readers the one galley I receive each week that excites me above all others.  I will aim to make this a regular Monday feature.

My inaugural Galley of the Week comes from Oxford University Press, and it's the long awaited translation of Pierre Assouline's biography, Hergé, The Man Who Created Tintin.  As the Tintin movie nears, we're likely to see more and more books like this but this is one I've been waiting years for, and I can't wait to read it.  Here's how OUP describes it:

One of the most beloved characters in all of comics, Tintin won an enormous international following. Translated into dozens of languages, Tintin's adventures have sold millions of copies, and Steven Spielberg is presently adapting the stories for the big screen. Yet, despite Tintin's enduring popularity, Americans know almost nothing about his gifted creator, Georges Remi - better known as Hergé. Offering a captivating portrait of a man who revolutionized the art of comics, this is the first full biography of Hergé available for an English-speaking audience.

Born in Brussels in 1907, Hergé began his career as a cub reporter, a profession he gave to his teenaged, world-traveling hero. But whereas Tintin was "fully formed, clear-headed, and positive," Assouline notes, his inventor was "complex, contradictory, inscrutable." For all his huge success - achieved with almost no formal training - Hergé would say unassumingly of his art, "I was just happy drawing little guys, that's all." Granted unprecedented access to thousands of the cartoonist's unpublished letters, Assouline gets behind the genial public mask to take full measure of Hergé's life and art and the fascinating ways in which the two intertwine. Neither sugarcoating nor sensationalizing his subject, he meticulously probes such controversial issues as Hergé's support for Belgian imperialism in the Congo and his alleged collaboration with the Nazis.

He also analyzes the underpinnings of Tintin - how the conception of the character as an asexual adventurer reflected Hergé's love for the Boy Scouts as well as his Catholic mentor's anti-Soviet ideology - and relates the comic strip to Hergé's own place within the Belgian middle class.

A profound influence on a generation of artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, the elusive figure of Hergé comes to life in this illuminating biography - a deeply nuanced account that unveils the man and his career as never before.

Perhaps Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg will finally succeed in making a household name of Tintin on these shores.

4) On taking the piss:  David Gates seems to be one of those critics who divides readers.  I have friends who think he's just terrific.  I find his criticism pretty dreadful.  There's something almost concertedly anti-literary in his reviews, and perhaps his life's mission is to take the piss out of everyone and everything, but that seems like a pretty joyless brief for a critic.  In the end, when I read sentences like this one, from his most recent review of Justin Cartwright's To Heaven By Water ...

I’ll admit that “To Heaven by Water” isn’t the worst novel ever written.

... I find myself wondering who Gates thinks is served by unedifying stuff like this.  It's almost insistent in its desire to be unserious, disengaged, and I think novelists deserve better.  I expect banalities like this from the Daily News; it always disappoints me to find them in Times.  To borrow from his own review, if this foretaste of Gates's sensibility sounds like your idea of a good time, don’t let me discourage you.  But I find it pretty thin gruel.

Comments

[Kathy]

Oh my gosh, I want to get my hands on a copy of Herge. We lived in France for 2 years and have loved Tintin ever since - we even named our dog Milou!

[Jennie]

Tuesday, a Caldecott winner by David Wiesner

[Niall]

Mark -

I've found that the best used book stores are in retirement communities. For obvious, if ghoulish, reasons. I stumbled across one in Palm Springs a few years back that was an absolute gold mine - first editions of rare, forgotten stuff everywhere (I picked up a first edition of Apartment in Athens for like two bucks). And no computer books.

I used to ding myself for having such a large personal library, but I don't any more. I've been adding to it for so long, that I can no look at my shelves and see so many books that are no longer in print and that would be impossible for me to read otherwise. Also, history teaches us that the fate of almost all public libraries is to burn. Almost everything we know about antiquity, for example, comes from sources preserved in private, not public, libraries.

So keep up the hoarding. Two thousand years from now, someone will appreciate it.

The problem with David Gates, it seems to me, is that he thinks he's being witty when he's just being boorish.

[Mike]

Re: #2--And Make Way for Ducklings has the additional notoriety of being referenced by James Wood to illustrate free indirect style in How Fiction Works.

[Reagan]

I could go on and on with kids' book recommendations. But for you, especially, I must point out the wonderful Francoise

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Jeanne-Marie-Francoise/dp/0765116847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250523386&sr=1-1

We wore out the binding on this one (and then I bought another and framed the illustrations). So charming, so French!

[Susan K. Perry]

I had to wait until my kids grew up to read Proust, so if you're even seriously thinking about it with a baby in the house, you're ahead. Here's my own recent Proust blog post, if you need inspiration:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creating-in-flow/200908/wasting-time-or-finding-time

[Susan K. Perry]

(Guess I posted my own website incorrectly. Oops.) I just wanted to give you credit for even thinking of reading Proust with a baby in the house. My kids had to grow up before I did it, as I wrote about here:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creating-in-flow/200908/wasting-time-or-finding-time

[Jack Pendarvis]

I still recall the library book sale more than 20 years ago at which I picked up purely at random my first Flann O'Brien and my first Bruno Schulz. The best fifty cents I ever spent - probably changed my life.

[tito]

My sister's favorite book growing up was Madeline. Plus it will give her something to remember when she gets around to Proust.

[TEV]

Bien sur, Reagan! Thanks for the recommendation. We'll grab a copy next week. And we actually already have Madeleine - in French - which I bought for her during my last visit to the Librairie Francaise in NY, but we should probably supplement with an English copy, too.

Incidentally, I liked Madeleine growing up, too ... The boy/girl choices don't break down so neatly.

[Niall]

There is a children's series that I loved in my youth, but is little remembered today. It's the "Green Knowe" series of books, about children living in the eponymous mansion and having all kinds of strange adventures. The series has some eerie moments in it that would appeal to an Emily Strange sort of kid. Archaically, I had the series read to me by my fourth grade teacher as part of our after lunch reading hour every day. Quaint, no?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Knowe

[Tess Rooney]

I'm a New Zealander and we have some wonderful homegrown favorites that you might not know of. I'm also a mum of four little boys, so our house is swamped by children's books.

Lynley Dodd's "Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairy_Maclary

Margaret Mahy's "A Lion in the Meadow"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lion-Meadow-Picture-Puffin/dp/0140506306

And anything by Jow Cowley, but my children would recommend the Greedy Cat books.
http://www.joycowley.com/picture.shtml

[Kim]

The Pacific Palisades Library sale is no ordinary sale, it's an event that people wait anxiously to attend. When the date is announced I'm sure to get at least one e-mail to share the news.

My absolute top suggestion for a kids book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I do not take responsibility for the fact that 15 years from now you and Mrs. TEV will be able to recite alternate verses at a moments notice.

Second: Time for Bed by Mem Fox (with Mem Fox you can't go wrong), beautiful pictures, very loving text.

We read to our kids every night from the day of their birth until they became such avid readers they had to read on their own. Last summer I was looking forward to sharing Little Women with my daughter. We did a chapter a night for three nights, then the she spent the entire next day reading the book, she just couldn't wait. I'm going to start Pride and Prejudice when she starts school so she can't read the book all day, she'll have to wait for me.

You are embarking on a precious time for you and your daughter.

[Kim]

Niall,

Do you remember the name of the bookstore in Palm Springs?

[sunnyc]

'Him With His Foot In...' is one of the best examples showcasing Bellow's versatility and immense talent. The stories here really show us how Bellow is equally adapt at creating his usual powerful hard-hitting stories from the economical space and limitations of the short story format. My Penguin paperback edition is well nigh yellowed and battered by now. What I would give for a hardcover edition. Also, selected as on of the Best Books of the Decade (1980s) in Time Mag's Jan 1 1990 edition.

[Stacey]

Love You Forever, Robert Munsch - I still read it sometimes when I miss my mother.

[StellaMM]

Clara is still young, and you have many hours ahead of you of reading to her, so it must engage the adult as well as the child.

Hence (as a another New Zealander I will endorse Lynley Dodd, - a new book out in the last couple of months, GO FOR RHYTHM OR POETRY, Edward Lear "The New Vestments" (I think), and I will also endorse 'Madeline' which is only poetry with pictures, albeit two colours, and you think won't grab attention, but it will.

All rolicking and fun, and they will stay your memory forever.

(I can probably repeat Beatrix Potter's 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' verbatim as well - the niece who read that avidly at 3 years, worked for a time in a publishing house - Orchard - but was dismayed at finding the ways of the world - working as many hours as there are in a day, for a pittance. She now does hospital administration!)

[Niall]

Kim -

Sadly, that used bookstore is no longer there. There are great used bookstores all over that area, including the Morongo Valley/Joshua Tree area where you might least expect them. You just have to get off the beaten trail.

[Ian]

Reading the list of childrens books in the above post I was filled with nostalgia. My children are now in their teens but all of the books in the list and scores more remain on our bookshelves, bearing the scars of - in some cases hundreds of - repeated readings. In some ways these books mean more to me than any others can hope to and I've no doubt that you will find the same thing happens. What amazed me when I revisited childrens books in my 30s when my children came along was how incredibly rich the best of them are (and the category of "the best" is a large one in this genre). So I do envy you the pleasure that will come to you over the next several years as you and your daughter explore these books.
You will probably be besieged by suggestions and I am very happy to see that Quentin Blake has arrived in your household already (but do explore him as author of his own work also), here are two more from England: John Burningham and Janet and Allen Ahlberg.

[Hannah]

It'll be a while before your daughter is ready for them, but the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace is absolutely delightful.

[Hannah]

(Please excuse my inconsistent / just-plain-wrong subject-verb (dis)agreements.) Bad taste, tired brain, too-fast fingers.

[Laura Strachan]

Ecco does a really lovely book, A CHILD'S ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY. The poems are all ones that will capture a child's imagination, but not necessarily "children's" poetry.

[Carolyn Kellogg]

I know it's too soon, but From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (I dreamed of camping out in the Met before I'd ever seen it). Things she'll enjoy sooner? The Very Hungry Caterpillar. And Everyone Poops.

[JPaleBlue]

"Stinky Cheese Man" --a must read!

[John Verity]

Maurice Sendak's 'In the Night Kitchen' is right up there with 'Wild Things.' Indeed, he has written and/or illustrated so many wonder-full books that are generally overshadowed by the best-known titles. Another of his my son enjoyed having read to him over and over is 'Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life' - a mysterious rehash (what else to call it?) of that famous nursery rhyme.
Be careful, though. Once you start looking into Sendak you may want to start collecting them all.
I second the emotion, too, about 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' - a perfect on-ramp to the literary superhighway.

[Annie]

James Wood would start his Harvard course lecture on free indirect discourse by passing out Xeroxes of pages from "Make Way for Ducklings," generating a lot of quizzical looks and, ultimately, amused comments from students.

Also, I don't know if you have seen this, but there's a re-evaluation of certain children's books in the Los Angeles Times by Madeleine Brand:

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-parenting-ss,0,5820263.htmlstory