In happier, or at least bittersweet, independent bookstore news
Penn acquires Gotham Book Mart’s literary treasures, in “a small victory of resistance against entropy and decay.”
Penn acquires Gotham Book Mart’s literary treasures, in “a small victory of resistance against entropy and decay.”
Glenn Goldman of Los Angeles’ Book Soup died of pancreatic cancer a day after announcing plans to sell the legendary store.
Donald Westlake has died at 75. Levi Stahl recently got me into his pseudonymous Parker novels.
This year, instead of a tree, we decorated Max’s beloved pole lamp. He calls the result a “3-way collision between Festivus austerity, Xmas kitsch, and midcentury modernism.” I call it, “We can take all that down on the 1st, right?” Christmas Day was an intimate and jolly affair. Joseph brought his cornbread-sausage-fennel stuffing and his chocolate bourbon pecan pie. . . .
Rosie Schaap’s Great Big Lump of Coal party for her good words @ Good World series was great fun. After the reading, she told Dana, Max, and me a story involving the best and maybe the most inappropriate holiday toast ever. I’m not allowed to post that one. Instead here’s an Xmas excerpt from Schaap’s forthcoming Drinking with Men. If . . .