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Bookstore People: Muralists and Doodlers

Will Kasso

If you have driven through Trenton and seen a mind-blowing portrait painted on a wall, you have already met Will Kasso.  Painter, portraitist, graffiti artist, Kasso is a national presence in our small town.  Curator at Gallery 219 on Hannover Street and founder of the Sage Coalition (which supports public art festivals and street beautification projects).

When you catch him at Classics, he is usually hunting for books with his daughter in the kids section

 Kasso

“My daughter curated her first artshow opening at the “Kids Bridge Arts Camp”…she just texted me saying: “Dad, the artshow is tonight…wear something nice without paint all over it”…lol”

Roger Long

Roger is a retired art teacher, a habitual doodler and a transplanted Californian.  Good natured and easy going, Roger always lends the room an atmosphere of fun.

When you catch him at Classics, he will be hunched over a Scrabble board on Friday nights.

 Long

“Jefferson made the New Testament readable by cutting out all the nonsense, making it readable and worth reading.”

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Trenton Literature Year in Review: 2013

Pulitzer Prize winning Trentonian Poet Yusef Komunyakaa published Testimony, a collection poetry inspired by Charlie Parker

Trenton Poet Laureate Doc Long had reminiscences published in Volunteers in the African Bush, a collection of essays about the early years of the Peace Corp in Africa

Capital City Open Mic celebrated its one year anniversary in April

The New Jim Crow Committee of Trenton met and discussed Michelle Alexander’s book and mapped out ways to put responses to the book in action.

The Trenton Books at Home Program handed out thousands of books for Trenton kids.

Trenton author and radio host Yolanda Landy Robinson published Don’t Be Bitter Be Better, a book of inspirations.

Trenton author Natasha Buckalious Parker published her poetella, Ah Hood Romance

Trenton author Will Foskey published Poeticine

In November, Trenton author Marie Murf Antionette, author of The Struggle and A Girl Named Job, was bookseller for a day at Classics.

In February, Barbara Keogh became the reigning Classics Scrabble champion.

volunteers sierra leone

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Book Store Manifesto

This is a book-shop

Cross-roads of civilization
Refuge of all the arts against the ravages of time
Armory of fearless truth and unrelenting beauty against the craven forces of ignorance and pettiness and ugliness of the soul.

From this place words become real
not insubstantial digital ephemera but solid crafted artifacts
not drowned in the constant torrent of status updates and tweets, but fixed in time.

In this place you are a community made manifest–a community of friends, thinkers, lovers, citizens and appreciators of beauty.

Friend, you stand on sacred ground.

This is a book-shop.

 

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Bibliophile or Bibliomane?

Which are you?

  • Bibliobibule (reads too much)
  • Bibliolater (worships books)
  • Bibliomane (passionately collects books)
  • Bibliophile (loves books)
  • Bibliosoph (knowledgable about books)
  • Bibliotaph (hides or hoards books)

 

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Love Letters to Jersey 1932

I enjoy finding interesting things tucked into books that come into Classics.  I’ve found money, four-leaf clovers and personal checks written by witches.

My favorite, though, was found in a book of poetry in written by Richard Nixon (not THAT Richard Nixon, the other one).  There was a bunch of ephemera in it and as I went through it a story of lost love emerged.

First, I find, tucked between pages 22 and 23, a postcard that had written on it

“My Christmas thought/ Could not be bought.  /I searched the city through.  A sorry guest, / For the very best / Were none to good for you.  Richard.  Paris 1932.”

Second, later in the book, I find a typewritten letter, written from Paris on New Year’s Day addressed

“Dearest Clarice.

“You complain that I never open my heart.  Let us take the fanciful case of a man who after many years finds his soul face to face with a woman he once loved,–a woman presumably in love with a perfectly good husband to whom she reads her letters.  Such a man might well hesitate to unlock his heart, tho he might paraphrased Browning a little and say, Open my heart and you will see /  Graven upon it only Thee.  So it ever was, so shall it ever be.

“No, I didn’t stay on in Jersey beyond the merrie month of May, having finally been driven out of that terrestrial paradise by the Demon of Loneliness.

“I was cheered by your news that this has been a successful year for Melvin and I hope that good humor in which you are ending it will extend far enough into the new one to stimulate you to write me again and soon.  Stella Farwell write me from New Orleans that you had been there twice since last spring, looking younger and handsomer than ever.  No wonder you are in such good humor, with a good husband who has had a successful year and with Time treating you like a spoiled child.”

Later in the book, there is a Christmas card from Richard “with much love.”

Finally, there is a wedding invitation

“Mr. Richard Nixon has the honor to announce his marriage to Madame A Lelu in Paris on September Twenty-sixth, 1940.”

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Things You Should Do in a Bookstore

My friend sent me a list of things a bookseller posted of things NOT to do in a bookstore—don’t bring active kids, don’t bring in food, if you’re in a hurry don’t be mean to us, don’t talk on  cell phone.  What a whiner.

That’s not to say Classics Bookstore encourages food fights or rudeness, but please.  If you have to take a call, take a call.  If you are in a hurry, we will try and help.  If you are hungry, I have menus for the Hummingbird Jamaican restaurant, Big Easy restaurant and we convinced Settimo Cielo to deliver to the mystery aisle.  Just clean up after yourself and we’re good.

So rather than list all the things you SHOULDN’T do in a used bookstore, here’s a list of what you SHOULD do.

Ask us if you can’t find something.  Don’t be shy.  Looking for your favorite genre, your favorite author, a recommendation for something to read ?  We can help.

Read books to your kids while you are here.  We love to hear parents reading to kids in the back.  This is not a library where you are going to be hushed.

It’s okay to talk about your Kindle.  The books at Classics have a good self esteem!  They aren’t threatened by eBooks any more than stairs are threatened by escalators.

Tell us about the books that you love.  People who shop in bookstores (especially used bookstores) are the best people in the world.  They are smart, they are good people, and passionate about what they love.  Of course we want to hear about the book you are reading–why do you think we work in a bookstore?

Have Fun.  Because, really, if you aren’t having fun at least once in a while, you are not doing something right.

Want a place be surrounded by books?  To talk to the best people in New Jersey?  To catch a game of Scrabble or Uno?  To hang out with old friends?  To meet new ones?  To help build a downtown?  To help get free books into the hands of local kids?  To join a community of excellent people?  Come to Classics Books in downtown Trenton.

There are lots of things you SHOULD be encouraged to do.

 

Uno

 

 

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Become a Bookseller-for-a-Day

Letter from author Sherman Alexie, from the ABA website:  http://www.bookweb.org/indies-first

September 1, 2013

Hello, hello, you gorgeous book nerds,

Now is the time to be a superhero for independent bookstores. I want all of us (you and you and especially you) to spend an amazing day hand-selling books at your local independent bookstore on Small Business Saturday (that’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 30 this year, so you know it’s a huge weekend for everyone who, you know, wants to make a living).

Here’s the plan: We book nerds will become booksellers. We will make recommendations. We will practice nepotism and urge readers to buy multiple copies of our friends’ books. Maybe you’ll sign and sell books of your own in the process. I think the collective results could be mind-boggling (maybe even world-changing).

I was a bookseller-for-a-day at Seattle’s Queen Anne Book Company when it reopened this past April. Janis Segress, one of the new co-owners, came up with this brilliant idea. What could be better than spending a day hanging out in your favorite hometown indie, hand- selling books you love to people who will love them too and signing a stack of your own? Why not give it a try? Let’s call it Indies First.

Grassroots is my favorite kind of movement, and anyway there’s not a lot of work involved in this one. Just pick a bookstore, talk to the owner (or answer the phone when they call you) and reach an agreement about how to spend your time that day. You’d also need to agree to place that store’s buy button in a prominent place on your website, above the Amazon button if you have one. After all, this is Indies First, not Indies Only, and it’s designed to include Indies in our world but not to exclude anyone else.

This is a great way to fight for independents—one that will actually help them. It’ll help you as well; the Indies I’ve talked to have told me that last year Small Business Saturday was one of their biggest days of the year, in some cases the biggest after the Saturday before Christmas—and that means your books will get a huge boost, wherever you choose to be.

The most important thing is that we’ll all be helping Independent bookstores, and God knows they’ve helped us over the years. So join the Indie First Movement and help your favorite independent bookstore. Help all indie bookstores. Reach out to them and join the movement. Indies First!

Yours in Independence,

Sherman Alexie, An Absolutely True Part-Time Indie

 

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Bookstore People: Radio Hosts and Rockers

Yolanda “Landy” Robinson

The spirit behind Living a Powerful Life, Landy is a Life Coach who seeks to empowers her clients to release that which no longer serves them. She is a force in Trenton: Host of On the Reel Radio (which you can listen at Listen in @ www.wifiam1460.com), the muscle behind In Her Shoes, emcee of the African American Day Festival, creator of the Adult Prom and supporter of all things Trenton.

When you catch her at Classics, you will find her talking to everybody who walks in—an instinctual host even when she isn’t on the radio!

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Ian Gentles

Lead singer of the rock group the Working Class Hussies, Ian is the only man I know who can rock out to the lyrics of School House Rock.  A songwriter, musician, and singer, Ian he has over three hundred completed original songs, recorded at his recording studio, known as the ‘Tree House.’

When you catch Ian at Classics, you will either find him playing Axis and Allies in the back, with guitar and drum kit in the mystery aisle or reading books about World War 2.

Watch his Classics video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kj1CtvibWM

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Why Used Books Are The Best

Classics customers know why used books are the best.  They are half price and cheaper (no $34 hard-backed mystery novels), they are good for the environment (how many stores sell almost all recycled goods?) and they are good for the community (coming, as used books are, wrapped in used bookstores–which are more likely to encourage local authors, literacy programs, poetry jams, games nights, book clubs, knitting groups and hanging out with your neighbors).

In addtion, used bookstores are that sexy, dishevelled neighbor who actually wants to talk to you over a cup of coffee, rather than that uptight car salesman who wants your $30 and get out of his face.

Huffington Post has a list of 13 reasons you should always buy used books.  You can read it here.

 

 

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Ten Dollar Bills and Other Unexpected Reasons to Buy Books

Bonnye Jean R (from Trenton) bought a book (White Teeth by Zadie Smith)  at Classics Books that had $10 inside.  The book cost about $6, so she made a profit!  She seems to come by Classics more often since then.

Jess Raven G (from Philadelphia) confesses to buying books because they smell right.

A customer (who has requested she remain unnamed) bought three books because her Kindle fell and broke before she finished them.

Mark W (from NYC) buys books as gifts–and also is a conduit for book donations to Classics from his friends.  He has bought books as gifts for friends because it seems exactly like I book they would own–because they once were books that they owned (and gave away to Classics).

When the store was in New Hope, I had a customer buy a stack of books so he could make them into desk lamps.

Josie H (from Trenton) buys expensive leather-bound books and sends them to an artist who hollows them out so her Kindle can fit inside.  Josie wants her Kindle to have that “real book feel.”