A Visit to an Old Friend

We visited one of those “destination” bookstores on Thursday, The Book Loft of German Village, German Village is a historic neighborhood on the South Side of Columbus, Ohio. Most of the homes and businesses, and even many of the streets are brick. The Book Loft consists of three connected buildings once housing a general store, a saloon and a nickelodeon cinema. It is a veritable maze of 32 rooms on several floors in east and west buildings, all connected by book-lined hallways. But don’t despair if you fear getting lost in the maze. Maps are available and store personnel wander around helping the lost and bewildered.

I mentioned visiting an old friend. We live in the Columbus area but probably haven’t visited for over 20 years. There are several Barnes & Nobles and Half Price Books, and a few other stores that are closer. But a visit with a friend included a stop at the store. Sometimes old friends change when you haven’t seen them. This one hadn’t, it seemed. There was still the entrance on the side of the building, accessed via a flower and plant-lined walk. Outside the door, one could still find numerous tables of adult and children’s books at a bargain.

The selection of books, all new and all discounted at least five percent up to ninety percent was amazing. It’s probably the best to find the rooms of your greatest interests. Amazingly, I only bought three books, including some recent poems of Dana Gioia, whose work I’ve recently discovered.

The only thing that seemed changed was me. A younger me would have navigated the narrow steps, some without railings, with greater ease. As an older building, much of it is not handicap accessible and older customers who are not as sure footed may want to be accompanied. Staff will gladly help retrieve books you are looking for–but looking is more than half the fun.

That said, with the passing of other beloved bookstores, I was pleased to find this one going strong. In addition, Stauf’s Coffee is next door and brews some of the best coffee in Columbus. The perfect end to a bookstore outing!

Five Articles Worth Reading

“Read These Stories of Haitians and Haitian Americans” features the work of Edwidge Danticat. I keep hearing of her work and with Haitians in our Ohio news, it seems timely to learn more about the culture and experiences of these people.

Richard Powers, who last wrote about trees has turned his attention to oceans in a new work of fiction, Playground. Lit Hub posted an interview with him you might find worth a read: “Richard Powers on Chronicling Our Relationship With Nature and Technology“

I went through a season of reading everything P.D. James, the late detective novelist, wrote. So it was fun to read this interview from 1995 in the Paris Review archives. Don’t wait, because these don’t stay up forever!

“How to Pay Attention: On the Value of Stillness and Silence in All Seasons” reminded me that I do not need to leave my backyard to observe the natural world, full of wonders right around me.

Finally, it seems that one of the “hot” books right now is Sally Rooney’s latest, Intermezzo. “The Rooneyverse Comes of Age” in the Atlantic offers a good review of the book.

Quote of the Week

Horace Walpole was born September 24, 1717. He made this insightful comment:

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.”

It’s an axiom that has worked for me!

Miscellaneous Musings

I’ve slowly been trying to work more poetry into my reading. The big challenge is to know whose poetry to read. I’ve found two ways that help. One is to read someone’s poetry in a journal. The other is to read a selection of their poetry in an anthology. So, I decided to buy some of the work of Dana Gioia because of a selection of his poems in Contemporary Catholic Poetry: An Anthology. This is a great way to learn about a number of poets and identify those you want to read more of.

Last night I was with a group of grad students and we had a fascinating discussion of what makes one a virtuous reader. It strikes me that we put a lot of weight on the authors of books. But isn’t it a partnership of sorts. And thus, isn’t it right for authors to at least hope for virtue in their readers–that they will read with attentiveness and patience and do the hard work of try to enter the author’s world?

Perhaps on a related note, writing about reading and working to more skillfully review books makes me wonder if reading is a skill at which we strive to grow and improve, not just a basic skill we utilize throughout our lives. I find myself wanting to read with greater comprehension, to be able to situate a writer within his or her genre, or to understand the conversation that writer is having with others. I’d love to know if this is something other readers think about and perhaps strive for, or am I just weird in that regard (weird is OK, too)?

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for this week!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.