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To Fall In Love While Reading Dostoyevsky

Mar 05, 2018
by Caroline Miller
a bookstore in Paris, Bruce Handy, George Whitman, Shakespeare and Company, used book sellers
10 Comments

One of the disadvantages of living in my new location is there are no used booksellers nearby.  I’m beginning to miss the convenience of my snooty bookstore even though they  treated my trade-ins as if they were used oil rags.  At least I had access to cheaper books.  And I miss the musty old place, its dusty rooms piled from floor to ceiling with manuscripts, their covers sometimes torn or soiled. 

My new abode houses a small library and I admit the other day I was lucky to find a new edition of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki which I pounced on at once.  Still, the library in my retirement center has no ambience.  The room is light and airy, like the recovery room of a hospital, and, as it is run by retired librarians, it is well organized.  All I need do to find a book I want is to obey the dewey decimal system.  No more tiptoeing past teetering stacks of ancient tomes that reek with the musty odors of well-kept secrets.

 Of course no one can guess how long neighborhood bookstores will exist.  Some predict an early demise.  Some say no.  I only know that I’d be inclined to weep for future generations who order books from Amazon.  They will never experience the thrill of finding some forgotten volume that, if opened and the pages turned, will reveal a treasure. What is a book lover, after all,  if not a hunter at heart? 

 Bruce Handy writes about a Paris bookstore that for no other explanation than a stroke of luck has survived since before World War II, closing only during the Nazi invasion: Shakespeare and Company.  (“In a Bookstore in Paris,” by Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair, November 2014, pgs. 194-207.)  Owned by an eccentric, George Whitman, after the war his shop became a meeting place for members of the lost generation, the beat generation and decades of budding writers who were allowed to sleep in the store if they needed shelter and who were lovingly known as “Tumbleweeds.”   The only one ever ejected was a young man who refused to drink the wine from an empty sardine can.  Whitman didn’t know that  young man wasn’t a Tumbleweed, however.  He was Johnny Depp, following the path beaten by generations of entertainment celebrities before him.  Of course, the line of  famous writers continued as well,  Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Annais Nin, William Styron and George Plimpton, among them. 

 As the neighborhood gentrified, developers followed, too, offering to buy the place.  They were always refused, no matter the amount offered. Whitman’s shop was his castle and he filled its  4 stories with books and books and more books, until nothing ruled but chaos.   And yet, within the apparent disarray a kind of order did exist, one which even the stodgiest librarian could respect.  When his daughter suggested the Russian section be moved to another corner, her father, though enfeebled with age, strenuously objected.   “No! The Russian section has to be here because this nook is so romantic.  And then you have gaps between the shelves so you can see and fall in love with a customer on the other side while you are reading Dostoyevsky.”(Ibid pg 2006) 

 Now who wouldn’t cherish a bookstore like Shakespeare and Company?   Amazon, you’ll never be able to compete with love.

(First published 12/30/14)

             bookstore

Courtesy of www.terragalleria.com

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10 Comments
  1. Christine Webb December 30, 2014 at 8:27 am Reply
    I knew it! I've been looking for love in all the wrong places!! :) A most lovely and heartfelt blog, this morning, Caroline...
    • Caroline Miller December 30, 2014 at 8:45 am Reply
      Me too. I'm headed for a bookstore after I finish this reply.
  2. Susan Stoner December 30, 2014 at 9:21 am Reply
    Caroline, I suspect that your used bookstore is on Belmont. I was in there and a huge book fell off the top shelf right onto my head. The wonder of it, is that it was a book that I desired once I took a look at it. I bought it and have used it ever since. Magic happens in bookstores. I am convinced!
    • Caroline Miller December 30, 2014 at 10:41 am Reply
      I'm convinced of the magic, too.
  3. Bill Whitlatch December 30, 2014 at 10:03 am Reply
    I live near Annie Blooms in Multnomah , wonderful book store. Also in Sellwood a converted house on Milwaukie Avenue, but I bet you know about that one. Loved the article.
    • Caroline Miller December 30, 2014 at 10:40 am Reply
      Not sure the Sellwood bookstore hasn't gotten by me. Thanks for the tip.
  4. Louise Labby Carroll December 31, 2014 at 2:13 pm Reply
    Nothing deep to add...I just loved the feel and tone of this blog entry. Of course with the touch of Paris added, I was hooked! Happy New Year. sweet friend.
    • Caroline Miller December 31, 2014 at 5:02 pm Reply
      Just to hear from you is enough. Thank you.
  5. Robert March 5, 2018 at 9:55 am Reply
    We just visited Hawthorne Boulevard Books, west of 32nd Ave, and found a treasure. The owner, at 87, having lost her husband in the last two years, is looking to retire and everything is on sale for 75% off. Tall, narrow isles filled with books from the '30s through the '90s, some even some more current. With the family, we spent a good bit of time here. Out of her inventory of 8000 books, we found quite a few that we really needed to have ;) Hurry and visit as in the not too distant future, it might be yet another of the whole-block, 6 story behemoths being build up and down the street.
    • Caroline Miller March 5, 2018 at 10:00 am Reply
      What a find for Portland, Oregon residents. Thanks for sharing. I'd say more, but I'm hurrying out the door to get there, myself.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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