Aptronym Destiny

An aptronym refers to someone's name that is reflective of their occupation. Some notable examples include Judge Learned Hand, Astronaut Sally Ride, Poet William Wordsworth, and Presidential Press Secretaries Larry Speakes (Reagan) and Tony Snow (Dubya). It is with bookseller's remorse that I let go of my favorite aptronymical book: Russell Brain's Some Reflections on Genius and Other Essays (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1960). Here's my description of this classic title in remembrance:

"There was nothing else for it; poor little Russell Brain was fated by the Aptronym Gods to become a neurologist and to author this preordained book. A collection of essays about the relationship between genius and madness, the genetics of genius, and discussions of some superintelligent folk such as Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift, Charles (smart as the) Dickens, Lord Monboddo and Christopher Smart (naturally)."

Book of the Day: Winter Has Lasted Too Long

Argh! We awoke this morning to find an aggravating layer of wet snow on the ground and more arriving at a slant, just in time to ball up getting the kids off to school and driving in to open the bookshop. Just yesterday I had kicked at the small crusty remnant of snow-gravel mix on our lawn and thought about uncovering some of my flower beds to hunt for snowdrops and crocuses and now this backtracking weather pattern!

I am resorting to a prominent display of the Book of Day in our front window: James Kavanagh's poetry collection, Winter Has Lasted Too Long to ward off any further retrograde meteorological activity.

My Father's Dragon Lady

Today I had a customer come in and politely ask for directions to the children's section. She came back a few moments later and had the good taste to have a copy of L.M. Boston's "The Children of Green Knowe" in her hand. We chatted as I rang up her purchase and she commented about how used bookstores are such nice repositories of older titles and mentioned that she was an author herself. Ever-curious and ever-bold from my downstate New York upbringing, I asked what she had written. She demurred and said that she had written a book published way back in 1948 and that I probably had never heard of it. I pressed on with my queries and she very modestly said that she had written a children's book called "My Father's Dragon".

My mouth flapped open. Not heard of "My Father's Dragon"! Unthinkable! This book is a wonderful children's fantasy, and a winner of Newbery Honors. I not only read and loved this book as a kid, but I read it aloud to my kids when they were younger and have pressed many copies into the hands of parents and grandparents asking for recommended reading for their small fry. I restrained myself from running around the counter and squeezing the no-need-to-be modest Ruth Stiles Gannett in a bear hug, but couldn't resist asking if I could take a picture of her holding a copy of her much beloved book. She was gracious enough to inscribe this new family heirloom to my two girls, "daughters of the enthusiastic seller of books of yore".

I mentioned this author encounter to my next several customers and both were knocked out. They too, had not only heard of this book but had read, re-read and gifted this book to others. I found out that there are two sequels to this title, "Elmer and the Dragon" and "The Dragons of Blueland", which I will now have to purchase. A euphoric day at the old bookshop indeed.

Punch Drunk on Books

The book of the day is one just sold over the phone, which I have smiled at many times while we've had it on our shelves: Intoxication Made Easy, by Elliot Paul and Luis Quintanilla (NY: Modern Age Books, Inc. 194). The title just slays me, and the subject is equally wacky. As I described it in our Internet listing:

A culinary Kama Sutra, a rowdy Rabelaisian romp, a paean to shellfish cookery, a very entertaining gastronomical read, profusely illustrated with Quintanilla's quavering quill.

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Elsewhere I remember seeing this book described as the musings of two well-marinated sots. And then there are the crazy illustrations. Alas, booksellers' remorse infects me and I must release it into other hands.

Books Lost and Found on the Internet

Ah, the Book of the Day. Sometimes in our open shop the Book of the Day is the one sold that we've had on our shelves the longest (a "dog"); sometimes it is the most expensive book (a "golden ticket"); sometimes it is a big or oddly-shaped book that resists efficient shelving (a "Winnebago"); but sometimes the Book of the Day is memorable for other reasons and that is what happened this past weekend.

Saturday I had a customer show up to purchase a book that had belonged to her father. He was a New York City publisher who had the book inscribed to him by Frederic Warburg, himself a publisher (of the English firm Secker and Warburg best known for nurturing George Orwell's writing career). I had described the book in my Internet listing as having this inscription and an accompanying postcard laid in, so my customer knew this book was her dad's. She even recognized her father's secretary's typing and initials on the postcard which gave her a chuckle. She has been trying to round up as much of the paternal library as she can since there was some familial squabbling upon his demise and his books were cast to the winds. Happily, this book was reunited with a grateful customer and we both left the shop that day with a warm feeling. A happy ending.

Book of the Day - Klingon Dictionary

The Klingons are my favorite Star Trek characters. They have the coolest facial hair and they're stylin' those Gene Simmons topknots while swaggering around with outlaw space-biker bluster. Now I can converse with my buddies with a book I unearthed while rearranging our science fiction shelves:

The Klingon Dictionary: English/Klingon, Klingon/English:The Official Guide to Klingon Words and Phrases, by Marc Okrand, NY: Pocket, 1992. Okrand developed the prototypic Klingon language and culture for the Star Trek movies and for the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and in these pages he provides pronunciation guides, commands in "clipped Klingon", lots of grammatical advice and the most fun section "A Selected List of Useful Klingon phrases". Here's a few of the spiciest:

Where can I get my shoes cleaned? (NOOK-dak WAK-wij vi-lam-KHA-chokh-mokh)

Your nose is shiny (boch GHICH-raj)

Your ship is a garbage scow (vekkh-DOOJ okh DOOJ-lij-E)

Does it bite? (chop-A)

Where do you keep the chocolate? (MOST IMPORTANT!) (NOOK-dak yooch da-POL).

Time to beam up.