books — Page 117

Sunday Snow

January 20, 2019 at 9:41 am by Claudia

We got a lot of snow, but less than predicted it seems. This “official” assessment is based on looking out the window. We’ll see the reality when we go outside to tackle it. We’ve also had sleet, which most likely compacted the snow. So far, so good. We haven’t lost power. It’s supposed to get windy later and the temps are going to plummet tonight and tomorrow, so we want to get things shoveled before then.

The oil wasn’t delivered. It won’t be delivered until Monday. So say a little prayer for us that we have heat until tomorrow. I’m more than a bit worried, though Don seems to think we’ll be fine. (That’s typical: I worry. Don doesn’t.) Needless to say, I wasn’t a happy camper when I found out they weren’t coming. On the other hand, not giving them enough lead time was our fault and, as they told me, they have 600 customers who were asking for deliveries before the storm. They’re working their tushes off.

We had the best time with Rick and Doug yesterday. Great conversation, lots of laughter – we could have stayed there for hours but we wanted to get to the store before the snow started falling. I thought you might enjoy these photos.

Doug, Sam, and Rick. Don took this and managed to get a great capture. Sam is smiling!

And you know who these people are. I bought that snake plant for Rick and Doug as a housewarming gift and it’s really taking off. And that fire! I wish we had a fireplace here at the cottage. Rick and Doug have two – one in the living room, as well.

So. Today is about snow clean up. Yuck, yuck, yuck. But it must be done.

I’m almost finished reading James Lee Burke’s latest – should finish today. Then I’ll start Something of His Art: Walking to Lübeck with J.S. Bach. Can’t wait!

Happy Sunday.

A Bookish Package

January 19, 2019 at 10:01 am by Claudia

We awaiting the start of the storm, which won’t be until late afternoon, early evening. The forecast varies. It all depends on the line that will emerge at some point during the storm; those who live above that line will have mostly snow and a lot of it, those who live below will have snow turning to sleet and/or ice. Most forecasts for our area are predicting 8 – 12 inches. However, it seems to be a very fluid situation, so we’ll see.

In the end, we have no choice, do we?

But we’re starting our day with french toast over at Rick and Doug’s. We haven’t seen them for a while; they were traveling and then Rick had some minor surgery, and we were busy, as well. We’re overdue.

My package from John Sandoe Books came yesterday. I’ve been waiting and waiting. When Don came up the drive with a stack of mail and I saw a brown envelope, I shouted out to him “Where’s the brown package from??” He looked down, started to read the label out loud, “John Sandoe…” and he looked up at me and grinned.

I can’t show you all of the package because I don’t want my address revealed, but it looked just like the packages I saw stacked in a corner when we visited the shop in October. I’ll show you bits:

I oh so carefully opened the envelope (I’m saving it, of course) and gently pulled out the inner package.

It was wrapped in this paper.

Oh my! If you know me by now, you know I’m going to frame it.

Again, ever so gently, I removed the paper, doing my best to keep it intact.

And here’s the book:

It was just like I imagined it might be, when I took a picture of that stack of packages waiting to be mailed to customers throughout the British Isles, and beyond. At the time, I thought how cool it would be to live in England and have packages arrive from John Sandoe Books. It wasn’t until I got home and read their IG post on this particular book that I realized I could treat myself to that same pleasure.

I wrote a post about it on IG – you may have seen it – and I spoke of the same things I’ve written about here, as well as a level of customer service that we hardly see anymore. Personal, kind notes via email, a carefully wrapped package, knowledge shared freely and earnestly – I felt as if I had made some new friends across the pond.

Imagine my delight when I saw this note from John Sandoe in response:

See what I mean? Not only a thank you, but a recommendation as well!

Can I move to London simply for the pleasure of visiting John Sandoe Books whenever I want to?

I’m sort of not kidding.

London or Paris. Maybe London with the wonderful option of visiting Paris whenever I want to. That would be heaven for me. I love where I live, but if I had the opportunity to move there, I just might do it.

Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

Okay. Have to get a move on. If you don’t hear from me on Sunday or Monday, we’ve lost power. Fingers crossed that won’t happen.

Happy Saturday.

From Across the Pond

January 6, 2019 at 10:41 am by Claudia

You know how much I love this bookshop, which is truly my favorite bookshop ever. It’s the stuff of my dreams, my dream being living in the same city as this treasure, better yet, the same neighborhood, where I could stop in two or three times a week and peruse the shelves and talk to the incredibly knowledgeable staff and buy wonderful books.

I follow the shop on Instagram and the other day, they posted about a book they had been recommending to their regulars. Here’s the post:

“A recent favorite of ours has been ‘Something of His Art: Walking to Lübeck with J. S. Bach’ by Horatio Clare. Joyful, intelligent and articulate, Clare has a clear eye for both near and far. He has a most wonderful knack of looking at a woodland track on a high ridge, with its owls and goldcrests, or at the margins of a light industrial landscape, and then conjuring its early C18th century ghost to walk peacefully before the mind’s eye. In beautiful, rhythmic, resonant sentences he describes walking along the route that was taken by Johann Sebastian Bach, who, as a young man, walked one autumn 300 miles north from Arnstadt to Lübeck to visit the aging organist and composer Buxtehude. Clare also did a short series about this last year for BBC Radio 3. This is another beautifully produced book from Litte Toller Books in Dorset, with a collage by Ed Kluz for the jacket. We absolutely love this book and have been having huge fun selling it to unsuspecting customers these last weeks. One came back a week later in a state of ecstatic intoxication to take everything we have by Horatio Clare – about a half a dozen…”

I ask you, dear readers, how could I resist? It sounds absolutely wonderful. “Ecstatic intoxication!”

I decided that I would order a copy from John Sandoe Books. When I was there, I saw a stack of packages wrapped in brown paper, with their distinctive mailing label, all ready to be sent out in the post – I even took a picture of the stack – and I could think of nothing more wonderful than receiving a package from them in the mail. So I emailed them, telling them of my visit in October and my love for their shop, and my interest in the book they had written about. They responded – or rather, Christopher responded – with some suggestions as to methods of paying and with an immediate “I have reserved a copy for you.” All so personal and lovely in the way that only the British can be. (And the way only an independent bookseller can be.)

I suspect it will go out at the beginning of the week. I told Don that I’m almost more excited to see the package than the book!

I’ve decided that I will do this once or twice a year; order a book that has been published in Britain and is not yet available here; something recommended by the wise and extremely well read staff.

A present to myself.

In other news, we have started to receive screener copies of movies and series that have been nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards. We watched Beautiful Boy last night. It’s a powerful movie about addiction and the toll it takes on the addict and his family. It’s beautifully done. Timothée Chalamet is extraordinary in the title role. Steve Carell is wonderful and touching in the role of his father. The whole cast is pitch perfect. I didn’t know that it is based on a true story until the end of the movie. I recommend it highly – it is riveting.

In the past week we’ve seen Roma (I can’t say enough about this brilliant movie) Bird Box, and Beautiful Boy – each of them incredible.

I’m going to run an errand or two (we need more drinking glasses after breaking two this week!) because I’ve been stuck in the house for four days and I need to get out!

Tomorrow: the piano parts return!

Happy Sunday.

Sunday Snow

A Bookish Package

From Across the Pond

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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