Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

Yet I'm blogging anyway! Here's the news in brief: We are headed to Boston tomorrow and Ryan will be running the Boston Marathon on Monday (wish him well, please, from noon to about three-fifteen on Patriot's Day). I hope to squeeze some book shopping in around the edges of marathon-related activities. So, no more blog posts until next week, probably Wednesday.

I've had a wonderfully busy few days - many customers actually buying books, imagine! In local news, my friends up the street at BookMarc's (a fine independent bookstore) are blogging, so we can keep track of what we're all reading and doing here on Central Street in Bangor. Marc's blog is here.

More local news: a nearby shop, The Book Shelf, in Ellsworth, had some water damage last week after a fire in the apartment above. I just read about it in my paper copy of The Ellsworth American, but the story doesn't seem to be available in their online version. The quote that really got me, in the paper, was this: "The scene at the bookstore, where so many rare and old books were protected and cared for over the years, was that of total literary devastation." My heart aches for the owner, Pete. When you sell books for a living, you dread fire and water. All the elements, actually. Coming into contact with your books. I can't even think about it too long, I'll get upset.

And last but certainly not least, an author I love is coming to town next week - Augusten Burroughs will be speaking at the University of Maine this coming Wednesday evening. His books certainly are edgy, even shocking in places, but boy, can he write. I loved his books Dry and Magical Thinking. Haven't read his novel, did also read Running with Scissors, but loved Dry more - it just felt like he had settled into his prose style more. I hope to attend his talk, with my hardcover first editions in tow for the book signing afterwards. I only found out about his lecture by accident - I was at BookMarc's picking up a book (I buy indiscriminately, at all nearby shops) and the woman next to me in line was waving a postcard advertisement for it, as she bought her copy of Running with Scissors. Serendipity.

That's all for now - sorry for the lack of posts this week, dear readers, I was off to a good start and had the best of intentions, but time got away from me. More next week - I've been reading some new (to me) books...