McHuston Booksellers

Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: new books (Page 35 of 91)

On the Eve of that Special Day.

December 24, 2014 /

I’m sitting in the shop. It’s Christmas Eve. The fact that I’m sitting down at the computer is a sure indication that something is different. Normally, on Christmas Eve, there is colorful wrapping paper scattered across a table, tape dispenser at hand, scissors nearby, and a frenetic energy zapping through the surrounding air. News flash: My small stack of presents is already wrapped and ready.

It may be a sign of End Times.

That deadline-induced adrenaline rush has been a lifelong companion, but I have to admit it feels pretty good right now, looking over and realizing that the wrapping-thing is already finished, and the day is just getting started.

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As the season winds down, it is clear to see what a difference a year makes! The bitter winter weather last year, coming on the heels of construction delays in the Rose District, made for tough shopping. But I’m not complaining now, and tried not to then. Survived it, I did – and hung around for another go ‘round. Last year’s experience has made it especially heartwarming this month, watching all the shoppers and browsers wandering up and down the sidewalks.

And so the gifts are wrapped, carols are filling the shop, the smell of cinnamon is in the air (okay, so that part is not true…) and the Spirit of the Season has settled in. There have been inquiries about books this morning, well-wishes exchanged, and plenty of stories and smiles being shared.

I can look over at the tree by the front door and take heart that the poor thing has made it through the entire month wearing nothing but good intentions. When asked about its lack of decoration, I’ve been explaining to folks that it is a Norwegian Nude spruce. A couple of people have believed it, I think – perhaps a result of my sincerely delivered malarkey.

But this is no Blarney… I hope your day and days are the best of your life to date, filled with all the things that only this time of year can bring. Life is a gift. When others share theirs with us, it makes our own so much more grand.

Thank you for your gifts to me this year.

Merry Christmas to all!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

Lights! Camera! Action!

December 17, 2014 /

Ever get one of those compliments? I’ve heard them called “back-handed compliments” – which I suppose is drawn from those back-handed slaps that are intended as an insult.

“You’re looking pretty good for an old man.”

That sort of thing.

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It started well, and was directed at the store instead of at me. The lady came in the door with her eyes wide and wearing a look of confusion mixed with curiosity. She said her sixteen-year-old daughter and friends had urged her to stop by.

“It’s like something from a movie,” the lady explained. “They said it was like – from some other place. People sitting at tables eating. Books on shelves. Pictures and music. They said it was a place you’d see in a movie.”

The sort of thing a business person likes to hear, but then the lady added, “In a movie from my era.”

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Well.

I’m glad they thought the bookstore was interesting enough to tell someone about it, and it is flattering to hear someone describe it as being like a place “in a movie.” In fact, it isn’t the first time I’ve been told that. Until this occasion though, nobody really went on about it quite so profusely.

Once I jokingly apologized to a young woman standing with her mother at the counter. “I hope you can pardon my old-fashioned music,” I said.

“Oh, I like it,” she replied. “It reminds me of Christmas.”

That was in July. I presume that she had only heard vocalists like Tony Bennett and Perry Como singing Christmas carols. That’s when those singers usually come back into vogue, however briefly. I’ll admit that some “old-timey” stuff comes up every so often. I have eclectic tastes in music as well as books.

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As for the movie-set feel, I don’t really know what film that would have been. The only one that comes to mind immediately is You’ve Got Mail, which is a film about a small bookstore. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. There are some tables on the set, but the restaurant scene was shot at a different location.

Then there was the bookstore in Notting Hill, that Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant film. Some tables around in that one, too. But I’m not sure about eating or having a pint. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen that one.

We’ve changed up just a bit. There’s a bigger table up front now, to accommodate everyone a little more comfortably when there are more than three or four in the party. Click on the image for a better look. (Or better yet, just drop in!)

At any rate, even though the teenagers had the movie set in the mother’s era, I enjoy having the store compared to a movie set. The time-frame isn’t important. Maybe there was a book somewhere in Rick’s Café Casablanca. I’ll take it as a compliment.

So long as the movie in mind isn’t the book-burning story – Fahrenheit 451.

We’ll save a director’s chair at the table for you, so…

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

It’s your Lucky Date!

December 13, 2014 /

If you use the abbreviated form of the date in your checkbook, today is 12-13-14. That brings up a couple of questions: Do people use checkbooks these days? Will there be such things when this date arrangement comes around again?

It won’t matter much to me at that future point.

When it last lined up, the Washington Post was reporting the activities surrounding the war in Europe, a conflict the US had not yet joined. Goldenberg’s Department Store advertised “Overcoats for the Little Fellows,” for $2.49 – a price that today might cover only the buttons.

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Who knows what the world will be like when December 13, 2114 rolls around?

Today’s number arrangement is considered lucky by some. Others couldn’t care a bit. As I am more of a reader than a numbers person, the date arrangement caught my attention simply as an oddity.

It was the National Geographic number that really had me in wonder. In an article about garbage floating around in the ocean, the headline states:

5 Trillion Pieces of Ocean Trash Found, But Fewer Particles Than Expected
National Geographic-Dec 11, 2014

Actually, the number is stated in the article as 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing 269,000 tons. My question is: Who counted the pieces of trash? And furthermore, how do they know how much it weighs?

How do they know how many people were lining the street for those big parades? Is there an official “Crowd Counter?” or are they just wild guesses? Like – maybe it is only 4.25 trillion pieces of trash in the ocean, give or take. Seems to me it would be energy better spent identifying whose trash it is, and send them out to pick it up.

On American Roadshow the other evening, the appraiser was looking over an oversized book with hand-tinted illustrations, and he asked how the man had come to own it. His father had found it, he answered. The man was a New England fisherman and found a box floating in the water. When he opened the crate, the book was inside, a little damp but otherwise none the worse for wear.

Value? Thousands of dollars.

One man’s trash, another man’s treasure.

There are some treasures among the stacks here (although none retrieved from ocean-floating crates!), so…

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow, OK!

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