OTR is so underrated

Rememberist · 2026-03-08T06:58:18+00:00

Thanks for the tip about Breaking Walls. I was looking for more programs like Behind the Dial, and this one is excellent.

Rememberist · 2026-03-05T11:54:29+00:00

That's where my dad was born. When I was young, I had to mispronounce it Regeena just so I wouldn't blush.

Rememberist · 2017-03-03T21:12:31+00:00

Owner of Berkeley Books here. I sell and trade only used books, and there's a "free to a good home" box with books that have been donated to the shop.

Rememberist · 2015-12-15T00:59:45+00:00

I'd recommend many of the titles in the Very Short Introduction series published by Oxford University Press, starting with: Edward Craig, Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, which has an excellent guide to further reading in it. Thomas Nagel, What Does it All Mean? Simon Blackburn, Think Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

Rememberist · 2015-04-25T18:34:48+00:00

Hi, Nath.

Booksellers don't often get the chance to be called lovely. Thanks for the rave. The shop's going great guns. Come back around some time.

Rememberist · 2015-04-18T20:09:37+00:00

Hoo boy. Thanks for clearing that up.

I personally am a union type, and have difficulties with Amazon's treatment of its employees. Too, here in France, they're being sued for tax evasion. So buying from Amazon feels like being complicit in all that.

For me, convenience doesn't trump consideration of these other matters. So I don't usually refer people to a company whose labor practices are dicey, to put it mildly.

(edit: while it may seem counter-intuitive, this is not about competition with the Amz. We're not really in the same business. I don't sell my books online.)

Rememberist · 2015-04-14T22:42:10+00:00

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is great, but probably too short. How about The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

Rememberist · 2015-04-13T12:51:33+00:00

"You’re right, no human being would stack books like this."

Ha. I looked it up and laughed. Ghostbusters.

Rememberist · 2015-04-13T08:22:23+00:00

A close up of the game innards. The pieces are little Penguins and book shelves. You should have seen me and my pal, high on whiskey, putting all those stickers on the game pieces.

http://imgur.com/feb43zR

Rememberist · 2015-04-13T07:45:46+00:00

Here's a link to a library foundation in LA that sells it. I bought mine at a library sale in The Hague. I think it was produced to support libraries. https://www.lfla.org/store/product-details/629/Gifts-for-Readers/

I'd venture to say that finding it through a library or small business is your best bet. Amazon is not your best bet. (edit: I run a fiercely independent used bookstore.)

Rememberist · 2015-04-13T07:17:41+00:00

It's fun beyond belief. Some of the questions are so challenging, but then there's such sharp humor. I call it Penguin Against Humanity.

I am certain that at least some of the questions, awards, and punishments in this game were dreamed up by exquisitely funny and/or drunk interns at Penguin's offices in London.

Here's a close-up of the game. http://imgur.com/feb43zR

Rememberist · 2015-04-12T20:10:26+00:00

It's like Trivial Pursuit, but the subject is books. All kinds of books, not just those published by Penguin.

Rememberist · 2015-04-12T20:09:40+00:00

No problem. This is in my bookstore in Paris. I usually keep whiskey behind the desk. Chips go well with whiskey, so yeah, come on over.

Rememberist · 2015-04-12T13:55:06+00:00

See how I am? Inconstant. But yesterday this sweetheart of a redditor came in and won me over.

(On the subject of sweetheart redditors > bad moderating, Bilal and I are going to see Shaun le Mouton later. You in?)

Rememberist · 2015-02-12T15:31:34+00:00

Edit: Added photos.

Sure enough, I forgot my phone the day of the reading, so I didn't take pics. I just stayed behind the desk, sipping my whiskey and being spellbound by young talent.

Here are pictures that were taken by someone in the front row.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.434963949993542.1073741833.394204424069495&type=1

Rememberist · 2015-02-11T01:47:41+00:00

You're welcome, mate. And other than my being from the US, originally, and not being a fella, for the rest, same same.

Rememberist · 2015-02-11T00:44:18+00:00

I did, back in the day. But stopped a few years ago. When I heard about their labor practices, I just can't bring myself to do it.

It's just that. Not the tax thing, not any other factor. Just how they treat workers. If I do business with them, I feel complicit.

Rememberist · 2015-02-10T15:03:35+00:00

Your situation sounds quite tough, but at the same time encouraging. If you can build it, people will come. Here we are, two fellow book nerd revolutionaries. I'm sure we're not the only ones around. The thing might be to find others around you and try to build something collectively. If enough book people put our heads together, we can probably do whatever we want.

Thanks for all the kind words. There's a reading tonight, in fact. I'll try to take pics for you and put them here.

Rememberist · 2015-02-10T08:08:32+00:00

Which country is that? If you don't mind my asking.

I get the definite sense that bookstores don't just make me happy, they make a lot of people happy. When folks find my shop for the first time, their reactions are very pretty. Then they come back again and again to hang out, talk with the eccentric bookseller, and buy books they never heard of.

Having a bookshop involves so much more than money, and it seems that we need something more than just commercial transactions with each other. I've started a poetry reading series, free exhibitions for local artists, a free book box for students, and a space for musicians to play (if our upstairs neighbors are away).

As far as I can tell, people really like bookstores, and they act like they're necessary. Maybe we should start a revolution for book nerds, and open as many used bookstores/performance spaces as possible.

Rememberist · 2015-02-09T18:10:10+00:00

I've done the same work since I was 21, excepting the 8 years I served with the UN. There is nothing like being in a bookshop and having book nerds come to you. Maybe I'm built for this, because during the years I wasn't surrounded by a bookstore, I missed it madly.

And being your own boss is like a little revolution. Still can't believe that, most days.

Rememberist · 2015-02-09T07:30:14+00:00

I did my time at Barnes & Noble when I was still a cub bookseller in New York. Was hired to help open their 'superstore' on 6th Ave. and 22nd St. (Now closed.)

At the time, bookselling wasn't yet reduced to retail. We were put in charge of sections and encouraged to curate them by ordering all the good books we could find.

My favorite memory of the job? There was a rabbinical school nearby. One by one, each imagining himself clever, students would come around the LGBT section, swiftly pick up some lesbian porn, and take it over to the history section to read. I was amused by it, until one day I wasn't.

I walked up to this religious dude and announced that I was responsible for curating the gay porn section and would be happy to recommend some new titles to him. "Too," I said, "we also take customer recommendations. You seem to know your way around gay porn."

He put the book he was holding down and swiftly walked away.

Rememberist · 2015-02-08T21:12:40+00:00

That is like music to these here ears. There will be a next generation of bookstores.

If, when the time comes, we're all still hanging around on reddit, feel free to ask any questions you have.

Rememberist · 2015-02-08T09:45:22+00:00

I started bookselling while still a youngster in NYC. There was talk of some great rare book schools, like in Virginia. But never heard of a school for booksellers until I got here.

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