This blog entry is for the person who knows pretty much nothing about Chuck Palahniuk. For the people who read Chuck Palahniuk, for the people who are on the edge of their seat waiting for his latest book, they seem to be pretty tight-lipped about what they’re reading. Maybe you’re like me: You know the movie Fight Club. Well, that was based on Chuck’s book of the same name.

I am writing this blog to share some of my observations as I delve into the world of Chuck Palahniuk. If you’re still curious at the end of this blog, I urge you to spend some time on Chuck’s official fan page right here.

Chuck grew up in Washington, and after the age of 14 when his parents divorced, he spent a good deal of time on his maternal grandparents cattle ranch. His paternal grandparents he never knew but Joshua Chaplinsky explains in a bio written for The Official Chuck Palahniuk Web Page that they certainly left an impression:

The surname, Palahniuk, which is Ukrainian in origin, can be spelled and pronounced numerous different ways. According to Chuck, his paternal grandparents decided to pronounce it as a combination of their first names, Paula and Nick. But Chuck never knew his father’s parents.

As recounted in an interview with The Independent, his grandfather shot and killed his grandmother after an argument over the cost of a sewing machine. Chuck’s father, who was three at the time, watched from under a bed as Nick Palahniuk searched the house for additional victims, before turning the gun on himself.

In the article, Chuck is quoted as saying, “My grandfather was hit over the head by a crane boom in Seattle. Some of the family claimed he was never a violent, crazy person before that. Some say he was. It depends who you believe.” The tragic event is depicted on the U.S. cover of Stranger Than Fiction.

I am reading the true stories collected in Stranger Than Fiction right now. I decided to delve into this before I started reading his fiction. I wanted to know what inspired his fiction.

Some of the essays are the stories of true-life encounters with subcultures: a testicle festival in Montana, the strange world of Marilyn Manson, men building their own full-size castles and rocket ships they hope will send them into space.  These and others seem to inspire the content of Chuck’s fiction. He reminds me of my favorite sociology teacher, reporting to us what people on the fringes were doing–not judging, just reporting.

One particular essay, “Dear Mr. Levin,” seems to explain the reason behind the content. You may remember The Stepford Wives. Well, that was written by Ira Levin. Chuck explains why he believes Mr. Levin has been so successful in fan letter form:

Your books, they’re not so much horror stories as cautionary fables. You write a smart, updated version of the kind of folksy legends that cultures have always used–like nursery rhymes and stain-glassed windows–to teach some basic ideas to people.

Your books, including Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, and Sliver, take some of the thorniest issues in our culture and charm us into facing the problem. As recreation. You turn this kind of therapy into fun. On our lunch breaks, waiting for the bus, lying in bed, you have us face these Big Issues, and fighting them.

I am about three chapters into an advanced copy of Damned. Already I am wondering what issues Chuck presents in the character of Maddy, a thirteen-year-old chubby girl who finds herself in Hell and says she died of an overdose of marijuana and suffers from extremely low self-esteem. How does she describe what it’s like to be dead? Maddy says if you’re good at watching television or surfing the Internet you’ll be good at being dead.

Our bookstore friend, Neil White commented about his introduction to Chuck from Barry Hannah:

“I’m a big fan, too. First discovered Chuck while playing tennis with Barry Hannah in the mid-90s. After a game, Barry held up an ARC of Fight Club. ‘I get five of these things a week,’ Barry said, ‘I rarely get past the first page.’  Then he handed me the book and said, ‘this one’s different.'”

“High praise from a guy who also recognized the real deals.”

Obviously, there is much more to Chuck. Check him out for yourself.

To get the details on Chuck Palahniuk’s visit to Jackson on October 20th, click here.

cpcp

Ya’ll may wonder how all of this Damned stuff came about. For those who care, I will try to tell a story.

Chuck Palahniuk Tell-All Event at The Great Hall at Cooper Union, NY

Around 15 years ago, my old, often referenced book-selling pal, Tom, who was then selling books in Eugene, Oregon, contacted me about Chuck Palahniuk. With excitement he said, “This guy Palahniuk is the real deal, he gets it and it’s on edge. Furthermore, he’s a nice guy, even a great guy.” Tom and I have shared wisdoms about books and writers for so long and so honestly that I heard him ring the bell to pause and listen.

Around five years ago, my almost adopted, loved-one, Zita, of whom I am so very fond of, started selling books at Lemuria. Her youthful rebel self was an avid Chuck fan and has always cringed with glee as his new titles landed at Lemuria. There is something about youthful bookselling vigor for an author that’s real and tangible, that always catches an old bookseller’s notice. While Zita learned bookseller skills and developed our First Editions Club, she always got bubbly when Chuck’s books came up in conversation. And proudly to bring all this together, we have selected Damned as one of our First Editions Club picks.

So needless to say, last Spring when we learned that Chuck’s Damned book tour was coming to Jackson, causing Zita’s feet to leap six feet off the floor, things got damned exciting around here.

A short time later in New York City, I found myself at a Random House cocktail party where Chuck was an honoree. In the back shadows visiting with others was Chuck, so I approached to thank him for coming to Lemuria. But even more importantly, I wanted to share Zita’s young bookseller love and admiration for his books, and he agreed to graciously inscribe a Damned book for her.

While signing Zita’s book, Chuck hit me with a “Fight Club” punch question:

“When I come to Lemuria, what can’t I do?”

Never having been asked such a thing before, I paused and thought for a moment.

My answer: “I don’t care, whatever you want to do. I’m cool with it all. It sounds like fun.”

Chuck said, “Really?” with a direct gaze.

I said, “Yeah, I own the joint, anything goes.”

On the trip home and the next while, I concluded: Well, if he can do anything, why can’t I? My desires began kickin’, and along with my co-conspirators, we agreed to wake up Jackson in “Chuck” style all the way.

“Hell Cat” concoctions are being brewed. Art is being conceived. Food is stewing to fire you up. Musicians are honing their chops and “bingos” are already being shouted. Pre-Halloween costumes of Chuck’s fantasies (or yours) are being planned to welcome Chuck to Jackson. Hal & Mal’s get ready cause here we come!

We don’t know what’s all comin’ down, but you have three months to get ready. “Katie bar the door!” unless you wanna get loose. Join us because we are proud to bring Zita’s cool guy to Jackson to rock Hal & Mal’s on October 20th, a very special Lemuria day.

Our first blog all about Chuck’s Damned Book Night, October 20th

Zita’s t-shirt blog: Get the shirt for the event!

cpcp

I never thought we could possible sell more copies of The Help but just when the movie was about to premier in Mississippi, the fever for The Help caught again. And then I found myself on the phone with my mom, my granny and my aunt, all of whom I had given a copy of The Help when it first came out. They had just been to see The Help together in Texas. So it brought back the experience we all had of reading the book at the same time.

And today I am reading a professional book industry publication and I see this headline: “The Help Boosts Mississippi Tourism.” Well, I guess I should have known this was coming: Jackson offers two self-guided tours, one for Jackson and one for Belhaven. And Greenwood has seen an increase in demand for tours.

Can you believe that Bill Crump, chairman of the the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Industrial Foundation, projects that The Help tourism should generate $13 million in revenue for the state? When Lemurians first began reading The Help before its release, we read with great discussion but I do not think any of us imagined the fever that would spread world-wide, selling well over 2 million copies and with translation into more than 40 languages.

Read the full article from Shelf  Awareness below. (Shelf Awareness is a publication for book industry professionals and everyday book lovers. Click here to read their entire daily newsletter.)

The movie based on Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel, The Help, has been in theaters less than two weeks, but “tourism agencies in Greenwood and Jackson have rolled out self-guided driving tours targeting book and movie fans,” the Clarion-Ledger reported.

Marika Cackett, a spokeswoman for Jackson’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city currently offers a pair of self-guided tours–The Help in Belhaven Neighborhood Driving Tour and The Help in Jackson Driving Tour.

“People read the book, see the movie, then Google Jackson, Mississippi,” Cackett said. “It’s cool to say we’ve been in a motion picture, and the residual effects from this could be a very good thing.”

Most of the film was shot in Greenwood, where CVB executive director Paige Hunt noted that tour requests from groups and individuals have risen dramatically.

“We plan to have the tour indefinitely,” she said, citing the Steel Magnolias tour in Natchitoches, La., as the reason her group began planning for this in May 2010, after learning The Help would be shot locally. “Steel Magnolias was released in 1989, and the tours are still around.”

Hunt added that she had recently received a call “from a lady in Louisiana who is coming here with some girlfriends for a weekend getaway. They’re not just doing The Help tour. They’re taking a class at Viking Cooking School and exploring what Greenwood has to offer. The movie has brought a lot of excitement to our community.” Greenwood is also home of the elegant TurnRow Book Co. bookstore, which opened in 2006 (Shelf Awareness, October 3, 2006).

Bill Crump, chairman of the the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Industrial Foundation, told the Clarion-Ledger he estimates that the direct economic contribution to the area will be $13 million.

Being a first time blogger, I have to admit that I am a little on the nervous side. Did I ever believe I would be posting my thoughts out there in the blogosphere for all of the world wide web to see? Definitely not.

Aside from feeling nervous, I am also genuinely excited to be a new member of the staff at Lemuria. Having worked at Square Books in Oxford, MS, throughout college, I am an avid lover of books and am so pumped to be back in the world of book selling. For the past week, my first blog post has constantly been on the back of my mind, and I was having trouble deciding what exactly to write about.

On Sunday, I received an email from my dad with a link to the following article from pcmag.com about Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos and his pending patent that was just made public. Basically, Jeff Bezos is trying to patent this fancy new airbag thingy for portable devices. No, “fancy new airbag thingy” is not the technology’s official name, but close enough.

Jeff Bezos really is trying to place an airbag into your smart phone, e-reader, laptop, etc. I have to admit, that does sound pretty cool. Who doesn’t wish that you could reverse the damage inflicted upon your poor smart devices after imbibing one too many alcoholic beverages? Or, perhaps, just from one’s own clumsy tendencies?

However, after reading the article, I had a moment of clarity. While my smart phone may benefit from an airbag “thingy,” my beloved books – actual books with spines and pages that you turn by hand – don’t need a silly airbag. You drop a book and you don’t lose all of your contacts or crack a screen, you simply pick it up (maybe check the spine for damage) and resume reading! I found a lot of comfort in this realization and have set aside my qualms over the e-reader vs. book debate for now, knowing that as technology moves forward I can still enjoy holding a physical book in my hand – even if it has fallen on the floor a few times…

by Anna

by Kelly Pickerill

I don’t really ever work in Oz but Kaycie’s blogs about children’s books have me reminiscing about the books I loved as a child.

When I was little my dad took me to the library every weekend, and he remembers “graduating” me from picture to chapter books with The Mystery of the Green Cat by Phyllis Whitney, a book he read as a child.

I think I must have liked it; I don’t really remember the story or anything, but I was at least convinced that I was ready for more meaty reading fare because I went back to that section to find another chapter book. I picked Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, and loved that so much that I think I must have checked it out several more times that year. I remember that story well; as an adult I now own a copy and recently reread it.

One Christmas I unwrapped boxed sets of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries and plowed through them, thrilled that they belonged to me and could be read again and again. My dad continues to be an avid mystery reader, and because of his influence I enjoy them as well. From mysteries like The Green Cat and Hardy Boys I graduated to Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson. Now, along with the rest of the world, I’ve been on the Swedish mystery kick, enjoying Larsson’s Girl books and, most recently, The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler.

But I really love to read all genres of fiction, a preference which I believe is directly related to the variety of books I devoured as a child. From the word play of The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, I grew up to love books like Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn and Adverbs by Daniel Handler.

Being immersed in the fantasy worlds of The Neverending Story, The Hobbit, and The Chronicles of Narnia drew me to Neil Gaiman, and I think even my adoration for surrealist novelists like Haruki Murakami and David Mitchell comes from this influence.

When I was young I read Little Women and The Secret Garden, more “straight” novels, and as an adult I love the novels of authors like John Irving and Jeffrey Eugenides.

As a youngster the library’s amount of books was overwhelming. I know ours was a rather small library in a rather small town but to me it looked like this:

The first time I set foot in Lemuria I thought the same thing; we do have an incredible amount of titles, considering our space. I’ve overheard kids tell their moms as they walk through Oz, which is really the smallest space in the store, that there are more books there than they’ve seen anywhere. “Books and books and books and books,” one little girl happily sang. It’s really a store unto itself, where readers of any age can find something to nurture their love of books.

I have a confession…blogging gives me the vapors.  Unlike most booksellers, I did not major in English and I have no aspirations to be a writer.  All I want is to read, read, sell, and read!  When Lemuria started this blog thing I was not happy, but I have slowly come around and my vapors have decreased (only slightly). It is actually kinda fun especially when people comment and a little conversation starts because one thing I am good at is talking.  So I talk through my fingers, so to speak.  I know that many of you who read the blog also are fans of our Facebook page.  I really like that because I can just throw out a sentence or question or two and see what happens.  Now we are on Twitter!!! The bookstore and some of us individually.  I mean Lemuria has come along way since I started here 11 years ago…I remember when we started using the interoffice email and we thought we had hit the big time!

The reason I’m going on and on is because I want to let you know about something that we have started on the weekends!!  Every Friday on Facebook and Twitter we want you to tell us what you are reading over the weekend!!  It’s called Mississippi Reads Weekend!!!  How fun is that!!  You don’t have to be living in Mississippi to join in just some how connected.  A MS Expat? Whatcha reading? Reading a Mississippi Author? Let us know? If you spent the summer with your grandparents running barefoot through the Delta…we want to know if you are reading fiction or nonfiction!!!

This is how you can join in on Mississippi Reads Weekend…

Facebook…

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/LemuriaBookstore

Twitter…

http://twitter.com/#!/lemuriabooks

When you post on twitter make sure that you mention @lemuriabooks and use the #msreadswkend!

If you want to follow me on Twitter I am @Maggie4Lemuria.  I usually only post about the bookstore but occasionally something else slips in.  I just can’t help myself!

By the way, My Mississippi Reads Weekend selection is….The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller.  I started it last night and am ready to get home and get back to it.  It is a debut novel that takes place in London, 1920 after the Great War.  Laurence Bartram has survived the war but do to a family tragedy his ‘home’ is not the same and he has basically withdrawn from the world.  Then one day he receives a letter from Mary Emmett, the sister of a classmate and she wants him to help her understand her brother’s death.  John Emmett returned home from the war but kills himself while in a veterans hospital.  Mary convinces (or charms) him into helping her and Laurence enlists help from his friend, Charles.  While putting together the missing pieces of John’s life more veterans turn up dead and Laurence must ask questions and get answers that force him to relive is own experiences that he is trying to forget.

Dear Listener,

My original plan for this blog was to continue the discussion I was having with myself about Cloud Atlas (2004) by David Mitchell.  I’m not going to do that.  Instead I’m going to talk about the song that has rented a room in my head for the past week.  To do so, I’ll need to regress a couple months for a little backstory (aka blatant self-promotion).

If you read my first blog, you’d know that I had seen the closing of Be-Bop as an employee.  On the last day of Jackson’s beloved (not beloved enough) lost record store, I was attending the second amazing record swap known as 4TheRecord.  Special for the event, Cody Cox and I put together a cd featuring fourteen songs that we ript from vinyl and called it Issue #2.  The first track that appears on this mix is by The Walkmen (signed to Oxford’s own Fat Possum records, y’all!) called Angela Surf City from their sixth full-length record Lisbon (2010).

More recently I’ve been trying very anxiously to finish The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I don’t know if it’s common with all booksellers, but I’ve had a fair amount of difficulty not leaving work with a new book.  That being the case, I became less and less interested in Mr. Fitzgerald’s work and more interested in the shiny new books. With respect towards the Lost Generation, I ceased reading altogether for a handful of days.  Until I decided it was time once and for all to finish what I had started.  The first problem that I faced was the center of the book: the spoils that the rich in love had left me with were quickly spoiling.  On top of that, I was losing focus on the words and focusing on the aforementioned song by The Walkmen.

That’s when everything started to come together.  The song itself is bouncy and upbeat with a side of surf rock.  But the lyrics are telling a different story about hate and love.  Very much mirroring the story that I am attempting to read about our friends Anthony and Gloria in The Beautiful and Damned.  So I kept listening.  The tone of The Walkmen’s song isn’t necessarily positive, but who really wants pure positivity?  Isn’t a little bitterness and cynicism good for the wit muscles every now and then?  Either way I saw a dramatic improvement in my overall demeanor in five short minutes just by mixing my medias. (hint hint) And more accurately, I was really able to hand myself over to Mr. Fitzgerald once again.

by Simon

About three years after I opened and moved Lemuria to Highland Village, a large strange man came to check out my collection of books for sale.

My memory tells me he wore a navy blue suit, he walked around a bit, scoped the layout of my store, and then parked his assertive self in front of the Nobel Prize winners bookcase.

He looked at the desk where Tom, Val and myself were learning the book business and blared out to all ears: “I guess you guys like Hemingway.” We said, “Yeah!” and from there my enduring friendship with J.C. Simmons grew. Soon his buddy, another Papa crony, showed up to check out the joint, and that was when I met Ed.

Over my lifetime of bookselling, I’ve had the good fortune to meet many wonderful bibliophiles (Good Doc “T” Rest in Peace) but none have embarked on a journey like my ole pal Ed Grissom. After a lifetime of learning all about Ernest Hemingway, Ed launched into the ultimate “Papa” project of which this extraordinary book is the result.

I encourage all Hemingway fans, on any level, to stop over this Thursday at 5:00 to visit with and talk to Ed about his fascinating journey of bookselling and the oddities he encountered. I’m told some of the “rarest of the rare” Hemingway books will be shown and explained.

Remarkably, Ed’s passion came to fruition. It’s not everyday that in pursuit of your wildest dreams that there actually awaits that cup of gold. And for Ed his cup is filled with the publication of this ambitious project. I praise my pal for never giving up on his passion.

All who share the love of this author’s great work, please join us in celebration of Papa’s literature. Not only will Ed share some his “rarest of the rare” at Lemuria, but our old bookstore crony, J.C., will be hanging around again just like the old days.

Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography by C. Edgar Grissom (Oak Knoll Press, 2011)

Did you know that we’re having a double author event today? Yesterday, I shared a portion of an interview with Ann Napolitano on her new book A Good Hard Look. You can read that post here.

John Milliken Thompson will also be here today. Based on an 1885 true crime story in Virginia, The Reservoir considers the tough questions surrounding an apparent suicide of a young pregnant girl. Questions abound about the young girl’s affair with her cousin and her relationship to his brother. How do we know what is really in the hearts of others?

While Ann’s tour has already kicked off in Alabama this week and ends up in New York in August, John Milliken Thompson’s tour has also taken its own path. From independent to independent bookstore, he reflects on his book tour experiences across the country.

(See you tonight at 5.00 for two great books!)

My debut novel, The Reservoir, a historical mystery, came out three weeks ago, and so far I’ve presented it in seven independent bookstores, with another eight lined up for the weeks ahead. All of these events have been very positive experiences, with friendly staffs and enthusiastic audiences. By offering readings in which new authors such as myself can bring out their work, the indies are helping keep the book industry alive and thriving. Can you imagine if there were no bars and cafes for new bands to debut their sound and gain local followings, if all music was expected to make a sudden leap to coliseums and concert halls? Imagine the lack of variety if artists had no local galleries to show their work.

As a patron of indie bookstores, I’m also grateful for the kind of hands-on attention that can’t be duplicated on a large scale. For just one example, I’ll mention Kelly Justice, proprietor of Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, where my novel was launched. She can recommend Virginia writer Belle Boggs, render an opinion on the latest translation of War and Peace, and share funny stories on a famous children’s writer—all in the course of a conversation.

Locally owned stores are each one by definition unique—walk into Malaprop’s and you’re in a young, funky, wood-and-coffee-smelling shop that could only be in Asheville, while if you wander through the plush, spacious rooms of McIntyre’s Fine Books you know you’re at Fearrington Village. In each case, there’s an attention to detail suitable for the local clientele.

Sure, I’ve bought merchandise in big box stores, but I’ve always felt vaguely depressed by their overwhelming stock and their bland familiarity, masking the hubris and greed of one entrepreneur or a small group of investors. I somehow feel cheapened knowing that every cheap item sold by every clock-punching wage earner exists solely to make one madly competitive, early-retirement-fixated person rich.

So let’s hear it for old-fashioned, honest commerce, in which a seller has a product he or she knows and cares about and is fully invested in. Let’s hear it for indies.

-John Milliken Thompson