Category archives: literature

 

 

Generation X is still relevant

Douglas Coupland has been one of my favourite writers for the entirety of my “adult” life. I can safely say that I like all his books and I’ve re-read most of them. Until last year Generation X, his most popular work, was perhaps my least favourite one. Thankfully, I re-read it when I was writing my thesis and I a-d-o-r-e-d it. It was one of those rare occassions when you prefer a book the second time round. I don’t blame this on the book itself, but on me. The first time I read it I was 18 or 19, I’d never had a job and I lived a sheltered life with very few worries, I just didn’t get it. Fast forward nearly 10 years and I find it all terribly relevant. If you haven’t read this I honestly have no idea what you’re waiting for. Buy it on amazon.

generation x quote

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

generation x quote

generation x quote

 

Literary nuns

I’m still not sure whether this bookshop belongs in the Amazing Bookshops Around the World series, but it certainly is remarkable. When Clemens and I were walking around some backstreets in Bologna looking for a place to eat (after we were refused in a place where we wanted to eat merely because Blink182 had once eaten there), a shop window caught my eye, it was full of books related to the Pope. I went to (and work in a) Catholic school, but Catholicism is not my thing at all and it makes me feel sort of uneasy. So there I was, staring at the Pope wondering whether Italian people are nuts when I looked into the shop and saw the till. A nun. A nun at the till. A nun working. Did you hear me? A NUN!!! I thought everything nuns ever did was run around from one church to another and teach little children. It appears I was wrong. I must say that not every book in the place was religious, but I didn’t dare to go in. A nun smiled at me when I took a photo. Maybe she thought I’m hot for Jesus.

 

 

 

Amazing Bookshops Around the World: 57th Street Books (Chicago)

57th Street Books (Chicago)

1301 E. 57th St. // Chicago, IL 60637
773.684.1300 // fiftysev@semcoop.com
Hours: 10-8 daily
website // twitter // tumblr //

 57th Street Books is located in the Southside Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park. I’m from the north side, but my family always loves to make a trip to this neighborhood for great food, views of the lake and city, and the bookstore. I took my boyfriend out for a similar outing just a few weeks ago and he loved the bookstore too. He even got a book without me forcing him.

57th street books

This bookstore is made up of 4 or 5 small rooms that require some weaving in and out of bookshelves to find. The bookshelves and walls are all made of wood and it’s very cozy, surely a little too cozy at times. In every section, there is a selection of books on display. They look new and inviting with bright and artistic cover sleeves (which always entices me, despite the never-judge-by-the-cover theory), but my favorite part is they are not top ten list books. They look like they might be and actually they are a few years old. Which is great because when I decide NOT to buy the book, I can go get it from the library without 8 week hold list. They also have used books and a great collection of classics with both original and artsy fartsy covers (great if you want to decorate your apartment AND look smart). Books on display often have someone’s hand written recommendation or review alongside them as well, which is actually what convinced my not-a-big-reader boyfriend to get the book.

57th street books

Lastly, the bookstore is in a great neighborhood (as I mentioned before). Buy your book and go read it in one of the big parks or on the lakefront of the Hyde Park area (the place where Obama grew up! Oh yeah — rumor has it he loved this book store too!) under the 100 year old giant trees. Hope you make it there some day!

Words by Abby Williams

Photos by Christine

Click here to see the other bookshops in the series and to learn how to collaborate. 

 

2011: What I read

Like every year, here is the list of every book I finished last year. I didn’t make it to 50, but that’s okay, I’m pleased with my list. The ones I liked best are bolded, and two of those are re-reads. Can you guess which ones?

 

Auster, Paul – Invisible
Beecher Stowe, Harriet – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Boyne, John – The House of the Special Purpose
Capote, Truman – In Cold Blood
Chang, Jung – Wild Swans
Clarke, Jamie – Don’t You Forget About Me. Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes
Collins, Wilkie – The Woman in White
Coupland, Douglas – Generation X
Coupland, Douglas – Generation A
Cummings e. e. – Selected Poems
Dickens, Charles – A Tale of Two Cities
Doherthy, Thomas – Teenagers and Teenpics. The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s
Foster Wallace, David – A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
Garland, Alex – The Beach
Gilmour, David – The Film Club
Giordano, Paolo – The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Golden, Arthur – Memoirs of a Geisha
Gora, Susannah – You Couldn’t Ignore Me if You Tried: The Brat Pack, Their Films and Their Impact on a Generation
Gordinier, Jeff – X Saves the World
Hornby, Nick – High Fidelity
Ishiguro, Kazuo – When We Were Orphans
James, Henry – Portrait of a Lady
Johnson, Steven – Everything Bad Is Good for You
Kafka, Franz – America. The Man Who Disappeared
Karbo, Karen – How to Hepburn. Lessons on Living from Kate the Great
Kundera, Milan – The Farewell Party
Kureishi, Hanif – The Body
Mann, Thomas – The Magic Mountain
McEwan, Ian – Amsterdam
McNeil, Legs – Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Moran, Caitlin – How to Be a Woman
Morató, Cristina – Divas Rebeldes
Murakami, Haruki – 1Q84
N+1 – What Was the Hipster? A Sociological Investigation
Oates, Joyce Carol – The Gravedigger’s Daughter
Roth, Philip – American Pastoral
Severgnini, Beppe – La Bella Figura.
Shary, Timothy – Generation Multiples. The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema
Steinbeck, John – The Grapes of Wrath
Stockett, Kathryn – The Help
Thackeray, William – Vanity Fair
Tropiano, Stephen – Rebels and Chicks. A History of the Hollywood Teen Movie
Vargas Llosa, Mario – Pantaleón y las Visitadoras
Vizzini, Ned – It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Winterson, Jeanette – The Stone Gods

 

If you feel that way inclined, you can see what I read in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

 

Amazing Bookshops Around the World: East of Eden (Berlin)

 

Amazing Bookshops Around the World: Flow Organic Bookshop (Hong Kong)

 

Amazing Bookshops Around the World: Joot Books (Amsterdam)

Joot Books, Just Out Of Time (Amsterdam)

Hartenstraat 15 1016 BZ
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone: +31(0)20-6881783

Joot Books (Amsterdam)

Amsterdam has a lot of nice bookshops. I was slightly overwhelmed and couldn’t stop hyperventilating and fantasising about how big this section was going to be after my trip. Joot Books was one of the most interesting bookshops I’ve come across in a long time. Located in an area known as “De 9 Straatjes” (the nine streets), famous for its small independent shops and cafés, Joot Books fits in perfectly with the spirit of its location, offering something that is definitely special and sets the shop apart from the generic bookshops that can be found all over the place.

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Voltaire and Rousseau (Glasgow)

Voltaire & Rousseau

12 Otago Lane
Glasgow, Lanarkshire G12 8PB
United Kingdom
Open Mon-Sat 10am-6pm

 

Voltaire & Rousseau is everything that a great second-hand bookshop should be. Silent, dishevelled and rammed to the rafters with great books. It has been quietly sitting in Otago Lane for over 30 years, becoming a mecca for Glasgow’s students and intellectuals. It’s not a big place but every inch is chock full of something. What I love most about it is that there’s no real sense of hierarchy. It gives the impression that no book is too unfashionable, too old or too shabby. New books mingle with old. Hardbacks and paperbacks come together, pamphlets are fair game. If the spine is broken or the dust jacket’s ripped that’s fine, no one stands on ceremony here. It feels like more a tribute to the printed word than a business.

    Liked this? Try:

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: White Cat Book Co. (Saskatoon, Canada)

White Cat Book Co. (Saskatoon, Canada)

 

129-B 2nd Ave N, Saskatoon, SK S7K 2A9
Twitter: @WhiteCatBooks
The bookstore looks like nothing special to the regular onlooker, but to a lover of books, it looks like a haven. To a visitor with no love for literacy, it looks like an overwhelming messy pile. To a lover of reading, it looks like an opportunity, an escape, a fantasy, and new found relationships with characters and authors. After browsing the bookshelves, I felt like I was home, and my visit ended too quick.

    Liked this? Try:

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: The Book Exchange (Amsterdam)

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Kubrick Cafe and Bookshop (Hong Kong)

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Spui Square (Amsterdam)

 

If you ever find yourself in Amsterdam and, upon your arrival, discover that, much to your dismay, you forgot to pack a good book, your best bet for a quick literary fix is to head to Spui Square. Here you will find several places to satisfy your book hunger.
The American Book Center is a labyrinthine bookstore where you will surely find whatever it is you’re looking for. Even though slightly overwhelming and overpriced, they have an incredible variety.
If The American Book Center is too American for you there’s no need to panic, as the English chain bookstore Waterstones is pretty much in front of it. Having been inside too many Waterstones shops as it is, I didn’t even step in it, but I’m sure it’s a good choice if you’re looking for something specific, recent releases or want a wide variety to choose from.

If big book stores are not your thing and you’re more of a browsing type or you just enjoy the smell of old paper, you might find something of interest in the book marketthat takes place right in Spui Square every Friday. It won’t be easy to find the right book there, but it is a great place if you have some time to spare or an uncontrollable love for old books and prints.

Spui Book Market