Dear Listeners,

I’ve never been one to reread a book.  It seems irresponsible.  To me, there are always so many books on my list even the THOUGHT of rereading a book is only holding me back from reading something new.

Recently I reread a book.

In the fall, I read The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I dug it.  I went to see him speak.  I blogged about it.  I gave it to more than six people for Christmas.  More recently I gave it again as a late Christmas present.  After giving it again I decided maybe it was time to figure out what it was I liked.

Reading The Marriage Plot a second time gave me a new idea of what it was actually about.  It helped me understand what was so enthralling about it the first time.  More than anything it gave me an actual grip of the novel.  I feel now that I am able to speak more about the novel and less about the way it made me feel, which I feel, as a bookseller, is important.  Rereading The Marriage Plot was so grand that I wonder whether it is important to reread every book I have ever liked.  I think it is.

Should so much time be dedicated to one book?  Have you ever reread a book?  Have you ever THOUGHT about rereading a book?  Maybe its time.

Recently I visited the new record store (and recording studio) in the Fondren district in Jackson called MorningBell.  I purchased an album on vinyl that I have a for a long while on other formats.  In honor of MorningBell, here is the first track from the album I bought, Apologies to the Queen Mary by Wolf Parade (2003).

Bicycling the Natchez Trace is in its third edition and for good reason. Even before you get on the trail you will get caught up in the engaging mini history lessons from author Glen Wanner. Wanner has been traveling all 500 miles of the Natchez Trace from Mississippi through Alabama and Tennessee, noting the Indian mounds to Civil War battlegrounds to the simplicities of small town southern life for many years.

Glen Wanner emphasizes the variety of bicycle tours available on the Natchez Trace. Cyclists can go on a several-hour tour to a several-day tour. You can load your bike up on your car and then hop off for a self-contained cycling tour.

If you do decide to go for a long tour, Wanner details every suggested tour with information on distance, terrain and accumulated elevation, historical highlights and recommendations for camping, lodging and food.

We are truly lucky in Mississippi to have one of the premier cycling roads in the country. Surely one of the best ways to follow the paths of Indian hunters, Mississippi boatmen, pioneers settlers, soldiers and even outlaws is a cycling trip on the Natchez Trace.

Here is an account of cycling on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi: http://roadslesstraveled.us/NatchezTraceMS2.html

Everything is changing in the book industry and there is much talk about the preservation of the independent bookstore. Last week Google pulled out if its e-book contract with the American Booksellers Association. Independent booksellers must again reevaluate the reality of providing e-books for their customers.

Everything is changing for our competitors as well: Borders is long gone; Barnes & Noble is giving more space to non-book merchandise; Amazon is not interested in preserving the physical book at all–Bezos has said that he has created the better reading device. (see previous blog)

April 2012 is the time for me to state my feelings about the future of Lemuria: The Real Book Store for Real Books. Our bookstore will live or die with the physical book. Lemuria is all about customer service. Our team of Real Book Sellers work hard to create the very best Book Store for Real Books that we can. Not only do we want the best Books on our bookcases, we also want to be the best for you as we go out into the community.

A lot of our readers have e-reading devices and like them. Even some of Lemuria’s Book Sellers lean this way at times. That’s fine. We want your reading to be pleasurable for you, the reader, in any way you choose. Your reading time is valuable and the degree of pleasure you reap from that experience is irreplaceable.

However, when you think about Real Books we want you to think of Lemuria. We are your Real Book Store.

We are constantly editing our Real Book inventory: first editions, signed or not, mixed in to our stacks; used out-of-print hardbacks mixed in with the best new trade paperbacks. We also emphasize the finest of new hardbacks to keep current. We emphasize depth while striving to not be too stale or predictable. Frankly, we feel a Book Store is about the Real Book. A Real Book Store’s inventory is its Soul.

My point is simple: Lemuria is not and will not be selling e-books. Our customer service skills are focused on what we do best: Real Books in a Real Store.

Bound to Read.

JX//RX

Bookstore Keys Series on Lemuria Blog

Reading One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of amazon.com (March 19) Where will e-book sales level out? (June 2) Indie Bookstores Buying from Amazon? (June 1) BEA Roundup (May 19) Lemuria’s Headed for NYC (May17) Barnes & Noble Bankrupt? (April 28) Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titanic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)

He looked back into the pail, the water still cloudy but clearing enough to see something else harbored in the bucket’s bottom. He thought it might be his own reflection. Then the water cleared more and what lay in the bucket assumed a round and pale solidity, except for the holes where the eyes had been.

When I first read the above line from the prologue of Ron Rash’s new novel The Cove I immediately had to read it again. Wait a minute, there is a skull in a bucket at the bottom of a well? Did I read that right? Then I had to re-read the whole prologue. It was almost like that line in Deliverance where the arrow seems to appear in the man’s chest. (It turns out Lewis has shot the man from a great distance, and from the back, so the arrow suddenly thrusts out of the man’s chest.) The parallels between Rash and Dickey don’t stop there. One of my personal favorite elements of Rash’s fiction is the language, and as a native of East Tennessee I can tell you that he gets it right, for example:

After Hank left, Laurel washed the cups and dishes and flatware, filled the gray berlin kettle with pole beans and set it on the stove to simmer. She went to the sink, sifted soda powder on her toothbrush and brushed her teeth before she tied her hair back with a crimped hairpin.

As my mother-in-law says, “good country people”.

Ron is a great friend of Lemuria and does a great reading. Hopefully he’ll read from his most recent poetry collection as well.

Join us on Wednesday, April 18th for a signing and reading with Ron Rash at 5:00 and 5:30.

Whether young or old, we forget things. Can’t go to the grocery because you lost your keys? Once you get there, have you forgotten what you actually needed? It can be so frustrating therefore it is important to work to keep our minds sharp. Similar to the need of physical exercise, our brain needs exercises to keep it in shape. The Memory Bible by Gary Small is a book that introduces strategies for keeping your brain young. Dr. Small is the director of the UCLA Center on Aging.  He believes we can help diminish our forgetfulness with his brain fitness program.

Simple everyday basic memory skills that you should familiarize yourself with are: look, snap and connect.  Studies show that our memory system works best when the new information we learn or observe has meaning to us. Look. You must observe what you want to learn. One of the most common barriers is that we, as learners, do not pay attention when information is presented to us. Daily we rely on all of our senses but vision is the first skill we use when something new is placed in front of us. Be observant to your surroundings. Snap. Develop mental snapshots of what you want to remember. Creating these vivid pictures can help with your long term memory. Details help with recalling a memory. Focus on the details of each snapshot you have. Connect. Link the images together in a related chain. Start with the first image, which is associated with the second, and in that way your images will become connected. Remember the first image must associate with something that will help you remember the chain.

This book , on such an important subject, has an incredible bout of knowledge. Dr. Small provides a list of foods that have been proven to be memory protective.  With the help of this list, you could go on a “brain diet”.  Also included in this book are numerous mental aerobic exercises. There is a workbook section with a weekly and daily calender so that you can start the routine of exercising your brain. It is the most important part of your body.  Treat it with care.  -Quinn