We’d be stocking the store, anticipating the rush, staring at the schedule in the back room. (”Holy shit, we’re open ’till when?”)

I miss it year-round, but during the holidays, my missing the bookstore goes up to eleven. I know, I know - long hours, flustered customers, frustrating days trying to get the hot titles back in stock when the publishers run out - but I loved it. Even when I was feeling the burnout on December 23rd, I loved it. It never bothered me to work on Christmas Eve.

So, this year, with the economy being gorram scary, I thought I’d remind those of you starting to compose your gift lists to keep your local bookstores in mind.

Smarter people are way ahead of me. Two websites to check out:

Books = Gifts has some great suggestions and contests running. There are links there to several online retailers. Indie Bound will help you find your local independent bookseller. Powell’s is one of the biggest indies in the country.

And tomorrow, November 22nd, is America Unchained Day. So, if you’re thinking about getting a head start on your shopping, or you just feel like finding something good to read for yourself, why not go tomorrow and support your local independent bookstore?

Don’t know where one is in your area? Indie Bound has a search page just for you!

Need recommendations? Want to recommend something to any of the six other people reading this? Comments are open!

But, I’m also reading a ton of things that aren’t for work. Soon, I’ll take a picture of the stack of books I intend to read or finish. I think I might work a bit of a contest into it, too, but first things first - let me get the picture taken and uploaded before I start dangling swag in front of you all.

I ended up passing on NaNo this year, though November still has twelve days remaining. I might attempt some made up challenge of my own, to get things flowing. More to come on that as well.

So, who wants pie?

Stories you may be interested in based on past browsing:

My REAL life as a call girl
Check out Michelle Obama’s fashions
Three important steps to take after pink slip
Make money in your spare time
Male victims of abuse speak out

Pretty much all I click on at CNN these days is the political ticker and the technology stories, with occasional outraged forays into their idiot fluff pieces.

I have to wonder if my security settings in Firefox or the awesome that is NoScript is messing something up.

I’m also afraid that the “Make money in your spare time” and the call girl articles are one and the same.

When I got to work, a coworker had done something very sweet for me. I’d given him some audiobooks I had lying around, and he in turn brings them to various places around the area - a hospital where people undergoing dialysis can listen to them while they receive their treatments, a nursing home, a center for the blind, all good places where they’ll be appreciated. I don’t do anything. I just toss them in a box and every couple of months, he takes what I have and spirits them away.

Well, it took a few minutes of asking if anyone had seen who left a $25 Dunkin Donuts gift certificate on my keyboard before I realized he’d been by last week to take another box.

So that was awesome.

Then my boss comes out and says our department has made our goal for the year, and we still have a month to go. We missed last year. I don’t think I’ve hit my personal one since, oh, 2002, or if I have I’ve only just squeaked by. Now, (dear sweet zombie Jesus, please don’t let me jinx this) the last 8% looks potentially achievable. This time last year, I was at 72%. So, wheeee.

It was a good day, and a good evening, so yeah, I went into the electoral-vote-vigil with a feeling of dread, thinking something had to give.

Well, it didn’t. I sat there with a goofy grin on my face from 11:00 on, and that feeling has carried through. For the first time in I don’t even know how long, I haven’t felt my heart sink listening to the morning news.

We have a long way to go still, I know that. There is no Secretary of Making Shit Better, nor is there a Magical Fix-It wand shoved into a drawer in the Oval Office.

But I feel good, and I feel hopeful, and I feel like maybe this momentum can carry through and get people involved and invested in ways they haven’t been before.

The idea of taking the day off occurred to me. It’s another nice day (though they’re predicting rain later), and I just want to run around outside, arms outstretched, whooping with joy. Maybe hugging random strangers.

But that kind of behavior would probably freak out the neighbors, so, y’know. Probably a good thing I came into work instead.

Onward. Upward.

Actually, I’ve been tempted before, too, when George RR Martin did a virtual reading. (Yes, ASIOAF fans, his avatar was Tyrion Lannister.

I’ll always insist that paper-and-ink books are the best, but I love seeing the cool ways the book industry uses technology to promote new things.

And via this article on Galleycat, a link to The Haphazard Gourmet’s “Civilization is Cooked Without Books” series (which includes a recipe for a vegan chocolate mousse pie. You dirty hippies.)

Now’s a good time to take a look and see what’s going on near you. If there aren’t any readings to attend, check out your local bookstore and see what they have on display.

Via the ALA, these were the ten most challenged books of 2007:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
   Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
3. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
4. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
   Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
   Reasons: Racism
6. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
   Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
7. TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit
9. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
   Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

For an even more comprehensive selection, take a gander at the ABFFE’s Banned and Challenged Book List. If you’re between books and looking for something new to read, why not see if anything on there tickles your fancy?

Maintaining two blogs seems kind of unfeasible at the moment, while I work on writing and other things that take up my spare time (neglected guitar practicing, writing, housekeeping/fixing up, more writing…) so I’m officially putting the book blog on hiatus and will squeeze in the occasional bookish things here. Consolidation ftw.

No, I’m not abandoning the idea of opening a bookstore - there’s still more than three years to go on that goal - but while I watch what others in the industry do, and see how the changes shake out, there won’t be a lot of progress to see over there. I’ll start it back up again at a later date, but for now, my book rants will move over here. See? You can even clean up your bookmarks a bit. I’m helpful!

It seems right to kick off the blogsolidation with Banned Books Week. Lists of bannination and other interesting things still to come. In the meantime, why don’t you kids tell me which of your favorite books have been banned or challenged? Have you ever read anything simply because someone else tried to tell you (or someone you knew) that they shouldn’t?

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