What I write here doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of the owners of Weller Book Works or those of my colleagues, but I know that each of us is devoted to some idea of racial justice in a country where, even since its inception, violence, exploitation, and colonial nightmares have ruled the day. If anyone in our community takes issue with what I say here, you can take it up with me personally.
If I described a world in lockdown due to a deadly virus and the majority of people unable to be tested, as well as impending economic doom and a recent earthquake to boot, you might think I’m describing a low-budget apocalypse movie starring Nicholas Cage.
But, you know as well as I do that this is real life.
Until very recently, LGBTQ+ narratives have been slyly coded in literature rather than joyously explored, particularly in children's books. Finally, our and our queer forebearers' efforts have come to fruition.
I'm so pleased to be discovering such a bulk and variety of queer books for kids, books that explore the intersectionalities and multiplicity of identity, that feature developed queer kid characters as well as queer adults, and that include not only gay but also gender-queer persons.
Last year I was motivated by assignment and delivered Eight Tips for Getting More from Reading and Books to City Weekly and the Weller Book Works Textblock. During the year, I copied these tips for several persons. They’re still good so I offer them again for 2020 without my former elaborations.
Here are eight ways to improve one’s relationships with books:
Ask the most impressive persons you know which books are most influential in their lives and read those books.
Read every day.
It is hard to believe that we are two decades into this new millennium. And I only barely became able to think of “the teens,” as the 2010s, the reference is so long associated with World War I, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Dada of the 20th century.
Happy Holidays readers. You are synthesizers of culture, voices of reason and creative vectors. Let your civility and wisdom envelope your community. We are mirrors and lenses. Human experience is vast. Position the facets of reading correctly and cast joyous prisms of light.
The History of a Family Bookstore
The culture shifts that parallel our 90-year bookselling journey are quite dramatic. Founder Gustav Weller would hardly recognize the contemporary environment of our industry. His era of bookselling occurred after the industrial/capitalist revolution permitted the growth of an educated middle class, after we discovered how to make cheaper wood-pulp paper from trees with machines and long after we automated the printing press, but before television had mesmerized and dulled our senses. Despite these luxuries, Gustav’s term was burdened by the Great Depression. Sam and Lila Weller would have different experiences.