News
December 3rd, 2009
by HUGH GILMORE
Some folks rescue dogs, some rescue cats, some folks rescue frogs, while others rescue bats. I try to rescue books (for a living), authors (when I can), and bookstores when they’re bleeding. With today’s subject — Holiday Gift Books — I hope to do all three.
Let’s start with this notion: In looking for a Holiday gift book, there is no reason on earth to chain your mind to the New York Times Notable Books of 2009 list. Nor to lists associated with the National Book Award, the Booker, or the Pulitzer Prize. Nor with any other lists of books gleaned from the Internet, newspapers, magazines or television talk shows. You haven’t read most of the books on last year’s lists yet! Nor the year before’s.
Rule No. 1: A book does not have to be current to be worth reading.
A quality book remains worth reading even if it’s out of print. When you think about it, a book is merely a conversation with another person, a chance to hear his or her story, listen to his or her thoughts, learn what life was, or is, like in a place and time you’ll never be able to visit otherwise. That story remains worth hearing even if you were absent the day it got told.
Part of the reason people like to read what’s current lies in the human need to want shared experiences. There’s great pleasure to be had whenever you’re fortunate enough to run into someone else who’s read a book you’ve read. Such conversations are to be savored, even more than our usual exchanges about who’s seen what movies? Been to such-and-such restaurant? Or caught some program that was on TV the other day?
Rule No. 2: You’ll probably be the only one you know (ever) who’s read this book.
Sadly though, with some of the books I’ll recommend next week, the odds of your ever running into someone else who’s also read it are quite slim. You’ll have to accept that you’ll probably live and die with certain unshared moments of beauty or wisdom lodged in your brain. The living part can be quite fun. I don’t know much about the other.
Rule No. 3: Out-of-Print authors need love too.
You would think that getting a book published and into the bookstores would be enough to satisfy an author’s soul forever. It’s not. Authors want to be read. But if they don’t catch the first wave of buyer interest, they’re removed from the stores to make room for whatever it is that may be the next hot book. As you know, a lot of good music never made the Top 40.
On any given night in America you may hear an unknown trio playing a neighborhood lounge whose music is as good as, or maybe even better than, the stuff getting jammed in your ears at the health club or in a trendy boutique. Just so, many worthy authors now languish in obscurity, like treasure on a sunken ship deep beneath the waves. You can give them a new life by finding them.
Rule No. 4: Love doesn’t have to mean paying retail.
My list of suggestions comes next week, but even before that: If you are a reader: Go help Walk A Crooked Mile Books (7423 Devon St. Mt. Airy — Devon and Gowen Streets — the Mt. Airy train station building of the Septa R7 line. 215-242-0854). Also delightfully seen on Youtube.com. I’m recommending them because they are financially struggling and need a large influx of customers. They will close in January if they do not have a good December.
Close.
Maybe replaced by a bank, if the area trend continues (I’m just scare-mongering here. I’ve not heard any rumors to that effect. But I’m the sort who usually gets run over by a train before the rumor of its approach has reached me.)
This bookshop is one of the last old bookshops in Philadelphia and the only one in the Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Germantown, Roxborough, Springfield, Wyndmoor, etc. area. They sell terrific old books, cheap. Cheap means they need to sell a lot of books. Help them out. Go there and be cheap. Or call them and ask them to send you 10 cheap paperback mysteries you can rewrap as Christmas presents... stocking stuffers. They take credit cards.
They are good folks who have contributed tremendously to the community by supporting the arts, especially musicians, over the years they have been in business. Their business model — selling books in a bookstore — is hopelessly outmoded. They make pterodactyls look like stealth fighters. But support them anyway so that you won’t need to tell your grandchildren about the good old days, back when you could go into a shop to browse for used books.
But wait, there’s more: Don’t go into Walk a Crooked Mile, or any other used bookstore, hoping to find a specific title. The odds are severely against you. Go in with an open mind and buy something you never knew existed, just as you do at Borders or Barnes & Noble. Or a bagful of two-dollar mysteries or paperback fiction. They have a strong children’s book section too.
If you do need or want a specific book, however, if they don’t have it, they’ll track it down for you and see that you get it before whatever holiday you’re celebrating.
There are a few other worthy stores in our area that need your support too, but acting on the principle of triage I am trying to let you know how urgent the situation is at Walk A Crooked Mile books.
On Germantown Avenue, at the bottom of the Hill, go under the bridge, up to the next light (Gowen Avenue) and make a left. Or go out Stenton to Gowen and make a right. The bookstore is a few blocks down, either way. And it’s a chance to see a Frank Furness-designed railroad station delightfully turned into a bookstore.
Customers, Neighbors Rally to Support Walk a Crooked Mile
Left, Greg Williams amid the 80,000+ plus books at Walk a Crooked Mile.
Among the neighbors helping decorate the store Sunday were Dan McDevitt ( at the base of the ladder), his son Henry McDevitt, Lisa Burns (on ladder) and an unidentified woman.
By KARL BIEMULLER
Editor
When somebody has difficulties in a close-knit neighborhood, other neighbors pitch in to help out.
What’s been happening for the last month or so at Walk a Crooked Mile Books in the R7 Mt. Airy train station is a good example of that.
When owner Greg Williams, faced with big rent bills and declining sales at his 15-year-old store, sent out an e-mail to customers and friends saying that he didn’t know if he would be able to continue in business much longer, he didn’t know what kind of response it would evoke. He soon found out.
‘I had the best Saturday in sales I’ve had in 15 years,” says Williams. His customers bought gift certificates and even chipped in with more than $300 dollars in donations. And it didn’t stop there – he’s had offers of free business consulting and a group of Devon Street neighbors came by last Sunday to pitch in and spruce up the store and decorate it for the holidays.
Perhaps what’s happened is not too surprising, though, because for many people Walk a Crooked Mile has become one of the things that makes Mt. Airy the community it is.
Williams got into the book business by accident. He was a schoolteacher and principal by profession when he attended an education conference in New Mexico. While there, he says, “A friend said, ‘Do you want to go booking?’ I was like, ‘what’s that?’ ” They went around to bookstores in search of rare and interesting books and Williams got hooked on the book trade.
He opened the store in 1994 and lived upstairs there for a few years. “I wanted it to be a community service and something the community needed, “ he says, “and it’s worked out well – it’s been all of those things.”
The wide selection of used books on his shelves account for only some of the popularity of the store. Williams began his free weekly summer concert series almost ten years ago and has hosted innumerable community yards sales and other events in that time. But as with so many other businesses in this climate, times have been tough lately for the bookstore.
“Rent’s always the bugaboo for used bookstores, and we had some two- or three-month periods that were really slow over the past year. Coffee sales, internet searching, walk-in sales - everything flattened out,” Williams says.
His top priority now is to make progress on the debt he owes to SEPTA. He’s planning a benefit concert after the holidays with some of the many bands and groups that have performed at the store over the years. The venue is yet to be decided, he says, but it will likely be in Mt. Airy.
More immediately, a First Friday celebration is planned at the store this Friday, December 4, from 5:50-9 p.m. It will be a holiday party with Devon Street neighbors to support the store, with holiday treats, hot chocolate and coffee, caroling and entertainment and children’s activities. Walk a Crooked Mile will also be open late on Fridays, December 11 and 18, as part of DecemberFest.
Williams is very grateful for the help he has received from the community. “The response has been great,” says Williams. “To get that kind of loyalty has been humbling and makes me want to make it all work out even more.”
For more information about Walk a Crooked Mile Books call 215-242-0854 or visit the website at http://graphicrafts.net/crookedmile/
JANUARY 14, 2009
A ‘Walk-a-Palooza’ of a Concert at LTSP
By KARL BIEMULLER
Editor
After what owner Greg Williams called “the best December we ever had,” the future of Walk A Crooked Mile Books at Gowen Avenue and Devon Street looks rather brighter.
The bookstore, which has become an integral part of the neighborhood over the past 15 years, had been facing possible closure in the face of financial difficulties but now, says Williams, “That month [which featured a number of special events at the store] was very encouraging, very exciting. I’m very pleased and it looks like we’re going to be able to stay.”
One of the things that has made Walk A Crooked Mile a part of the neighborhood over the years is its series of free summer concerts held on the bookstore grounds at the R7 Mt. Airy Train Station. The concerts are free and donations are accepted for the performers, but there is some expense involved in staging them, and, says Williams, “I don’t have that kind of money any more.” So what will be happening on Sunday, January 17 4-8:30 p.m. at the Brossman Center of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia is something of a “concert for concerts” event.
The concert, called “Walk-a-Palooza,” will feature ten musical groups and individuals who have performed at Walk A Crooked Mile in the past, most of them repeatedly. Williams says, “The performers came up with the idea – what can we do, can we do a concert, that sort of thing … donations will go just to support the summer concert series.”
It will break down into two parts: an hour of children’s music from 4-5 p.m., followed by the adult portion of the concert from 5-8:30 p.m.
Performing in the children’s portion in 15-minute segments will be Have Fun, Will Travel; Rhetta Morgan; Tom Gala; and Two of a Kind and the Give ‘em a Hand Band.
Performing in 20-minute segments during the adult section will be, in order: Acoustic Blender, Art Miron, Prose from Dover, Rhetta Morgan, Saint Mad, Drew Calvin, The Fretnoughts, Tom Gala, and the Rockin’ Malaakas.
All the performers are enthusiastic about the event and the concert series it will support.
The well-known children’s music duo Two of Kind is made up of David and Jenny Heitler-Klevens, who have been appearing under that name for about 20 years. They will perform as Two of a Kind during the children’s portion, then welcome two other performers – Hope Wesley Harrison and Justin Solonynka – and perform again as Acoustic Blender at the start of the adult section. David says, “The main thing is the overall event has something for everybody - a wide variety of musical styles, food from Weavers Way, a mobile book sale – it should be a lot of fun.”
Dave Beeghley, half of the singing duo Prose From Dover – his wife Barley is the other performer – has been performing in the summer concert series for years. “We love it,” he says. “That space [at the station] is like a natural amphitheater - it’s just a lot of fun. Greg’s great – we would probably keep doing it just to support him. The profit margin’s not great - whatever we earn there [in donations] we more than spend on books!”
Prose from Dover [the name comes from the 1970 movie MASH, they are actually based in King of Prussia] will perform twice – in their children’s music incarnation as Have Fun, Will Travel and then again as Prose from Dover. They do their own original songs and what Beeghley refers to as “undercover music - we didn’t write but it’s not necessarily well-known.”
Acoustic guitarist and vocalist Art Miron will serve as MC at the event. He’ll perform what he calls “American roots music - I choose songs that have country, folk and some pop music roots.” Mt. Airy resident Miron calls Walk A Crooked Mile “a tremendous asset to the community.”
Jim Harris is a member of the St. Mad foursome, which features tuba, trumpet, guitar and keyboards plus vocals. He says, “We’re really hoping that this Walk-a-Palooza helps Greg keep the concert series and the bookstore going – it’s great for the neighborhood.”
Walk-a-Palooza will be held Sunday, January 17 4-8:30 p.m. at the Brossman Center of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 7301 Germantown Avenue. Off street parking is available in the Seminary’s lot off Germantown Avenue. There is no cover charge but donations will be accepted. For more information call Walk a Crooked Mile Books at 215-242-0854.
Just Society column for January 8, 2010 THE YUKON NEWS, by Mike Dougherty
Resolutions and the road ahead
Late last Friday, New Year's night, our car shared Interstate 87 with only a few other passenger vehicles and trucks as we headed north through the Adirondack Mountains of up-state New York. The Lake George, Schroon Lake, Lake Placid and Lake Champlain turn-offs marked our progress northward toward the Quebec border on our four hour trip from Albany, New York back to Montreal. Snow flurries and the rises, curves and dips of the highway along with signs warning of slippery sections ahead kept my attention focused on the road.
With all family holiday obligations fulfilled by Boxing Day afternoon a quiet, sedentary remainder of our Christmas break could have been predicted for Eva and I and certainly would have been much appreciated. But we decided that a short road trip would properly launch us into the New Year. “You guard against decay, in general, and stagnation, by moving, continuing to move,” so Mary Daly, the feminist theologian who died last Sunday morning, once remarked. Of course, Professor Daly wasn't only speaking of physical movement.
With friends from Philadelphia we quickly improvised a reunion. A change of location, good conversation and food between and over hands of cards could provide a needed spark to freshly and optimistically approach the soon to be resumed routines of daily life. We agreed to split the distance between us. Albany, the state capital of New York first settled in 1614 by the Dutch travelling up the Hudson River on the site of an abandoned French fur trading post, lies exactly half way between Philadelphia and Montreal.
I last visited Philadelphia in 1991. Scattered contact by phone and e-mail over the last two decades left a lot of gaps to be filled in for each other. Greg and Cynthia manage the Walk a Crooked Mile (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3950348040104070059#) used book store in the Mt. Airy neighbourhood of Philadelphia. From their space in a working commuter train station dating from 1882 they meet their community every day. A rise of land between the rails and the road provides a natural amphitheatre where they host 30 or so concerts by local musicians each year. Neighbourhood garage sales there also help provide a gathering and building place for community.
We have a business tradition here in the Yukon as well that sees building community as a fundamentally important aspect of commercial enterprise. Social entrepreneurs here and elsewhere measure success in terms of the positive impact they have on society in addition to just bottom line concerns of profit and return on investment.
Both former educators Cynthia and Greg model in their work and personal lives an alternative way forward. So did Professor Daly. She spent her academic life challenging the illusory underpinnings of the millennia old male-dominated, hierarchical culture she saw as hell bent on destroying not only women but all life and the earth needed to sustain it. Intellectually Mary Daly sought “a primeval, female-oriented consciousness that would replace conquest with interaction and the hunger to own with the lust to create,” reported Ann Powers in a 1999 New York Times article.
For a truly happy 2010 may we resolve to keep moving forward not only physically but also spiritually and intellectually.
Namaste notes
Sunday, January 10 – Baptism of the Lord recalls the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. A suggested reading is Luke 3:15-16, 21-22.
Wednesday, January 13 – U.S. Marines land in Hawaii in 1893 to maintain an imposed constitution stripping the monarchy of authority and disenfranchising the indigenous poor.
Thursday, January 14 – Maghi marks the Sikh commemoration of the death of forty followers defending the Guru Gobindh Singh Ji in 1705.
Friday, January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929.
Check us out in "Hill on the Avenue" and see what else is going on in Chestnut Hill.
