Ophelia’s Books in Fremont, Seattle
Needless to say this is one of my favorite bookstores.
Ophelia’s Books in Fremont, Seattle
Needless to say this is one of my favorite bookstores.
I’m forever working through my pile of unread books. The pile of unreads grows faster than the pile of reads. Makes me think of the Walt Disney film Fantasia back in the 1940’s. One of the first films I ever saw – probably in the University Theater in Harvard Square. The water kept coming despite Mickey Mouse frantically trying to keep ahead of the deluge.
Here’s a book for the New Year 2017. Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch. An interesting fictional take on Seattle’s history since the World’s Fair in 1962. I found this book 2nd hand at Eagle Harbor Books over on Bainbridge Island. It had lurked near the bottom of my unreads pile for about a year.
We have had such a busy past few days/week, I hardly know where to start. So here are a few postcards which I found in a shop in Anacortes where we went for the holiday weekend
Marc Chagall and His Family, Paris, 1933 a photograph by Andre Kertesz
a Carte Postale – i.e. it’s French, the original is in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris Johann Walter – 1804-1877
Bathing Beauties on the Beach, Long Beach, Long Island, N.Y. this card makes me think of my sisters
What were we doing in Anacortes?? a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle!
And later we found a used bookstore, much to my delight. I found several books of interest, including this one about spindle spinning.
A simple little book titled Handspindles. Written and illustrated by Bette Hochberg and published in 1977 in Santa Cruz, California. I am quite hopeless at spindle spinning but am still keen to have a book like this in my textile collection. Nice illustrations – some old photographs, some drawings by the author.
In downtown historic Anacortes there were some very interesting paintings on the walls of some of the buildings. They gave a lot of colour and conveyed a cheerful fun atmosphere.
a bit of artwork gracing the wall of a building in downtown historic Anacortes, jumping off point for going to the San Juan Islands. I have yet to find out more about the artist, but wonderful art deco type silhouettes grace many of the buildings.
And just to show that I wasn’t neglecting my own work, I started a simple crochet blanket. Quite mindless, fun to do, and easy to chat while working on it.
I didn’t get a photo of another book store that we went to in Scottsdale, but in our wandering the streets of Old Scottsdale we spotted a big sign which directed us to Guidon Books, a few blocks away. They had recently moved so we emerged from the shade, crossed several very wide streets and walked several blocks. It was hot. The heat was just shimmering up off the pavement in mid-afternoon. But Guidon Books was well worth the trek – for me at least. I don’t think the rest of the family was quite so interested. I found some Civil War replica postcards which I quite liked – and I found a book on tapestry weaving. And a brochure about the Arizona History Convention to be held very soon – too late to attend this year but the list of papers to be given looks very interesting. Next year, 2012, will be Arizona’s centenary. It is just amazing to me that Arizona only became a state, the 48th, 100 years ago, the year my mother was born. I feel a part of living history!
Guidon Books – they have moved a few blocks to a nicely shaded building, many interconnecting rooms, but we only browsed the Civil War area. Further afield, I think, were the Western Americana books that I really wanted to see. Hope there will be a next time. This was really just a reconnaissance.
a replica Civil War postcard – a scene from the Gettysburg Cyclorama. Hospital Scene. A surgeon amputates the leg of a wounded man in the shed on the right.
brochure for the upcoming Arizona History Convention. I was told that Guidon Books will have a stall.
What has been the highlight of our visit so far?…….this was a favourite question posed for family discussion on our recent trip to Scottsdale Arizona. So I’m going to tell just one highlight. A trip to Barnes & Noble!
Barnes & Noble in Scottsdale Arizona
It’s not as if I can’t go to Barnes & Noble here in Seattle, or in Glastonbury Connecticut, or lots of other places. But I needed a book to read at that point in time, having nearly finished the two I had brought with me. And son David needed to find a printed book which he could read and avoid the glare in trying to read the books on his electronic devices. I liked the approach to this B & N – quite impressive – but inside it was pretty much like any other B & N I have been to. I suspect this is deliberate – like Starbucks. Nevermind, I immediately found 2 knitting magazines of interest, my grandaughter found her American Girl magazine, my daughter-in-law spotted an interesting book to order for her Nook, and I eventually found a biography which I am enjoying immensely. Savage Beauty, The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, by Nancy Milford. Edna St. Vincent Millay – a familiar name, I knew she was a poet, and in the dim and distant past we studied her in school. It wasn’t a book I would have deliberately set out to look for – no, I just happened to spot it as I was browsing.
Savage Beauty, The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, by Nancy Milford
Now I am about half way through the book. I hadn’t realized, or remembered, that she grew up in Maine and went to Vassar. And she is very much of the era of my parents and grandparents. I am just savouring the New England setting and the social history which form the background for her life. When one is on vacation and well away from the everyday demands at home, one of the luxuries is to to just sit and read at any hour of the day or night without feeling guilty about the ironing, for example. Now that I am home I just want to carry on reading and with this book I can justify neglecting the chores because it is fuel for my research into the lives of my parents and grandparents – which is probably why I chose it in the first place. Hooray for Barnes & Noble with such a wide range of books to choose from.
a kiddies fountain just in front of B & N
the two books I brought with me. I quite liked the John Grisham stories. I had not read anything by him before, popular author that he is. The other book, A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton, turned out to be about Boston in the days and months following the Boston Tea Party in 1773, three years before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. The book is classified as a historical mystery. One thing that was bothering me about the book was a reference early on to a church on Brattle Street in Boston. All the other historical detail seemed very accurate but the only Brattle Street I knew was in Cambridge. Somehow while we were there in Scottsdale we didn’t look it up on the I-Pad but now at home I find that sure enough there was a Brattle Street Church in Boston and it was attended by many of those familiar names – Abigail Adams for one. (Abigail Adams is the amateur sleuth in this book – sort of like the Miss Marple of her day.)