SOLSC: Local Retail

            I went shopping in the neighborhood today. First the housewares store to buy muffin tins. The owner of the B&B I stayed at in New Orleans made killer oat bran muffins, which she kindly sent me the recipe for. I once had a muffin tin, but it must have gotten so grungy that I tossed it years ago and just not been inclined to make muffins since.

           Next the local independent bookstore. I needed to get a copy of The Boys in the Boat, an account of the American rowing team from working-class families that won gold in the 1936 Olympics against, among others, Hitler’s crew team. It’s for my book group, and there’d been too many holds on copies at the library. So I had to get my own, and the bookstore had used copies (mine will rejoin them when I’m done with it). While at the bookstore, I couldn’t resist get a print edition of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury—I’ve already read the free PDF that circulated on the Internet soon after it was published, but since I can afford it, I want to support the publisher, and author, by buying a copy. And there was Thomas Piketty’s Capital, big, fat, tempting. I know I should read it, I want to read it, I took it from the table—and with my bookstore membership, I got $10 off my total purchase. I will read it.

            Back to shopping. Refilling my refrigerator, which I’d mostly emptied before my trip, at the grocery store. Then to Rite-Aid for paper towels. But wait. The Rite-Aid had gates down, and the sign on the door said “This location is closing, Liquidation sale starts Monday.” This is a big surprise. Two chain drugstores have been a couple of blocks apart for years, and the Rite-Aid has always looked busier, with longer lines, so I wouldn’t have expected it to be the one that lost out.

            Before I headed on to the Duane Reade/Walgreen’s, I checked out the new H Mart. This is a Korean supermarket chain that opened the weekend I left for points south. Not only are there all kinds of Asian foods both fresh and packaged, and a big seafood section, but also cooking pots and housewares. I will have to spend more time there to see what might be entering my kitchen. Maybe the store is what inspired me to make fried rice for dinner.

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I’m participating in the 11th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 10 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!

Slice of Life, #16

            I visited to a new bookstore today, Book Culture on Columbus. It's the third branch of Book Culture (which is in the Columbia University neighborhood, used to be Labyrinth Books until one owner bought out the others, who took over the New Haven store still named Labyrinth). The New York owner called his “new” old store Book Culture. (The second branch was also in former bookstore space, what used to be Papyrus Books, which closed years ago, then became Morningside Books, until Book Culture took over the lease in 2009.)

            The newest store also used to be a bookstore, but before that it was on the ground floor of the Endicott Hotel. Originally built in 1889, the Endicott had been a majestic building with a palm court and such residents as the gangster Dutch Schultz. By the 1960s, however, it had become an SRO, housing people on the lowest  economic rungs. I lived around the corner from it then, and on Saturday nights we would sometimes hear screams or drunken shouts. On weekdays mornings as I headed to work, I'd pass half a dozen men sitting on the Endicott stoop, already drinking, but they recognized me from the block and greeted me good-naturedly. A police precinct was built next door, and the Endicott was converted to a luxury co-op in 1981, with a large bookstore also called the Endicott. It was a lovely bookstore, with a large selection of fiction ranging from literary to commercial, and thoughtful nonfiction as well. Then it closed, in 1995.*

            I was happy to hear that Book Culture was opening there, and today I had a chance to go in. It's the same expansive, airy space, with lots and lots of books,  and also lots of imaginative sidelines (bookseller jargon for anything that isn't a book): besides the usual Moleskin notebooks and note cards, there are, in the cookbook section, colorful ceramic teapots, plates, and bowls, as well as tote bags and an odd collection of colored spoons – or maybe that was just a table decoration. Even though I have more books than I have time to read, I bought the second volume of John Lewis's graphic memoir, March 2, and a recycled Decomposition notebook.
*[Blogger is making me look like a complete layout dunce, arbitrarily changing fonts and sizes and not allowing me to correct such design mistakes. Any Blogger users out there who can help?]