Rick Simonson

Reconstituting

Two days after the November 2004 election, the bookstore I work at (Elliott Bay) presented esteemed farmer poet/novelist/essayist Wendell Berry at a large church.

I remember seeing people come that night almost hunched-over in body posture, stunned, downcast. There seemed to be solace gained as they started to see others, to be gathered with others. It felt as though people were crawling out from under some big rock. (What do I mean, they? I felt like I was ...) 

The person they were there to hear - who has a vast readership in these parts and doesn't come by that often - was about as perfect a person as one could have hoped to gather for on such a night. Wendell Berry knew - and knows - about language, its good and healing properties, and about perspective, among many other things. Healing language and perspective were needed that night.

Two nights after Election Day 2008, and it was another offsite occasion - this time, author John Hodgman, with singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton in tow.  Months before, when the evening was being set up, when it wasn't even at all clear who the major parties' presidential nominees would be, there was some wondering as to what the mood for such a night could be two days after the election. Would people be too heartbroken? Distracted? Devastated once again?

The book tour business otherwise seemed to be going on hiatus from mid-October to a patch of mid-November  ('tween the election and Thanksgiving week). How brave were they to be plotting this going about, however much anticipation there would be for Mr. Hodgman's new offering, More Information Than You Require.

As it was (and might have been, regardless of the results), it was a packed full house at Seattle's Town Hall. With people coming in, many still sporting campaign buttons, there was a whole other stance and stride from what was witnessed/felt four years ago. When colleague Karen Maeda Allman, onstage to do the introductory honors, made acknowledgement of such, saying how different this night felt than its predecessor four years ago, her words were met with a roaring ovation.

Messrs. Hodgman, Coulton and others in the wonderfully varied evening of music, reading, talk, banter, repartee in the evening that ensued also got special applause when Barack Obama's named was mentioned, and some good laughter was had with witty lyrics and comments about Alaska's new place in the political (and humorist) landscape.

Books sold, too, which was also nice, a bit of tonic for reading, at the same time, the released national retail figures for the month of October - which were down bigtime (speaking of ditches, which had much mention in the campaign just concluded).

It's occurred to me - slowly - that we in the book world have a bit of our own possible uniqueness with what is going on now - and with what has just happened.

Let's start with one of the things that makes the book business work - the reading of at least some of the books people purchase. I found this from talking with other colleagues and other good readers: has anyone been reading as much as they usually do these past six months? I have gotten blank, trying-to-comprehend looks when I've asked this. Then people have realized, well, no, as a matter of fact. Where attention has gone is fairly much the same - television (even people who don't watch tv have been watching political news), radio, magazines and papers, the internet.

Attention spans themselves have seemed too attenuated to pay attention to reading for longer stretches, such as many good books are best enjoyed. I had vague notions of this for myself, finding only on a couple of days of travel - where I didn't have much computer access and had a long day on the plane - that I really sank into reading a marvelous book again (Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, as it happened). I looked back in time - where had this gone?

Even in talking about this (books, reading) with others, it has often come after talking matters political. Email, too - quick exchanges of information, inquiry, greeting, confirmation - have often segued into commentaries or revelations (did you just hear ...?) about the campaign.

Some irony does abound here. One can realize that more time is being spent reading and digesting all this news and chat by oneself than a certain Mr. Obama is doing. He's too busy, he's got work to do. But not only that: the New York Times, in a closing-out-the-campaign profile of (now) President-elect Obama on Sunday, November 2, had the news that he was finishing reading Steven Coll's Ghost Wars. Wait a minute: he is getting books read?

Perhaps some new national campaign is needed (ha, just kidding), a Get Out the Book and Read Again drive. The news very much has its place, our participation in such matters, too ... but sustenance and focus for the long work it will take for things to really happen also comes from the exercise afforded by good, in-depth reading.

Posted by Rick Simonson on November 7, 2008 | Comments (1)