Friday, December 12, 2008

What Roy Blount Wants for Christmas

Roy Blount, Jr., that jolly old elf, is current King Pen of the Authors Guild, and just sent this out to the membership. I think it's a great idea.


"We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters.

Clear out the mysteries,
wrap up the histories,
beam up the science fiction!

Round up the westerns,
go crazy for self-help,
say yes to the university press books!

Get a load of those coffee-table books,
fatten up on slim volumes of verse,
and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: 'Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now.'"

(Okay, you're not an old elf, Roy, but jolly good funny.)

If you happen to be a Durhamite, you might choose to party at The Regulator, or in Raleigh at Quail Ridge Books & Music.

(Note: the line breaks and boldfacing are all mine.)





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4 comments:

billie said...

Peggy, Karen Dionne, co-founder of Backspace and author of Freezing Point, started a blog a few weeks back called Buy More Books - where she encourages us to buy books for Christmas gifts. You comment, leaving the names of the books you've bought, and she puts them on a master list, adds the book covers to a revolving slide show, and adds the numbers to a total so we can mark progress. It's a fun way to show support for authors and also a fun way to get some ideas for books to buy.

It's at:

buymorebooks.blogspot.com

Debra said...

Peggy,

What a great post! I LOVE books and I sometimes buy way too many of them. My favorite bookstores are the small ones, but I will resort to big chains when I have to!

I will have to check out the site that Billie suggested! It sounds wonderful.

Happy Saturday!

billie said...

Actually, I miswrote - she is advocating that we spend money on books (yes, for gifts) but also to support authors in these tough economic times. So it doesn't end with Christmas!

Peggy Payne said...

What an amazing site! 357 people had listed their book purchases when I visited. Interesting to see the combos that people bought too. Also, I love making lists.