My recent trip to DC was for a work-related conference and to visit our Silver Spring, Maryland-based family. We travel there fairly often to see them, and so we rarely engage in the normal DC tourist activities because we've done it all so many times. This year's agenda included canoeing around Roosevelt Island in the Potomac, shopping in Georgetown, eating lots of crab, and visiting some bookstores. We were blessed with magnificent and very atypical weather for DC in August, so I was able to sneak away from the conference and enjoy some long luxurious walks out to the independent bookstores Politics and Prose and Kramer Books.
Politics and Prose is well-known for being THE destination for famous politicians on their book tours, and it's not uncommon for them the host the likes of Hilary Clinton at book-signings. There was no event scheduled on the day I visited, which I was thankful for, since I really just wanted uninterrupted browsing time. The first thing I scooped up was the newly-released Murakami novel. I was very bummed to have missed out on the excitement and nerdery of the midnight release parties on Tuesday, but I was pleased that they still had copies left, and it was even more beautiful in person than in all the pre-release photos. A Murakami-Chip Kidd collaboration is a work of art and they have really elevated the art of the book and made a new book release something of an event.
I wandered around for a long time and toyed with the idea of a few different things (more Atwood, some Alice Munro, my very first Jhumpa Lahiri), but in the end I settled on the first volume of the Outlander series. Normally this is the type of book I'd order online out of pure shame, but I've been so anxious to get a copy that I couldn't wait. Also, no one in DC knows me anyway, so it was still a relatively anonymous experience. I watched the premiere of the TV series on Starz last week, and I was immediately sucked in. I even live-tweeted it, and probably will again, for those who follow me on Twitter. I don't really understand how I made it through almost thirty years on this Earth without having heard of these books, but the series combines romance with historical fiction and fantasy elements, and has been described as a feminist answer to 'Game of Thrones,' which I have already cited as a source of literary shame in my life. I still felt a bit of shame at Politics and Prose because I couldn't find the book to begin with, and when I asked for help, the employee had to direct me to the 'Romance' section, an area of a bookstores that I have never before visited. But once I got the thing home and started tucking into it on the couch, the shame was mostly forgotten. It's certainly an indulgence, but I love it thus far, and I'm delighted that there are seven more for me to read after this one. It is the literary equivalent of comfort food, and the type of epic, expansive series that you can just melt into.
Last but not least, I found a notebook from Decomposition that has a hive design, perfect for jotting notes for my blog and exhibiting my dedication to Beyonce.