I’m still trying to get a handle on literary events in Pittsburgh. We’ve got this Drue Heinz lecture series, which features bigname literary writers — Chabon, Lahiri, Sedaris. It costs money, though, and always seems to be on nights when I’ve got writing workshop. Which leaves me hoping for good bookstore appearances. I know there is at least one good bookshop I haven’t yet set foot in, so I don’t purport to really understand Pittsburgh’s literary landscape yet.
But I have made it to the regional chainstore Joseph-Beth Booksellers. They’re more like Barnes & Noble than my preferred type of independent bookstore, but they’re kinda huge and seem to have regular signings. More so than other locals I’ve found.
So it cracked me up today when I realized what they’ve got in store for Feburary. On the 3rd: a American Girl Victorian Tea. For Girls 7 and up! Dollies! Doilies! Followed just 6 days later by Ron Jeremy, signing his porn-and-tell, The Hardest (Working) Man in Show Business. Now wait, was that porn on Friday, little girls on Saturday, or the other way around?
Ah, Joseph-Beth. I remember when they were just one big awesome bookstore here in Lexington when I was a teenager. They’ve since moved into a huge place here that features a travel agency (and a bar) and have a much less quirky selection. They do, however, have a bar, which sort of balances. And still stock local zines.
That said: It sort of freaks me out to think there’s one in Pittsburgh too!
Um, I didn’t actually mean to mention the bar twice. Freudian…
sadly, we don’t have a bar at this Joseph-Beth, so you might as well enjoy yours twice as much.
Gwenda, sounds like my recollections of Borders as a single two story store on campus in Ann Arbor. No coffee. No cafe. Just books and tons of them, a wall of literary fiction, great journal selection, great poetry selection, and a staff that knew the answer to every question I ever heard somebody ask them.
Now try and ask somebody at one of their stores anything that doesn’t end with Mitch Albom, Stephen King, or include the words latte or mocha, and see what sort of a blank stare you can draw.