It started with a book

Book bench by Sarah Anderson featuring works by Montana authors

Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land, is an author I enjoy reading. Actually it is in a realm beyond just enjoy. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when a book of his short stories (Memory Wall) that recently came into my life, completely ensnared me. One of those reads that even when I’m not reading, the words, the story(s) rumble about in my head. And then I remembered Doerr is from the Boise area which is on my list for the upcoming Spring 2024 Bookstore Tour! Feels like a treat to visit his town, like a surprise stop for ice cream when driving on a hot summer’s day.

I realized this is yet another advantage of a traveling bookstore. Of course, brick-and-mortar bookstores invite authors in for readings. Announcements of all sorts of wonderful events are put out on social media from Red Emma’s Bookstore, Auntie’s Bookstore and others. Big metropolitan bookstores like Powell’s Books and Strand Books have author readings nearly every day! That must certainly be a wonder to host authors for readings or to hear them answer questions in person about their writing. But I like to think being in an author’s home town is also quite special, to get a sense of the air, the buildings, the trees, the sidewalks, the vibes that are part of their daily life, that shape their writing.

The first stop on this upcoming traveling bookstore tour is Missoula, Montana where Debra Magpie Earling lives and whose books, Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea are remarkable, both reaching deep into your heart and soul. And then there’s a stop in Salt Lake City for a couple days, the home of Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place among her other books urging us to seriously consider our place, and this planet. Another stop on this tour is the Bay area. San Francisco is home to Rebecca Solnit. There are too many of her books to list but I’ll mention A Field Guide to Getting Lost (an ideal one for a traveler), Men Explain Things to Me, and her wonderful atlases. Obviously having a traveling bookstore lets me be a fangirl, drinking up experiences in places some of my favorite authors call home.

One more week and the spring tour begins! Still trying to squeeze more books into the van. Still trying to predict the weather assuming it will be different between Salt Lake City (altitude 4,300ft/1300m) and Port Orford, Oregon (altitude 43ft/13m). And what to bring besides books and bookstore accoutrements? Certainly the typewriter. All the stops on this tour are special in their own way, but the one in Berkeley holds promise for community art making. The traveling bookstore will collaborate with Collab Art Lab, a Berkeley Commonplace program, developed by artist C.K.Itamura. This collaboration is part of the Travelogues Project which is very much a hands-on event happening May 4 from 11am – 5pm in conjunction with the opening of the Round Table Collaboration Postal Collage Project No.13 exhibition at the Berkeley Art Center. If you happen to be in the Bay area that weekend, stop by Live Oak Park in Berkeley (across from the Berkeley Art Center) to make books, talk books, and maybe buy a book or two. We can also talk about place and authors and travel. Another stop on a traveling bookstore adventure.