Lone Star Literary Life's Bookish Tour of Texas, January 2017
A chilly, gray mid-January provided the perfect opportunity to spend some time in our favorite cold-weather literary haunts: museums and libraries. The Lone Star Lit team trekked from Abilene to San Angelo in West Texas, starting out with a visit to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature in downtown Abilene, to kick off the NCCIL’s 20th anniversary year.
As executive director Debbie Lillick (below, center) explains, the center will honor its twenty-year milestone beginning with an overview exhibition of the work of William Joyce (whose Man in the Moon appears in the illustration below) and continuing with returning featured illustrators and authors throughout the year.
Joyce, whose collaboration with then Abilene mayor Gary McCaleb led to the founding of the NCCIL in 1997, spoke yesterday at the center. Joyce's works remain on display in the main gallery through early March.
Joyce, whose collaboration with then Abilene mayor Gary McCaleb led to the founding of the NCCIL in 1997, spoke yesterday at the center. Joyce's works remain on display in the main gallery through early March.
Lone Star Lit also paid a visit to the newly opened of the Abilene Public Library South Branch which moved last November to the Mall of Abilene at 4310 Buffalo Gap Rd.. The library, which has entrances from the mall corridor as well as from the outside on the J C Penney side, welcomes patrons to enjoy reading areas, private meeting and study rooms, a kid's area, and more, all in a brightly designed space funded by the City of Abilene and the Friends of the Library.
Next on our tour was San Angelo, home of the late Elmer Kelton. Author of more than forty books over five decades, Kelton was voted Best Western Author of All-Time by the Western Writers of America before his death in 2009. His longtime home city honors his legacy in numerous ways, including a bronze statue prominently displayed in the new home (since 2011) at the Stephens Central Library at 33 W. Beauregard Avenue.
This is not your average downtown public library: a stunning example of adaptive reuse, in the two-and-a-half-story former Hemphill-Wells department store space, it offers a welcoming haven for book lovers and researchers as well as a treat for the eye. Architectural and decorative motifs recall San Angelo’s historic Cactus Hotel and other local institutions; browsing collections include a readily accessible law library and genealogy section, and an entire floor just for kids. An on-site Friends of the Library bookstore and a café make the library a prime destination these days. As one mom of three said to us while ushering her brood onto the elevator, “We never used to come to the library. Now we’re here all the time. We love it.”
We browsed every floor, took photos, made our book purchases and, reluctantly, headed out again in the rain. Only one other bookish treat remained for our Saturday morning, a trip to Eggemeyer’s General Storeat 35 E. Concho Avenue, a favorite culinary, gift, and book mercantile that, following the recent closure of the Hastings bookstore chain, is likely San Angelo’s best source for local books, gift books, and children’s books. If you’re looking for an Elmer Kelton novel or Russell Smith history, Eggemeyer’s is your spot.
Bookstore Briefs
New independent or chain bookstores don’t come along often these days, and Lone Star Literary Life looks to share the word with our readers when they do.
Interabang Books to open in Dallas in May
We’ve learned that this spring in Dallas, Nancy Perot (daughter of Ross Perot), Jeremy Ellis (longtime manager of Brazos Bookstore in Houston), and Lori Feathers plan to open Interabang Books in Dallas. The 5,000-square-foot store will carry more than 12,000 titles in a variety of categories, with a focus on fiction, children's books, and creative nonfiction. The store will have a flexible event space with seating for up to 100 people and a children’s stage for weekly story times and other programs. The store will be located at the corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane.
Ellis, who began his career at Taylors Books in Dallas in 1994 and then was marketing director at BookPeople in Austin before heading for Houston, will serve as general manager of Interabang Books. He is currently a member of the board of directors for the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association.
Feathers will be the store’s book buyer. A former corporate lawyer, she reviews books for several publications, is an assistant managing editor for Asymptote, and serves on the Resident Reading Committee for Carve magazine. She is on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and is a judge for the 2017 Best Translated Book Award.
The new bookstore’s name comes from a typographers’s term for a punctuation mark that combines a question mark and an exclamation point.
Burrowing Owl Books opens on the square in Canyon
As reported to us earlier this month, independent Burrowing Owl Books has opened at 419 16th Street, in Canyon. We’ll report more next month, after we get to visit in person—but we understand it’s a family-run enterprise under the ownership of Dallas and Todd Bell and will feature new, used, and children’s books.
It’s especially welcome news, following the departure last year of longtime community and college book retailer Buffalo Bookstore.
Laredo lands another bookstore
Book Warehouse of Laredo will open in March in the Outlet Shoppes of Laredo.
With nineteen discount stores across the country from Auburn, Washington, to Daytona Beach, Florida, Book Warehouse is opening a new location in Laredo in conjunction with the opening of the Laredo Outlets. The chain offers books discounted 50%-80%.
Books-A-Million opened in 2015 at the Mall del Norte, after national media in 2010 called attention to the departure of B. Dalton that left Laredo as the largest city in the U.S. without a bookstore.
Book Warehouse is advertising on their website for personnel in Laredo.
Japanese bookstore chain coming to North Texas
Kinokuniya, one of the largest bookstore chains in Japan, is coming to North Texas—opening just one store but two. The chain’s flagship Texas store plans to open in Carrollton in late-January, and the other location in Plano in February.
According to the book-news site shelfawareness.com, the Carrollton outlet will be “focusing on not only Japanese but also on the fusion of Asian and American pop culture. The store will carry a wide selection of Japanese-language and English-language books ranging from manga to art to fashion and more. The ratio of Japanese-language to English-language titles will be about 3 to 7.
Meanwhile, the Plano branch will have a slightly different focus. It will “offer the most up-to-date Japanese new releases and bestsellers. The ratio of Japanese-language to English-language titles will be about 7 to 3.”
Both locations will carry a variety of other Japanese products, such as stationery.
Kinokuniya already has several outlets in the U.S., including stores in Chicago; New York City; New Jersey; Orange County, San Jose, and Santa Monica, California; Seattle; and Portland. The chain has outlets all over the world, including Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the UAE.
Kinokuniya is advertising for personnel for North Texas on their website.
(Compiled from websites and media reports)
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