Globe Corner Blogs

Iceland --photo by Lisa

I am absurdly excited  about the upcoming Viking Invasion of Boston. From March 11-17,  Boston will be hosting A Taste of Iceland. This festival of Icelandic culture and entertainment is bringing Icelandic musicians, DJs, acclaimed chefs, and a film festival to various venues in and around Boston in celebration of all things Icelandic…and Icelandair’s non-stop service to Reykjavik. You can even enter a drawing to win a trip to Reykjavik! The full schedule of events can be found at the “Iceland Naturally” website.

Certain staff members of the Globe Corner have already expressed their love for all things Icelandic: from the delicious and addictive Skyr, Arnaldur Indridason’s Inspector Erlendur Series, and The Blue Lagoon (a geothermal spa) to the always interesting Iceland Airwaves Music Festival. We’re so excited about the festival that we’re taking 15% off all books about and maps of Iceland through March 17th. And as an extra bonus,  Icelandic singer Ólöf Arnalds will be dropping by the store on Saturday, March 13th at 4:30 p.m. to play a few songs for us!

Abaco Libros y Cafe -- photo by Pat

Where do bookstore workers always go when they’re on vacation? Other bookstores. So when the owners of The Globe Corner Bookstore attended The Hay Literary Festival in Cartageña de Indias, Colombia, Pat Carrier visited Ábaco Libros y Café. He was lucky enough to chat with an owner there and write an article about it for Publishers Weekly. Here is a snippet:

Abaco Libros bookmark

“A highlight of my attendance last year was observing the bustling energy of Ábaco Libros y Café, a small literary bookstore and cafe in the heart of the walled city of Cartageña. The store is near the Theater Heredia, the main venue of the festival—and not so coincidentally near the home of Gabriel García Márquez, the spiritual godfather of the Latin American literary world affectionately known here as Gabo. Throughout the festival weekend, the bookstore was packed with attendees rushing in to buy the next speaker’s books; and its cafe tables were filled with international press interviewing festival writers and drinking café con leche.

This year, I was determined to find out more about bookselling in Colombia. Interviewing one of the two business partners in Ábaco Libros seemed a good start. Néstor Rimoli kindly agreed to such an interview during one of their busiest weekends of the year. “

To Hellholes and Back

Allow me to repeat myself: Chuck Thompson is coming to the Globe Corner Bookstore! Author of Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer, Thompson will read from his latest book, To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism. The event will take place on Tuesday, January 19th at 6pm in the bookstore. Not only will Chuck read, but he will also answer questions and chat with the audience about travel and writing.

I will admit that here at the Globe,  Chuck (we like to think we’re on a first name basis) has attained something akin to cult figure status. Smile is among the few books the entire staff has read – and loved. Hellholes is quickly following suit. For a staff who has blogged about *hearting* Chuck and even interviewed him, this is a very exciting moment. We hope you’ll join us and join the fan club!

Thomas Jefferson really liked wine. While living in France, he acquired a profound knowledge about wine and amassed an impressive collection of fine wines. Apparently, he didn’t drink all of it though, because in 1985 a Chateau Lafite Bordeaux from 1787 that supposedly belonged to President Jefferson sold for $156,000 at an auction. Benjamin Wallace doesn’t lead us on a journey to exotic lands in The Billionaire’s Vinegar, but guides us through a journey filled with decadent wine tastings through the world of collecting rare wines. Whether the the wines tasted were genuine or forgeries, well,  you will have to read the book. However, if you want to find out more about Benjamin Wallace you can just continue reading.

1. Do you prefer aisle or window? (Please explain.)

Aisle. It’s bad enough to be compacted into a too-small seat in a too-small cabin, but at least in an aisle seat it’s possible to stretch out your legs, when the aisle’s clear, and easier to stand up and walk around the cabin.

2. Now for some general wine questions:

a) Red or white? Do you have a preference and why? Red *and* white (and pink, too, for that matter). It really depends on my mood, the weather, and what I’m eating.

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Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching…as is the curdling panic in my gut about the holiday gift-giving season coming on so fast. While the appearance of Santa at the end of the Macy’s Day Parade used to send me into paroxysms of twitchy excitement, now seeing him makes my stomach sink. It is time to buy.

I know I’m not the only one out there with this seasonal anxiety disorder. Fortunately, there are others out there prepared to help – one being the very owner of The Globe Corner Bookstore, Pat Carrier. He was recently interviewed by AP travel writer Beth Harpaz on the best books one could give to travelers as gifts. You can read the interview here. Two other travel bookstore owners were interviewed for the column, and all their choices appear on this page. No need to fret.

Great News!!! Reif Larsen’s new book, The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, lets you in on the four things needed for an adventure: “Guns & Knives”, “A Magnifying Glass”, “A Map!”, and, of course, “Adventure Pants”! (Be sure to pick a good pair.)

I have recently finished reading The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet and was not disappointed in any way. In fact, I am able to say that it is one of the best books I have ever read. It is packed with amazing illustrations and maps, as well as a great story. With my new found discovery of “The Hobo Hotline”, I am now able to travel across the country by train with the knowledge of where each specific car is going. I am also now aware of how to go about mapping a mustache and that a flashlight really has futuristic healing powers. His cross-country journey takes him on a great adventure filled with questions about the world that you should really be asking yourself.

This might sound like a bunch of nonsense, but it is truly spectacular nonsense! For example, I guess that every twelve year old boy knows that Winnebago’s have their own personal names, such as Valero, and can talk to you. In order to fully grasp the whole situation of young Mr. Spivet, I highly recommend this book to you and suggest you then pass it on to everyone you know. Not only for the read but also for the visual understanding of how car alarms can affect your brain.

Lonely Planet China

When you come into the store, it is impossible not to notice all the books about China. They come in every shade of red possible, in all sizes and weights – including the hefty new edition of the Lonely Planet China. Saying that they are everywhere would be a slight exaggeration, but they have taken over four shelves of one of our bookcases. They have very intriguing titles. (Don’t you want to know how to cook a dragon, or what on earth The Corpse Walker is about?) After looking at all those books for a while your resistance is eventually undermined – your curiosity is piqued – and this is when you give in and pick one up.

I still can’t tell exactly why I picked up China High. Maybe it was just the right shade of red. Or maybe because the author is easy to relate to and gives a very good look at China – a place that is not so easy to understand. This book turned out to be about his own astonishing personal changes following his experiences in China.

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Fun at the Beach

Weather-wise, it was perfect in Boston this weekend. Everyone seemed to be in a fantastic mood, people broke out their summer clothes, neighbors were sitting on their stoops, invitations to barbecues were popping up, and people were seriously starting to plan trips to the beach. Thanks to the weather forecast, I now know that the sun will disappear soon – most likely on my next day off from work – but that shouldn’t stop me or anyone from planning their next beach adventure. One must be prepared to take advantage of every weather-permitting opportunity. My godson Andy, who is featured in the photo, is always ready and willing to head to the closest beach. All he needs is his hat, shorts, sunscreen, adult supervision and he is ready to go. All the adult supervisors need to know is where to go. Continue Reading »

Yemen--by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

This past Monday evening I attended a Harvard-sponsored forum, moderated by acclaimed British travel writer and diplomat Rory Stewart. He is the author of Prince of the Marshes, about his year as a provincial governor in southern Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003, and The Places In Between, which chronicles Stewart’s walk across Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban regime. Stewart is currently a professor at the JFK School of Government here in Cambridge and was eager to moderate a talk given by an author he had long admired but never met: Tim Mackintosh-Smith, a Thomas Cook Travel Award-winning author (for his travelogue Yemen-The Unknown Arabia). Mackintosh-Smith spoke about his long obsession with the 14th century Islamic scholar and world traveler Ibn Battutah and how the author’s unique views of the Middle East have been informed by the last quarter-century he has spent living in the Yemeni capital of Sa’na.

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Olaus Magnus' Scandinavia 1539

The other day I was wasting a lot of time playing on Facebook and I got sucked into one of those stupid-yet-addictive quizzes that are popping up everywhere. They have one for everything imaginable and I saw that one of my friends had completed the “What is your true inner nationality” quiz. Naturally I had to take the quiz as well. Turns out my true inner nationality is “Swedish.” Hummm… never thought I was particularly Swedish. Even though I am proud of my Norwegian-German from Russia via Ukraine roots, I think that my inner-nationality is American. However, I have been told I have the soul of a Romanian by a Romanian, that I must be Croatian because I like red wine with fish, that I look really Bosnian, and that I was Icelandic by a sober Icelander. I would like to think that my inner nationality might be a New Zealander (I like the accent) or Canadian (I would like to live in Vancouver), but I never considered Swedish. It never crossed my mind.

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