I hope to maintain a list of NY Times Bestsellers on this blog if folks find it useful. In Hardcover: Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun is up four spots, finishing the week at number 5. V.E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is up one position, ending the week at number 6. Sarah J. Mass' A Court of Silver Flames returns at number 15. In paperback: Stephen King's Later is down one position, ending the week at number 2 (trade paperback).

Happy holidays to everyone and thank you for your time and patronage. Let's all keep a little ......... on for each other.

While my reading preferences tend to more literary styles and genre fiction (and I collect and sell mostly gently used books), my background in business development and account management means I try to keep up with trends in the business world and read quality business books as much as possible given a hectic work life. Staying updated can be essential for folks so here are 3 of the most recent top sellers in business books on shop-books.ca (caveat, I have only read two of these this time out so my comments will be sparse). Do you have a favourite business book you would like to share here? I respond to enthusiasm! 1: Atomic Habits by James Clear Subtitled - An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear distills complex topics into simple behaviours that can be easily applied to daily life and work. In this book, using real life examples and stories, he draws on ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create a guide for transforming your habits. 2: How To Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers by David M. Rubenstein I like quotes from writers and often I will note down a particularly fascinating or compelling quote from a book I’ve read as you may have noticed from my previous blog updates. This book is full of quotes on leadership and how some of the most famous business people today handle decision making, failure, innovation, change, and crisis. Includes views and advice from Warren Buffett, Christine Lagarde, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Tim Cook, Oprah Winfrey, Lorne Michaels, Renee Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Knight, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Marilyn Hewson and many others. 3: No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer Now, I haven’t read this one yet but I know it was longlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year and sells well here. In this book we have Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings revealing the unorthodox culture behind one of the world's most innovative and successful companies. Since I am Netflix all the time, I must get round to reading this one soon.

People are always asking me what I am reading this month, well no one actually asks me that for some reason, I just like to think they do. But even though my main job is to sell discount books here at shop-books.ca I do read many of the books that pass through. After all I love reading too going from collector to seller was a bit of a process and a story for another time). So, here in no particular order, are the books I am trying to get through this month: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn A brilliant, and I don't often use that word, first contact story set in two time frames, medieval Germany and present day USA. I will be doing a  short review of this. The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller Miller's travel book about his trip to Greece just before World War 2 broke out, is a gale of words, almost stream of consciousness, storm of a book. Not for all but for lovers of Miller's verbal high volume ejections, it's great. On Gurdjieff by Garrett Thomson Not sure I will be able to get to this one before October is out but I will try. Although G.I. Gurdjieff's spiritual philosophy of work on one's habits resonates with me, I somewhat distrust his method of belittlement, if I can call it that. I admit to a cursory knowledge of his methods so I am reading this one to get more familiar and be able to speak more intelligently about it.

Those who know me know I come from a travel background and I truly miss working in the industry and the exposure to different cultures, people, and experiences that travel can give. Travel is a force for good in this world as my old company executives’ used to say and I firmly believe it. However, since many of us can’t travel now due to the pandemic and many of us can’t travel at all, I thought I’d put together a personal list of the top 7 travel books to read while you can’t travel. In no particular order, with a slight literary bent, and as usual I actually have read these: 1: The Odyssey by Homer Yes, I realize that forcing high school reading on you might backfire but this classic tale of Odysseus trying to get back to his love after the Trojan War gives us wine dark seas, magical Mediterranean islands, many strange cultures and customs, and a lot of eating of wine and cheese. Grab yourself some and set in. 2: The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux I could have picked almost any of Theroux’s travel books but this one speaks to me for the word “happy” in the title alone. Theroux is a fascinating narrator, both for his keen observations and his penetrating, dark insights when he disapproves of the events he is watching. Grabbing a collapsible kayak and paddling to seldom- visited shores around the Pacific islands, he steps into a Gaugin painting, paddles in the wake of the great explorers, and recalls the tales of Robert Louis Stevenson. 3: An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot A deeply personal book about the experience of travel and how it can change someone, especially if one goes with preconceived notions but finds a way to let go. Written about Elliot’s two journeys to Afghanistan 10 years apart (during the Russians adventure and then again as the Russians departed), two quotes suffice to hopefully inspire you on your next travels whenever and wherever they may be: “…journeys are sparked from small and unlikely things…” and “…trust in the spirit of the journey…” 4: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson From the highly personal quest of Elliot to another type of quest, mainly the exploration and understanding of familiar yet strange things; Bill Bryson, an American living in England, takes us around the country to visit every nook and cranny to uncover the strangely familiar and hilarious things, customs, and “language that separates us”. Reading Bryson is like having a beer with a good friend. 5: The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin Bruce Chatwin adapted a literary form common until the eighteenth century and modernized it: a story of ideas in which two companions, traveling and talking together, explore the hopes and dreams that animate both them and the people they encounter. Ostensibly about the aboriginal peoples of Australia, Chatwin veers off into all kinds of mythic history but also unreliable events. Did this specific event happen in the way Chatwin tells us and does it really matter since we get to the heart anyway. 6: Road Fever by Tim Cahill With titles like Pass the Butterworms or Hold the Enlightenment, Cahill is simply one of the funniest adventure travel writers around. In Road Fever, Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in a record-breaking twenty three and a half days. Engine trouble in Patagonia, sadistic troopers in Peru, document hell in Colombia, and all you ever wanted to know about the effects of a diet of beef jerky and milk shakes. 7: The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton Alain de Botton tells one story of a trip to Amsterdam and writes,” I stopped by a red front door and felt an intense longing to spend the rest of my life there.” Why do we travel? Instead of being a guide to what to do when we get somewhere, this book tries to explain why we really went in the first place. De Botton explores thoughts on anticipation, curiosity, beauty, and habit and suggests how we might be happier in our journeys. Further reading and also highly recommended (some via my Amazon Associates link): Video Nights in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer – Iyer examines Mohawk hair-cuts in Bali, yuppies in Hong Kong and Rambo rip-offs in the movie houses of Bombay. Down and Delirious in Mexico City by Daniel Hernandez - Hernandez travels to Mexico City, searching for his cultural roots and encountering a city both chaotic and intoxicating, both underdeveloped and hypermodern. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain – RIP Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road by Kate Harris – A year spent cycling the Silk Road. A Woman Alone: Travel Tales From Around the Globe edited by Faith Conlon, Ingrid Emerick and Christina Henry de Tessan – Relatable stories from solo female travelers. On the Road by Jack Kerouac – The book that launched a lot of thumbs. Vagabonding by Rolf Potts – The process behind taking time off and exploring the world. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle – This book launched a sub-genre of travel memoirs.

I've been taking a 3 pronged approach to the current Covid situation or as I like to call it, the time of weirdness. Firstly, I've been trying to see positive outcomes that may arise from social isolation or global awakening, if not now then later, in my social posts on Facebook for example. Secondly, I've been trying to put a humorous or lighter spin on the situation; mostly in person with friends and family. Thirdly, I've been freaking out. This list hopefully utilizes the second approach (with a dash of the third). In no particular order (and note that these are books I've actually read so that's why there are 4): 1: The Plague by Albert Camus Is this book about disease or a country suffering under occupation or the human race rebelling against an absurd universe? How about all three at the same time. Camus' spare style might have understated the situation but actually makes the novel thicken with tension as the plague spreads and poor Dr. Rieux gets little help. 2: The Stand by Stephen King Humanity has been nearly wiped out by a pandemic and the few survivors now have to also face real demons...what's next murder hornets...oh wait... 3: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez The title might be a pun as the word cholera in Spanish can be used to mean rage so against a backdrop of strife and disease, do the main characters come to believe that it is love or death that conquers all. My money is on the latter. 4: Blindness by Jose Saramago A plague of blindness is unleashed in a city and social disorder follows as several characters try to survive the public's panic and the government's repressive and inept measures. Minus the widespread panic, does this sound familiar? Further contenders that I have not read: The Children of Men by P.D. James A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe I Am Legend by Richard Matheson Station Eleven by Emily St. John Zone One by Colson Whitehead The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Play is universal; humans and animals do it. It is one way we learn, not just about our environment, but about morality and relationships. As we get to be adults some of us lose play or lose the idea that play can be beneficial. Let's get it back! And since I've started to add a few board games on the site I thought I'd link to Amazon's Summer Toy List using my associates link. Also available is Amazon's Best Seller's in Toys and Games.

I don't own or sell e-books as I still love the feel and atmosphere of holding and reading a physical book, even the smell of paper gives me a pleasurable sensation, but I appreciate that folks do enjoy reading in other ways! So, here are the best sellers in the Amazon Kindle store via my associates link. Enjoy reading!

Dad's can get a lot of grief, most of it well-earned to which I can attest! But today is a good day! Lots of love to all the dad's out there!

At the start of the final section of James Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, is an epigraph for the 14-year-old protagonist that foreshadows the long, difficult journey that will lead him from his bitter childhood into whatever he makes of his life: ''Then I buckled up my shoes,/And I started.' Have we finally buckled up our shoes and started?

We are often self absorbed; it appears to be both a human failing and survival mechanism. It seems to me that now during this time of social distancing (or time of weirdness as I will repeatedly call it), we might be able to learn a few things from a group of people who have been socially distanced or isolated most of their lives. Thus I began to read Donna William's autobiography Nobody Nowhere. And true to to my instincts, in the 'author's note' she writes: "If you sense distance, you're not mistaken; it's real. welcome to my world." I know folks are reaching out in other ways but I urge folks to think about the perennially socially distanced folks amongst us...

So as a sort of dark humour, funny only to myself type thing, I started reading Albert Camus' The Plague. Oran, a large port on the Algerian coast, becomes afflicted by the plague in French colonial times and the novel is a story of a community like any other, suddenly impotent in the face of a destructive force to which it must not submit. Now, of course it can also be read as a country suffering under occupation in World War 2 or the human race rebelling against an absurd universe, but I like to think he had smaller, more personal themes in mind...or at least these other themes came through despite his grander visions. And passages like this one somewhat confirm that for me: “And he knew, also, what the old man was thinking as his tears flowed, and he, Rieux, thought it too: that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one's work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.” So, let's think of the small, personal things.

Look, let's face it, in this time of stress and weirdness we need a purpose. This is mine. I started this little online bookstore partly to remove clutter and partly to share wonderful ideas and themes and settings and characters from the books I've loved over the years, and hopefully make a little cash at the same time. I've been reading Paul Theroux's The Happy Isles of Oceania and the following quote from Tennyson's Ulysses struck me as appropriate at this time: Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world, Push off, and siting well in order to smite The sounding furrows, for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulf's will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles... Poetry can be soothing at this time...