One crappy thing about being a writer is having a ton of writer friends producing work that you may like or detest. I sometimes find you can like the person, hate the work.

This was a common occurrence when I was living in Iowa City and every bar stool had the cheek indentations of some undiscovered genius.

But something strange has happened since I moved here. I seem to only know writers whose work I actually, really, really love.*

Take Scott Nadelson,  a creative writing professor at Willamette.  He’s got a new collection out this month from Hawthorne Books called Aftermath: Stories.

I got an early copy of it and reviewed it this fall for Eugene Magazine (site down, so no link) and enjoyed it so much I had to write him a fan letter between sentences.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Nadelson is interested in the grey area between major life events, the fumbling and wrong turns, the ambiguities of heart and purpose that have become the hallmarks of young adulthood. His stories strike just the right balance between funny and sad, between the high shtick of aging Jewish parents and the raw emotion of young people experiencing their first major personal disasters.”

I have to say that Nadelson’s milieu, suburban Jews from New Jersey, isn’t exactly something that would get me turning pages in most cases. But that, my dears, is why you should always pick your books by author first, not by content.

Great writing, heart tugged.

Nadelson is reading at Willamette’s Hatfield Library today at 4:30. Lucky us.

*Makes no claims about being loved back…

At the risk of opening myself of to a deluge of criticism from the wide wide open world, I would like to offer you one writer’s perspective on the closing of Border’s store here in Salem.

The closing of any bookstore is cause for alarm and reason for grief, but I find myself not  especially sad about the Border’s closing, and here’s why.

1. Stock

I have never once found a book I was looking for at Border’s. Any time I have heard about an up-and-coming literary release and have trekked over to the store to get my hands on a copy, I have discovered the Salem store doesn’t have it in stock. If you want to be part of a conversation about something new, Border’s is not where you go.

“But you can order it!” a salesperson delightfully responds.

If I must order a book from a local bookstore, it shall be from the Book Bin, which is run by a very lovely young couple who just moved from Portland to Salem to be closer to the family’s business. If you haven’t met Kat and Obadiah yet, you need to head down to the Court Street store and introduce yourself.

Lesson learned: I value curating, and the Border’s on Lancaster is curated for mass market tastes.

2. Brand

I’m not attached to Borders. I don’t know any of the booksellers there, and if I’m spending money on books in town, I’d rather keep as much of it in the community as possible.

3. Trees

I used to be the kind of person who might actually roll over in bed on top of a stack of hardbacks, but that is no longer the case. For one, I have some nice built-ins in our new place, but also, I’ve taken quite well to E-reading.

I have come to believe quite strongly that some books are not worth the paper they are printed on. Many of them, actually. I’ve been paying very close attention to my reading and book-buying habits and have noticed I am still spending a decent chunk of change on new hardback fiction, on home design books and on magazines. In the magazine department, I’ve taken quite well to digital forms preferred by online only mags such as Lonny and Anthology.

I also have a Kindle. I’m using my Kindle to read the first chapters of books I might want to buy to add to my collection and for downloading digital nonfiction books I don’t necessarily need to have a hard copy of. I don’t see any point in buying paper copies of books I’m going to read only once and don’t want to pass to a friend.

4. Change

I’m more than a little terrified my son might grow up in a world where he sees bookstores as a place for old people. I’m doing the best I can to assure that’s not the case. But I’m really excited about what digital books mean for authors and control of copyright and publishing.

If I ever harbored any disillusion any book I might write would reach its audience through a stack  in a Border’s with a book poster behind it to announce it to the world, it has long died. If you want to write and have an audience, you have to promote your own books. The Cormac McCarthys will always rise to the top. The rest of us have to hustle.

New media rarely replace the old. New physical forms allow for new artistic forms. And for those of us who love the old ways and never want to let go, we can always get together over coffee and have our own analog renaissance.

The value for Salem’s particular Border’s, for me, has always come from its magazine section. Here, I’ve been able to peruse any number of odd magazines I have an affinity for, including: Culture: The Word on Cheese, 1859 Magazine (Oregon lifestyle quarterly) to ReadyMade to Atomic Ranch, a magazine devoted entirely to the mid-century modern style. The section was a space for discovery  unmatched by the Internet and is, as far as I can tell, unrivaled by any other location here in Salem. Even the library cannot compete with Border’s for access to obscure magazines that cost $11.95.

Also, I’m going to have to find a new location for our Bored Meeting — the twice annual conference my friend and magazine writer Rachel Bucci and I have been having in the Border’s cafe.

5. Location

Part of my soul dies every time I drive down Lancaster Ave.

I realize this post is ridiculous. One person’s buying habits do not bring down a national chain. Nor can it massage the hearts of the people who shopped there.

Yes, I am very sad for Border’s employees, and I am sad for my mother-in-law, who lives in a town where there is no alternative to Border’s. But I’m not sad for me.

I am not just angry, I am outraged!

The proposed school budget for the Salem-Keizer School District will eliminate all librarians for K-8 schools. All media aides and librarians were notified last night that their jobs would fall victim to the school district’s $55 million shortfall.

Take away an arts or music program and you will find a lot of parents grumbling about the lack of enrichment and quality in their children’s education. Take away the librarian and what you’ll get is a mob full of uber-educated, clenched-fisted citizens having their beliefs in humanity shaken to the core.

As one of those uber-educated (two terminal degrees in one house), I can tell you the evolution of outrage in this household.

1. Outrage!

2. We have to get out of this city! Seriously, we’re values nomads. I can feel the vein on my forehead throbbing.

3. At the very least, we need to start saving for private school. I found many like-minded on Twitter, especially among Salem creatives, who are now talking about other options, such as forming a local teaching cooperative. Getting green.

4. Outrage! This might actually get me to make a rare protest appearance in public. Muscles morphing.

5. EMILY: ANGRY! It’s the next day. I’m still angry. Time to Hulk out.

A library is not a room filled with books and media. It is a living, breathing resource, and librarians are the pumping hearts of it. If you think a librarian’s job check out books and stamp a due date on the last page, then you must think a Google search is how an individual builds knowledge.

People like me are going to find other options. We are going to reach out to other resources. We are going to make meaningful decisions about which direction to take and we are going to educate ourselves about the paths we choose.

Holy crap, that’s what knowing how to use a library does for you!

Every one of you should watch the nice piece of citizen journalism created by Jessica Ramey, which illuminates the real role libraries play in our children’s education. Not incidentally, Jessica had this video prepared before the last school board meeting but was not allowed to show it to the group making the budget decisions.

You can also go to the I heart Public School Librarians Facebook page Jessica created and join. But I wouldn’t stop there. Facebook is great for rallying voices, but this is the kind of issue that demands physical presence.

The Statesman-Journal article on the subject notes that the libraries will stay open even after the librarians are pushed out.

Good luck with that!

Tigress Books: Wildly Independent, or the Bookshop Formerly Known as Tea Party is moving to Monmouth.

JoAnne Kohler, the store’s owner, sent the message to her e-list last night.

“I have had a great time in Salem, but the local and national economies have not been kind,” she wrote in the letter. “I would love to maintain a presence here in Salem, but the current finances do not allow that.”

Kohler said she is open to ideas and welcomed any creative ideas her supporters may have.

I was surprised when I discovered Tea Party – a bookstore launch in the age of dying readers? But I have always been thrilled to frequent the little shop on the corner with the big heart and the wicked, wry humor (JoAnne’s).

Tea Pary/Tigress, whatever you want to call it, was filling a niche here in Salem, but apparently, not a big enough one to warrant the downtown space Kohler was renting.

Kohler is holding a moving sale this weekend that should last through the end of the month. She expects to be in her new location in Monmouth in the carriage house of MaMere’s Bed and Breakfast.

Hold on, did you say: Carriage House!?

Well, that does sound so adorable I might just break out in bubbles.

One odd note from the letter. She mentions that she will continue to be a general interest bookstore with new and used books.

I was under the impression Tigress had only new books, and that the best thing about it was that she had hand-selected a lot of the books for a specific readership of people interested in New Age, Green Living, New Nonfiction, Children’s books and select fiction titles?

No bother. I’ll miss her and hope she does well at her new location.ne wishes to offer help or ideas, contact me privately.

I’m kind of a newsletter junkie, but I’ve noticed that if your newsletter sucks, it just gets deleted. Here are some local ones that always get read.

Salem Cinema: Loretta’s nostalgic-looking, gentle reminder of the power of cinema is a noteworthy heads-up about the latest must-see independent films.

Tigress Books: JoAnne Kohler sometimes breaks national news with her occasional e-newsletters about happenings at her downtown shop. Her notes to her customers are frank and lovely in a way that rarely gets used in the form. Roar!

Minto Island Growers: An always satisfying menage of home recipes, insider’s info about the farm and cultural-historical information about the great stuff in their CSA baskets, the Minto Island Growers newsletter, put together by Elizabeth Miller, is a must-read for home cooks with a love of the local.

E.Z. Orchards: The farm stand newsletter is mostly product updates about what’s available at the farm’s darling store on Hazel Green and Cordon roads. But who doesn’t need a little gentle nudge to be reminded of a MIXED BERRY SHORTCAKE BIGGER THAN YOUR BABY’s HEAD.

The Salem Public Library: Sonja Somerville puts together a fantastic, multi-page pdf newsletter of events at our local library. She might illuminate the best DIY car repair books in the library’s collection or remind you about the almost daily book-related happenings there. Adult story time? Snuggle up!

Life Source Natural Foods: Don’t just eat food. Meet the people who make it! Or learn about one person’s journey through a gluten-free diet! It’s a little text-heavy, but if you’re a reader and you like food connections, check it out.

Salem Breakfast on Bikes: Exclamations! Shout it out! The man behind Breakfast on Bikes has excitement for the the lifestyle practice of biking that just bleeds off the screen. Even better? He uses ample links to make sure we will never lose our way to the Monster Cookie. Sign up by contacting: Salembikes [at] gmail.com

A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village: Quite possibly the best laid-out e-newsletter in town (color is not just for kids!), A.C. Gilbert’s flagship news vehicle is an inspiration to keep facilitating those experiences for your children. Get out of the house!

Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center: Proof every time that a city like Salem has a lot of country to explore and learn about.

Friends of Salem Saturday Market: The sheer bulk of this immensely readable newsletter is a testament to the huge and positive role the market has in this community. Also, a heads up about visiting baby goats.

Ok, so I know that mine lean heavily towards food news.

What ones have I missed?

Nadelson is one of those people here in town who are assuring that Salem achieves the robust literary culture that it deserves.

One of his first tasks as chair? To put together a roster of must-see, have-to-genuflect-before visiting writers who are speaking on campus this fall.

I do hope they get him a good seat for hosting these talks.

All events will take place at 7 p.m. in the Hatfield Room of Willamette’s Mark O. Hatfield Library, and all are free and open to the public.

September 30: An Evening with Fiction Writer Manuel Muñoz.

• Muñoz, who writes about Chicano/a communities in California’s Central Valley, is the author of two collections of short stories: Zigzagger (Northwestern University Press, 2003) and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007). He has received pretty much every distinction out there that you can get for short story writing, including the 2008 Whiting Writers’ Award and a 2009 PEN/O. Henry Award for his story “Tell Him About Brother John.”

October 12: The Art of Playwriting with Andrea Stolowitz.

• Stolowitz is a graduate of the MFA playwriting program at the University of California San Diego and is currently teaching at Willamette. With names like TALES OF DOOMED LOVE and BAD FAMILY, you can bet she writes the kind of approachable, funny stuff for the stage.

December 1: New Voices Showcase: Poet Keetje Kuipers & Fiction Writer Elissa Minor Rust.

• Kuipers is a native of the Northwest.  She earned her B.A. at Swarthmore College and her M.F.A. at the University of Oregon.  In 2007 she completed her tenure as the Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Resident, which provided her with seven months of solitude in Oregon’s Rogue River Valley.  She used her time there to complete work on her book, Beautiful in the Mouth, which was awarded the 2009 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize and was published in March 2010 by BOA Editions.

(ok, kind of jealous after typing out that one…)

• Rust lives and works in Portland, Oregon and is proud to call herself a Northwest writer. She teaches writing and literature at Portland Community College, and publishes fiction and nonfiction in national literary magazines and anthologies. Her short story collection, The Prisoner Pear: Stories From the Lake, was published in December 2005 by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice pick.

I’m seeing it all over town and in my conversations with Salem’s creative folk.

Salem’s very own Stephanie Lenox, poet and new mama has put together the brand-new issue of Blood Orange Review, a highly respected online literary journal, in-between her darling baby’s naps and working for A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village. It includes, among other strange, curious and beautiful things, an essay on roadkill that is something like a piece I once wrote after trailing around with the dude who picks it off Iowa highways for a living.

Hey, just cause I’m a mama doesn’t mean I can’t be interested in roadkill.

There is also a sweet poem about bees.

Will Bragg, all-around man-about-town these days, has opened up a downtown studio. He’s been photographing the people who work around him. Sure, this might seem like a routine and ordinary project, but look at this gorgeous woman who owns Glance Glasses! Hair, commence greyness!

All kinds of jealous of his recent photo shoot with Grand Duchy, Frank Black’s new project (you’ll remember they played their first show here in April of 2009).

Congrats to Will, for getting what all of us want. You know, a room of our own.

Jessica Ramey of Northwest Nest, a hero to mothers all who aspire to raise their kids and create their art at the same time (the impossibility of achieving flow — ask me about it sometime), launched a Salem Zine project that you may have heard about here, and here.

One quibble about the article about Jessica. She’s not one woman behind the trend in Salem. In this case, she IS the trend.

You can download her Salem zine here.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pooped from having just typed what other people are doing. But what about you? Have you managed to create something glorious in the scant idle hours of summer?

And at a time when indie bookstores are out like the gout!

She’s taken a downtown space and made it a cultural center of sorts for Salem progressives, and has ensured that we always have a physical space to turn to when we need a meticulously stocked, hand-curated selection of contemporary fiction.

Ms. Kohler knows her stuff. She used to work for Borders, and was recommending The Help long before the mainstream media caught on.

But she ran into a stumbling block when the name of her bookstore, Tea Party Bookshop, became synonymous with — wait for it! — the exact opposite ideology her store generally supports (it has a New Age section as well as a large selection of Green books).

Um… time to rebrand!

Ms. Kohler stuck it out and braved the readers looking for Glenn Beck tomes for a while, but has decided to rename her store Tigress Books: Wildly Independent! Her new logo is out and replaces the previous one, which featured a clipper ship intended to invoke the spirit of American independence (and buying locally).

So don’t throw out your tea, cuddle up with a tiger.

Or read some Anais Nin.

Roar!

It’s that time of year again, folks. It’s time to furrow your brow and shake your fist and cluck incredulously at how the public in Salem so often gets many of its own Best-of’s wrong. Say what you will, James Surowiecki, about the Wisdom of Crowds, but there are areas in our lives where it really helps to have a real taste maker tell you where to go and what to eat, what to see and what to do. Otherwise you might just end up eating your Cheap Eats in the charming digs of Costco instead of at La Perla downtown.

Some categories of the Statesman Journal’s annual best-of’s are obviously spot-on. Word of Mouth wins Best Breakfast? Yeah, I’ll agree with that one.

But man, are there some hilarious entries and hilarious winners in this year’s poll.

Best Place to Give Birth:

1. Silverton Hospital
2. Salem Hospital
3. At-home with midwife

What’s number 4? In the the back of your Subaru on the way to the hospital? Under the rotunda at the State Capitol building? Spontaneously in line at Fred Meyer?

Best Hot Dog

1. Casey’s
2. Costco
3. Mt. Angel Sausage Co.

I love a hot dog, but does the hot dog really warrant its own category? A better bet would be best grilled cheese. Casey’s would win that, too.

Best Coffee Shop

1. Dutch Bros.
2. The Grind
3. Starbucks

Love me some Dutch Bros. on the way down to Eugene to work sometimes, but people people PLEASE!, Dutch Bros. is not a coffee shop, unless you consider sitting outside on a lawn chair next to the water feature a coffee shop experience. Best coffee shop is the Beanery downtown. Best coffee SHACK is Salem’s Latte.

Best Food Cart

1. Casey’s Cafe
2. Capitol Dog
3. Adam’s Rib Smokhouse

Do these restaurants really have food carts or are they just selling food cart food? Someone please enlighten me. Where are the Salem food carts? I know there are a few on Silverton, and there’s a Latino fruit cart that parks sometimes on Savage Road. Can we count Canby Asparagus Farms at the Chemeketa St. Farmer’s Market as being a food cart? If so, they win.

Best Bookstore

1. Borders
2. Book Bin
3. Tea Party Bookstore

I’m done talking about how much Borders sucks. But here’s a note in case you’ve forgotten. My friend and I meet often at Borders for our Bored Meetings. Can’t find a book there because they never have what I want or need. I heard they carry Twilight, though.

Best Adult-related Business

1. Santiam Wine Co.
2. Enigma Adult Toy Boutique
3. Eve’s Boutique

That’s not a best-of list, that’s a recipe for a kinky Saturday night!

Ah, best-of’s. You say so much about Salem. I’m nominating this mobile from our nursery for Best Sculpture AND Best Zoo.

This point was hammered home for me this morning when I turned to my regular reading of the New York Times’ Ethicist column by Randy Cohen, who tackles this exact topic.

And lo and behold!, look who’s asking questions of public library ethics — it’s none other than my good friend Rachel Bucci, Salem, Ore. resident and mom of one.

Here’s her question:

I borrowed “Juliet Naked,” the latest Nick Hornby novel, from my local library a few weeks ago. It is due today. Unfortunately I’m only about halfway through and can’t renew it, because it is on hold for another patron. I’m willing to pay the penalty, 25 cents a day, so I can keep reading. May I do that, or must I return it knowing that someone else is waiting for it? RACHEL BUCCI, SALEM, ORE.

And here is Mr. Cohen’s answer.

The Ethicist generally runs a few months after the issues are resolved, and that happened with Ms. Bucci as well. By the time she got her name in the New York Times — go Rachel! Every writer’s dream! — she had already decided the right thing was to return the book on time and check it out later.

That’s news to me. I still have the library’s copies of Jo Frost’s Confident Baby Care and Harvey Karp’s Happiest Baby on the Block, which were due on Thursday.

Don’t worry, I plan to make good on this library transgression by participating in the library’s FOOD FOR FINES program.

Apparently, when I am good, I am very very good, and when I am bad, I am horrid.

Or at least unethical.