Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Introducing Your Boswellians: Nick

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Name: Nick Berg
Position:
Bookseller, philosopher, hunky dude



1. Why did you want to work in a bookstore?
There are three things every great city must possess: an old movie theater, a good coffee shop and a great bookstore. In Milwaukee, you can find all of these components on the same block. From the moment I stepped onto Downer Avenue, and likewise, into Boswell Books, I knew I’d found nirvana.

2. Which section of the store would you consider your “specialty”?
Normally nonfiction (history, science, cooking, etc), but I’ll admit to a fondness for children’s books. I’m an illustrator, and I draw a lot of inspiration from the work of the masters - Dr. Seuss, Tomie dePaola, Chris van Allsburg, Eric Carle, E.B. White, Quentin Blake, Don Wood, Maurice Sendak...

3. What book has kept a permanent place on your “favorite books” list?
Cloudy With a Chance Of Meatballs. Ron Barrett’s illustrations were what inspired wee, little six-year-old Nick to pick up a pencil and draw.

4. What’s on your reading list right now?
I’m digging science and physics writing lately – I’m working through Brian Cox and Michio Kaku at the moment. I’ve been a huge fan of cooking literature lately as well; can’t wait to read Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton, The Sorcerer’s Apprentices by Lisa Abend, It Must Have Been Something I Ate by Jeffrey Steingarten, and A History Of The World In 6 Glasses by Tom Standage.

5. Who is your newest favorite author?
Mary Roach; she’s brilliant. And Stephen Fry is hilarious.

6. Which writer would render you speechless if you met him/her?
If he were living, I’d want to sit down for a mojito with Hemingway. Otherwise meeting Bill Bryson would be incredible – the guy’s a genius. I’d imagine a conversation with him would be amazing.

7. With which fictional character can you most relate?
Calvin, of Bill Watterson's genius Calvin and Hobbes comic strips: Adventurous, an avid comic book reader, intensely imaginative, curious, inexplicably intelligent, loyal, extraordinarily well-spoken and deeply philosophical, yet prone to pure idiocy. Sounds like me!

8. Someone wrote your biography – what is the title?
I Hope You Wore Clean Underwear.

9. If you were a super-villain, what would be your name and who would be your arch-nemesis?
The Quoter – I’d speak only in dialogue from film and television - with terrible impersonations included, of course. My arch-nemesis would be Captain Copyright.

10. You’ve been asked to select four commercial-free hours worth of programming for a cable TV station, what shows/movies would you put on it?
Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

11. What pop culture decade would help your team win Trivia Night, thanks to you?
I have a certain affinity for all things 90's, but I believe I could hold my own with just about any other decade.

12. Coffee or Tea?
Yes, please.

13. Can you bake a cake?
Boy, can I! I'm also remarkably talented at eating them. I'm happy to show you.

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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Introducing Your Boswellians: Mel

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Name: Melissa “Mel” Morrow
Position:
Bookseller



1. Why did you want to work in a bookstore?
So. Many. BOOKS!!! Super-happy nerd overload!!

2. Which section of the store would you consider your “specialty”?
Cooking and Comics

3. What book has kept a permanent place on your “favorite books” list?
So far: Veganomicon by Moskowitz and Romero. That’s my first go-to when I want to cook something delicious.

4. What’s on your reading list right now?
Redshirts by John Scalzi; Womanthology by Renea de Liz; Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robinson; Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry; Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman and the list goes on….

5. Who is your newest favorite author?
DAVID FINCH!!!!!

6. Which writer would render you speechless if you met him/her?
Grant Morrison. I would implode, rendering me an inarticulate mess, and not a cool inarticulate mess like the mirror-matter Morrison wrote about in The Invisibles.

7. With which fictional character can you most relate?
Metaphorically and on most days, I swing between feeling a lot like Bran Stark and Jon Snow from George R. R. Martin’s series, A Song of Ice and Fire. But there are days when I’m absolutely Dr. John Seward from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

8. Someone wrote your biography – what is the title?
Scatter Plot: The Random Adventures of a Deliberate Person

9. If you were a super-villain, what would be your name and who would be your arch-nemesis?
I would be The Nothing, and my arch-nemesis would be Mr. Everything. We would be as tied to each other as Batman and The Joker (see Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas for a detailed analysis of the nemesis and arch-enemy relationships starring Batman, The Joker, and Superman).

10. You’ve been asked to select four commercial-free hours worth of programming for a cable TV station, what shows/movies would you put on it?
Adventure Time marathon!!!

11. What pop culture decade would help your team win Trivia Night, thanks to you?
Sadly, 2002 to 2012.

12. Coffee or Tea?
Four Loko. Watch out!

13. Can you bake a cake?
My specialty is baklava.

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Monday, February 6, 2012

Introducing Your Boswellians!

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Inspired by Algonquin Books' blog series "Booksellers Rock!", we present a get-to-know-your-booksellers series of our own: "Introducing Your Boswellians!"

Seeing that we've recently added a few newbies to our lineup, we'll be starting with them, then continuing on to the rest of the staff - in no particular order (except perhaps in the order which their questionnaires came back to me). Once they're posted here, we'll include them on our website where you can also find out what our booksellers are recommending in the store.

We hope you enjoy getting to know us a little better.
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