Eons ago, in the Paleozoic Era, people went to bookstores to get books and to record stores to get records.
There they met professional bookworms
and record store geeks behind the counter, people that the writer Nick
Hornby called “professional appreciators.”
Despite the twin meteors of the Internet and big box stores, these places still exist in southeastern Connecticut.
And the people that work and own book
shops and record stores are still experts in their fields and have
opinions about what was good reading and good listening in 2008.
Dan Curland, owner of Mystic Disc in downtown Mystic, counted Rockferry by Duffy, the 24-year-old blue-eyed soul singer from Wales, as one of the best albums he heard this year.
And Curland was tipped off about Duffy from an unlikely source.
“My 9-year-old daughter, Lena, turned me on to her,” he said. “[Lena] has good taste.”
Curland said Duffy reminded him of the late Dusty Springfield, whose Dusty In Memphis, from 1969 was produced by the late Jerry Wexler.
Rockferry
features former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler as a producer, whose
string-laden arrangements are both baroque and restrained.
“Listen to that,” Curland said, while cueing up the title track. “Not bad for a blond-haired girl from the UK.”
The other albums on Curland’s turntable—vinyl is king at Mystic Disc—include the latest archival releases from Bob Dylan (Tell Tale Signs), Neil Young (Sugar Mountain –Live at Canterbury House), and Stephen Stills (Just Roll Tape from 2007).
For jazz fans, Curland recommended the box set commemorating the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, that includes a double CD, a vinyl edition, and a DVD about the making of the record.
Blues fans should check out the latest by Lurrie Bell, whose Let’s Talk About Love, from 2007 was the strongest seller at Tumbleweeds in downtown Niantic in 2008.
“That sold every time we put it on in the store,” owner Tara Wyatt said.
Wyatt also said Jukebox by Cat Power, the nom de rock of singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, was another popular release that sold plenty at Tumbleweeds.
As for what she found interesting this year, Wyatt has been feasting on a steady diet of soul and funk.
“I don’t listen to a lot of mainstream stuff,” Wyatt said.
Foremost has been Pebble To A Pearl by Nikka Costa.
Wyatt
noted the most mainstream thing she’s been smitten by is the latest by
Brett Dennen, the folky from California, who has recorded with the
Afro-beat singer Femi Kuti.
Down Main Street at the Book Barn, owner Randi White said the most notable book he’s read this year has been The Knack, not to be confused with the band of “My Sharona” fame.
Appropriately enough, The Knack, by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham, is an economics book aimed at small business owners.
White said that most financial advice titles are written either by or for people who work at Fortune 500 companies.
“I’m not one of those companies,” he noted.
And business has been relatively brisk this Christmas season at the Book Barn.
“We’ve
seen a definite increase in the number of used books sold this year,”
White said. “The collectable book market has bottomed out, but people
are buying used ones as stocking stuffers.”
As for reading material on his nightstand, White said that most of his favorites this year have been mysteries.
Patience Banister, co-owner of Bank Square Books in Mystic, was most impressed with Mudbound, by novelist Hillary Jordan.
She said that President-elect Barack Obama’s books, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams From My Father, continue to be hot sellers.
Also Banister has been selling plenty of copies of Wally Lamb’s latest, The Hour I First Believed, and Toni Morrison’s new novel, A Mercy.
And young readers have been scooping up copies of Stephanie Meyers’ “Twilight” series and The Tale of Beedle the Bard, the latest by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
“It’s not selling as much as the Harry Potter books,” Banister added.
By Stephen Chupaska
Staff Writer