Good Cemetery Guide: The Art of Death and Dying: BOOKSHOP GUEST COLUMN

What good booksellers do best

The Man Booker Prize

By Jonathan Ruppin, Promotions Buyer, Foyles www.themanbookerprize.com

All children mythologise their birth

The payoff line 'Kalk Bay Books - where everyone has a story' was inspired by a quote carried at the beginning of Diane Setterfield's wonderful gothic novel, The Thirteenth Tale: 'All children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won't be the truth: It will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.'

Kalk Bay Books - where everyone has a story

In mulling over Consuelo Roland's request to write something about death and literature, it occurred to me that if we learn about people through the tales of their birth, how much more telling will be their stories of death?

I remember the family gathering after the sudden death of my father-in-law. We sat at the table, crying, laughing, eating, drinking - and sharing stories about him. Some we'd heard and witnessed; others were new to us. A story I told was of his teasing me - knowing that he'd get a rise out of me - about how much time I spent reading. Sitting in the sun on his farm one day, reading Portrait of Lady while all about me people were fixing tractors, feeding sheep, and doing other useful but unappealing chores, he yelled over at me: 'What do you want to read that stuff for? There's nothing useful in it.' Miffed (and possibly feeling the guilt of the physically inactive), I gave him a lecture on the merits of literature.

Self-righteous at the time, I nevertheless was right. Literature has taught me more about myself, life, love, and stuff, than anything else. Strangely, though, I've never really stopped and thought about it teaching me anything about death.

So, on receiving Consuelo's request, I took a walk around the shop looking for books that I'd read that had death or dying as a theme or subject. I looked at fiction (but not crime - though I'm sure there's worthwhile stuff there, too), rather than the more specific medical/psychological/mind-body-spirit shelves, as I wanted to see if, indeed, 'stories' had anything to offer, and was startled at how many there are. It was evident that if one is looking to literature for an understanding of how people 'work', then stories of how people deal with death offer enough variations and explanations to fill a library. From them we can learn how to recover from death, how to learn from death, how to see ourselves and others, in the light of death. Indeed, there is a story for everyone.

See Features >< BOOKS for a small selection of what I recommend.

Ann Donald, KALK BAY BOOKS

Bookshops to Visit

The Good Cemetery Guide
Book Sellers Network:

BOOKSHOPS TO VISIT

Barge at Le Somail, home to Librarie Ancienne

Do you have a favorite bookshop somewhere in the world that's not part of the network yet? Send in their details and a picture and we will add them to our list of Bookshops to Visit

BIBLIOPHILE NEWSFLASH!

Buy the South African Country Life magazine, June 2008, and read the article RICHMOND, Why this Karoo town is wowing bookworms, by Chris Marais.

Richmond awaits!

Bibliophile noun a person who collects or who has a great love of books.
DERIVATIVES - bibliophilic adjective bibliophily noun

Readers Digest Wordpower Dictionary

Kalk Bay Books

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it
Oscar Wilde

VERILY, VERILY, VERILY

Verily, I have discovered a new world. We're not talking Christopher Columbus stuff here, there are no wild natives to contend with, unless its super-eager traffic officers and curler-clad ladies, and in place of new food varietals such as the potato and tomato I've discovered excitement of a more spiritual nature; the world of book lovers beyond the big city. There's time to read when life is lived at a slower pace, and libraries are struggling to buy new books with limited budgets, so there's readers galore to support small privately-owned bookshops.

In my efforts to market hundreds of copies of The Good Cemetery Guide out of the publisher's warehouse onto bookshop shelves I began taking trips out to the surrounds of Cape Town and small towns further afield. I have found an amazing world of enthusiastic and friendly bookshop owners, managers and assistants who seem genuinely pleased (!) to meet the author of the book; long unhurried gesellig conversations are held surrounded by wholly personal book selections that reek of fascination and occasionally - if I get lucky - of eccentricity and obsession.

I've been offered capuccinos and an overnight place to stay (if I ever come to talk to the Book club...) and a wad of texts on sex and spirituality (Dan Brown of Da Vinci Code fame features strongly) and life-changing book names and website addresses, all by strangers who became accomplices in the act of loving books.

With a few noteworthy exceptions - and admittedly I probably need some tips on how to handle such encounters - I've crept away crestfallen from many a big city bookshop. 'Another one of those bothersome local writers wanting something from us' the manager's face seems to say.

Who can blame them; with shelves loaded with books written by famous authors who'd want to waste time on an unknown (albeit up-and-coming with good reviews) first-novel (consignment stock that's expendable when shelf space is at a premium) local writer who's hovering nervously and asking where her book is on the South African shelves?

They know how to treat introverted writers out in the countryside; a bit of hospitality brings them right out of their turtle shells. And did I mention that the bookshops ooze their own special character and personality? From Bikini Beach Bookshop in Gordon's Bay (an old house filled with books piled high to the ceilings amidst shell ornaments for sale) to Die Klein Karoo Boekwinkel in Montagu (a wonderland of children's books and carefully selected adult books), there's no shortage of welcoming book nooks to escape into.

On your next weekend excursion into the countryside why not head for a country bookshop? And next time you're looking for a gift or a comfort spot head for one of the smaller city bookshops with a personal touch. If you've come upon a special bookshop somewhere in the world send us the details with a picture. We'll add it to our Bookshops to Visit list.

Consuelo Roland

ORDERS

Contact details:
email: info@goodcemeteryguide.com