BC Summer Reads Southern Tour: Charleston’s Blue Bicycle
UPDATE: Congratulations to Saundra, winner of last week’s T-Shirt contest from the Charleston County Main Library. Which is awesome, because Saundra is none other than Saundra Mitchell, and y’all know how we feel about SHADOWED SUMMER, her spooky southern debut novel.
Also, y’all voted to send Carrie Ryan’s FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH to the library. We’ll see if we can get Carrie to autograph a bookplate; good Carolina girl that she is, we’re hopin’ she’ll be happy to oblige!
After meeting Andria at the Charleston County Main Library, our next stop was King Street, to the hippest indie bookstore in downtown Charleston, the famed Blue Bicycle Books. As you can see, there’s even a Blue Bicycle stacked with books in front of the shop. (Hint: we added the one stacked on top!) We had a wonderful time chatting with the owner, Jonathan Sanchez, who didn’t mind when our kids pillaged the place and tormented the cat. sampled the books and charmed the cat.
The Blue Bicycle is a Charleston original, hosting not only a youth writing camp, but also courtyard events for many local authors. DO NOT GO TO CHARLESTON WITHOUT STOPPING BY THE BLUE BICYCLE!
And by the way, Jonathan Sanchez is also a writer, and a two-time winner of the S.C. Fiction Project. How do we know? We discovered a book of his own short stories, Bandit, in the shop! Now is that every writer’s fantasy or what? Our own little indie shop in a funky southern town like Charleston? (Note to industry, he may be from Charlotte, but he put in a few years up north as a Yalie with the rest of you Yanks…)
And now, the dreaded Summer Reads Southern Tour Quiz…
US: Book you recommend the most?
BB: PRINCE OF TIDES
US: Book you sell the most?
BB: ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac, and lots of Kurt Vonnegut
US: Book that made you love reading?
BB: Anything by Ray Bradbury (We love Ray Bradbury, and especially how he has thrown himself into saving our libraries!)
US: Favorite southern writer?
BB: Pat Conroy
Normally this is when we would have asked for a favorite quote, but since Jonathan is a writer in his own right, we thought we’d give you one of his poems instead…
Typing With Paint
by Jonathan Sanchez
Typing with paint on your fingers
Painting with clay under your nails
Farming with ink on your seeds
Riding your bike with a pencil in your hair
Cutting the grass with flour on your shirt
Making dinner with grass in your cuffs
Sewing with oil on your palms
Fixing the car with sawdust in your hair
Sawing a board with a thimble on your thumb and pins in your teeth
Writing a poem with a girl in your head
Writing a poem with a song on your tongue
Writing a poem with California on the coast
Writing a poem with a checkbook to balance
Writing a poem with a book to sell
Writing a poem with no poem to write
Writing a poem with balloons for hands
The last line is my favorite. Here’s another line I like, this time from one of Jonathan’s writing students:
Every day feels like a cat with a stick of butter. — Maurice Sampson
I would like to go to this writing camp!
Okay. I’m warning you, the Blue Bicycle T-Shirts, made expressly for the Blue Bicycle Writing Camp, are super cool. You’re going to want this one.
TO ENTER: TELL US WHAT BOOK YOU WOULD LIKE US TO BUY FROM THE BLUE BICYCLE TO DONATE TO ANOTHER CHARLESTON LIBRARY, AND IF YOU ARE SUPER BORED, WHAT YOU THINK THE CAT’S NAME IS…
WInners will be announced via Caster Vlog next Monday, before the next Tuesday stop on our tour. (Have you realized that I’m a day late and a dollar short? Yeah. Shhh!)
Get posting and good luck!
10 comments on “BC Summer Reads Southern Tour: Charleston’s Blue Bicycle”
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The Authors
Kami Garcia is a teacher and reading specialist with an MA in education, and leads book groups for children and teenagers. Margaret Stohl has an MA in English and studied creative writing under poet George MacBeth at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. They both live in Los Angeles, California, with their families. Beautiful Creatures is their debut novel.
The Novels
Castergirls
Okay, I say we should donate Eyes Like Stars since it is released this month.
Not sure about the cat…Books? Dewey?
Dewey? Just have to ask…why Dewey?
On the Road and Kurt Vonnegut!?!
This sounds like my kind of city if that’s what people are reading!
I would donate Cat’s Cradle.
Awh a bookstore kitteh! I wan’t him. I also have to ask…Dewey? I have a grey cat too and her name is Lilly, so I’m going with Lilly.
Casper. I don’t know why, the cat seems like it’s called Casper.
Maybe you could donate Dandelion Wine, it’s my fav book, and from what I’ve read, you like RB too ;)
Dewey would be as in Mr. Melvil Dewey’s famous Decimal System for libraries (the subject of a recent nonfiction bestseller about a library cat in Iowa was named Dewey Readmore Books).
Personally I think Helene would be a great name for a bookshop cat, but in this particular context Regine might be more likely.
Why not give Charleston a copy of David Macinnes Gill’s Soul Enchilada?
Margaret! There you are! I love the cat named Dewey Readmore Books. The last cat that I saw in a bookstore, by the way, was named Jenny after Jenny and the Cat Club. But that is not this cat…
Glad to see you in the BC blogosphere! M
That cat LOOKS charmed!!!
[...] Garcia and Stohl are arguably the most innovative and dynamic promoters we’ve ever seen (Their blog has profiles booksellers and librarians, trivia give-aways, candy give-aways, and a playlist of the main character’s favorite songs). They came through Charleston on a pre-release tour last spring and visited the Blue Bike, you can see details and pictures of their visit here. [...]
Hmm maybe Shiver? Or The Dark Divine.