There be Owls, and Books, there

Reflecting the county courthouse

How many owls can you count?
If you enter Burrowing Owl Bookstore in Canyon, Texas, I bet you'll lose count.
Not live ones (that's against the law), but models and stuffed toy types.
Why do I know? Because that's the bookstore of my daughter and son-in-law, Dallas and Todd Bell, which just celebrated its second anniversary in business.
With more than 21,000 new and used books on the shelves, it's the only independent bookstore in the Texas Panhandle, and probably the only one between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque and Santa Fe, 
So yes, I'm proud and bragging. 

Lots of local authors, and owls

Owls? I lost count too, and it changes, but not counting the signs, I'd estimate about 40 on my last trip this month, scattered throughout the store.
It's located on the east side of the square across from the stately Randall County county courthouse, about 10 miles south of Amarillo. The courthouse is vacant, after refurbishing funds ran out, but the exterior is in great shape, and every hour the bells chime from the clock tower.

The door is usually open, because Dallas says they get more traffic that way. When I was there Saturday morning,  people of all ages came in, buying books, asking about books, talking, browsing, even reading to their children.
Step inside and you'll find new books and stuff up front, and then used books all the way to the back where the children's section is--fiction on one side, non-fiction on the other. Those wooden bookshelves?--all build by Todd.

The first things you see will be the regional books, new and used, in cooperation with West Texas A & M University's Center for the Study of the American West.New local authors and books and displays of gifts and stuff are next.

Wardrobe entry to children's, plus an owl

In the children's section, you can walk through a wardrobe (also built by Todd), and find seating, toys and, obviously books. This is where "Granny Gray," one of Dallas' employees, comes to read to the children every week. The shop has also hosted local authors and poetry readings.
The square is no longer just the home of antique shops, victim to the strip and Walmart. Canyon bills it as the "Dining District," and there's an Asian restaurant next to the book shop, a Mexican restaurant, a new bar and grill, and a hip 1950's themed soda fountain and cafe, as well as an independent coffee shop, all walkable. The newspaper, the offices of the Palo Duro Canyon  "Texas" musical, a barber shop and other offices are also there.

One of the neatest things in the store are the "Wrapped Books." Dallas and some  employees put duplicate books  in brown wrapping paper. Then her employee Emily Hinds, an English major at West Texas, copies the first line of the book, and draws a simple image on the front. They sell for $6.50 and are in constant demand. I bought one for Susan, and she won't unwrap it, keeping it on a shelf as a work of art.
Dallas actively promotes the shop on social media, has eight employees, including occasional help from her three children who are also super active in school, my grandchildren Erin, Abby and Max. The store is closed Sundays, and early Wednesday for church.
Independent bookstores are coming back, but they are a labor of love and lots of commitment. I don't buy from A...(the name which should not be spoken for books), unless not available from independents. We're fortunate to have four good ones here. I do my best to buy my books at Edmond Best of Books since it is close, but also at Full Circle Books (terrific poetry section), and a few at Commonplace Books. Literati is new  in Paseo. I do buy used art books elsewhere.
You should too. Go browse, discover, touch, read--you can't do that on line.

https://www.burrowingowlbookstore.com/

Owls? More photos.

Children's section

Burrowing Owls and old books

Behind checkout, and yes, my watercolor of Palo Duro's "Lighthouse"

Seasonal owl

Genre Sign

Up to date owl

The door is open

Books, and owls

An owl's eye view

A year ago, Erin, Max, Abby and granddad at Burrowing Owl

Turning pages of the West and other travels

@okieprof talking with Craig Johnson, author of Longmire series, at Full Circle Books. Photo by my old newspaper friend Glen Seeber.

My autographed copy

I try to read at least a book a month, but this spring has been slow, but that changed this last week, after a visit to Full Circle Bookstore a week ago to hear  Craig Johnson. He's the  best-selling author of the Longmire modern Western mystery series which has been a hit on A&E TV.
Before reading a little from his latest book about the Wyoming sheriff, "Any Other Name," he told story after humorous story, about living in Wyoming near the Montana border, reading his books in rural libraries, supporting independent book stores, affecting  sales of Rainier beer, (Walt Longmire's favorite), and working with the actors in the TV series, the only one I watch.

I've read three of his previous books, but what first hooked me was the TV show. While set in Wyoming, it's filmed in northern New Mexico, and I watch it for the drama and familiar scenery--I think I've been everywhere the show is filmed.
Obviously I bought the book, got it autographed, and finished it within a few days, my fourth book this year. Fortunately, the new TV season of the show starts Monday. The actor Robert Taylor resembles James Arness in "Gunsmoke," but this show is  more realistic and set in present day. It's a good show, different enough from the books to make you want to read them too. 
The books move quickly, gaining speed near the climaxes. I especially like his use of Wyoming weather  in the plots. What really stands out--I wanted to ask him about it at Full Circle but didn't want to bog down the large audience with my interests--Johnson inserts a lot of Native American beliefs and what we gringos would call "mysticism." But if you've lived in the West and known those cultures, you know there's a spirituality there that transcends whites' poor ideas of reality. 
Favorite line from the new book is "She stood there like an unfinished phrase." Wow.

"She stood there like an unfinished phrase"

Johnson is a big cowboy who knows the rural West and its people, and the realistic characters people his books.  I wish I'd had a recorder for all his stories, but one quote stood out during the night: "I like spending time with Walt."

I also bought Larry McMurtry's new novel, the "Last Kind Words Saloon," writing about the legends of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, beginning in West Texas and leading up to the Gunfight at the OK Corral. 
He's writing about the legends, not the facts, of the closing of the West, and included are Quanah Parker, Charlie Goodnight, Bill Cody and others in the brief book. I liked the first three fourths of the book...it's funny and tragic, and McMurtry is a master of characterization and funny dialog. The end of the book disappointed me though, but it's in line with McMurtry de-mythologizing the West. There are no heroes here--just people with problems who legend has made bigger than life. So his was the fifth book this year.

Two previous books this spring were for my Sunday night "soul-detox" group I've written about, spiritual traveling. Most recently was Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist," a symbolic fable of wisdom about  a young sheepherder on life's journey in the Sahara. It's been translated into more than 20 languages. And before that was "The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence" by Cindy Wigglesworth. 
What is interesting to me is that Wigglesworth's is the only non-fiction book I've read this year, a reversal of my preference for non-fiction. First book back in January, was Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Interview with Wigglesworth

Banned books, Huck Finn and I are coming

I just finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. First book of the year.
Along the way, I learned it is the fifth most banned book in recent times.
Why? Probably because it's real, including racist language and characters, but also because it is real literature and makes you think.
Book banners hate you to think. That's why Hitler burned them. Why the conservatives and GOP want to shut down NPR. 
More on this later, including lists from the library association about banned books in America. I therefore vow to read at least one banned book a month this year. 
Following is a list of the most banned books in this century from the library association, including Harry Potter.
This is a display about banned books in Full Circle Book Store September.
Here's the American Library Association's list of the top 21  banned and challenged books in the 2st Century. How many have you read?
1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2. Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9. ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16. Forever, by Judy Blume
17. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20. King and King, by Linda de Haan
21. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
And from the 20th Century:
1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Oklahoma red clay Saturday

"Dust swept up from the new flowerbeds and swirled around the foundation of the building. I hoped from the bottom of my heart that she would pour out everything."

"At night I law awake, noticing how our house sounded. ...but now the house itself made a kind of wheeze every once in a while like it was remembering the time before it was level."

Would you keep reading? How about an autographed copy of the book, signed in person by the Oklahoma native author?
You can get one  when Louise Farmer Smith comes to Full Circle Bookstore www.fullcirclebooks.com/ this Saturday at 3 p.m. to sign her book, 100 Years of Marriage-A Novel in Stories.
Hooked yet? How about the grabber she asks, "Why did your mother say yes?"

It's an Oklahoma family epic spanning generations--moving in Michneresque structure from the past to near the present, and while Louise lives in DC and has East Coast college degrees, these stories have Oklahoma red clay on them, set in the state.
See the review of the book on this blog back in June. Here's the link:
http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-did-your-mother-say-yes.html
I intend to go and just meet this spunky, erudite Okie, to see her smile and listen to some stories.