Lorem Ipsum

There is nothing like a Sunday afternoon and a really good used bookstore.  Today my friend and I wandered into a new one on our way home from lunch.  Lorem Ipsum, located in Inman Square, Cambridge, is a quiet unassuming little store.  I was deceived at first by the simple arrangements and seemingly few bookshelves.  I noticed one tiny spot labeled, "Good books for kids" and figured it was the only kids book section.  In this section of 20ish books they did have two books on the list in my brain of "Good Books to Buy."

"This store is pretty cool, but their children's section is seriously lacking," I mumbled to my friend.  Oh me.  Turn the corner and there was the kids book section I was looking for, which was NOT seriously lacking!  Although it was restricted to two and a half book shelves, these shelves were packed with the best of the best.  Soon I had a stack of books I had to have.  Then I added some numbers in my head and quietly re-shelved a few of the books.

My favorite section was the quirky children's books.  (It had a really cool name but I can't remember right now...)  Here I found old copies of books, strange children's books never heard of, and titles that made me laugh out loud, such as: Peep Show: A little book of Rhymes. Ha!

I left the store with some winners.  Here they are in no particular order:


The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
A book I have heard about but have yet to read about an imagined history of our world.

Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
Said to be the first picture book ever published.

John, Paul, George, & Ben by Lane Smith
Lane Smith, of It's a Book fame and also the illustrator of many of Jon Sciezka's books.  This book tells about the childhood of America's famous rebel-rousers.  "Say, you want a revolution?" the book asks.  It treats you to some fact and some fiction surrounding these men and then in the back lists all the parts that were fact and the parts that were fiction.  For example: "George chopped down his father's cherry tree."  False"  or "Silver buckles on shoes sure look goofy.  True."

I hope each of you is blessed to have your own local bookstore where you can wander around for an hour.  If not, maybe I will open one in your neighborhood someday!