In honor of its 110th birthday, which falls on January 10, the University Book Store, which has eight stores in and near Seattle, Wash., asked 110 authors, poets and graphic novelists with some connection to the store to write 110-word compositions. The pieces are being published as 110/110 and aim to honor the store's spirit, which CEO Bryan Pearce described this way in the book's foreword: "From our first day, we have believed in the power of the written word to educate and entertain; marveled at how diverse thought, experience, perspective and expression have enhanced the quality of life; and witnessed overwhelming delight in the eyes of readers upon meeting the authors of the works they love."
For the rest of the year, customers who buy a book by any of the 110 authors in the book will receive a free copy of 110/110.
During the next 110 hours or so, Shelf Awareness will run several of the contributions. Our first is by Maria Dahvana Headley, author of The Year of Yes, several plays and short stories and an occasional screenplay. She lives in Seattle with her husband, playwright and screenwriter Robert Schenkkan, two teenage stepkids and two devious Bengal cats.
Pulp Romance
He saw her across a crowded shelf.
Her deckle-edge was seductively deep, her endpapers velvety. She was a first edition, probably autographed. Any man would want to write his name in a book like her.
She noticed him perusing her pages, and blushed. He had a hard spine, and a crisp dust jacket. His eyes were capitalized, and in an obscure font designed in Amsterdam in 1768. She caught herself glancing at his flyleaf, and looked away, mortified.
They were in the YA section, and she was acting like a common galley.
"Can I have your ISBN?" he whispered. He could nearly see her addendum.
"Yes," she cooed, helpless. "Yes."