Laughter seems to be the best medicine at Subterranean Books in St.
Louis, Mo. "We always do well with humor," said store owner Kelly von
Plonski.
The Onion's Our Dumb World, Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And You Can
Too!) and Lemony Snicket's The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A
Christmas Story are some of the top sellers. Edward Gorey's darkly
comic, illustrated book The Gashlycrumb Tinies sells steadily
year-round and does "exceptionally well" at the holidays, said von
Plonski.
BORAT and Will Self's essay collection Psychogeography are among the
books featured in a window display adorned with garlands, ornaments,
and lights. A second window at the entrance of the 1920s-era building
in which the store is housed has an ever-changing non-book display.
Currently a dining table is set for a festive holiday meal.
Subterranean Books--named Best Book Store in St. Louis by the
Riverfront Times six out of the last seven years--draws in professors
and students from nearby Washington University as well as tourists who
frequent the pedestrian-friendly shopping thoroughfare where the store
is located. This past Saturday retailers in the area participated in
the annual Holiday Walk, with each merchant celebrating in a different
way. Subterranean Books set a merry atmosphere by treating customers to
hot cider and baked goods made by a talented staffer.
Last week the store held an event with St. Louis author Elizabeth
Little. The wordsmith promoted Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a
Language Fanatic, a "fun and literate" book that von Plonski expects to
be a favorite gift choice. An appearance by Little on a local NPR
program generated a great deal of interest in the book. "If something
is mentioned on NPR or in the New York Times, our customers want it,"
von Plonski said.
After the picture books Jabberwocky by Christopher Dean Myers and First
the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger appeared in a recent issue of the New
York Times Book Review, customers came in search of the titles. Another
popular children's tome is Dare Wright's A Gift from the Lonely Doll,
first published in 1996 and reissued several years ago. For older
readers, a high school librarian who moonlights as a bookseller at
Subterranean is handselling Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo
Cabret and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. "I expect to do well with the
young adult section," von Plonski said, including Scott Westerfeld's
Uglies and Pretties trilogies.
A surprise seller for the store is Alice Waters' The Art of Simple
Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution.
"Cookbooks are not a big or important section for us," commented von
Plonski, although titles by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, co-author of
Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, stir up sales.
Other solid holiday sellers are The Best American Nonrequired Reading
2007 edited by Dave Eggers and The Best American Short Stories 2007
edited by Stephen King. Anthologies are among the store's stand-outs as
are series books like Continuum's 33 1/3 music-themed titles, Oxford
University Press' Very Short Introductions and Penguin's Great Ideas.
Penguin's new Great Journeys line is inspiring armchair travel with
Anton Chekhov's A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire and Maria
Bird's Adventures in the Rocky Mountains.
After a slight increase on Black Friday, which von Plonski described as
"like a normal Saturday on steroids," she expects the store to maintain
a standard sales pattern until mid-December. "Students have finals over
the next two weeks," she noted, but once the semester ends the spending
begins in earnest. "Starting December 15," she said, "we'll have
hectic, crazy days every day until Christmas."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt