The Wonder That is DogStar Books, Lancaster
October 12, 2023 |
| Got these three books from DogStar Books, Lancaster (July 2023) |
Hi beautiful people,
Of late, my therapist, Don has been encouraging me to do more out-of-the-apartment activities. I am more of a homebody, and from my teens I preferred reading my dad’s John Grisham and Robert Ludlum collection, and writing poetry to being out and about.
Somewhere between the global pandemic and the strata of grief I have been carrying for the last three or so years, my homebody-ness reached a new high, plus the weather extremes made things worse. Don’t get me wrong, I have visited a couple of botanical gardens - LongWood Gardens is my best…the DC one is okish in comparison. I also make a couple of quick trips to Trader Joe’s in Philadelphia (we don’t have one in Lancaster) and every November I have a personal tradition to attend the Annual German Christmas Village for all the German delicacies.
During our last session, as I talked endlessly about my PhD applications woes and the UNGA week in New York, Don continuously dropped more hints about getting engaged in other activities, guess he is seeing something I am not. I did not commit to anything during the session but when I was thinking about the session later on (yes, I was psychoanalyzing my therapy session), I settled on two things - going for a complementary yoga tryout session (hopefully this will end up being a weekly plan), and attending selected sessions at the Harrisburg Book Festival which runs from Wednesday 18th - Sunday 22nd, October.
 |
| Harrisburg Book Festival 2023 - Image from MidTown Scholar Bookstore |
This will be my first Book Festival since I moved to the US and I am particularly excited to see two authors and Midtown Scholar Bookstore - which from the online pictures I have seen, is one of those old school used books type of stores that I would like to own someday...the kind that Apple TV's Sharper or Netflix's You would without a shadow of doubt use for their sequels.
 |
| I felt cheated, but was also in awe, when I learnt that Stories Used & Rare Books, the bookstore used in Apple TV's Sharper was put together specifically for the show - it is not a real bookstore - see inset for the space before they got the books from a vendor and the shelves from a props outfit. Image from SetDecor. |
 |
| Good news is that Mooneys Bookstore from Netflix You is a real bookstore in New York - It is called Logos Bookstore and You is not the only show to be filmed there (the other is Can You Ever Forgive Me) - Image from Netflix Media |
 |
| Was amused to see by this vinyl by The Source Family who I learnt about during my 'addiction to documentaries about cults' phase. We learnt about cults in my General Psychology class and were tasked to watch snippets on Jonestown and the Waco Texas cult...I went overboard and watched everything I could find. I still have alerts for new documentaries and recently watched the Twin Flame Universe one (maybe I will do a blog post on cults) |
As I was doing my rounds on the West Side, I saw a bookstore whose window display looked like someone had started working on an arrangement, went for their lunch break and never came back...and for years no one has been able to finish that job. I was about to walk past it, because the display was shouting 'closed for COVID not sure when we will be back, if we will be back', when I saw an OPEN sign on the door. As I placed my hand on the door knob, I was sure I would be met with two or three rows of old books whose content has been overtaken by time.
When I pushed the door in, and the bell rang, I was transported to a magical world. A world I have only seen in movies and read about...it felt like I was in bookstore heaven. This is the place I would like to die and be buried in...we just need to make sure my 60+ houseplants move in too…if they don’t, I am ok…books were plants in their past lives.
 |
| This amazing scene greeted me when I opened the door |
I felt so ashamed about my initial thoughts of the bookstore...and since words fail me, I will let the pictures I took, and captions under each, do the talking.
 |
| They had long books, really long books - side view of a Collection of The Boston Gazette Newspaper |
 |
| Front view of The Boston Gazette Newspaper Collection |
 |
| They had tiny books - Side view of Book of Common Prayer used in mostly in the Episcopalian Church |
 |
| Inside the Book of Common Prayer |
 |
| They had a rack with books that were on literally being kicked out of the space - got this one on the house |
 |
| I was excited to see this book because I'd just finished watching a Britbox Series - Crime which is based of Irvine Welsh's book by the same title |
 |
| Bought this book - Hemingway is one of the people on my 'watch list' because some of his work is inspired by his stay in my home country, Kenya...and because suicide is one of the topics I am interested in, I am interested in him because that is how his life ended...and that is also how the lives of several men in his family ended (does this mean there is a 'suicide gene'? - post for another day) |
 |
| This is the rare collection section - these ones are in a locked bookcase...there is a whole wall of this |
 |
| I have an autographed copy of this book in my collection back in Kenya - Met StaceyAnn Chin when she came to Kenya back in my spoken word days. |
 |
| This shelf reminded me of the Personalities Theory class I took last semester - I mention Freud in this post about my therapy sessions |
 |
| The Africa Section had a couple of book about/and from Kenya like this one - I haven't read the book but I am not sure about that title though...Dedan Kimathi and all the men and women who were part of Kenya's liberation war from British Colonial rule were not myths. |
 |
| I almost threw a party when I saw this book - for old school peeps like myself who did Literature as part of their high school, this was one of the books. I did a different one for my end of high school exams, but we read this one at some point - I had to take it home with me. |
 |
| I was picking books and feeling ashamed of how I misjudged this space - My only wish is that they had more Kenya authors, it would have been nice to see the Kwani? Series...but I also have to say, I did not look at every book in all the five rooms |
 |
| If you are into Shakespeare |
 |
| ...or fancy multicolored covers on F. Scott Fitzgerald's collection - known for The Great Gatsby |
 |
| This took me back to Primary School - our school library was stocked with Hardy Boys (mystery series), Mills & Boon love stories (which we read under our textbooks during class because hormones would not allow us to leave the imaginary love scenes alone), Sweet Valley High, R.L.Stine (for horror - search for the Goosebumps Series) and Nancy Drew Detective Series (Wheeew, my adulthood TV options are 90% of all these things I read in my early teens) |
 |
| The Bookstore has a selection of the Hardy Boys series...come to think of it, I am not sure why we had a lot of these American books in our school library (donations??? need to check what is in Kenyan school libraries these days - I think we should have more African published writers by now) |
 |
| The children's section which was more of a mirror selfie section for me |
 |
| After some internal back and forth, I settled for these three books. I will definitely be back for more |
As you may have guessed, I was so excited I focused more the exploration than the documentation...these photos are a drop in the ocean of the wonderful collection that DogStar Books, Lancaster has but I hope they gave you a general feel of the place. If you interested in its history, read this piece.
 |
| After the bookstore, I stopped by the Lemon Street Market for some snacks and sat at this park to start reading my new books |
I am excited about exploring Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Harrisburg next week and enjoying the 11th annual Harrisburg Book Festival.
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
.png)
0 Comments