So some of us at the Book Barn have been really enjoying Scrabble lately. We figure that there are at least a few of you out there who enjoy the game as well. So we did a little combing, and found a list of every legal two-letter Scrabble word, with their definitions. Now you can stand up to anybody who challenges your right to play the word “Hm” or “Nu” or “Qi.” You’re welcome.

If you like Scrabble, you might also want to check out the book “Word Freak” by Stefan Fatsis. Fatsis is a sportswriter and frequent contributor to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” To write “Word Freak,” he immersed himself in the world of competitive Scrabble. The result is really interesting and really fun to read, even for casual fans. You can pick up a copy at our downtown store, if you’re interested.

Here’s hoping you’re all having a good summer so far!

Hello friends of The Book Barn! My name is Peter. You might have seen me working at one of the stores recently. I’m posting on the blog because I just finished a really excellent book, and like everyone who finds something they really love, I now want to share it with others.

The book is called Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and it’s written by Nobel laureate Richard P. Feynman. Actually, I’m pretty sure that it was at least partially ghostwritten, but that’s no matter. The book is an anthology is anecdotes and musings from Mr. Feynman’s life both inside and outside the world of science.

Before reading, I was only dimly aware of Richard Feynman. I knew he was a really smart scientist, often mentioned in the same breath as Einstein. Actually, that’s all I knew. In the book, I learned that he was a physicist specifically, and a winner of the Nobel Prize. He worked at Los Alamos during WWII to help design the atomic bomb. And he has a sense of adventure to make for some really great stories.

One of my favorite chapters (though it honestly is almost impossible to choose) is “Certainly, Mr. Big!” in which Mr. Feynman recounts a summer that he spent in Las Vegas. His sense of adventure is on full display here, and the story ends up reading something like the script for The Hangover. Not only does Mr. Feynman meet professional gambler Nick the Greek and befriend several showgirls, he also insinuates himself into the inner circle of a celebrity high roller. Together, they drive expensive cars around the city, woo women and generally paint the town red.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! is one of those books where the words spilled off the page and into my head to influence the way I see things. By way of example- while I was reading this book, my car broke down. After taking it to the mechanic, I was told that some part had broken, and antifreeze was leaking into the motor oil. It was going to be $600-800 to fix the part, but the engine might be shot anyway. There was no way of telling without spending money on the repair. For day I dithered on whether or not I should gamble on fixing the car or scrape together the money to buy another one. During all of this, I read the chapter, “An Offer You Must Refuse.” Feynman describes a bidding way between two universities that wanted him in their faculty. After going back and forth between them, he chooses sticks with CalTech, even in light of a much better offer from Cornell. “It’s much easier to just plain decide,” he writes. I reflected on this for a while, then called the mechanic and told him to go ahead with the repair. I haven’t worried about it since.

This book will instill more than decisiveness in it’s reader though. Feynman seems to take such immense enjoyment from interacting with his world that it becomes infectious. His sense of adventure and scientific curiosity are worthy of emulation, and they’re great fun to boot (I defy you to read the chapter “Testing Bloodhounds” and not try your own experiment). Whether you know nothing about science, or you’re a Noble laureate yourself, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! will bring you enjoyment, and quite a bit more.

Oh, and since this is the Book Barn blog, I suppose I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we have several copies of this book, as well as other science and non-science writings by Richard Feynman, at our downtown store.

We at the Book Barn love our feline friends. Although our buddies have the best home around there are many cats do not. We are also in kitten season which means there is a boost of mothers and their kittens that need good homes. We’re featuring Compassion for Cats wich is a no-kill cat rescue out of Lisbon, CT. They are way over filled right now but the cats there are beautiful sweethearts. There is an adoption event at the Petco in Waterford, CT. today between 2-5. Stop on down if you’re in the area to meet some of these great kitties! Also, if you stop by the Book Barn we keep up a poster with pictures in the Last Page and feel free to ask any of our staff questions, especially Laurie.

So raise your hand if you’re tired of all this rain. Yea, that’s what we thought. So if you need to escape, whether it be near or far, we have travel guides, hiking guides, biking guides…all kinds of guides! We just got in a big bunch of brand-spanking-new guides and walking books. So come take a short trip down to the Book Barn and then take a longer one!

Hello all,

We just got in a bunch of new vintage fiction. Much of which is vintage mysteries in great condition. We also have a bunch of Eastern Press, Franklin Libraries, and nice folios that also just came in. We’re picking up tons of more books tonight and tomorrow so there will soon be even more fresh books to check out. Stop on down soon and get first pick!

Friday the thirteenth was NOT unlucky for poetry buffs, we got in three or four shelves’ worth of terrific poetry, from modern classics to contemporaries, H.D. to Louise Gluck, Roethke to….a whole raft of names, all in excellent condition.  Come be poetical…

Hey everyone,

We wanted to let you know that we just got in a lot of new teen/young adult books.  This includes shelves and shelves worth of new manga!  So stop on down at our main location and check out what we have.  It may be labeled teen but there’s definitely something for everyone. 

Also, just a reminder, come down to The Hygenic in New London on Thursday, July 7th to hear some grade A poetry being read from our friend and co-worker Glenn Shea.

Well, you’ve been hearing about this for a good year or more, particularly if you’ve been talking with Glenn, but the day is almost here: Glenn’s full length book of poems, FIND A PLACE THAT COULD PASS FOR HOME, is being published on Tuesday, October 5th, by Salmon Poetry in Ireland. Salmon Poetry, now situated in Knockeven, near to the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare in the west of Ireland, was founded in 1981 and has established itself as a major and respected publisher of poetry, particularly poetry by women; they have extended their range to authors outside of Ireland, including such well-known American poets as Adrienne Rich and Marvin Bell. Glenn’s book is a selection from his two chapbooks with a chunk of new work. Take a look on the website, www.salmonpoetry.com, and view the cover work, by the British artist Samuel Palmer–it’s gorgeous. Glenn will be in Ireland from the 3rd to the 13th of October, and will be doing readings in Dublin, Ennistymon and Galway. FIND A PLACE will be picked up by Dufour Editions in a few months, at which point you’ll be able to order it through the standard book sources; at the moment you can get it directly from the Salmon website or through amazon. co.uk. BUT. Glenn’s bringing a supply of books back with him from Ireland, and there is going to be a reception at the main Barn on Tuesday October 19th at 7.00 p.m. We’re going to play it by ear as to what’ll be happening: if the weather is warm enough, we’ll have it outside; if not, we’ll do it indoors. Refreshments will be served, and probably if you bring a poem you’ll get a chance to read it. No reason not to have a free-for-all. Give a call to the Barn if you want a copy reserved, or if you have questions. Come on down and join the fun. See you then.

The Barn is honeycombed with sections reflective of our determined individuality and left-handed sense of humor. Some sections are scholarly and useful: Medieval and Renaissance Literature, for instance, Downstairs with the Medieval History, running from Mandeville to Margery Kemp, the Decameron to Tirant Lo Blanc; or Arthurian Literature, from the ancient grail romances to current retellings, reference books and studies. And some begin to shade into the left-handed humor realm, like a section of Vamp Lit, the current craze for Vampire romance novels, labelled “Books That Bite”. Downstairs again we have Wealth and Glamour, or Lifestyles of the Painfully Rich. Our nice selection of books on Napoleon Bonaparte is labelled “That Pestiferous Little Corsican”. Part of our Sixties History bookcase is marked “Radicals, Anarchists and Other Troublemakers,” for those in hunt of Hunter S. Thompson, Noam Chomsky, and those other folk who insist on telling us that all is Not As It Should Be. In the Downtown store, we have Rationalists, Skeptics and Other Killjoys; you know, the people who look unimpressed when you tell them that the Beast of Goom is in your cellar, drinking your Diet Coke. We have shelves of Cryptozoology–Bigfoot and his oft-photographed brethren–marked as “Odd Beasts and Beings” and “Funny Weird, Not Funny Ha-Ha.” One of the fun parts of working at the Barn is getting to run wild while labelling the shelves. So come run wild yourself–within the bounds of law and decorum, of course.