A rainy day visit to the Politics and Prose Bookstore

On a very rainy day (uh, note to weatherpeople, what was that about? Not in your prediction!) took a trip up to the Cleveland Park neighborhood in Washington with the goal of visiting the Peirce Mill historic site. Got to see a bit of the mill, but then trooped back to Conn. Ave. to have some lunch and do some browsing/shopping at Politics and Prose.

P&P doesn't need any introduction to Washingtonians (or viewers of C-SPAN), but it it is one of the best (and few remaining?) independent bookstore in the U.S.A.

I'd not been there in a while (in fact, not since the new ownership took over. A great selection as usual, and some needed and well done renovations underway. They also had installed "Opus", an Espresso Book Machine. One of the interesting uses of Opus was to print new (or reprints) of books by local authors. In essence, the bookstore is now the publisher. Brilliant idea. The next step is to offer a free e-pub version of the book along with the paper copy.

And, because there are so few places to browse more obscure books, I ran into a neighbor seeking poetry books for her reading club. Got to spend some time klatching in the poety section. Wallace Stevens? (me, yes, her NO!); Billy Collins? (yes and yes); Rilke? (me: Duino Elegies; her, early work); William Carlos Williams (yes and maybe). But what she was looking for was the poetry of Herman Melville. A hard thing to find!