Celebrate Seven Years

I told you’d I had more final week news and in all this time have I ever not delivered on a promise? Please keep your answers to yourselves.

On Sunday, March 29 — the final day in the seven-year history of River City Books — RCB booksellers are graciously hosting a store-closing reception. Please come, commiserate, celebrate, hearken fond memories, and, of course, if you so choose, buy more great stuff at historically low prices.

Store hours that day are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The reception will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Also, my favorite four words: refreshments will be served.

Note that I am told the word “light” should be inserted so as to make that a five-word disclaimer. In any event, see you there.

Final Week Warning

Seems like only a few days ago that I was announcing details about River City Books’ month-long going-out-of-business sale. That’s what happens when you want something to last — it goes by just so fast.

Now we’re down to the wire, the final week in the store’s history, and they’re pricing books, CDs, DVDs, gifts, clothing, yada, yada, so low because, well, they want to use as few moving boxes as possible. Which is the silver lining to this cloudy week — a savings rundown that’s otherwise hard to believe.

Between now and the final day, Sunday, March 29, they’ll take:

• 45 percent off all books
• 75 percent off all bargain books and other selected titles
• 75 percent off all clothing and gifts
• 25 percent off all DVDs and CDs

By the way, I’ll be back in a couple winks to let you know about some D-day details.

Next Phase of the Phaseout

There is a game of chicken going on. Maybe it’s craps. Or roulette? I don’t play many games, except for Scrabble and — don’t alert the media — I’m not even very good at that. I’ll I know is that today’s the day when those who didn’t flinch are really happy. That’s because today River City Books moves into the second phase of what I like to call — actually, I just thought of this fourteen seconds ago — Phaseout Grande. Like climbing an inverse mountain, the deals just keep getting steeper (and easier). Here’s the latest rundown: Until Saturday, March 21, regular trade books are 40 percent off; bargain books are 50 percent off; and clothing and gifts are 50 percent off. Of course, CDs and DVDs are also 25 percent off. In other words, everything is on sale and, if I were you, I wouldn’t wait much longer to pull the trigger, show your hand, spin the wheel, or do whatever it is you do.

More Satisfied Bargain Hunters

People with a hankering for cheap stuff are still teeming into River City Books! As my handy photographying clearly shows—for the four people who don’t know, pictured is lifetime Northfield resident and RCB bookseller Beth Vivant—often a sturdy bag is required to hold all of the trade books, bargain books, gifts, clothing, CDs, DVDs and warm memories that are being carrying out the front door. Just to be clear, in case I haven’t yet been, inventory is not being replaced. Get what you want while you still can!

Wear One of Those Stove Mittens

The snow is melt, melt, melting away — hooray! — and it just might be because the deals down at River City Books are that hot. I was in there the other night and was hardly the only one. Like me, people were buying great new hardcovers and paperbacks for 25 percent off; and greeting cards, book holders, mini footballs and the like for 40 percent off. Of course, music and movies are also 25 percent off. Honestly, it’s striking. A person will bring four books and two cards to the register and get them all for like 25 bucks. And you can, too. This weekend is the first full weekend of the end-of-times sale and shoppers smarter than me — shuddup! — are thinking of it this way: by the time the snow returns I’ll have almost all my holiday shopping done already.

The Last Sale

Ever since the shocking news broke that River City Books is going out of business (March 29 is D-day, by the way) people have been asking me—and, more importantly, pressing RCB booksellers—about the possibility of going-out-of-business sale. I can now say for certain there will be such a sale and, what’s more, I can provide the fine print.

Here is the schedule of progressively deeper discounts:

Sunday, March 1-Saturday, March 14

35 percent off all books
25 percent off all CDs and DVDs
40 percent off all clothing and gifts

Sunday, March 15-Saturday, March 21

40 percent off all books
50 percent off all bargain books and other selected titles
50 percent off all clothing and gifts

Sunday, March 22-Sunday, March 29

45 percent off all books
75 percent off all bargain books and other selected titles
75 percent off all clothing and gifts

I almost forgot. A few disclaimers: Sorry, but no previously offered discounts or coupons apply after March 1 on any in-stock items. Going-Out-of-Business Sale merchandise is not eligible for additional discounts. Special ordered books are not eligible for sale discounts.

Ready … set …

Instant ‘Summer’ On the Cheap

Who is the best poet still open for business? Billy Collins? Mary Oliver? It’s my opinion that any such barstool debate — what, brewski drinkers don’t argue about verse? — would have to include the name W.S. Merwin, a magician with words.

A few years back Merwin wrote a lyrical nonfiction prose book called Summer Doorways. Set in 1948 when he was twenty-one and already married, it’s the story of Merwin’s days as a student in seminary school and at Princeton and the years he spent as a tutor fo children of privilege living abroad. Summer Doorways also tells of the poet’s youth in the few years before he won the Yale Younger Poets Award in 1952. And it describes life in Europe that was already passing away at the close of the Second World War. Kirkus reviews says “Summer Doorways” is “masterful.”

Oh, one other thing I must say before you consider whether to pick up a copy at the old neighborhood bookstore. The price of this hardcover just may entice you to write an ode of your own: $5.98.

‘Souls’ for Eight Dollars

“Great originality and charm,” says Entertainment Weekly

. The New York Times calls it “powerful and haunting.” 

Shouted the San Francisco Chronicle: “Stunning flights of lyricism.” And, finally, “No way that book is only eight bucks.” That last quote comes from, well, me. Not exactly of the same esteem as the others, but nonetheless you should know that Four Souls by Louise Erdrich was spotted — and pictured — on sale for $7.99 in hardcover at River City Books. The book retails for $23.95. Enough to make a guy want to say things in quotation marks!

I’d Buy That for a Dollar

The rumor (OK, so I’m the one spreading it and I even have photographs) is that River City Books has calendars on sale for a buck. A buck! Get ‘em while you still can.

Inaugurate This Book

I was so riveted the other day when the author of Dreams from My Father was sworn in as the forty-forth president of the United States. I especially got excited during his speech when the newest president mentioned the first. Like a lot of people that reference reminded me that River City Books has a copy of His Excellency: George Washington on sale for $5.99. The book is a landmark biography of our nation’s first president written by Joseph Ellis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Founding Brothers. The book is the rare combination of exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyric prose that has made Ellis, who also has a National Book Award on his mantle, one of the premier historians of the Revolutionary era. Says the New York Times: “Absorbing. … An incisive portrait [that] eloquently conveys the magnitude of Washington’s accomplishments.” The book is available while supplies last. Hint: It probably won’t make to the end of the new prez’s first 100 days.