Emily Sullivan is a features writer for the Daily. She is a senior studying Clinical Psychology and English and can be reached at Emily.Sullivan654577@tufts.edu.
Welcome back to my bookstore review column! I hope my brief, semester-long hiatus gave you enough time to explore the last few stops on our book crawl and that you are now itching for your next bookstore recommendation. The good news is that I’ve returned to give you my keen evaluations of the various book-buying experiences that Boston offers us.
Bass music pulsed through the intimate space on a Saturday night in January. On the left were a series of abstract oil paintings. Large, charcoal landscapes, mainly depicting flowers, waterfalls and rocks, covered the rest of the wall space. People milled about, many in quiet conversations, as they stood and considered the works.
I consider myself to be generally aware of the state of book banning in the United States. I read about the fights going on in school districts and libraries throughout Florida, Tennessee and Texas. I was recently frustrated by the ruling on Mahmoud v. Taylor, which allows parents to opt their children out of curricula including LGBTQ+ identities. Yet, I knew nothing about bans in my home state of New York or here in Massachusetts. In my mind, book banning was an issue of ‘elsewhere.’
Sat next to the Mayer Campus Center is the Tufts University Barnes & Noble College branch. It may be frequently ignored by students in the months between the very start and end of the semester, but it is still technically a bookstore. Inside the building, you can find a range of items, including sweatshirts, snacks, cold medicine, textbooks, branded mugs and a few regular books.
Spring break is over. A new moon is approaching. Mercury is in retrograde. All signs that a new cycle is about to begin again — and it won’t be a good one. I think. Maybe? I’m a novice when it comes to spirituality and astrology. I enjoy a good tarot reading, and I can be extremely superstitious at times. Yet, I’ve never read up on any of these topics — or even realized I could purchase a book to explain why you can’t trust a Gemini rising — until I wandered into Seven Stars in Central Square. The store is just a short walk from the MBTA stop; it offers books, crystals and everything one could ever want to know about New Age movements.
If exams, papers and projects are consuming all of your time during this midterm season, and a trip to one of Boston’s many bookstores is not feasible, then I have great news for you. There is still a way to have this author’s recommended dose of bookstore browsing at a lovely shop right here in Tufts’ backyard.
Webbed footprints litter the snow. A cacophony of honks echo across the lawn. Green-tinged excrement coats the sidewalks. Students reluctantly recreate events from “Make Way for Ducklings” on their way to class. All of these resulted from the influx of Canada geese — also known under the misnomer of Canadian geese even though they lack Canadian citizenship — on the Medford/Somerville campus.
The weather has recently evoked the image of an oversized leather chair, a crackling fireplace, a rich mug of hot chocolate and a book. While the best I can do is a broken desk chair, some yule log YouTube videos and a mug of Swiss Miss, at least I still have the book. And, if this time of year is reminiscent of Robert Frost or William Carlos Williams to you, then maybe a trip to Grolier Poetry Book Shop is in order.
Hello! Welcome and come on into my first column. As a lifelong reader and current English major, I’ve developed many opinions about bookstores — some admittedly pretentious, others a little less so. Feel free to browse along these lines as I tell you about my experiences browsing the shelves within many of Boston’s bookstores.
