Greetings, bookworms. It’s March, which means it’s my birthday, so I’m here with the annual roundup of my indulgent personal bookfair. This year had several pertinent and overlapping themes.

First theme: ownership. As in, having the book, not just “the rights to view the book as long as Amazon deems I should be able to.” So my focus this year was on locating physical copies of specific book. Even though Bookshop.org has started selling e-books (which I love), I’m still interested in obtaining hard copies of these books in particular. Reasons will become apparent in a few paragraphs.

Second theme: local bookstores. I moved to Decatur in late 2023, and with the changes brought about by my “forced retirement” in early 2024, I haven’t done much exploring of the local bookstore landscape. That needed to change.

Third theme: banned books. Every book on my shopping list this year has been banned from public schools or libraries for violating someone’s moral compass. Specifically, my list narrows around books highlighting the (mis)treatment of women and underrepresented ethnic groups, and the horrors of fascism and humanity’s various responses to it.

The intersection of these three themes–physical books, from local stores, highlighting peoples and topics being marginalized in the current political climate–formed the basis for my journey.

My first stop was Atlanta Vintage Books. Lovely store, lovely people inside; I even ran into another customer celebrating their birthday there–seems like a destination for local bibliophiles. The space is extensive, covering two floors of liminal twisty passages. I asked the shopkeeps if they happened to have a banned book display. A woman turned from her computer with an exasperated expression and asked if I was kidding. She pointed behind me. To the giant shelf with the giant sign with giant block letters that read BANNED BOOKS.

So, yes, they had a banned book display. From which, I snagged several titles from my list:

• Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Overall, super in-love with Atlanta Vintage Books. Lots of opportunity to get lost, both literally and figuratively, and I’ll be spending more time and money there for sure.

Next stop was Eagle Eye Bookshop. This place is special to me, as the first bookstore I visited after moving to the Atlanta area. Extremely well-stocked, from classics to graphics and everything in between. I dropped a cash bomb on them, and walked away with most of my list:

• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Maus (Vols I and II) by Art Speigelman
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews

I also made an impulse purchase, because that’s what one does at a bookstore. Not on a banned list (that I’m aware of). I just really love this guy’s work:

• What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman

Eagle Eye also had a central display dedicated to banned books. Quite well done, with each book including a short introduction on where it’s been banned and why. Lots of contemporary books, with strong representation of LGBQT and gender issues.

And as I do on every visit, I checked Eagle Eye’s local author display, hoping to find myself there. No prizes for guessing what I found (or didn’t find).

Next stop was supposed to be Community Books in Stone Mountain. However, there was some kind of Mardi Gras celebration event in the area. Too many people and cars for me. So I put a pin in that store visit and headed to The Book Bird in Avondale Estates.

Quant little bookshop, sharing its co-op space with a fiber arts supply (fabrics and yarn) and an antique store. Selection was intriguing, although I didn’t find what I was looking for. I did snag two books from there that looked compelling:

• This is How you Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (I’ve heard wonderful things, and I love unconventional storytelling)
• How to Protect Bookstores and Why by Danny Caine (which seemed oddly on-the-nose for the day’s theme)

At this point I was tuckered out. I headed home for a birthday snooze. A couple of days later, I hit the Half Price Books in Decatur (while my wife ransacked the closing Joann’s next door), where I located the remaining books on my list:

• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

All said and done, an excellent haul, and a rewarding way to celebrate turning forty-twelve. As for what’s first on the TBR, I’ve opted for Vonnegut. I’ve already consumed Cat’s Cradle, moving on to Slaughterhouse-Five as I write this. I love his surgical satire, the layers of meaning in every chapter that poke at every human in some form or fashion.

I don’t hope to replicate that skill. I can, however, enjoy the process of learning and failing. As Billy Pilgrim would say, “So it goes.”