I started working at Booklegger when I was 20. Almost 40 years later, I am now the bookstore’s sole proprietor and still love my work. It’s not just about the books. Of course bookstore people love to read, but the thing that makes my job so satisfying is the readers themselves. I have come to think of biblio...

As a recovering English major, I have an actual license to spend time with books — one of the tangible benefits of an English degree. My reading gene kicked in a lot earlier, of course. My parents were college-educated eggheads — Wellesley and Yale, no less — and they strewed books all over the place. A baby ...

On a Saturday evening last November, people streamed into the Requa Inn above the Klamath River for a talk by Amy Bowers Cordalis on her new book, “The Water Remembers,” the story of her “family’s fight to save a river and a way of life.” Attending this stop on Amy’s book tour were mostly members of Amy’s Yur...

No surprise, but since the devastating fire that destroyed half a block of downtown Arcata in January, Northtown Books owner Dante DiGenova has a little extra free time on his hands. The cause of the Jan. 2 blaze, which destroyed seven businesses including Dante’s beloved bookstore and several apartments, is ...

One of my earliest memories is of my father sitting in his old rocker reading the newspaper. The newsboy delivered the paper daily, and we had to place it unopened on the little table by his chair. He preferred to unwrap it himself. He read it slowly, digesting the contents. My first introduction to politics ...

A “silent book club”? What? The first Silent Book group was started in 2012 by two friends in San Franciso who loved to read and considered themselves introverts. Annoyed by assigned book club readings, they opted to meet in a bar. “I wished that I had a book club where basically there was no assigned reading...

Women have always been central to human success, long before California started formally celebrating Women’s History Week in Santa Rosa in 1978; nine years later, Congress designated March as national Women’s History Month. The 10th annual Zero to Fierce (02F) Festival features two weeks of events in March to...

He came to the library every day, taking a seat at the heavy wooden table midway into the reading room. He wore khaki slacks, a neatly pressed cotton shirt and loafers, an East Coast look that had become familiar to me from my first year at college in Maine. Age? Older than me; younger than my father. It was ...

The subplot in Denzel Washington’s 2014 movie “The Equalizer” that helps define his character has him reading “the 100 books his deceased wife said everyone should read.” Space here doesn’t permit 100, but how about my top 12? When my family moved from Long Beach to the Orange County suburbs midway through my...

impersonating banks.” Boy, they’re on top of this, I thought. Or are they? The email said, “We will never ask you to move or send money to resolve a fraud issue.” But then the email invited me to click on a button to “Review Scams.” Um … I don’t think I will. Helpfully, the email said: “Scammers can make call...

The email from Chase looked legit and the message got my attention: “We’ve placed a stop payment on the check you sent.” Click here to read your Secure Message. Before I could think, I had clicked on the link, which took me to a Chase site with a completely genuine- looking URL. Fortunately, my brain had kick...

Everyone probably has a different reason for attending Silver Quills at the McKinleyville Senior Center. I like that we start off with a fun icebreaker question to start discussion. There’s no pressure to write — you can just come and enjoy listening to others. And there’s no critique of the writing, just gen...

As an avid reader and regular bike rider, I’ve admired Little Free Libraries everywhere. Ten years ago, I moved onto a good corner in Arcata and got my son to fix up a used, narrow kitchen cupboard for me, outfitting it with three shelves and changing the front glass to plexi. He hung it on my side fence, whe...

Don’t be discouraged, but writing is hard. You can spend hours in front of your computer searching for just the right words to make your story come alive. You’re an artiste creating a masterpiece. The descriptive energy is flowing, but then …. Sometimes, word selection can be tricky.

As William Faulkner wrote, “The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.” That’s what playwright Meighan O’Brien realizes in her new one-woman play, “Finding Home.” Meighan mines her past, the rich ores of belonging and abandonment, and discovers the gold, the gleaming present of a joyous and evolving s...

Writer’s block is a locked room where you wake up with no memory of how you got there. The walls are made of sentences you have never finished. The ceiling hums with rules. The floor is littered with drafts that apologize too much. Somewhere nearby, an editor clears his throat and sharpens a pencil. Freewriti...

You can learn so much about a country and its people through their food stories. For me, cookbooks are like travel guides seen through a lens of taste and smell. Many of the books on my kitchen bookshelves have come home with me from my globe-trotting days, and I love to recreate memories of those trips throu...

An Arcata ecology and environmental consulting company is looking for alert beach walkers to help document the amount and kind of specific kinds of marine debris washing ashore on Humboldt County beaches. The project, funded through the California Energy Commission, seeks to track marine debris like rope, net...

In his new book of pandemic-era poems, whether he’s describing dolomite stones bedded together or pouring bits of bone and ash upon the waters, releasing his father, David Holper reaches deep within to give us rich and harshly beautiful poetry. The Eureka poet and teacher reflects that while politicians denie...

Join Dr. Bill Carlson and others as they help those with memory loss — and their loved ones — “connect, share and enjoy together” at the McKinleyville Senior Center’s monthly Memory Café.