What better way to show your affection this month than with…Books?!! Bookmans has combined Valentines Day with our love of literacy to create Love of Reading month. This February we are highlighting what we do best, focusing on our roots. Our quirkiness and unique collections make us a huge Cabinet of Curiosities; you never know what treasures you will find. In every corner, each nook and cranny is another wonderfully weird title and that is half the fun. It’s a giant pirate chest that holds precious gems, priceless volumes of wisdom and wit. We get so excited about all the fantastic finds that we decided to set up an extra section just for our most unusual, extra interesting finds. Check out our Cool, Interesting, Unique and Just Plain Weird Display for that special title featuring topics that you never knew were in print. Here is a little teaser to give you an idea what kinds of subjects you can find here at Bookmans Cabinet of Curiosities.

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R. Crumb is a true one of a kind cartoonist/artist with many books to his credit and more than a few album covers as well as magazine features. During his fruitful 40 year career span he has shared his wry wit, self-depreciating humor and psychedelic perspective with admiring readers around the globe. The R. Crumb Handbook (free c.d. included!!) is a well chosen retrospective that will delight long time fans and those uninitiated alike. Co-authored with Peter Poplaski, Crumb’s Handbook includes short stories, personal narrative, comic strips, photos from his personal collections along with original art works. Humor gets turned on it’s head and inside out. It is a must have for any R. Crumb fan but if you weren’t a fan before, you will be by the end.

Taschen is one of our favorite publishing houses that can always be counted on to bring us the best of all genres. Their Icons series takes a look at everything from Man Ray, Pin Ups, Encyclopedia Anatomica, Classic Rock, Piranesi to Robots and Spaceships. Have a look at their Bizarro Postcards edited by Jim Heimann. Taschen includes color prints of the most outrageous postcards of days, and styles, gone by. Enjoy a 1960’s postcard displaying fancy men’s polyester suits and their snazzy salesmen. Curiously shaped restaurants, bowling alleys, vending machines, public swimming pools, are featured along with picturesque beauty salons, Laundromats, and nightmarish hotel rooms. Bizarro features a variety of competitive activities such as chess tournaments, ping pong, shuffle board and naturally miniature golf.

Night owls may have listened to the late night radio show Coast to Coast. The show’s host Art Bell is a conspiracy theory buffs’ dream come true because Bell covers a wide range of unusual topics. Bell has also written several books including The Quickening, which delves into global economy and government, plagues, nuclear terrorism, extreme weather phenomena and spiritual awareness. Bell explores the possibilities of the 21st century, offering the fruits of considerable research to suggest where humanity is headed. Beyond Death by Stanislav and Christina Grof also explores the unknown and tackles humanities biggest questions. The authors assemble experiences and view points from multiple cultures and religions to expose similarities in how death, heaven, hell and purgatory are described. These are amazing accounts of surviving clinical death along with death/rebirth episodes experienced by schizophrenic patients.

On the lighter side, is Cabinet of Curiosities by Gordon Grice. Cabinet is as fascinating a concept as it is a collection. A cabinet of curiosities (or wonder-rooms) can be loosely defined as encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Grice takes a look at various collections, including photos and/or drawings, content lists, explanations of contents, historical contexts as well as the different genres of cabinets. Traditionally cabinets contained specimens of the natural world and were curated by early anthropologist and archeologists. We also have A Little Bit of Tarot by Cassandra Eason, Made & Sold by FL@33 and many many more.

Bookmans stores are Cabinets of Curiosities. We have treasures on each shelf but we suggest that you start with our Cool, Interesting, Unique and Just Plain Weird display. It’s the perfect way to celebrate February’s Love of Reading month. Don’t forget to stop by our Blind Date with a Book display. Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and go on a blind date with a new read. There is always a love match here at Bookmans.