Book world
February 14th, 2013Mexico City hasn’t been a bad place for second-hand books in English. One of my first posts on this blog was about what you can find in the English-language sections of the bookstores on Calle Donceles in the Centro Histórico. Other used bookstores, on Álvaro Obregón in Colonia Roma, and Miguel Ángel de Quevedo in Coyoacán, also have decent selections.
But Under the Volcano Books, which recently celebrated its first birthday at a new location — upstairs in the American Legion building on Calle Celaya #25, in Colonia Condesa — blows the others out of the water. It is as far as I know the first and only Mexico City used bookstore to sell only books in English, and the owner, Grant Cogswell, has stocked it full of the kind of books that I want to read (primarily U.S. and U.K. literature from the mid-20th century to the present). Cogswell is pictured above with a customer who might remind you of the Louis Armstrong song Blue Going Grey Over You.
Some of the those serious titles I was telling you about.
Next Tuesday, February 19th, at 7 pm, an American original named David Allan Cates — award-winning novelist, public-health handmaiden, fishing guide and cattle rancher — will ride in from Montana to read from his work at the store. I’ll be there.
In the lobby of the building there is a reasonably-priced bar, where a jazz combo will play before and after Cates’s reading. They purport to serve the best hamburgers in el D.F.
Labels: Mexico City
8 Responses to “Book world”
By Dongringo on Feb 14, 2013
While living in Mexico Cito 1962-1965, I was addicted to sci-fi magazines. Of course I was able to find some current ones at Sanborns on the Reforma. But the treasure was at one of its side streets in a bookstore that had amazing copies of relatively new copies. And when I went broke after a week in Zihuatenjo, the owner bought all of them back. Yeah, I now why!
By C.M. Mayo on Feb 14, 2013
Ironically I will miss this because I will be on my way to (really) the Cowboy Poetry Festival. Glad you’re back blogging, David, and gracias for the tip about this event. Cheers!
By michael g, mclaughlin on Feb 15, 2013
I don’t know about book in the future. With all the portable electronic readers favored by the young it is a downhill slide for paper books. Also, God love the Mexicans, they are not known to be readers.
By Angeline on Feb 15, 2013
The event Thursday night sounds like the perfect evening; books, readings, jazz, hamburgers.
By Jorge Pedro on Feb 18, 2013
En el nuevo centro cultural Elena Garro, en Coyoacán, hay muchos libros en inglés (y en francés). Saludos.
By Rick on Mar 8, 2013
“Mexicans … not known to be readers.”
Okay … your opinion, but factually an ignorant statement.
Mexicans are avid readers of every type of publication … from comic-novelas to world literature to reading one of the 370 daily newspapers in the country. Literacy rate of 95% is highest in Latin America. Even the Metro provides free loaner books to read while in transit.
All statistical evidence refutes your opinion, michael mclaughlin
By admin on Mar 8, 2013
Michael, statistical literacy may be high in Mexico, but almost no one reads books. Have you traveled much in Mexico? In most towns there are no bookstores, and in large cities there are few relative to their populations.
Take a look at this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/opinion/the-country-that-stopped-reading.html
By Kim G on Apr 17, 2013
F can’t pass a bookstore without stopping. I like them, though find myself with a backlog of books in Spanish that I haven’t yet read.
I haven’t checked out the English language bookstores in DF. I suppose I should do so the next time I’m there.
@Rick — Most Mexicans don’t read that much. They may be literate, but they aren’t reading. And the farther you get from DF, the fewer readers you will encounter. This is not racsist tripe; it’s just the facts.
Saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where, combined with Cambridge, we still have a few bookstores alive and kicking.