GREY MATTER BOOKS

Well, never in my fifty-four years has the Near Future seemed such a capricious, indeterminate little beast. Will it show itself as a republic restored, a pandemic vanquished? Or will it appear as an insurrection set against an uncontained virus and economic collapse? Are we headed back into globe-spanning house arrest? If so, it was nice seeing you these last four months.  

In the meanwhile, we are having a contest: send us the names of three people you think Trump will pardon on his way out (and he is on his way out!) and if all three make the list, he win a $25 gift certificate. If no one nails the trifecta, the prize goes to whomever gets two right. If, on the other hand, there are more than three winners, we'll go to a drawing system. Ballots can be emailed or completed in person.

Welcome to Grey Matter, Hadley's premier hard-to-find bookstore for hard-to-find books. We are located a few clicks north of Rt. 9/Russell Street; the entrance is beside the water tower. We have around 40,000 books which we at least try to keep fresh. We are almost always looking for quality book collections.

Is Hadley too far out of the way? We have a swanky second shop in downtown New Haven, around a third the size, but still worth a visit.

Above: a few items from an archive of Serbian poetry.

We have been busy book beavers! Among the new acquisitions is a collection of Medieval art and history, with many big books on manuscript illumination, Byzantine iconography, Islamic culture and more. We also bought a few hundred books from a Marxist philosopher, who, unfortunately, did not sufficiently fetishize his commodities. These include lots of Heidegger in both English and German, an inscribed copy of Foucault's 'Surveiller et Punir', and eleven volumes of the Nijoff edition of Husserl.

HADLEY STORE: 47 East Street  413-387-0160   

M-F 10-6; Saturday 11-6; Sunday 12-5

NEW HAVEN STORE: 264 York St. 203-553-3180 

M-S 10-9; Sun 12-6

We also bought a big, weird collection of science fiction, horror and pulp reprints. It includes more books by Dean R. Koontz than Dean R. Koontz probably remembers ever writing.