Q: Will Rock City be one of the few places in the U.S. this summer where you can get special large-postcard-sized prints of Jane Mount’s Ideal Bookshelf paintings? 

A: You bet your sweet patootie, whatever a patootie is. Look for them at Rock City in just a few weeks!

Are you between the ages of 22-40, and looking to exorcise some demons from your teen years? We just happen to have a way to help you do that. On Friday, June 25th, Rock City is offering up ‘Night of Shame: A Tribute to Mortified’, and we need some volunteer performers. 

What’s Mortified, you ask? We answer: it’s a comic excavation of the strange and extraordinary things we created as young adults. Since we can’t travel to New York or California to see one of their shows, we’re putting on our very own. What to expect:

*Witness adults performing excerpts from adolescent journals, letters, poems, lyrics, stories and more. 

*Bad Teen Poetry Slam: Bring your worst poem from your teen years and compete for prizes—whichever is voted by the audience as the worst will triumph!

*Live music featuring acoustic renderings of songs you loved to hate and couldn’t help but love when you were 14

*Special food & drinks for the event, and deals on Mortified books

If you’re interested in volunteering to perform one of the selected stories, please get in touch with Lacy at lacy@rockcitybooks.com (We’ve indicated the 22-40 age range for performers because we’re focusing on the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s.)

If you want to participate but don’t necessarily want to be a performer, consider digging through your notebooks to find something to read for the Bad Teen Poetry Slam—just bring it along to the event and sign up there!

This will be a ticketed event—advance tickets are$3 each or 4 for $10 and tickets at the door will be $4 apiece—from 8-10 p.m. on June 25th. Tickets will go on sale on June 1st, but if you volunteer to perform one of the stories, of course your ticket will be free. 

Some of the material isn’t suitable for minors, so this event is intended for those 18+.

For more information on the origins of Mortified, visit http://getmortified.com

Introducing: The Rock City Guide to Life!

Let’s say we were going to do a video-based Rock City advice column type of thing, where staff members answer your queries about coffee, grammar, books, etiquette, fashion and love. Let’s say you could ask questions by clicking the “Ask Me Anything” above. Let’s say we wouldn’t use your real name in the answers, and that your questions should be reasonably appropriate. What would you do? We hope the answer is clear!

We’ll start gathering up your questions and choose the best of ‘em to answer in a new series of videos we’re thinking of calling “Rock City’s Guide to Life.”

From The Oatmeal, which deserves your attention.

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls: astonishingly good.

Love our bookstore? Here’s a chance to rhapsodize about why. If you decide to share your Rock City story, we’d love to know!

Your devoted bookseller Lacy is headed to NYC for the weekend to do a few things; among them is:

*seeing this Maira Kalman show on its last day

*spying on the good stuff afoot at WORD bookstore in Brooklyn

*load up on pens at MUJI

*walk around and around and around with her friend Val

*MoMA MoMA MoMA

*get overwhelmed, wish I lived in New York, change my mind when I remember how fantastic Rockland is.

Posting a few videos from the ‘Objective Chance Poetry Dance’—here’s the first of ‘em!

It’s sunny and quiet and Thursday and sunny and quiet. How is it where you are?