We set sail on our village-wide Moby-Dick Marathon soon, and we hope to see you there: Thursday, May 29 through Sunday, June 1. (Check calendar page for details.)
What’s new this year? Our “home-base” is the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum where ecologist Carl Safina reads the opening chapter. Artist Scott Bluedorn brought to life our vision for a logo (spoiler alert): Ishmael floating on Queequeg’s coffin, the Rachel sailing toward him on a navy sea. Get your T-shirt while they last! Designers Mary Woltz and Rob Calvert created a beautiful keepsake “Passport” illustrating each of our “watches”. Get your passport stamped at each location, and win a prize.
We conclude the marathon at the Breakwater Yacht Club with great readers, spectacular views of the harbor, and a fun after-party including silent auction. The Moby Marathon is our key fundraiser for Canio’s Cultural Café. Stop by the bidding table and consider a contribution.
We love sharing this untameable book with newcomers, as well as old salts. When storytelling happens in community, we create lasting friendships. And it’s just plain fun! Come aboard and experience this great American book for yourself, with your own voice sounding Melville’s lyric prose. See you there!
What is it about New Bedford early January, despite the bitter cold, the hard-edged cobbled streets, that stirs the soul? Is it that Melville himself stepped aboard the Acushnet from this very harbor to sail around the world? Is it that over 2500 Melville freaks gathered this year, a record-breaker, to hear the words he painstakingly pressed to paper about a sea voyage gone terribly wrong? It’s about literary camaraderie, over quick breakfasts, or late night, lingering beers at a bar aptly named The Moby Dick Brewing Company. It’s hearing multiple perspectives on this magnificent American novel, or something like a novel, propounded by Melville scholars who elucidate the voyage with insight and humor. It’s celebrating literature among crowds of fans, kids crawling through the life-size model of a whale’s heart – their dad topped in a whale-shaped hat. It’s college students camping out in museum hallways overnight; retired professors toting the 50-year-old copy of the novel they read in college. It’s travelers from as far away as Australia and Brazil, and as near as the next town over who crew this round-the-clock, yet seemingly endless, public voyage that is Moby-Dick: or The Whale. See Kathryn’s wonderful pics. below.
Don’t miss our own Sag Harbor version of a Moby-Dick Marathon reading, this spring, over three days, at various village locations. Readers get ready! Sign-up and dates coming soon. Reserve your weekend late May/early June.
Thursdays – Sundays, 11am – 5pm Stop by for Holiday Gifts! December 12th – 29th
We’re delighted to welcome you to our holiday shop weekends in December at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.
Step through the jaws of a right whale to enter this 1845 building, home of whaling ship owner Benjamin Huntting II. From 1901 to 1918 it was the summer residence of Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage. Architectural details created by Minard LaFever in the parlor room alone will inspire awe. Browse our changing selection of books, and holiday gifts for sale. We’ve got new fiction, nature books, art, poetry, spirituality and more. Landscape photographs by Kathryn Szoka are available. Receive a free Moby Marathon T-shirt with purchases over $75.
Join us for Mrs. Sage’s Solstice reception, Saturday, Dec. 21 from 4 to 6 pm. Enjoy a sip and a snack to celebrate the season.
Jazz fans note: Friday, Dec. 27, we’re open late ahead of “Uniting Through Music: Latin Jazz Festival” upstairs at 7 pm. It will be a hot night! Tickets here.
Holidays have always been a favorite, festive, if hectic time at the shop. We’ve got lots of our unique inventory available for gift-giving, and we’d love to gather surprise gift boxes for all on your list.
While we continue to search for a new home, let us select from our best collectibles and art books; excellent fiction and poetry; children’s books, and of course, nature and spirituality. We have vintage Moby-Dick Marathon T-shirts available, too, for the Melville fan.
Send us your shopping list now, and we’ll organize thoughtful titles you’ll be pleased to present. Allow us to make the choices. We know all will enjoy our picks. Last day to order a box is Tuesday, Dec. 10 (Emily Dickinson’s birthday!)
If you’d like a surprise box for yourself, tell us what category you’re after, and we’ll gather good reading for you.
Thanks to Sag Harbor novelist Stella Sands for this suggestion. Her new book Wordhunter includes an enterprising character who sells books by- the- pound to customers who enjoy a surprise.
Surprise boxes will be shipped or delivered to your door (Sag Harbor area). Gift wrapping is available. Send your requests by email to: caniosbooks@verizon.net Include categories of books to be gathered, age of recipients, billing and shipping information.
As Canio’s continues, On the Road, let’s keep in touch.
You’ve been wanting to come browse the shelves at Canio’s for a while. You’ve been telling yourself you’ve got to get over there. Soon. Gentle reader, now is the time!
We’ve got great sales and great books in need of a new home. As we enter the last month at our current location, we’re taking stock of all the wonderful experiences we’ve enjoyed here over the past 25 years. A quarter century of literary encounters, meeting writers on the page, and in person. And meeting great people such as yourself! It’s a bittersweet task to sort through our storied collection, and make plans for an unknown future. Canio’s Cultural Cafe will continue with programing at partner locations. We look forward to sharing more news soon.
Stop by soon to find some great bargains, say hello, say goodbye. Tell us your favorite “Canio’s story.” And, help us keep the celebration of Sag Harbor’s literary culture alive.
Canio’s Books must move to a new location later this fall. In this season of change, we look forward to new possibilities this change offers.
Friends of Canio’s has launched a GoFundMe site to help realize opportunities and manage expenses. Please consider supporting this effort and share it with your friends.
From Friends of Canio’s:
“Canio’s Books has kept a light on for the East End literary community since 1980. After 44 years, it must leave its beloved Sag Harbor home on Main Street. Donate now to ensure it will thrive and grow in a vibrant new location.
Canio’s is well known for its hand-picked book collection that blends fiction and non-fiction, stretching from classic to contemporary. “Eclectic,” “a treasure,” “wonderful assortment of new and used books,” “selections like fine wines,” “friendly, helpful owners,” say Yelp reviewers. One avid reader pronounced it “a perfect bookstore.”
Please share the link with your literary and community circles. Thanks for your support! Stay tuned for updates!
Sometimes you just don’t know what you’re asking. When I asked playwright/actor Keith Reddin how he memorizes lines for a performance, he credited his wife, actor Meg Gibson. “She’s great at it,” he said. “She helped me a lot.” Both Keith and Meg had recently played in Bay Street Theatre’s captivating production of The Crucible.
When Meg agreed to give a two-part workshop on memorization, I was thrilled, but had little idea what I was getting into. To memorize well, Meg explained, we must make the text our own. Over two nights, she dove deeply into the poems we’d brought to learn by heart. She shared intriguing tips about how to spot patterns, and make images to help us bring the verses into our very being. We were engaging with words in a completely different way.
Meg pressed us further . . .
What did the text really mean to us? Why had we choosen this particular poem, or speech? Now there was nowhere to hide! We had to own it! Both amateurs and actors sat around a circle to try our verses. ~ MC
Staff member Evan Harris had this to say about her experience: “What a revelation to move into the act of memorizing with the assist of actor Meg Gibson! Meg’s approach to memorization is all about inhabiting the work to be memorized – in my case a rather humble poem by Robert Frost, “A Minor Bird,” about not silencing the singing of others. There were other, difficult poems brought by other, ambitious memorizers at the workshop. No matter the material, Meg led each of us to greater connection with our chosen text. We had a sense of purpose: making a bond with a meaningful piece of writing. Meg brought so much generosity, patience and curiosity to the process of speaking and learning to remember. “Do you want to work,” she would say when it was time to dive in and begin. This must be what actors say! I was intrigued, charmed. There was all kinds of laughing, and crying, and trying to understand and even actually understanding, on our own terms, the words we were setting out to learn. By the end of the workshop, the pure sentience in the warm, book-lined space of Canio’s Books had reached flying height. ~ Evan Harris
What could top our sellout event featuring Colson Whitehead reading from his newest novel to family, friends and fans in his own summer-home town? Hard to imagine. We gathered at the beautiful, historic and welcoming Christ Episcopal Church as Priest-in-Charge Mother Broderick invited us to consider this house of worship, “our house” for important gatherings and celebrations of life-passages. Canio’s Books co-owner Kathryn Szoka praised Colson’s copious literary achievements, and acknowledged his early support of the Steinbeck House preservation project. Whitehead signed on as honorary chair, a commitment, Szoka said, that catapulted the campaign and led to its success.
Colson charmed the audience reading a nostalgic passage from his most personal novel, Sag Harbor, a book pivotal to his development as a writer. Young Benji views the village through its ever changing facades as he tries to find his footing on unfamiliar ground. Whitehead gave us a sneak peek of his work-in-progress, the third installment of his Ray Carney series. It featured a cameo appearance by Major Ed Koch, and promises to be another winner.
Whitehead first introduced Carney, a furniture salesman cum fence in the 2021 heist novel, Harlem Shuffle set in the ‘60s. In his new book, Crook Manifesto, Carney returns, a decade later, in the late seventies. Colson discussed his writing process – he listens to music to drown out the cacophony of city noise. Kathryn pointed to some particularly lyrical passages. The hope is as you mature as a writer, Whitehead said, you become better at finding the musicality, the right rhythm for the sentence. With Crook Manifesto, Colson has found just the right beat.
What a thrill to anticipate this Memorial Day weekend when the Steinbeck House welcomes visitors (by appointment only, see SteinbeckHouseNY.org) for the very first time. All the hard work over the past two-years has finally come to fruition. This is the place where Steinbeck wrote The Winter of Our Discontent, Travels With Charley, and America and Americans . The true value of this property, preserved in large part due to the Town of Southampton, can’t be measured in dollars and cents. It will be measured by the inspiration it provides those writers who will find peace and quiet there, with time and space enough to imagine, and to write their next great book. And even an hour’s tour of the grounds will afford the interested visitor a glimpse of the place that so inspired the Nobel Laureate. Book a guided tour to enjoy the expansive water view, stroll under sheltering trees, and step into the modest house Steinbeck called home.
SOUTHAMPTON TOWN BOARD VOTES 5-0to PRESERVE STEINBECK HOME
The Town Board of Southampton showed their LOVE on Valentine’s Day and voted 5-0 to use CPF funds to preserve John & Elaine Steinbeck’s home as a writers retreat with low impact public access. Thank you, Tommy John Schiavoni, Supervisor Jay Schniederman and all Town Board members. You made history.
TWO years ago NO ONE thought it could happen.
Butwe did ! And we kept that vision alive with passion and integrity. Big thanks to the Sag Harbor Partnership who had the know-how, connections, and believed in the vision. April Gornik and John Avlon were early and steadfast believers who opened doors and minds to the importance of our dream to preserve John Steinbeck’s home. Susan Mead and Diana Howard (SHP) continue to spend countless hours working out the details. Colson Whitehead signed on early as Honorary Chair which was key. Thanks to this dream team!
More heartfelt thanks to all who spoke, wrote, and cheered from the sidelines, who helped in small or big ways. Each word of encouragement, every donation, every letter, and appearance at events added to our groundswell of community support that, in the end, was irresistable!
Together, we made history! We preserved a literary jewel that will shine far into the future.
We’re so gratified, we can’t thank you enough. More about next steps coming soon. For now, let’s savor this experience, appreciating what happens when people join together for the benefit of our local as well as world community.
To creativity & community!
with gratitude,
Kathryn + Maryann
We ‘re raising the last $200,000. Please donate!GOFUNDME.
Canio’s Books is located at 290 Main Street, Sag Harbor, NY 11963, 631.725.4926. Call or email us, caniosbooks@verizon.net. While we love you to SEE you, you can also order new titles at our online storefront or some of our second hand inventory HERE. Thanks for visiting!
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