Are you an avid book shopper? Meet Murray Browne. He is too.

"When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas. I think of the books on library shelves, without their jackets, years old, and a countryish teenaged boy finding them, and having them speak to him. The reviews, the stacks in Brentano's [Bookstores], are just hurdles to get over, to place the books on that shelf." --John Updike (at age 36), from an interview in the Paris Review

Murray Browne was that "countryish teenaged boy" looking for the books that spoke to him in the library of his hometown of Milford, Illinois, the "Buckle on the Corn Belt," as he describes it in his book, The Book Shopper: A Life in Review.

He submitted his manuscript to us at Paul Dry Books because he'd come upon, read, and liked So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid (which we published in 2003) and thought we might like his writing about books. He read us correctly, since, on first reading, I took to his manuscript and then accepted it for publication. [read more]

The Book Shopper

Murray Browne

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" —Henry Ward Beecher

The Book Shopper is a spirited and witty guide to the world of disheveled used boo . . . [read more]

A Russian Schoolboy

Sergei Aksakov

Translated by J. D. Duff

"The happiness of childhood is the Golden Age, and the recollection of it has power to move the old man's heart with pleasure and with pain. Happy the man who once possessed it and is able to . . . [read more]

Up in the Hills

Lord Dunsany

Afterword by Michael Grenke

Up in the Hills "is too richly humorous, too full of wit, wisdom, gentle irony, salutary satire and the wonder which Spring offers to the welcoming eye to be read only by Dunsany's devo . . . [read more]

Bombay Smiles

Jaume Sanllorrente

In 2003, Jaume Sanllorente was a young journalist leading an active and exciting life in Barcelona—no more idealistic than any other young professional. Then a travel agent convinced him to s . . . [read more]

Feeling Our Feelings

Eva Brann

In Feeling Our Feelings, Eva Brann considers what the great philosophers on the passions and feelings have thought and written about them. She examines the relevant work of Plato, Aristotle, . . . [read more]

The Logic of Desire

Peter Kalkavage

The best introduction for the general reader to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's great book, Phenomenology of Spirit.

Peter Kalkavage's The Logic of Desire guides the rea . . . [read more]

The Einstein Theory of Relativity

Lillian Lieber

Edited and with a Foreword by David Derbes and Robert Jantzen

"Oh, what a delightful book! This is the clearest explanation of relativity available—and the most fun." —Walter Isaacson

Using "just enough mathematics to help . . . [read more]

The Secret of Fame

Gabriel Zaid

Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer

"Gabriel Zaid is a marvelously elegant and playful writer—a cosmopolitan critic with sound judgment and a light touch. He is a jewel of Latin American letters, which is no small thin . . . [read more]

Philadelphia Architecture

John Andrew Gallery

This updated, comprehensive guide to Philadelphia's architecture will appeal to tourists and locals alike.

"The architectural heritage of over 300 years is visible on every st . . . [read more]

Ransom for a Knight

Barbara Leonie Picard

In 14th-century England, Alys de Renneville sits alone in the loft of her manor house mourning her father and brother who are thought to have been killed in battle in Scotland. Late one evening, a . . . [read more]

In Pursuit of the Good

Eric Salem

Where does happiness lie?

What is the best life?

Aristotle ponders these abiding questions in his Nicomachean Ethics—a work which has profoundly influenced Western thinking on . . . [read more]

Style: An Anti-Textbook

Richard A. Lanham

Why do so many writing courses, with their earnest handbooks and narrow focus on "clarity," bore students and fail to teach them how to write well? Richard Lanham provides answers, and a . . . [read more]

Fat Wednesday

John Verdi

Would you agree or disagree with someone who said that Wednesday is fat, Tuesday lean? Does the ordinary use of words provide all we need to know about their descriptive power? In Fat Wednesday: . . . [read more]

The Six-Cornered Snowflake

Johannes Kepler

In 1611, the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote The Six-Cornered Snowflake, which was the first scientific reference to snow crystals. Kepler wondered why snow crystals always exhibit a . . . [read more]

Author Spotlight:

In May, Paul Dry Books will publish Murray Browne's The Book Shopper. Murray has published numerous essays, book reviews, newspaper articles, feature stories, and technical articles. He holds a BA in English and Radio-Television and an MS in Information (Library) Sciences from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Though he grew up in the Midwest, Browne now lives in Atlanta, where he works as a media content analyst..[read more]