When MCB arrived at The Aster last week for June’s Books and Bars discussion, MCB had the ambition to track down moderator Jeff Kamin and ask a few questions. MCB watched from the corner of the room as Kamin spent the first twenty minutes of his time at the café fiddling with the soundboard and letting loose the occasional cry of feedback or baritone throat-clearing of static. When his food arrived and the audience stopped covering their ears, Kamin relaxed and sat in his chair next to the lovely Emily of Mager’s and Quinn. That’s when MCB swooped in without mercy.
MCB: Let’s talk about the initial idea for Books and Bars. Is that distant quaint and let’s say honorable idea anything like the book club you facilitate today?
JK: Sort of. The thing is, it actually didn’t first come from me. It came from a book store that is now out of business in Saint Paul. I was working at Citypages at the time. We were their sponsor. I hit it off with the manager of the store. I liked it, the book club. I went back. He said, “I don’t want to do this myself. Do you want to help?” I just started helping him, moderating, picking the books. Sometimes I did it. Sometimes he did it. It was under the sponsorship of this store called Bound to Be Read for the first 18 months. Then the manager said he had bad news, that they were going out of business. I said, “I think we have a good thing going here. I’d like to continue it.” Mager’s and Quinn has been our bookseller since I’ve been in charge which is five years—no, six years now. We did it for five years straight at Bryant Lake Bowl, then moved to The Aster last fall. By the start of 2011, maybe in February, after our seventh anniversary, we went all Aster. Now we’re looking at doing special events, like Skype video chat and author readings. We might actually expand to Republic at Seven Corners. It’s not official yet, but for special events we might move those to Republic and still have the regular Books and Bars here.
How it’s changed? When it started there were probably 20 or 25 people. Now we consistently have 80 to 100—however many we can fit in a room. The Skype chats were something I added later and proved to be really popular.
The idea that it’s a book club as a show is what I like. It’s not like we’re sitting down and talking to each other across the table. I roam the crowd, give people the microphone. It’s as much as you get into it. I want to hear anyone’s perspective that they want to share. I love the fact that a hundred people get together and we all read the same book, yet we all read a different book. The book you’re reading in your twenties is a different book than the book I’m reading. When you read the same book later in life, it’s actually a different book to you. I love the different ages we get in here. Look around the room. Anywhere from 21 to 61.
MCB: As the arguments about to ensue tonight will clearly illustrate, Books and Bars participants come from a wide range of literary backgrounds. How do you reconcile this when bouncing from one raised hand to another? How do you manage to make everyone feel welcome, no matter what their education or let’s call it reading experience?
JK: I ask that everyone listen to the person that’s talking. When they have the microphone and their hand goes up, it’s their turn. When they’ve made their point, someone else can go next. I think the disagreements lead to a better discussion. The fact that there’s going to be lovers tonight and haters is okay. I want to hear both. I don’t want to start too negative because it can scare people off. I try to keep it positive, fun, and welcoming. It’s a safe place where we’re just expressing opinions. We’re here for fun. It’s social. If it gets too dicey, I’ll look for ways to diffuse it with comedy. I want to keep it fun, despite the serious topics. Sometimes books like that can be difficult because people feel like they have to be reverent. I’ll make a couple jokes, do a lot of improv. I’ll listen and react. I come with my notes, but I’d rather have people that read the book show up, buy a beer, and take all the steps, to have the say. I just go with the flow.
MCB: As any moderator should.
JK: Exactly.
MCB: Last month’s discussion involved a young participant stating that Jennifer Egan’s novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, made him feel old. Even as a neutral and poker-faced facilitator you seemed somewhat shocked. Are you often surprised by what participants have to say about the books you read?
JK: I remember that. Was that at your table?
MCB: It was.
JK: Was it you?
MCB: Perhaps.
JK: [laughs] Yes, I’m still shocked by what people say. I guess, you know, anyone else saying that, if I didn’t look at them and see incredible youth staring back at me, I might have looked at it a different way. When you said it, I found it comical. I thought, If this makes you feel old, well.
MCB: Almost everyone in this business seems to be in it for something they love. What would you say that love is for you? What does Books and Bars do for you, on a personal level?
JK: A couple things. I came from an improv background. Getting in front of people, making them laugh. I started the club as a participant. I love books, I love talking about them. Then I decided to get involved and make it better. It gave me that show aspect. Some of the things I love most—books, reading writing—and some of the other passions—comedy, film, music. I love a good glass of wine, a nice beer. We’re going to a nice restaurant. Now I have a lot of those things combined in one thing that used to be just for fun, and now I get to make money and help people read, meet people. I get a lot from it. I do it as a passion project. Everyone’s getting something.
MCB: So you’re not stopping anytime soon?
JK: No. If anything, we might go twice a month in winter or fall. We’ll probably do special events, at the sister venue. I recently got a job as producer for Minnesota Public Radio but I still have time to do this. I couldn’t stop it because I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it. It’s one thing to be in a club but it’s another to be the guy running it. My track record’s pretty good. Our 100th book is in the middle of next month’s Harry Potter reading. We’re reading all seven books. If you want an exact book, it’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 104 books next month. There’s only a couple of those that I don’t own. I have a special books and bars shelf at home. I want to give all the books 4 or 5 stars, but it’s not easy.
MCB: MCB would like to solicit a confession.
JK: Go for it.
MCB: You were kind of headed in this direction already. Readers unfamiliar with the selection process of Books and Bars should know that participants sometimes vote on books in the user forums. Has there ever been a book selected that made you die a little inside, or at least groan with exasperation in the privacy of your home, hidden away from the voters?
JK: The ones I regret people didn’t really vote on. I picked them. A lot of these aren’t voted on. I try to get votes. Most of these people don’t want to choose what to read. They want someone else to pick it for them to let them try new things. They think that they never would’ve known about these books. I don’t want to blame anyone else for what they voted on. But of the books I picked, I didn’t really like Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen. I was a little let down by that. Sometimes the nonfiction lets me down because it’s such a narrow topic. It’s hard to pick things that appeal to a lot of people. Like Mary Roach’s Bonk, I didn’t like that so much. I’m looking for something that’s discussion worthy, something you’re going to remember.
MCB: What’s one book you’re very proud to have read and discussed with Books and Bars participants?
JK: Kafka on the Shore.
MCB: That’s a good book.
JK: I think that it’s one that’s open to so many interpretations and so different than what you’d expect. I could have read it alone, but I would’ve been pressing into other peoples’ hands looking for opinions. I think it was a great pick that turned a lot of people onto a Japanese writer they might not have otherwise picked. He’s popular, but not Oprah popular. I could’ve named others, but visually that book stuck with me.
MCB: What’s one book you look forward to reading, one day?
JK: There are so many. There are a lot of classics I haven’t read yet but need to chip away at. One that’s not on my list for sure?
MCB: One that’s definitely something you want to discuss but you haven’t come around to reading.
JK: One thing we don’t do is repeat authors. I keep a list that I check regularly. It sounds funny, but I want to keep this current for a moment. I’ve never read the Harry Potter books until now. I always wanted to read them to my kids. What’s amazing is that this is one of the last times you’ll get that feeling of waiting for something that’s going to happen. Like waiting for Return of the Jedi when I was a kid. I thought, When’s the last chance that reading these Harry Potter books is really going to matter? It was this July because of the new movie. I’m reading all seven books right now. I just started book six and am looking forward to what could be an impossible three hour discussion. I want to feel like I did this and can go to the movie at midnight with that excitement. I want to say, “We read these for Books & Bars.” It may sound lame, but I’ll be really excited when I finish that and can see those movies. We’ll do costumes, trivia, butter beer. It’s a reservation you’ll need to make this week, as it will fill up really fast.
MCB: According to MCB’s call-making, article-reading, Tweet-catching watch, it’s almost 7:00 and Books and Bars is about to start. Is there anything you’d like to leave us with?
JK: Overall I just want to hear what you guys think. It’s about more than liking it or not, but why. What did you get from it? Would you read something else by this author? What did it make you think? That’s all.
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Is there anything Jeff Kamin can’t do? As a writer, improviser, MPR producer, B&B moderator, host of Name that Tune and Album Club, one couldn’t accuse him of lacking ambition. Follow him on Twitter (@jefe23) or on Tumblr (http://mustacherobots.tumblr.com/).
Please be advised that MCB may have distracted JK long enough for his food to cool. For that MCB apologizes.
Visit the Books and Bars website at: http://booksandbars.com/
