Readers Books owner to read on Oct. 27

Customers of Readers’ Books in Sonoma have enjoyed the essays included in the store’s weekly emails for years.

Andy Weinberger, the owner of Readers’ Books, will be having an event on Thursday, Oct 27 at 7 p.m., to launch the publication of his collection of essays called “The Ugly Man Sits in the Garden.”

“I wrote the essays for the newsletter as a way of putting a human face on the bookstore, to show our customers what it’s like to work in the book business and to point out why what we do has a special importance in this universe,” he said. “Somewhere along the line, I started writing about the quirks and foibles of my family life, odd encounters between customers, and my take on politics, pop culture, and whatever comes across my radar.”

The essays in the new book date from the past three years. He decided to turn the essays into a book to celebrate Readers’ Books 25th anniversary, which begins in November. “We thought a book like this, among other things, would be a good memento for the citizens of Sonoma,” he said. “Yes, it’s pieces of my life, but a great deal of it speaks about the life and musings of a bookseller in this small town.”

Weinberger says it’s not quite a history or a memoir, “but something in between.”

“I wrote four novels back in the ’80s and nearly published one of them, but in the end, after 29 rave rejection letters, I put it all on the back burner.”

Recently Weinberger moved back to Los Angeles, and said he has begun writing fiction again, and has completed another novel for which he is trying to find an agent. He is still actively involved in the running of the bookstore and commutes to Sonoma once a month. “Fortunately we have a terrific crew there, so things are well in hand.”