Generally Horrible Questions: Anne Kimbol

Look, a picture of Anne!

Anne Kimbol is the manager at Murder By the Book in Houston.  If Murder By the Book were the TV show King of the Hill, Anne is the Hank Hill of Strickland Propane.  She's not the loudest or most outrageous, but she's the steady hand that keeps the ship afloat.  Anne's a great reader and generally the type of person you want to hang around, even though she owns two pugs.  I have my issues with dogs that look like self-mutilators.

And another picture of Anne!

We sent her our silly little questionnaire and Anne kindly agreed to play along.  A note about the process--we send out a survey of 15 questions and ask for a picture to include.  Anne quickly answered the questions even though she's sick today, but she responded that "I don't believe in pictures of myself."  Gianna immediately called me to discuss this sentence.  I mean, Gianna doesn't believe in the Easter Bunny, and I don't believe in doing housework when there are books to be read, but we're both pretty certain that photographs exist.  Let's just say that our general opinions about Anne's sanity were drawn into question.  Let's poke some more holes in this mystery-loving bookseller's professional facade and see if we can dig up photographic proof of her existence.

Generally Horrible Questions: Anne Kimbol

1. How did you get into the bookselling business?

By accident. I was working at University of Houston Law School and became a customer at Murder By the Book. I was curious about the business and started working part-time to help with signings. Now I am full-time, and they are stuck with me.

2. What's the best experience you've had working at the bookstore?

Tie between meeting Jim Butcher and meeting Bob Crais. [I'm sure that Anne meant to include "...after the day that I met Liz and Gianna.  She's sick today.  The fever, I'm certain, made her forget this sentence.]

3. What book(s) changed your life?

This is humiliating
for any animal...

Ngaio Marsh's books gave me my love of mysteries. Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston and Urban Waite's Terror of Living reminded me of just how expansive and amazing the genre can be.

4. What are you currently reading?

Lauren Willig's Orchid Affair

5. What’s the deal with your pugs?  How much would we have to pay you to name one “Undergarment Varmint?"

...and I'd never place
Zorro in such attire.

Pugs are the best, most ridiculous creatures on the planet. Money would not be required, merely a funny story involving one of the boys and underwear. [Ummmm....Anne dressed her dogs as dinosaurs for Halloween; underwear shouldn't be a stretch for the little gargoyles.  Also, Anne believes in dressing dogs for Halloween, but not in pictures of herself.]

6. Would you rather....Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) or Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) or Tom Ripley (Matt Damon/John Malkovich)?

Man of Anne's Dreams

Robert Downey Jr. [According to a MBTB customer who called the store yesterday, Holmes's hat is called a 'cocksucker hat.'  I'm not joking about this.  Nice choice there, Anne.]

7. What's the biggest lie ever told by a sales rep?

Undoubtedly one I haven't caught on to yet.

8. What's your second favorite bookstore?

BookPeople in Austin

9. Gianna or Liz?

Robert Downey Jr. [Gianna: clearly she means Gianna ...she is the one with a dark past.] [Liz:  Everyone knows that 'Liz' is the correct answer to question #9.  Also, I'm obviously Robert Downey Jr. because I'm the straight one.  Gianna...is Tom Cruise.]

10. The most depressing book you've ever read?

The Old Man and the Sea. Love Hemingway, but the man could be long and depressing when the mood inspired him.

11. I've never read ____________.  And I'm so ashamed.

Dorothy Sayers

12. I once read ____________.  And I’m so ashamed.

Some of the Harlequins my mother kept around the house. [Yeah, you should be ashamed of that.]

Great book.

13. Worst job you’ve ever had. 

Re-alphabetizing all the files in a law firm's filing room.

14. I wanted to be a ________ when I grew up.

A kept woman.  [....Ummmm....I'm sure Gianna can help you with that.]

15. _____________ is my favorite book ever.

Einstein's Dreams

"The Best Book I Ever Received": Book Industry Folks Pick Their Holiday Favorites, Part 1

As the holiday season kicks into full gear, I’m once again reminded that the gift I most want—more books—is the one I’m least likely to receive. Just because I work in the book business doesn’t mean that I don’t NEED more books. I’m convinced that anyone who works beyond the college part-time job level in the book industry is in it for the love of the product (just as I’m convinced that anyone who makes a career of it is mentally not-right). It’s more than a job. Give us our books!


To that end, I asked a few booksellers to tell me the best book they ever received as a gift. Gianna says she’s going to ask her mom, too, and that Gianna’s mom will probably recommend “porn.” Something to eagerly anticipate!

Sara Glassman sells books at The Little Professor Book Center in Homewood, Alabama. Sara actually had several recommendations:


Dead Men Do Tell Tales by William Maples

This is a really engaging book about forensic anthropology. If you've got a "Bones" fan who likes the nitty gritty this is great for them! I got it when I was 15 and it actually set me on the course that ended with a graduate degree in Anthropology. Maples is great at balancing detail with anecdote and gives insight into cases as varied as identifying the Romanovs to the murders of Ted Bundy.

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Mythology by Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

My mom gave me a copy of this when I was very young, six or seven maybe. I'd checked it out from the library 10 times by the time she bought it for me. I loved Greek mythology. I knew the names of the Olympians before I knew the names of the Seven Dwarves. It's still one of my favorite books to sell so that I can introduce more people to these wonderful stories.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
This is cheating a little since it was a "gift" from Toni Hetzel (Toni is my Gianna for stores east of the Mississippi River, selling books to the stores in the Deep South, and a big fan of Juicy Couture), but I was having really bad week and I mentioned it to her when she was here for a meeting. She went out to her car and got an ARC (advance reading copy) of Sweetness and handed it to me. I started reading it then on my lunch break and it was the first thing that week that made me smile.

Brian Contine is a bookseller at BookPeople in Austin, Texas, who happens to be married to the store’s adult book buyer. He’s also a skilled amateur chef, a skill his wife joyfully exploits. Here’s Brian’s advice for holiday book giving:


In this season of giving, is there a way I can make it a little about me? Yes. Give your spouse a cookbook and you'll win every time. A couple of years ago, my wife gave me a copy of Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories. Hopkinson is the British Alice Waters, creating succinct, refined, homestyle recipes which will challenge the cook and warm the belly. I suggest Salade Frisee Aux Lardons. If it matters to you, and it should, this is the best written cookbook I've ever read, you could read it cover to cover without cooking a thing and feel full.

Anne Kimbol is an expert in a particular genre, mystery, working at Houston’s elite specialty store Murder By the Book. Nonetheless, the best book she ever received as a gift transcends genre boundaries:

A friend of mine gave me a copy of Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. I have since given it as a gift to many friends. It is a book about different theories of time told as dreams of Einstein's. I know that sounds terribly boring, but the writing really brings you into the worlds Lightman created on Einstein's behalf. It is still the book I go to when I really need an escape from the everyday craziness of life.

Check back for other picks from some of the biggest book lovers in the country…and Gianna’s mom.