Raconteur Press

Independent Bookstores in Jersey still Attract Customers

2011-03-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

By Peter Genovese
March 18, 2011
THE STAR-LEDGER
At first glance, the Raconteur resembles a museum of oddities more than a bookstore.

The decor includes a stuffed pheasant, steamer trunk, Ouija board, a Christmas light made of shotgun shells, giant mounted bugs, a G.I. Joe lunch box, Underwood typewriter, a scarred but in-tune piano salvaged from a shut-down saloon, a knight’s helmet and three beer taps from the Plum Street Pub in New Brunswick, where Dawson once worked.

Oh yes, and 25,000 books, neatly arranged, although some are intentionally stacked on the floor because people “like sorting through the piles — that’s where they think the treasure is,’’ according to Dawson.

The former bartender, bouncer and Central Park carriage driver wrote and designed 15 plays for the New York stage, but could never get used to the “fleeting, ephemeral’’ nature of theater.

So he opened the Raconteur six years ago, envisioning it not just as bookstore, but a “free cultural center’’ and community gathering place.

Dawson holds about 80 events a year in the bookstore — author appearances, readings, musical performances (everything from chamber music to hard-core punk), and film screenings. And let’s not forget the annual arm-wrestling competition, called the Santiago Armsport Tourney in honor of the arm-wrestling fisherman in Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.’’

Hell's Readers

2011-03-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

July 13, 2009
By Robert Kaplow
NEW JERSEY MONTLY
"I have this urge, a compulsion really, to turn the basic idea of a bookstore on its ear,” says Alex Dawson, co-owner and manager of the Raconteur, a used bookshop in Metuchen. The Raconteur not only sells new and used books and organizes screenings of film classics, it also runs a motorcycle club for book-loving bikers. Every summer and fall, the club sets out on a series of motorcycle treks to “sites of literary or cinematic interest.” Previous excursions explored William Carlos Williams’s Paterson, and Blairstown, where Friday the 13th was shot.

A nice café with a rather good bookstore attached

2008-09-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Mercer sounds a call to arms to all real book lovers to rally and keep the independent bookseller alive
By Jeremy Mercer
December 8, 2007
THE GUARDIAN
It is incumbent upon us to go to such lengths to help those foolhardy dreamers who still insist on opening bookshops. Just look around: on the Greek island of Santorini where a band of young idealists created Atlantis Books or in the New Jersey town of Metuchen where a bearded maverick opened The Raconteur or in London where Lloyd's of Kew has been lovingly revived complete with tree sculpture bookshelves. If these folks are willing to gamble their meager resources on the absurd adventure of bookselling, the least we, the bookstore faithful, can do is match their bet. It might cost a little more in time and money, but consider it a form of tithe. How else will we preserve our literary sanctuaries?

Brainiacs unite!

2008-09-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

Laurie Granieri
THE HOME NEWS TRIBUNE
Look for gobs of literary mayhem this weekend at The Raconteur Festival in Metuchen. We're talking live music from The Roadside Graves and Spain's Sandra Rubio, authors such as Charles Bock (Beautiful Children) and Shelley Jackson, who's building a story with tattooed volunteers--don't ask just show up--and The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, a traveling combo of vaudeville, burlesque and sideshow. Join the circus (sorry cirkus) at your own risk. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Metuchen does Oscars with book readings

2008-09-04T17:25:00.002-07:00

By Elias Holtzman
February 28, 2008
THE HOME NEWS TRIBUNE
Metuchen had its own Oscar program last Saturday night, a day before the actual Oscars ceremony in Hollywood. The master of ceremonies in Metuchen was not Jon Stewart, the comedian, but Alex Dawson, mid-thirtyish bookseller, playwright, set designer, bartender, motorcycle rider, actor, big tall guy, and a "sine qua non" such as I never "sine qua non" before.

Get your motor running, head out to the…bookstore?

2008-09-04T17:25:00.001-07:00

By Peter Applebome
June 8, 2006
THE NEW YORK TIMES
If someone was going to start a literary motorcycle club in New Jersey, it figured to be Alex Dawson. So, no surprise, there he was, leader of the pack on his Kawasaki Vulcan Classic, when the club roared out on its first road trip earlier this month to the house in Burlington, where James Fenimore Cooper was born.

O.K., it was just five members, but you have to start somewhere. "It's a very difficult demographic to mine, finding people who are interested in literature and motorcycles," he said.

But then Mr. Dawson, it turns out, is already an expert on mining difficult demographics. Witness his main gig, his attempt to start an independent literary bookstore, writers' salon and literary center of gravity in Metuchen, N.J. And, quite amazingly, a year and a half into the game, his bookstore, the Raconteur, has become slightly famous in literary circles in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as Edison and New Brunswick, even if the jury is still out on whether anyone can make much of a living this way in the age of Amazon, Borders and Barnes & Noble.

Book Smart

2008-09-04T17:24:00.001-07:00

Writers try to add quirkiness and flair to Metuchen’s Downtown
By Laurie Granieri
THE HOME NEWS TRIBUNE
When it comes to the Raconteur bookstore in Metuchen, size matters – and bigger isn’t necessarily better. Patrons can’t grab grande half-caf caramel lattes at the modest Main Street bookstore, tucked between Charming Nails and the Metuchen Savings Bank, but they can rent hard-to-find indie and foreign films, read Hunter Thompson’s obituary, flip through a massive Shakespeare tome perched on a lectern or bump into any number of quirky decorations, including masks from around the globe and a life size Indian statue made of masking tape.

Psychedelic author finds audience in Metuchen

2008-09-04T17:23:00.001-07:00

By Rebecca Lerner
February 7, 2007
THE HOME NEWS TRIBUNE
Finding a figure like Pinchbeck in suburban New Jersey might seem something of a surprise, even in Metuchen, a place that considers itself Manhattan hip and goes by “the brainy borough.” But the bookstore has a reputation for transcending its locale.

Short-story book features local authors

2008-09-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Contributors include both professionals and beginners
By Jay Bodas
January 2, 2008
THE SENTINEL
Besides being an attorney, incoming borough councilman Chris Morrison is also a writer of fiction in his free time. "I had always enjoyed writing, but I had never really shared that with anyone else," Morrison said. "Before this, I hadn't been published in anything besides college publications."

Morrison's work appears in the recently published Raconteur Reader, a collection of 30 short stories published by Alex Dawson, owner of Main Street's three-year-old bookstore, The Raconteur. The book's contributors include a range of writers, from those whose work is being published for the first time to those who are award-winning professional writers, including Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robert Festinger, who co-wrote the screenplay for "In the Bedroom."

Fellow Metuchen resident and author Robert Kaplow is also a contributor to the Reader. Kaplow has seven published novels to his credit, and one of his books, "Me and Orson Welles," is now being made into a film by director Richard Linklater and stars teen actor Zac Efron. Kaplow also refers to himself as an "authentic fan" of the Raconteur bookstore. "I am there all the time … I was there today," he said. "The Raconteur is what a bookstore ought to be”

Tricks, treats at local haunted houses

2008-09-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

By Jay Bodas
October 31, 2007
THE SENTINEL
EDISON - Some Halloweens, it can be just plain torture scaring up something fun to do.

But not this year. Over the weekend Edison and Woodbridge townships each played host to a sprawling haunted house, where thousands were given a good fright. But those unfortunate souls who missed out will still have another chance to experience true terror at Metuchen's Raconteur Bookstore on Main Street, beginning tonight at 7:30 p.m.

"We are doing what we call 'The Haunted Bookshop' for the first time ever, with the monsters inspired by classic horror stories," said storeowner Alex Dawson. "Participants will be given a tour through the store by a freshly murdered Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Lestrade, who was a character from the Sherlock Holmes series."

The windows of the storefront will be blacked out, and the shop's interior will be illuminated by colored lights, Dawson said. "Each aisle will be curtained off, and we will have characters from the 'Phantom of the Opera' and the 'Island of Dr. Moreau,' among others, as well as Edgar Allan Poe reciting his famous poem 'The Raven.' "

Mutts’ comic creator a devoted friend to animals

2008-09-04T17:17:00.001-07:00

By Darcie Borden
June 29, 2005
THE SENTINEL
Earl, the Jack Russell terrier who is the star of the “Mutts” comic strip, returned to his hometown of Metuchen Saturday to meet with his adoring fans at the Raconteur book shop.

He accompanied his owner, Patrick McDonnell, who writes and illustrates the strip.The atmosphere was casual and friendly, and while about 50 fans sipped free lemonade, Earl wandered freely around the store, and McDonnell drew characters from the strip and then gave them away to children. While drawing, he regaled the audience with anecdotes about his life and the characters.

WBGO Andrew Meyer interview with Alex Dawson

2008-09-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

WBGO’s Andrew Meyer travels to Metuchen for a look at a very different type of bookstore, The Raconteur, and its fledgling efforts as a publishing house. Click here to listen to interview.