‘Cheap’ Guide Valuable For Seattle Trips
It’s a wonderful city, Seattle.
Sitting there on the Sound, Mount Rainier in one direction, the Olympic Peninsula in another, Seattle is a veritable urban jewel. Sometimes on a clear day, especially at twilight, the city’s beauty very nearly matches San Francisco’s.
Or, at the very least, Ritzville’s.
Just kidding. I love Ritzville.
As I do Seattle. It’s just that the traffic there sometimes gets a bit burdensome, the lines at movies get a little long and everything worthy of purchase seems expensive enough to require federal emergency funds.
This is clearly a situation for “Mr. Cheap,” aka Mark Waldstein. In a series of books published by Adams Publishing of Holbrook, Mass., Waldstein has trekked through America’s biggest cities in search of bargains. He’s hit New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and, of course, San Francisco.
And now, in “Mr. Cheap’s Seattle” (334 pages, $9.95), Waldstein shows us how to survive on the low end of the financial scale in that emerald jewel by the sound.
The book includes the standard listings for lodging, restaurants and entertainment. But here are some of my favorites:
Did you know that at least two drive-in theaters do business in the Seattle area? The Valley-6 Drive-In Theater is in Auburn, and the Puget Park Drive-In is in Everett.
On pages 234-35, Waldstein names some 87 eating establishments that don’t require you to tip the help.
Seattle being what it is, you might find yourself in sudden need of a cheap rain jacket or two. On pages 34-60, Waldstein names a number of new and used discount clothing stores.
There’s no reason in particular to single out the Ballard breakfast-brunch-lunch cafe Illiterati (page 282), except for the fact that Waldstein writes of its cheap menu, hip interior and delicious food. I just like the name.
I do have one problem with “Mr. Cheap’s Seattle.” In his spectatorsport section, Waldstein lists University of Washington football. “For less than $15, all sports fans (not just students) can attend a Pac-10 football game at 72,000-seat Husky Stadium,” he writes.
Maybe so, but have you ever tried to watch a game there from the end zone?
You might as well be in Ritzville.
Wind from the Willow
“Willow Springs 36,” Eastern Washington University’s awardwinning literary quarterly, bears a distinctly foreign look.
Following the essay “Where Language Lives: Notes on Translation” by poet/translator Lia Purpura, the magazine boasts some 27 translated poems by writers from countries as diverse as Bulgaria, Brazil, Japan, Iraq, Poland and China.
“Willow Springs 36” also includes the work that won the publication’s two annual awards. Robert Harry Bennett, winner of the 1995 George Garrett Fiction Award, debuts as a fiction writer with his short story “Outside Sylvie City.” Mary Ann Samyn won the 1995 Vachel Lindsay Poetry Award for her poem “Omitting the Heart.”
Individual editions of “Willow Springs 36” cost $5.50. Subscription are $10.50 for one year, $20 for two.
For further information, including where the publication is available, call 458-6429.
On the shelves
J.A. Jance, the housewife-turnedmystery writer, has a new book out.
“Shoot/Don’t Shoot” (William Morrow, 281 pages, $21) is the third in Jance’s Joanna Brady series. She’s written 13 other books, a dozen of which feature her original protagonist, Seattle sleuth J.P. Beaumont.
Jance is scheduled to read from her latest book at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. For further information, call 838-0206.
The reader board
Karen Kijewski, author of the Kat Colorado mystery series, will read from her latest book, “Alley Kat Blues,” at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Susan Straight and Jervey Tervalon, who write about contemporary Southern California, will read from their respective novels at 7 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore. Straight, who hails from Riverside, will read from “Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights.” Tervalon, who grew up in Los Angeles, will read from his debut novel “Understand This.”
Marcy Houle, author of the ecological study “The Prairie Keepers,” will read from her nonfiction book at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
Mike Thoele, author of “Fire Line: The Summer Battles of the West” (Fulcrum Publishing, 170 pages, $34.95), will do a slide-show lecture on his book at 7 p.m. Friday at BookPeople in Moscow, 512 S. Main.
, DataTimes