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More Punk Than the Public Library: The Adventures of a Little Free Punk Rock Bookstore
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 20, 2026
Is it unfair for me to rate a book that I contributed to? If so, why don't I care? All the stars. Honored to play a small part in this.
July 8, 2026
True joy on every page. The hidden highlight? A story about the legendary Curley from Broad Branch Market.
June 6, 2026
Highly recommended! I hate reformatting on this shit website, so here's a blog post: https://eclectoid.neocities.org/posts...
October 14, 2026
When Covid shut the country down, Bennett decided to set up one of those free books boxes in front of his house in Chevy Chase, D. C. The catch was that the free books would be about or related to punk music. He named it "The Nevada Avenue Outdoor Free Bookshop".
He very quickly decided to publish a newsletter about the Bookshop. He self-published 12 issues of the newsletter. He stopped when the pandemic began to subside. This book is a collection of those issues with his commentary and thoughts added.
The newsletter included interviews of punk musicians, book reviews, random memoirs, a great story about Duke basketball players, a social tip about bringing a leg of lamb to a dinner party, a grammar obsessed graffiti artist, a story about his father's experience at Harvard Law School and a bunch of other stuff. Each edition included a short description of the new books in the box that month.
I was not aware that D.C. had a very active punk music scene in the 1980s.Bennett interviews the musicians who were in the middle of the punk scene. I didn't recognize the band names, but I enjoyed the struggling musician stories. Many of them are now lawyers or teachers, but they still seem to enjoy telling the stories. I also had no idea that Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna were both from Chevy Chase. They started out playing rock and roll as young teenagers in the late 1950s. They tell Bennett some great stories about those days. (Hot Tuna is one of my all-time favorite bands.)
I love these kinds of projects. Bennett produced the newsletter for the fun of it. He stuck in anything he thought was good. He recruited some excellent writers. He stopped it before it became so big that it would not be fun. The book is full of good stories, interesting characters and the best kind of DIY enthusiasm.
He very quickly decided to publish a newsletter about the Bookshop. He self-published 12 issues of the newsletter. He stopped when the pandemic began to subside. This book is a collection of those issues with his commentary and thoughts added.
The newsletter included interviews of punk musicians, book reviews, random memoirs, a great story about Duke basketball players, a social tip about bringing a leg of lamb to a dinner party, a grammar obsessed graffiti artist, a story about his father's experience at Harvard Law School and a bunch of other stuff. Each edition included a short description of the new books in the box that month.
I was not aware that D.C. had a very active punk music scene in the 1980s.Bennett interviews the musicians who were in the middle of the punk scene. I didn't recognize the band names, but I enjoyed the struggling musician stories. Many of them are now lawyers or teachers, but they still seem to enjoy telling the stories. I also had no idea that Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna were both from Chevy Chase. They started out playing rock and roll as young teenagers in the late 1950s. They tell Bennett some great stories about those days. (Hot Tuna is one of my all-time favorite bands.)
I love these kinds of projects. Bennett produced the newsletter for the fun of it. He stuck in anything he thought was good. He recruited some excellent writers. He stopped it before it became so big that it would not be fun. The book is full of good stories, interesting characters and the best kind of DIY enthusiasm.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews