For Bookish Types Who Love Surprises

Booksmart Enterprises
Soon to be located at: 1300 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN

When MCB decided to start a blog on the Minneapolis literary scene, there were already a lot of ideas on the cybernetic table. One that seemed particularly thrilling was the possibility of a citywide book store tour. Marooned in Uptown last Saturday by a companion’s haircut (no explanation necessary), MCB was left to roam the area for a good twenty minutes, which was the perfect opportunity to turn the tables on MCB’s companion and spend forty minutes at Booksmart, currently on Hennepin between Lake and Lagoon. MCB had been thinking about starting the Minneapolis Book Store Tour for several days and was downright jubilant at the opportunity, especially since MCB’s companion generally spends their time in book stores following MCB around and groaning about how long MCB is taking.

It was MCB’s second time at Booksmart, and it would be dramatic to say it was the last, but who doesn’t love a little drama now and then.

The Fruits of Tentacular Talent

Paper Darts, vol. 3:
A Magazine of Lit + Art
Available at Mager’s and Quinn Booksellers or direct from paperdarts.org
$12.00

If any given Minneapolitan were to encounter the startlingly beautiful three headed octopus that edits and produces the literary arts magazine Paper Darts, he or she would feel compelled to ask said octopus how it could possibly put those three heads together to produce a work of art so cohesive in its vision-—so exact-—that it feels made by the hand of one meticulous and brilliant artist. Yet even without waiting for an answer, paging through the magazine again makes this Minneapolitan realize just how refreshing three heads can be. With its differing backgrounds, tastes, and talents-—with a reach so astonishingly tentacular—-the three headed octopus succeeds where an individual artist, however fastidious, cannot. Paper Darts bears no signature, no ego, and no associated neuroses. As a magazine for arts and literature, its primary function is to showcase the work of others, and while a work of art in itself¹, it never fails to step aside and let its contributors speak for themselves.

Mill City Bibliophile would like to take a moment to discuss the zine as a generalized concept.