John Michael Barich (aka Father John or Padre) began a life in books while doing homework after grade school in the law library of the firm his mother worked for in Wisconsin. From 1991 to 1993, he handled shipping and receiving for Milwaukee's Harry W. Schwarz Bookstore, until he returned to St. Louis to complete his M.Div. and work with Concordia Seminary's rare book collection. John was hired by Elliott Bay Book Company in 1998 and continues to assist with author events around Seattle. He holds their record for consecutive years of holiday gift wrapping (this year will make it 11). He's also redeveloping a school and church in Burien, Wash. Padre joined the Shelf Awareness office staff in 2015.
On my nightstand now:
Two graphic works--Fake Blood by Whitney Gardner and Is That All There Is? by Joost Swarte--and The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010, edited by Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser with a foreword by Toni Morrison.
Favorite book as a child:
Peanut's Treasury (1968) by Charles M. Schulz. It seems like it was one of the few things my younger brother and I could share and giggle over together on the living room floor without fighting.
My top five authors:
bell hooks, Natsuo Kirino, William T. Vollmann, Haruki Murakami and Catherynne M. Valente.
Book I've faked reading:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville. A dear friend wrote about Moby Dick for his Master's Thesis. I read his paper with great interest and support, but afterwards I felt I had learned so much (or, let's say enough) about Moby Dick that I never picked it up.
Book I'm an evangelist for:
Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson, especially for younger women who are trying to find some mooring in life. From 2008 to 2012, I served as the campus pastor for the Lutheran chapel at the University of Washington. Almost on a weekly basis, undergrad students, mostly female, came to me seeking support and a listening ear, as they so badly wanted to integrate their new knowledge with their faith and personal relationships. Winterson's two main characters, Silver and Pew, reveal how we can accompany one another through the impossible stretches of life through loving and caring.
Book I've bought for the cover:
Delicious Foods by James Hannaham, cover by artist Kara Walker. And I'll go on buying any other book that is graced by her art because she's amazing.
Book I hid from my parents:
It wasn't so much that I was hiding it, but I bought the No. 101 edition of Aperture, "Winter 1985: The Human Street," for two articles. First, for "Robert Walker's Spliced New York" by William Burroughs, and second, for Allen Ginsberg's "Sacramental Snapshots." But when my mom later came across it, she threw it out because of Mapplethorpe's photos, "Human Geometry: A Whole Other Realm." I was 23.
Book that changed my life:
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks. Following my divorce, I needed to resurrect my heart and reconstruct and reorganize my thinking about relationships and the person I wanted to be in the world. bell held my hand from one page to the next and rekindled in me the hope of loving and being loved again.
Favorite line from a book:
"We burst through, paneled, baize, flush, glazed, steel, reinforced, safe doors, secret doors, double doors, trap doors. The forbidden door that can only be opened with a small silver key. The door that is no door in Rapunzel's lonely tower." --from Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson.
Five books I'll never part with:
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Beneath the Underdog by Charles Mingus, Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson and All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks.
Book I most want to read again for the first time:
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. In 2011, I found myself on a flight from Copenhagen to Milan and was trying to make the book last as long as possible. However, when I came to the final page, I ended up crying like a baby--I thought it was so beautiful. I couldn't hold back the tears, I didn't want to hold them back. How did Mitchell do that? I think I reread the final chapter two or three more times to see where exactly he opened me up. Few books have moved me as this one.