Lit Talk: Kramerbooks' Miguel Aldaco

Of all those in the book community, none is cooler than the hipster bookstore employee. Knowing that he'd have the scoop on the indie bookstore scene in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, we went to Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe and asked a few slightly random questions of one Miguel Aldaco. The answers are below.

Nicole Crowder: I was curious about your tattoos. Can you tell us about those?

Miguel Aldaco: Yeah, I got these in San Francisco. Basically, I love monkeys, as you might be able to tell at this point.

Whitney Teal: Do you have a monkey, like a pet monkey?

Miguel: (laughs) Oh no, I would never do that. They’re not meant for pets. They’re basically—you have this guy, right, he’s a little bit in flux. He’s got the Bible, he’s got the booze. But you have this guy walking away from him, but also walking toward him at the same time.

Nicole and Whitney: Very cool.

Nicole: How long have you been working at Kramer's?

Miguel: A year and a half.

Nicole: What brought you here initially?

Miguel: Basically, my girlfriend was looking for a job. We just spent two years in the Middle East. She got her Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies so we figured why not come out here. But I think we’re having a tough time adjusting to the city even after this long. I think we’re thinking about moving to New York, to be honest.

Whitney: So does everybody. It’s the type of city people think about moving to all the time.

Miguel: (laughs). And then you get here and you’re like “maybe not.”

Whitney: So you were in San Francisco before you moved here?

Miguel: Yes, well technically I was living in Oakland.

Nicole: What kind of clientele do you see coming in and out of Kramerbooks regularly?

Miguel: Pretty mixed. To be honest, since we’re in a gay-friendly neighborhood we get a lot of that situation. I mean, really, everybody to be honest. It’s a tourist destination which is one thing that is kind of interesting. On the weekends we get a whole different crowd than we do during the weekdays. Different kind of folks all over: some kind, some not-so kind (laughs)

Whitney: You mentioned that Kramer’s is a tourist destination. Do you know anything about the history of the store or why people flock to it so much?

Miguel: Well, we were known back when the Clinton administration was in. We were subpoenaed by Kenneth Star to release the information about the books that Monica Lewinsky bought for Clinton. I don’t remember the exact name of the book, but the owner is in the other room; He knows the whole story. You could ask him. I think they’ve been here 20 years or something like that [Kramer's celebrated it's 30th anniversary in 2006].

Nicole: Do you have recommended titles that you like to read or a lot titles you’ve seen people buying lately?

Miguel: Yeah, one of the things that’s been kind of hot right is the book called Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo. I don’t know if you guys have seen that. It kind of gets into the idea of the way we’ve been handling aid being sent to Africa is totally wrong. She does it without getting personal and being really aggressive about the situation, but just kind of recommending what should be corrected. It’s been a pretty hot seller. There is another that’s my favorite book right now. It’s called Motherless Brooklyn [by Jonathan Lethem]. It’s about a kind of a tourettic detective. It’s more just about him trying to work his way through each situation. We all have our issues when we’re interacting with people, but for him it’s just so extreme. If he were me, he’d be tapping you on the shoulder constantly or something like that. It’s pretty hilarious, too. It actually gets pretty funny. It’s a tale of fiction, but it’s quite good.

Nicole: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, Miguel.

Miguel: My pleasure.

If you're interested in visiting Kramer books yourself, here's where you can find them:

Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe
1517 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036

--Nicole C.