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Sadly a suicide bomber struck the book market on Mutanabi Street in
Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 20, wounding more than 65,
destroying many bookstores and stationery shops and wrecking the
Shahbandar café, "where elderly writers puffed away the afternoon on
water pipes," as the New York Times put it.
"There are no Americans or Iraqi politicians here--there are only Iraqi
intellectuals who represent themselves and their homeland, plus
stationery and book dealers," Abdul Baqi Faidhullah, a poet, told the
paper.
Wissam Arif, an engineer and book lover, said, "Those terrorists do not
represent Islam. They are fighting science. . . . . Yesterday they killed the prophets and today they are killing the
books. But hopefully the just, the science and the light will win.
We'll be patient until we achieve victory."
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Today's Wall Street Journal surveys the shaky state of stand-alone newspaper book reviews, adding that the rumored move by the Los Angeles Times to fold its Sunday book review into a new section with other material "is expected" to be announced this spring.
The reason for the problem, according to the paper: "Book publishers in
recent years have moved away from buying ads in stand-alone book-review
sections in favor of paying to stack mounds of books in the front of
chain bookstores," which can cost $1 a copy.
The New York Times Book Review's state is healthy compared to
its competitors. Some publishers say newspaper book review ads work in
connection with other marketing and promotion efforts.
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Also today's Wall Street Journal reports that a Microsoft lawyer who will address the AAP's annual meeting today will criticize Google for a "cavalier approach to copyright" and say that Microsoft's book-scanning projects will respect publishers' copyright.
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RadioFreePGW.com reports that in bankruptcy court yesterday "just about everyone and their sister [filed] an objection to the sale of AMS to Baker & Taylor--not that anything will stop it. And now it looks like B&T may want the entire Indy DC and the unsecured creditors' committee wants a guarantee that PGW will have more than 20 days to get its stock out."
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In a commentary yesterday on NPR's Marketplace, Moira Manion, an original employee of Borders's Block E store in Minneapolis, Minn., whose space the company is seeking to sublet (Shelf Awareness, January 20, 2007), offered a scathing account of the four-year-old store's problems. She and others, she said, wanted Borders to hire a security guard and install a security mirror, given the store's gritty downtown location. But they were rebuffed, and as a result, the store "was infested" with drug dealers, prostitutes and others, and "employees and customers felt unsafe." Business is much stronger, she said, at a nearby Barnes & Noble that has always had a security officer and security mirrors.
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Someone has put at least three pornographic books on shelves at the
Borders in Dickson City, Pa., leading staff to call for police help,
the Scranton Times-Tribune.
But as an officer told the paper, "Besides catching this (person)
red-handed, there's not much more we can do. It could be a prank by
kids. Who knows?"
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Books-A-Million plans to open several stores in the near future. One new BAM store will be in the
Prattville Town Center at 2391 Cobbs Ford Road in Prattville, Ala. BAM
has operated a Bookland in Prattville since 1997. This is the company's
26th store in Alabama.
The retailer is also opening a store at the Shops at Shelby Crossing at
1716 US Highway 27 North in Sebring, Fla. BAM has opened a Bookland in
Sebring since 1991 and has 35 other locations in Florida.
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John W. Todd Jr., longtime owner of Shorey's Bookstore in Seattle, Wash., died on Sunday at 92, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
reported. The store, which closed in 2000, was founded in 1890 and
claimed for a time to be "the world's largest antiquarian bookstore."
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The Keystone Book Festival, the first state literary event in
Pennsylvania, will take place October 10-12, 2008, in the capital,
Harrisburg. Larry Portzline, founder of Bookstore Tourism, is the executive director of the event and said Pennsylvania "is long overdue for a state literary event like this."
The festival will include readings, panel discussions, writing
workshops, advice from editors, agents and publicists, a poetry series,
an illustrator exhibit, a rare book exhibit, children's programs and
more. The organization also will stage the Keystone Book Awards, which
will highlight "Pennsylvania's best literary achievements."
For updates and information, visit the festival's Web site at keystonebookfestival.org.
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The Association of American Publishers will honor ABC's the View "for
its outstanding work promoting American books and authors" at its
annual meeting today.
AAP president and CEO Pat Schroeder commented: "Despite the differences
in age, background, and experience among the View's hosts, they are all
passionate about reading, and this passion comes through every time the
discussion turns to books and authors."
The View will donate the $5,000 award to First Book, which
aims to provide children from underprivileged families the first books
they own.
Barnes & Noble had bad news for investors yesterday, saying that
comp-store sales were down for the last quarter and past year and it
expects them to be "flat to slightly positive" next year; that it
expects lower-than-expected earnings for the coming year; and that
margins will be hurt by new lower loyalty member prices, several
special charges and deep discounting on the new Harry Potter book.
Nine analysts expected a $2.46-a-share profit for the upcoming year,
while B&N said that number would fall between $1.49 and $1.67 a
share, according to Bloomberg. Analyst Dan Poole told Bloomberg, "They are stuck with modest growth and low relative returns."
Wall Street reacted negatively. On another down day for the Dow,
B&N closed at $35.56, off 11.4%. Nearly 4.3 million shares traded,
more than seven times the usual daily volume.
In
part because of the selloff, Merrill Lynch yesterday upgraded B&N
to "neutral" from "sell," according to Reuters. Writing about both
B&N and Borders, the brokerage said, "We expect these two mature
retailers to continue to fight for market share in a slow-growth
industry."
Sales at Barnes & Noble were $1.5 billion in the quarter ended
February 3, and $4.5 million for the full year. (Earnings will be
reported around March 22.) Sales at B&N stores rose 2%, but sales
at stores open at least a year were down 0.1% in the quarter and 0.3%
for the year. The company opened 32 B&N stores and closed 18 during
the year.
Sales at B. Dalton were $36 million in the quarter and $102 million for
the year. Comp-store sales dropped 7.5% in the quarter and 6.1% for the
year. B&N closed 20 Dalton stores during the year.
Sales at B&N.com were $164 million in the quarter and $433 million
for the year. Comp-store sales rose 5.1% in the quarter and dropped
1.1% for the year.
Among other news:
Commenting on the past year, B&N CEO Steve Riggio said in a
statement: "We achieved our earnings guidance for the fourth quarter
and the full year despite sales being at the low end of our sales plan.
The negative impact of the disappointing sales was offset by an
increase in gross margin, attributable to fewer bestseller markdowns,
lower inventory shrink and improvements throughout our supply chain."
Riggio also pointed said that over the past several years gross margin
had improved and boosted earnings and cash flow because of, among other
things, "lower purchases from book wholesalers, improvements in
inventory control and supply chain efficiencies." In addition, the
company is "virtually debt-free." He defended the higher loyalty
program discounts, saying that the company has "decided to reinvest a
portion of our cash flow to reward our best customers . . . . Though in the short term this will
have a negative impact both on top line and gross margins, we believe
that it is the right move for us at this time and for the long term."
Today the Oprah Winfrey Show re-airs a segment with Joanne Fleisher, author of Living Two Lives: Married to a Man and in Love with a Woman (Alyson Books, $15.95, 9781555839185/1555839185).
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Today the Diane Rehm Show talks with National Book Award-winning novelist William T. Vollmann, whose new book is the nonfiction title Poor People (Ecco, $29.95, 9780060878825/0060878827).
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Reporting for an appearance tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Commander Richard Jadick, author of On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story (NAL Caliber, $24.95, 9780451220530/0451220536).
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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Martha Raddatz, chief White House correspondent for ABC News and author of The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family (Putnam, $24.95, 9780399153822/0399153829).
On nightstand now:
Kiss Her Goodbye by Robert Gregory Browne, Autobiography of a Yogi by
Paramhansa Yogananda and Flawed Patriot: The Rise & Fall of CIA
Legend Bill Harvey by Bayard Stockton.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Anything about the Bobbsey Twins.
Top five authors:
Steve Berry, Lee Child, Vince Flynn, David Morrell, M.J. Rose
Book you've 'faked' reading:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Book you are an 'evangelist' for:
What the Bleep Do We Know!?!: Discovering the Endless Possibilities for
Altering Your Everyday Reality by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, Mark
Vicente and Jack Forem
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Mobius Strip: Dr. August Mobius's Marvelous Band in Mathematics,
Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology by Clifford A.
Pickover
Book that changed your life:
A Spiritual Warrior's Journey by W.H. McDonald, Jr.
Favorite line from a book:
"When I walk into a bookstore, any bookstore, first thing in the
morning, I'm flooded with a sense of hushed excitement."--The
Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Book that you've used as a doorstop:
Whatever I'm reading, since I tend to leave those books anywhere around
my house. That way I can find my current literary love. 'Tis
idiot-proof!
