The Washington Post has a piece on A Likely Story, the Alexandria, Va., children's bookstore that closed suddenly November 21. Dinah Paul, who owned the store with her husband, told the Post that "people loved us, but they didn't equate loving us to buying from us." Story time was typical, she explained: many people attended but few bought books. "In fact, books got damaged," she said. "So story time ended up costing us."

---

The Marin Independent Journal explores the phenomenon of bookstore customers who come to many author events, as shown by enthusiastic crowds at Book Passage, Corte Madera; Open Secret , West Marin; Point Reyes Books, San Rafael; and Borders, San Rafael.

Elaine Petrocelli of Book Passage, which stages 700 author readings a year and has some customers who attend three or four events a week, commented: "I think the independent bookstore is the last holdout of the type of interaction that's dying in our culture; it's become the town square of old. Here, everybody can come together and trade ideas. Even for me, being in the business, whether I agree or disagree with an author, I learn something every time."

--- 

Even more holiday gift book suggestions:

Bloomberg has a holiday list of business titles that begins, "With the subprime chill spreading and the dollar dropping like a ski jump, Ebenezer Scrooge won't be the only investor poring over his ledger this Christmas Eve. So take pity on your anxious neighbor with a gift book that explains why credit dries up, bankers get ousted and the rich still manage to get richer."

Perhaps eating well is the best revenge? The Baltimore Sun has a menu of cookbook titles.

---

The National Book Critics Circle is receiving the 2008 AAP honors, an award given by the Association of American Publishers to people or organizations "outside the publishing industry for significant achievements in promoting American books and authors." The award will be presented March 5 during the AAP's annual meeting in New York City.

The AAP commented: "As newspapers across the country slashed book review space and fired experienced book editors in the name of belt-tightening, the NBCC decided to fight back and earlier this year launched the Campaign to Save Book Reviews, featuring blog posts by concerned writers, interviews with book editors 'in the trenches,' Q&A with newspaper editors and owners, a boots-on-the-ground protest in Atlanta, and more than a dozen panel discussions around the country to raise awareness of the issue. Since then the NBCC has fought to foster a national literary culture, creating a Best Recommended List, made up of the votes of its members and former book prize finalists and winners, and kicked off several new essay series on Critical Mass."
 

At Inklings Bookshop in Yakima, Wash., "customers seem very optimistic," said owner Susan Richmond, "and we've weathered a few Christmas seasons that have not been that way." Patrons are displaying a willingness to spend, but what's more, "They seem excited about what we have, and purchases are bigger."

Among the books causing a stir: The Cinnamon Bear in the Adventure of the Silver Star, a picture book adapted from a serialized radio program that began airing annually in the late 1930s. The swift sales pace has surprised Richmond, who initially ordered a modest amount. The day the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association holiday catalogue appeared in the local paper--with The Cinnamon Bear on the cover--the store sold all copies of the title it had.

Richmond credits the book's popularity in part to nostalgia. People who listened to the radio program as children want to introduce the story to their grandkids. To keep momentum going, Richmond is sponsoring an area radio station's presentation of Cinnamon Bear's escapades. The tale will be told in 15-minute episodes and conclude on Christmas Eve.

This year the store-sponsored PNBA catalogue appeared in the Yakima Herald-Republic (circ. 40,000) the Monday before Thanksgiving rather than in the more congested Friday edition. "We were one of maybe two inserts," noted Richmond, "so it was easy for people to see it." A coupon offers customers who purchase any book in the catalogue 50% off a second selection. The catalogue is drawing shoppers into the store, and Inklings staff members are handselling the featured PNBA titles. "In past years the books have not always been ones we could get excited about," said Richmond, "but this year there's a good mix that we can get behind."

One of those books is Molly Gloss' The Hearts of Horses. The novel is a top seller for Inklings, aided by Portland, Ore., resident Gloss' appearance at the Rotary Club of Yakima last week. Also selling steadily is Oregon author Jean Kirkpatrick's most recent novel, Tendering in the Storm, and the children's books Gallop! by Rufus Butler Seder and Sandra Boynton's Blue Moo.

Fiction and nonfiction are proving equally popular. National bestsellers among the mix include A Thousand Splendid Suns, Pillars of the Earth, Water for Elephants and Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time. Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl is benefiting from interest in the tome's topic generated by a fiction title--John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which was a recent Yakima Big Read pick.

Inklings is located in a wine-producing region, and books on area vintages--such as Washington Wines & Wineries: The Essential Guide by Paul Gregutt--are enticing gift choices. Some vino-loving recipients will be receiving Blind Wine, a kit for hosting a wine tasting party. Another sideline that is "flying out of the store," said Richmond, is Bananagrams, a word game packaged in a yellow, banana-shaped bag.

This is the store's second year in its new location, a shopping center with boutiques, a Starbucks, a supermarket, a bank and other merchants; the move has increased foot traffic. This weekend Inklings--which takes its name from a literary group that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien--is participating in the shopping center's Walk Around, which takes place the second Saturday of every month. Retailers provide refreshments and entertainment, and at Inklings, a flute troop will perform and local author Donnajean Barton will sign copies of her novel Earthwalk. "I try to schedule most of our signings on the day of the Walk Around so there is extra foot traffic for the events," Richmond said.

A new display located near the store's entrance is stocked with books bearing covers all in the same color scheme. For its inaugural month the shade is red, and some of the titles promoted are The Gift of the Magi, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Cup of Christmas Tea and Betty Crocker Cookbook. Also featured are items like candles, Washington Wine Playing Cards and the Fantastic Instant Fireplace, a DVD that projects an image of a roaring log fire.

'Tis certainly the season at Inklings, which also has snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, twinkling lights adorning bookshelves, and a fireplace mantle bedecked in greenery.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

 

WETA's Author Author! features Tom Perrotta, author of The Abstinence Teacher (St. Martin's, $24.95, 9780312358334/0312358334).

---

This morning on Good Morning America: Caroline Kennedy, author of A Family Christmas (Hyperion, $26.95, 9781401322274/1401322271).

---

This morning on the Today Show: P. Allen Smith, author of P. Allen Smith's Living in the Garden Home: Connecting the Seasons with Containers, Crafts, and Celebrations (Clarkson Potter, $32.50, 9780307347237/0307347230).

Also on Today: Tom Parker Bowles, author of The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes (St. Martin's, $24.95, 9780312373788/0312373783).

---

Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Cathie Black, author of Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) (Crown Business, $24.95, 9780307351104/0307351106).

---

Today on the View: Jeff Foxworthy, author of Jeff Foxworthy's Redneck Dictionary III: Learning to Talk More Gooder Fastly (Villard, $16.95, 9780345498489/0345498488).

---

Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Mario Vargas Llosa, author of The Bad Girl, translated by Edith Grossman (FSG, $25, 9780374182434/0374182434). As the show put it: "We take the occasion of the publication of Vargas Llosa's new novel, The Bad Girl, to air this previously unheard interview in which the great Peruvian novelist describes the effects of 'El Boom'--magic realism and its relatives--on the literature of Latin America." (This interview will not air live on KCRW because it will be pre-empted by special programming.)
 
---

Today the Writer's Roundtable, which covers the art, craft and business of writing and can be heard on the new San Diego Union Tribune radio station and at signonradio.com, features Sally Van Haitsma of the Castiglia Literary Agency. Van Haitsma will chat about trends in the publishing industry; what editors are looking for and don't want; trends; what agents look for in a manuscript; what agents look for in a client; and how to submit a manuscript/proposal that will catch an agent's eye. The host is Antoinette Kurtz.

 

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, December 8

8 a.m. J. Craig Venter, author of A Life Decoded: My Genome, My Life (Viking, $25.95, 9780670063581/0670063584), talks about how he successfully sequenced the first human genome in 2001. (Re-airs Sunday at 7 p.m. and Monday, December 24, at 6 a.m.)
     
7 p.m. At an event hosted by Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, N.C., Karl E. Campbell, author of Senator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers (University of North Carolina Press, $34.95, 9780807831564/0807831565), discusses the life and political views of the man who chaired the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973.  

8 p.m. From the Texas Book Festival, the editors of the Onion talk about their latest book, Our Dumb World: Atlas of the Plant Earth (Little, Brown, $27.99, 9780316018425/0316018422). (Re-airs Sunday at 12: a.m. and Wednesday, December 26, at 4 a.m.)
     
9 p.m. After Words. Steven Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program, interviews historian Ronald Spector, author of In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia (Random House, $27.95, 9780375509155/0375509151). (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., and Monday at 12 a.m.)

Sunday, December 9

1 a.m. Lou Dobbs, author of Independents Day: Awakening the American Spirit (Viking, $24.95, 9780670018369/0670018368), contends that the U.S. government has become unresponsive to its constituents. (Re-airs Sunday at 12 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., and Monday at 2 a.m.)

 

Besides the novel on which it is based, Atonement, which opens tomorrow, has an official making-of-the-movie tie-in. Atonement: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Press, $19.95, 9781557047991/1557047995) is a trade paperback that includes the screenplay adaptation by Christopher Hampton, an introduction by Hampton, a section of color film stills and cast and crew credits.

 

George (Dragon Slippers) riffs on the tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, in this novel set in a far north ruled by a troll queen, and a princess who desires a human husband.

As the ninth child of a poor woodcutter, the "lass" at the center of this story is so resented by her mother that the woman will not name her. One day, the lass goes in search of the legendary white reindeer, purportedly spotted in the woods near the woodcutter's home. When she finds the creature tangled in brambles, she sets him free; in return he gives her a name, which she dares tell no one. Soon she discovers she can communicate with animals. Even youngest readers may recognize the parallels to Beauty and the Beast, when a giant white bear comes to the woodcutter's cottage, and the lass's mother agrees to let the girl go in exchange for the promise of wealth.

Once again George creates a gutsy, resourceful heroine, akin to Creel in her first novel. The lass, true to her word, accompanies the white bear to an ice palace, with the intention of fulfilling her promise to remain there for a year--even when a mysterious man comes to her room each evening. But like Psyche, the lass's sister plants a seed of doubt, and the lass discovers the identity of her midnight visitor, thereby setting in motion a chain of reactions that ultimately leads her to an even greater palace east of the sun and west of the moon. The author literally fleshes out the tale by appealing to the five senses. The lass's wolf-dog, Rollo, reports that the ice palace smells of rotting flesh. The descriptions of the luxurious meals, the textures of the silk gowns, all contribute to a sensory experience. The tale cautions against vanity, often with humor (like Nancy Farmer's evil half-troll Queen Frith in The Sea of Trolls, the princess troll here also loses her hair, but in a comical climactic scene), and implies the long cycle of ungranted wishes for the insatiable troll princess (a nicely crafted scene with three elderly "mosters," or aunties, amplifies this theme). Even if readers think they know where the author is leading them, they will be in for some pleasant surprises.--Jennifer M. Brown

 

Sadly, of course, the late Richard Carlson, co-author of An Hour to Live, an Hour to Love: The True Story of the Best Gift Ever Given (Hyperion, $9.95, 9781401322571/1401322573), did not appear on Oprah yesterday. Instead, his wife and co-author, Kris Carlson, was a guest.

 

What I'm about to reveal is a closely guarded secret among frontline booksellers, and I may have to pay the ultimate price for my indiscreet revelation. Still, as this warm-hearted, blissful time of year wraps us in the simple joys of holiday consumption, I believe a confession is in order.

Booksellers sometimes handsell books we haven't read. We handsell books we don't even like that much. This is not usually a sin of intention. No one wants to handsell a "bad" book. It is, at worst, a sin of omission. What we refrain from saying to a customer during a conversation about a particular title can be more important than what we do say.  

A bookseller's life would be ideal if we could just spend the day recommending titles we absolutely love, but often we are caught in discussions about not-so-great books with customers who love them passionately and would like us to suggest comparable works.

By "not-so-great," I mean books that we've dismissed for any number of objective, subjective, and even irrational reasons. This list can consist of anything, including works that have been well-reviewed, popular or award-winners.

For example, I've handsold dozens of copies of one particular novel (which will remain title-less to protect the innocent) over the past few years. I remember the moment when I first read it and thought, "I'm not crazy about this book, but it's going to be very easy to handsell." I just tell the right customers I believe they will love it, and they do.

Conversely, there are books I love that I couldn't handsell at a 100% discount.

The reasons why we like or dislike books are many, but since a bookseller's job description is to express--or withhold--judgment depending upon the situation, we must occasionally walk a conversational high wire.

Nodding and smiling help; saying "a lot of people liked that one" or "he's very popular" or "it's been getting good reviews" will get you through, too. A personal favorite, which I've leaned on more than a few times, is that a particular author "knows his (or her) audience well and always writes with them in mind."

If you are feeling pressured this holiday season for your opinion on a book you just don't like, may I prescribe a small dose of retail therapy consisting of scenes from two Bill Murray films? These should prepare you to face any impending crisis with a spotless conscience.

In How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, Pierre Bayard devotes a chapter to the movie Groundhog Day, in which a snarky weatherman, Phil (Murray), is caught in a time-loop on the eponymous day and forced to relive it again and again.

He puts his unfortunate circumstances to good, if unethical, use in his seduction of Rita (Andie MacDowell). When he surreptitously discovers that she studied nineteenth-century Italian poetry, Phil memorizes and then passionately recites excerpts from the libretto of Rigoletto.

"By training himself in Rita's preferred reading material," Bayard writes, "and thus penetrating as deeply as possible into her private world, Phil is straining to create the illusion that their inner books are the same."

Sounds like handselling to me. Not love, precisely, but a subtle illusion that "inner books" can match even when they don't.

And I can go Bayard one Bill Murray movie better by citing the epic American film, Caddyshack, and a scene that eloquently sums up a dilemma booksellers face every day.

Loudmouth contractor Al Czervic (Rodney Dangerfield) bursts into a posh country club's pro shop and starts buying everything in sight. He notices a particularly garish hat on display and says, "This is the worst lookin' hat I ever saw."

Then he sees the club's president, Judge Smails (Ted Knight), standing nearby, wearing the same hat. "Oh, it looks good on you, though," Czervic adds. 

Welcome to the world of handselling, where we often must smile and utter the book equivalent of "Oh, it looks good on you, though."

Mea culpa.

Is that wrong? Absolutely not. In fact, it is a kind of biblio-diplomacy. We want customers to be comfortable with their choices. We don't want them to feel judged. We hope they walk away from a handselling conversation thinking, "That was fun."

Well, to be honest, we want them to walk away with a huge stack of new books, thinking, "That was fun."--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)