No surprise: U.S. consumer spending has continued to contract--at a 4% annualized rate in the last half of 2008--to the point where the savings rate has jumped to 5% of disposable income, the Wall Street Journal reported. But there is a glimmer of hope, the paper said: "the declines in consumer spending, the biggest driver of U.S. economic growth, are abating. The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending rose in January by a seasonally adjusted 0.4%, or $44.8 billion, the first increase in seven months, as heavy discounts spurred some post-holiday sales." Also personal income rose slightly.
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Little, Brown will publish the late David Foster Wallace's unfinished novel, The Pale King, early next year. Wallace, who committed suicide in September, had been working on the book for many years. Little, Brown said that the book is set "at an IRS tax-return processing center in Illinois in the mid 1980s" and is the story of "a crew of entry-level processors, 'wigglers' in IRS jargon (for their similarity to newly hatched tadpoles), and their attempts to do their job in the face of soul-crushing tedium and bureaucratic malevolence. The novel's main character, David Wallace, is newly arrived at this job and learning from all around him amid epic institutional confusion."
The Pale King will include notes, outlines and other material.
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On May 1, in time for Father's Day, Regnery Publishing is publishing a biography of Paul Harvey, the radio personality who died on Saturday at age 90. Good Day: The Paul Harvey Story is being written by Paul J. Batura, an aide to Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. The book will tell, Regnery said, "the heart-warming, all-American story of one of the best-known radio voices in history" and will encompass "his humble beginnings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a janitor and errand boy for a local radio station, to his unparalleled career of more than 50 years with ABC Radio."
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Wordsmiths Books, Decatur, Ga., has closed. In an e-mail to customers, owner Zachary Steele said that he had "explored every possibility open to me" to keep the store open, "but the sheer magnitude of the decline in sales alone (on the heels of our efforts to right the boat) from our current economic downturn has long since evaporated the fumes. Frankly put, there's nothing left to make the engine go, and sitting on the side of the road with a thumb out doesn't seem to earn you much grace as a business."
He continued: "For two years, Wordsmiths Books has been recognized for its events, for its atmosphere, and for its venture into a new media that stretches well beyond traditional marketing methods. From a purely idealistic point of view, we achieved what we had hoped to achieve."
Last August, Steele had asked the public for help. Sales picked up in September, but the bottom fell out in October, Steele told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "Everything started drying up. The whole Christmas season was horrible."
Steele worked at now-defunct Chapter 11 Books before opening Wordsmiths (Shelf Awareness, June 13, 2007). Among his staff was Russ Marshalek and other Chapter 11 alumni.
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Sadly another store closing story: Town Center Booksellers, Basalt, Colo., will close at the end of March, the Aspen Times reported. General manager Fred Durham told the paper that sales have been off since September.
Owned by Louise and Clay Bennett, who are open to offers to buy the store, Town Center Booksellers has about 2,000 square feet of space, puts on many events and has supported the Aspen Writers' Foundation.
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Virgin Megastores, known primarily for music but also a seller of books, is likely to end all operations this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The company, which once had 23 stores in North America, is down to six, and three are definitely closing this spring. The stores to be closed include the Times Square store in New York City. While the chain is apparently profitable, without its Times Square store, it will lose money.
The chain has been owned by a real estate company since 2007. The company decided that it could make more money selling the lease of the Times Square store than by running the store.
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In its People Meter column, the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed random customers at City Lights Books. Our favorite was Kate Dennis, a law student at the University of Michigan, who reads To Kill a Mockingbird "probably once a year. I always get something new out of it. It's a big part of why I wanted to go to law school. It always makes me feel better again."
She added that she identifies with Scout and particularly likes "the part where she says about Boo Radley something like, 'You know, Atticus, he wasn't so bad once you got to know him.' I think most people aren't too scary, once you get to know them."
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Do we need another memoir with recipes? Don't bother saying "no." It won't stop the cascade of confession and cilantro. But even if you are tired of the genre, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781416551058/1416551050, March 3, 2009) will change your attitude. What first caught my attention was a recipe for banana bread, which I made that day. While swooning over the bread, I read the book. What a treat! Molly Wizenberg writes like a dream. She's funny. She has moving stories about family, friends and life that flow and are never forced. She has a wonderful blog, 