"How important is a downtown bookstore to you?" asked the Grand Rapids, Mich., Press, noting that the upcoming third year of Schuler Books Downtown's existence will be key to its survival: "When Schuler co-founders Bill and Cecile Fehsenfeld took over River Bank Books two years ago, they expressed cautious optimism about downtown. But they also were realistic. Their commitment to the space in the old Steketee's building was for three years. Three years is up in October of this year. It's crunch time for the business. It's also crunch time for people who beat the drum for a quality downtown bookstore but turn around and spend their money online or in the suburbs."
Fehsenfeld said that while the cafe is making money, "the bookstore has been lagging behind the cafe. It has yet to be seen what the long-term outlook for that store may be. This year will be a test for us."
The Press cautioned that 2010 will also "be a test for those of us who said they wanted and believed in the viability of a downtown bookstore. We have a good one in Schulers. We need to put our money where our mouths were."
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More bookseller help for Haiti. Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass., "had an unusual opportunity" to assist with the post-earthquake relief efforts "thanks to Paige, our in-store book-making machine. At the request of Google, we rush-printed dozens of copies of an English/Haitian Creole Medical Dictionary to be sent to medical aid workers in Haiti. When disasters strike so far from home, it's gratifying to have a hands-on, albeit small, way to help," the bookshop's e-newsletter observed.
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As the spring semester began at Cornell University, Kraftees Bookstore, Ithaca, N.Y.--which specializes in textbooks--added a touch of class to Rush Week by commissioning a limousine "to provide free transportation to their customers on North and West Campus to its store location in Collegetown before the start of classes," the Cornell Daily Sun reported.
The textbook limo "was part of the store’s mission to 'create the most convenient way possible' to buy textbooks," said manager Christopher Cave.
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What will they be reading on the island this season? On MediaBistro's Morning Media Menu, Chad Post of Open Letter Books "revealed a book that will play an role in an upcoming episode of Lost--our first glimpse into the mysterious world of the final season of the show. According to Post, episode six will reference Japanese author Shusaku Endo's book, Deep River."
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This week, NPR's What We're Reading showcased The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris; Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy by Joseph E. Stiglitz; and A Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir by Elena Gorokhova.
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Lady Mary Warnock, "a crossbench life peer, moral philosopher and author of a number of books on philosophy," chose her top-10 philosophy books for the Guardian.
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The London Review of Books is £27 million (US$43.6 million) in debt, but the Wilmers Family Trust allows the publication to continue with "no intention of the lender seeking repayment of the loan in the near future," the London Times reported
"Yes, it's family money and the debts have been rising for many years," said LRB editor Mary-Kay Wilmers. "But I really just look after the commas."
Among of the beneficiaries of the publication's continued existence are fans of LRB's unique personal ads, some of which, as Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Life blog pointed out, "reach the level of near-poetry. It's as if Edward Lear, Philip Larkin and Gonzo the Muppet collaborated to try to get a date for Saturday night."
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Book trailer of the day: The Declaration of Independence from A to Z by Catherine Osornio, illustrated by Layne Johnson (Pelican Publishing).
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If you're a fan of big books, have we got one for you. The Guardian reported that "it takes six people to lift it and has been recorded as the largest book in the world, yet the splendid Klencke Atlas, presented to Charles II on his restoration and now 350 years old, has never been publicly displayed with its pages open. That glaring omission is to be rectified, it was announced by the British Library today, when it will be displayed as one of the stars of its big summer exhibition about maps."
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Under a new venture concluded between Above the Treeline and the Association of American University Presses, AAUP members will be eligible for discounted access to Edelweiss.
"The members of AAUP are seeking the most efficient and creative ways to use new technologies to communicate with librarians, booksellers, reviewers, and scholars," said Brenna McLaughlin, AAUP's electronic and strategic initiatives director. "Edelweiss has already proven its value as a new tool to market books; now, our discount program will expand its availability to many more university presses."
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Summer Smith has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as publicity manager in the New York office. She was previously a senior publicist at Putnam/Riverhead.