Notes: Wal-Mart Blocked; B&N on the 'Boulevard'
Wednesday night nearly 1,400 people attended a county commissioners'
hearing in Ravalli County, Montana, to discuss an interim zoning
measure that would put a size cap on new retail developments and keep a
Wal-Mart from opening (Shelf Awareness, April 10). Russ Lawrence
of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Mont., wrote that mail and
e-mail that the commissioners had received ran about 10-1 in favor of
the measure and speakers ran 82-28 in favor. When the commissioners
asked for a show of hands, which was 4-1 in favor, "the overwhelming
nature of the majority sank in," Lawrence continued. "A murmur, then
laughter, shouts, cheers, and applause broke out spontaneously."
After several hours of public testimony, the commissioners discussed the measure, then voted 3-0 to implement the interim regulations. "I can't tell you how beautiful it was!" Lawrence added.
Incidentally Bookselling This Week has a profile of Lawrence, who has been nominated to become the next president of the ABA. Lawrence is a multitalented man: a trained forester, a licensed pilot, an author, a musician and already a president--of the Hamilton Players Community Theater.
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Barnes & Noble has signed a lease agreement to open a store in Pearland, Texas, near Houston. Scheduled to open in 2008, the store will be located in the Pearland Town Center at Highway 288 and Broadway and will stock the usual close to 200,000 book, music, movie and magazine titles and include a cafe.
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In other B&N news, the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, the largest shopping mall in the Buffalo, N.Y., area, is undergoing a $50-$60 million renovation that will give the mall what the Buffalo News calls a "boulevard" feel and includes a new Barnes & Noble.
According to mall executives, the Galleria will have "a series of quaint but upscale store fronts with a 'Main Street' atmosphere. On-street parking will be allowed to further the ambience of Main Street."
The new B&N is being built in a gutted former movie theater. The movie theater is moving elsewhere in the mall.
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Mineralogist Frederick H. Pough, who in 1953 published the basic guide for amateur rock collectors and beginning geologists, A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals (Houghton Mifflin, $20, 039591096X) while a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, died last Friday at the age of 99.
Talk about a backlist gem. Part of the Peterson Field Guide Series, Pough's book is in its fifth edition and, according to the New York Times, has sold more than a million copies.
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Despite the James Frey debacle--or perhaps in part because of the continuing sales of A Million Easy Pieces--memoirs remain a hot commodity, according to a long nonfiction story on the subject in today's Wall Street Journal.
This year, publishers "plan to put out twice as many [memoirs] as last year," and agents and editors are receiving more memoir submissions than ever. Lee Gutkind, founder of Creative Nonfiction, told the Journal that while in the past writers would begin with autobiographical fiction and then branch out into other fiction, now "the novel's not hot anymore, and the autobiographical novel has been replaced by the memoir."
Among the reasons for memoir's increased popularity, according to the paper: reality TV's focus on ordinary people; "the ascent of narrative nonfiction with such books as The Perfect Storm and Shadow Divers"; and the category's strength in backlist.
After several hours of public testimony, the commissioners discussed the measure, then voted 3-0 to implement the interim regulations. "I can't tell you how beautiful it was!" Lawrence added.
Incidentally Bookselling This Week has a profile of Lawrence, who has been nominated to become the next president of the ABA. Lawrence is a multitalented man: a trained forester, a licensed pilot, an author, a musician and already a president--of the Hamilton Players Community Theater.
---
Barnes & Noble has signed a lease agreement to open a store in Pearland, Texas, near Houston. Scheduled to open in 2008, the store will be located in the Pearland Town Center at Highway 288 and Broadway and will stock the usual close to 200,000 book, music, movie and magazine titles and include a cafe.
---
In other B&N news, the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, the largest shopping mall in the Buffalo, N.Y., area, is undergoing a $50-$60 million renovation that will give the mall what the Buffalo News calls a "boulevard" feel and includes a new Barnes & Noble.
According to mall executives, the Galleria will have "a series of quaint but upscale store fronts with a 'Main Street' atmosphere. On-street parking will be allowed to further the ambience of Main Street."
The new B&N is being built in a gutted former movie theater. The movie theater is moving elsewhere in the mall.
---
Mineralogist Frederick H. Pough, who in 1953 published the basic guide for amateur rock collectors and beginning geologists, A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals (Houghton Mifflin, $20, 039591096X) while a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, died last Friday at the age of 99.
Talk about a backlist gem. Part of the Peterson Field Guide Series, Pough's book is in its fifth edition and, according to the New York Times, has sold more than a million copies.
---
Despite the James Frey debacle--or perhaps in part because of the continuing sales of A Million Easy Pieces--memoirs remain a hot commodity, according to a long nonfiction story on the subject in today's Wall Street Journal.
This year, publishers "plan to put out twice as many [memoirs] as last year," and agents and editors are receiving more memoir submissions than ever. Lee Gutkind, founder of Creative Nonfiction, told the Journal that while in the past writers would begin with autobiographical fiction and then branch out into other fiction, now "the novel's not hot anymore, and the autobiographical novel has been replaced by the memoir."
Among the reasons for memoir's increased popularity, according to the paper: reality TV's focus on ordinary people; "the ascent of narrative nonfiction with such books as The Perfect Storm and Shadow Divers"; and the category's strength in backlist.
