The Patriot Act roller coaster ride took another unexpected turn last
Friday--a positive one--when the Senate blocked passage of the
House-Senate conference report that had left relatively intact the
aspects of the Act that most bothered librarians, booksellers and
others concerned with civil liberties.
It seems that for the moment, the Republican leadership in Washington won't accept a version of the Act that would renew most aspects of it but protect civil liberties. But following Friday's disclosure by the New York Times that the Bush Administration illegally allowed the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, opponents of a simple renewal of the Act appear to have more support than could be imagined a week ago.
Incidentally, according to e-mail and other documents obtained by the New York Times, at least one FBI official has a dim view of the campaign to protect civil liberties. Complaining that the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review hasn't approved enough search requests, the official wrote: "While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR's failure to let us use the tools given to us. This should be an OIPR priority!!!"
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The New York Times's public editor investigates how the Book Review handles reviewing books by Timespeople. His conclusion: editor Sam Tanenhaus and staff "genuinely care about general readers and the literary world, and want their choices to have credibility. Yet the perception of a conflict of interest can hang over both the weekly review process and the notable-books list when Times staffers are involved." He approves of Tanenhaus's comment that in the future, the Review may simply notify readers of new books by Times staff.
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The AP deciphers one result of the success of The Da Vinci Code: novels that bear resemblance to or evoke Dan Brown's longtime bestseller. Among the crop of what could be called Codicils: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry, The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury, The Last Cato by Matilda Asensi and Secret Supper by Javier Sierra. Click here to conjure up the Chicago Tribune's version of the story.
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A Chicago Tribune "Challenge" asked readers to suggest appropriate punishments for "crimes" committed in stores. The second place winner read:
"Bookstore patrons who slobber their lattes and sticky buns all over books and magazines they've no intention of purchasing should be forced to either buy or eat those publications. Or in the case of larger novels, just eat the Cliffs Notes."
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At an event at Mac's Backs Books in Cleveland, Ohio, Jeremy Mercer, author of the memoir Time Was Soft There, recounted his flight from Canada and finding refuge at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, where over the years, more than 40,000 people have stayed overnight in exchange for working in the store an hour each day. Some of those 40,000 were in the audience. See the Cleveland Plain-Dealer for some of their reports from the rue.
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Barnes & Noble is suing its landlord in the CityPlace shopping center in West Palm Beach, Fla., charging that the mall owners' institution of paid parking in July violates its lease and has hurt business, according to the Palm Beach Post. B&N asks for an unspecified amount of money for lost business and a return to free parking.
At CityPlace, parking is free for an hour, then $1 per hour afterwards. Parkers who buy $100 worth of products receive three hours of free parking. The paper said a CityPlace lawyer has argued that the lease neither requires free parking nor prohibits paid parking.
The Post called the B&N "the after-date hangout and gathering place for the West Palm Beach intelligentsia," a store highly dependent on browsers.
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Effective January 1, Barnes & Noble College will lease the Hartwick College bookstore in Oneonta, N.Y., according to the Daily Star. B&N has a five-year contract.
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The Amarillo Globe-News offers a sketch of Hastings Entertainment whose headquarters is in Amarillo, Tex. CEO John Marmaduke said that the company got on track when it realized smaller markets were underserved. The company also trains managers at its own Hastings University. No word on who runs the college store.
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The Newburyport Current briefly profiles three Newburyport, Mass., bookstores: the Jabberwocky Bookshop, the Book Rack and the Middle Street Bookstore. Among highlights:
Liz Schneider, owner of Middle Street Bookstore, which has a "Zen-like" atmosphere, has no computer. The paper wrote: " 'People ask me, "Where's your computer?" ' she says. She points to her calculator in response. 'Ninety-five percent of what we have is [stored] in here,' she says, pointing to her head."
Carolyn Jordan, manager of the Book Rack, told the paper that reading is "a very tactile experience. People like to touch their books, or, in some cases, sniff them."
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Co-owners and husband-and-wife team Grace Bell and Erick Bell celebrated the grand opening of their Eula's Exotic Coffee & Tea inside the Copperfield's store in Napa, Calif., as noted in the Napa Valley Register.
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The Journal News mentions that the Village Bookstore, Pleasantville, N.Y., "one of a handful of independent bookshops in Westchester and Putnam" counties, is located across the street from the Jacob Burns Film Center. As a result, co-owner Yvonne J. vanCort said, the store is the theater's "alternative lobby."
It seems that for the moment, the Republican leadership in Washington won't accept a version of the Act that would renew most aspects of it but protect civil liberties. But following Friday's disclosure by the New York Times that the Bush Administration illegally allowed the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, opponents of a simple renewal of the Act appear to have more support than could be imagined a week ago.
Incidentally, according to e-mail and other documents obtained by the New York Times, at least one FBI official has a dim view of the campaign to protect civil liberties. Complaining that the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review hasn't approved enough search requests, the official wrote: "While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR's failure to let us use the tools given to us. This should be an OIPR priority!!!"
---
The New York Times's public editor investigates how the Book Review handles reviewing books by Timespeople. His conclusion: editor Sam Tanenhaus and staff "genuinely care about general readers and the literary world, and want their choices to have credibility. Yet the perception of a conflict of interest can hang over both the weekly review process and the notable-books list when Times staffers are involved." He approves of Tanenhaus's comment that in the future, the Review may simply notify readers of new books by Times staff.
---
The AP deciphers one result of the success of The Da Vinci Code: novels that bear resemblance to or evoke Dan Brown's longtime bestseller. Among the crop of what could be called Codicils: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry, The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury, The Last Cato by Matilda Asensi and Secret Supper by Javier Sierra. Click here to conjure up the Chicago Tribune's version of the story.
---
A Chicago Tribune "Challenge" asked readers to suggest appropriate punishments for "crimes" committed in stores. The second place winner read:
"Bookstore patrons who slobber their lattes and sticky buns all over books and magazines they've no intention of purchasing should be forced to either buy or eat those publications. Or in the case of larger novels, just eat the Cliffs Notes."
---
At an event at Mac's Backs Books in Cleveland, Ohio, Jeremy Mercer, author of the memoir Time Was Soft There, recounted his flight from Canada and finding refuge at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, where over the years, more than 40,000 people have stayed overnight in exchange for working in the store an hour each day. Some of those 40,000 were in the audience. See the Cleveland Plain-Dealer for some of their reports from the rue.
---
Barnes & Noble is suing its landlord in the CityPlace shopping center in West Palm Beach, Fla., charging that the mall owners' institution of paid parking in July violates its lease and has hurt business, according to the Palm Beach Post. B&N asks for an unspecified amount of money for lost business and a return to free parking.
At CityPlace, parking is free for an hour, then $1 per hour afterwards. Parkers who buy $100 worth of products receive three hours of free parking. The paper said a CityPlace lawyer has argued that the lease neither requires free parking nor prohibits paid parking.
The Post called the B&N "the after-date hangout and gathering place for the West Palm Beach intelligentsia," a store highly dependent on browsers.
---
Effective January 1, Barnes & Noble College will lease the Hartwick College bookstore in Oneonta, N.Y., according to the Daily Star. B&N has a five-year contract.
---
The Amarillo Globe-News offers a sketch of Hastings Entertainment whose headquarters is in Amarillo, Tex. CEO John Marmaduke said that the company got on track when it realized smaller markets were underserved. The company also trains managers at its own Hastings University. No word on who runs the college store.
---
The Newburyport Current briefly profiles three Newburyport, Mass., bookstores: the Jabberwocky Bookshop, the Book Rack and the Middle Street Bookstore. Among highlights:
Liz Schneider, owner of Middle Street Bookstore, which has a "Zen-like" atmosphere, has no computer. The paper wrote: " 'People ask me, "Where's your computer?" ' she says. She points to her calculator in response. 'Ninety-five percent of what we have is [stored] in here,' she says, pointing to her head."
Carolyn Jordan, manager of the Book Rack, told the paper that reading is "a very tactile experience. People like to touch their books, or, in some cases, sniff them."
---
Co-owners and husband-and-wife team Grace Bell and Erick Bell celebrated the grand opening of their Eula's Exotic Coffee & Tea inside the Copperfield's store in Napa, Calif., as noted in the Napa Valley Register.
---
The Journal News mentions that the Village Bookstore, Pleasantville, N.Y., "one of a handful of independent bookshops in Westchester and Putnam" counties, is located across the street from the Jacob Burns Film Center. As a result, co-owner Yvonne J. vanCort said, the store is the theater's "alternative lobby."