Author events have created many of the bestselling titles at the Book Cellar in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood.
Last week a launch party for Ann C. Logue's Hedge Funds for Dummies was held at the store, and the book now ranks in the #1 spot on the Book Cellar's current weekly bestseller list. Chicago resident Joe Meno appeared at the store two weeks ago, and the Punk Planet magazine columnist's novel The Boy Detective Fails succeeded at #12. The night before Halloween, Dale Kaczmarek and other authors from the Oak Lawn, Ill.'s Ghost Research Society Press shared spine-tingling tales, making Windy City Ghosts II a store bestseller.
Alpana Singh was one of three authors who participated in the Book Cellar's monthly Local Author Night on October 18, which included a wine tasting. Singh is a master sommelier and the host of the local television program Check, Please!, which features restaurant reviews. Her book Alpana Pours: About Being a Woman, Loving Wine, and Having Great Relationships is the Book Cellar's #4 bestseller.
All in-store events are held in the Book Cellar's café, which offers sandwiches, salads, baked goods, beer, wine and other foods and beverages. "It gives me a space that generates business when we're not having events," said owner Susan Takacs, who opened the Book Cellar in June 2004. "It's not just an empty room waiting for an event to happen." Outside groups regularly hold gatherings in the café, ranging from Chicago Women in Publishing to Date and Dash (a speed dating event), and recently the Book Cellar was the last stop on a wine stroll sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce. Even non-book related events are a boon for business. The wine stroll, for example, "was a good way to get new people to the store," she said. Even if they don't make an immediate purchase, "it keeps me on their mind if they need a book or if they need to buy a card, or if they need somewhere to go."
The Book Cellar sponsors one book club, and several others meet in the café each month. The store's reading group selected The Memory Keeper's Daughter as its December pick, something that is likely to continue to keep Kim Edwards' novel on the Book Cellar's bestseller list.
Chicago connections help sell certain titles. Illinois Senator Barack Obama's popular The Audacity of Hope is selling well at the store, as is Erik Larson's Thunderstruck. Larson's latest nonfiction tale owes its bestseller status to his previous book, The Devil in the White City. Although Thunderstruck has no Windy City connection, the author garnered a local following with his story about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. "The Devil in the White City is probably one of our top five books ever," noted Takacs.
An offsite event accounts for superb sales of the Iliad and the Odyssey, along with Derek Collins' Master of the Game, which the Book Cellar was asked to sell at the 17th Annual Chicago Humanities Festival this past weekend. Takacs sells books at offsite events several times a week in conjunction with organizations like the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair and the Bookslut.com Reading Series, as well as at private homes and other venues.
Handselling accounts for two fiction titles on the list. "Haruki Murakami is a favorite of many of the staff," said Takacs, and the Japanese novelist's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (published in 1998) is at # 9. Another bestseller is Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind, which Takacs and the Book Cellar staffers have been recommending to customers looking for reading suggestions.
And what are some of the books Takacs will handsell during the holiday season? Alpana Pours, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and the children's book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner.--Shannon McKenna
Book Cellar bestsellers during the week ended November 5:
1. Hedge Funds for Dummies by Ann C. Logue (Wiley, $24.99, 0470049278)
2. Iliad by Homer (Hackett Publishing, $11.95, 0872203522)
3. Master of the Game: Competition and Performance in Greek Poetry by Derek Collins (Center for Hellenic Studies, $19.95, 0674016440)
4. Alpana Pours: About Being a Woman, Loving Wine, and Having Great Relationships by Alpana Singh (Academy Chicago, $17.95, 0897335465)
5. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Crown, $25, 0307237699)
6. Odyssey by Homer (Hackett Publishing, $11.95, 0872204847)
7. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95, 1400080665)
8. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Penguin, $15, 0143034901)
9. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami (Vintage, $15.95, 0679775439)
10. Windy City Ghosts II by Dale Kaczmarek (Ghost Research Society Press, $14.95, 0976607212)
11. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 0143037145)
12. The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno (Akashic Books, $14.95, 1933354100)
Last week a launch party for Ann C. Logue's Hedge Funds for Dummies was held at the store, and the book now ranks in the #1 spot on the Book Cellar's current weekly bestseller list. Chicago resident Joe Meno appeared at the store two weeks ago, and the Punk Planet magazine columnist's novel The Boy Detective Fails succeeded at #12. The night before Halloween, Dale Kaczmarek and other authors from the Oak Lawn, Ill.'s Ghost Research Society Press shared spine-tingling tales, making Windy City Ghosts II a store bestseller.
Alpana Singh was one of three authors who participated in the Book Cellar's monthly Local Author Night on October 18, which included a wine tasting. Singh is a master sommelier and the host of the local television program Check, Please!, which features restaurant reviews. Her book Alpana Pours: About Being a Woman, Loving Wine, and Having Great Relationships is the Book Cellar's #4 bestseller.
All in-store events are held in the Book Cellar's café, which offers sandwiches, salads, baked goods, beer, wine and other foods and beverages. "It gives me a space that generates business when we're not having events," said owner Susan Takacs, who opened the Book Cellar in June 2004. "It's not just an empty room waiting for an event to happen." Outside groups regularly hold gatherings in the café, ranging from Chicago Women in Publishing to Date and Dash (a speed dating event), and recently the Book Cellar was the last stop on a wine stroll sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce. Even non-book related events are a boon for business. The wine stroll, for example, "was a good way to get new people to the store," she said. Even if they don't make an immediate purchase, "it keeps me on their mind if they need a book or if they need to buy a card, or if they need somewhere to go."
The Book Cellar sponsors one book club, and several others meet in the café each month. The store's reading group selected The Memory Keeper's Daughter as its December pick, something that is likely to continue to keep Kim Edwards' novel on the Book Cellar's bestseller list.
Chicago connections help sell certain titles. Illinois Senator Barack Obama's popular The Audacity of Hope is selling well at the store, as is Erik Larson's Thunderstruck. Larson's latest nonfiction tale owes its bestseller status to his previous book, The Devil in the White City. Although Thunderstruck has no Windy City connection, the author garnered a local following with his story about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. "The Devil in the White City is probably one of our top five books ever," noted Takacs.
An offsite event accounts for superb sales of the Iliad and the Odyssey, along with Derek Collins' Master of the Game, which the Book Cellar was asked to sell at the 17th Annual Chicago Humanities Festival this past weekend. Takacs sells books at offsite events several times a week in conjunction with organizations like the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair and the Bookslut.com Reading Series, as well as at private homes and other venues.
Handselling accounts for two fiction titles on the list. "Haruki Murakami is a favorite of many of the staff," said Takacs, and the Japanese novelist's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (published in 1998) is at # 9. Another bestseller is Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind, which Takacs and the Book Cellar staffers have been recommending to customers looking for reading suggestions.
And what are some of the books Takacs will handsell during the holiday season? Alpana Pours, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and the children's book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner.--Shannon McKenna
Book Cellar bestsellers during the week ended November 5:
1. Hedge Funds for Dummies by Ann C. Logue (Wiley, $24.99, 0470049278)
2. Iliad by Homer (Hackett Publishing, $11.95, 0872203522)
3. Master of the Game: Competition and Performance in Greek Poetry by Derek Collins (Center for Hellenic Studies, $19.95, 0674016440)
4. Alpana Pours: About Being a Woman, Loving Wine, and Having Great Relationships by Alpana Singh (Academy Chicago, $17.95, 0897335465)
5. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama (Crown, $25, 0307237699)
6. Odyssey by Homer (Hackett Publishing, $11.95, 0872204847)
7. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95, 1400080665)
8. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Penguin, $15, 0143034901)
9. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami (Vintage, $15.95, 0679775439)
10. Windy City Ghosts II by Dale Kaczmarek (Ghost Research Society Press, $14.95, 0976607212)
11. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 0143037145)
12. The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno (Akashic Books, $14.95, 1933354100)