The National Endowment for the Arts will release a new report on
American reading habits today that NEA chairman Dana Gioia describes as
"simple, consistent and alarming," according to the New York Times.
The study is "based on an analysis of data from about two dozen studies
from the federal Education and Labor Departments and the Census Bureau
as well as other academic, foundation and business surveys," and
expands on the NEA's 2004 report, Reading at Risk.
The NEA found that "although reading scores among elementary school
students have been improving, scores are flat among middle school
students and slightly declining among high school seniors." In
addition, "the percentage of adults who are proficient in reading prose
has fallen at the same time that the proportion of people who read
regularly for pleasure has declined."
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Book groups are an increasingly important marketing tool for publishers as well as film companies, according to today's NYT.
"We
want to get books on that circuit," Barb Burg, a Bantam spokeswoman,
said of the reading groups. "There’s not a publisher in town for which
this isn’t a top priority."
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David Doyle, owner of Rhythm & Muse, Jamaica Plain, Mass., told the Jamaica Plain Gazette that he is enjoying added security this autumn as the owner of the building in which his bookstore is located.
"At
last I have a sense of long-term security," he said. "I am now
confident the store can have a long-term presence here. I feel we'll be
around as long as I am here. Being a business owner, I am aware of how
rare this opportunity is. I feel very privileged to have this
opportunity."
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In its profile of the Chatham Bookseller, Madison, N.J., the Daily Record noted that "a shopper could grab a book and go, but so much would be lost."
Co-proprietor
Jesse Mann agreed: "People are welcome to stay the whole day. We find
people are happy to find a place that gives them a refuge and where
they are not pressured to buy."
An "ever-new" inventory is part of the bookshop's secret to success. "We try not to establish a long-term relationship with the books," Mann added. "The key to this business is turnover. Lots of repeat customers, who come in at least weekly, are always looking for something new."
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Annapolis
Bookstore, Annapolis, Md., now has two locations, including a new,
larger store that was the focus of an interview in the Capital Gazette
with co-owners Mary Adams and Janice Holmes. How diminutive is the
original bookshop? Adams described it as "the smallest bookstore in the
world."
According to Holmes, "One of the best things about being
a used bookstore is everybody has a story, and they all come in. It's
like being a bartender, except they're all sober."
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Eva
Mueller of Fort Collins, Colo., was arrested for the theft of more
than 3,000 books "from Fort Collins and Loveland Barnes & Noble
stores and a local B. Dalton store, four to eight at a time, during a
nine-month period," according to the Coloradan. Mueller allegedly sold the books, valued at $92,000, on eBay for about $35,000.
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Crossroads Market bookstore, Dallas, Tex., may close at the end of the year, according to the Dallas Voice,
which reported that "Richard Longstaff, who's owned Crossroads for the
last four years, said he's not renewing his lease, which expires Dec.
31, because the owners are asking too much money."
"It's a
pity, really, that it's come to this," Longstaff said of the quarter
century-old independent bookstore. "It's an institution on the street,
and that's one of the reasons I bought it. I just didn't want to see it
go."
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Newsweek's cover story, "The Future of Reading," focused on Jeff Bezos and this week's debut of the Amazon Kindle, an electronic reader "that he hopes will leapfrog over previous attempts at e-readers and become the turning point in a transformation toward Book 2.0."
But the Kindle's real competition may be "Internet-friendly laptops, tablet computers and smart phones" rather than traditional books, according to Forbes.
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Emerging Leaders NYC is holding the next Emerging Leaders Night Out
party, its fourth, on Wednesday, November 28, 7-9 p.m., at the Housing
Works Bookstore in Manhattan. The organization is inviting young people
in bookstores and publishing houses in the New York City area; the
mixer will offer informal networking opportunities. In addition, the
group will have, it said, "new books and some special guest appearances
by NYC authors in our midst."
To RSVP, e-mail jessica@mcnallyrobinsonnyc.com.
For information about the Emerging Leaders Project, click here.