The Washington Post has a piece on A Likely Story, the Alexandria, Va., children's bookstore that closed suddenly November 21. Dinah Paul, who owned the store with her husband, told the Post that "people loved us, but they didn't equate loving us to buying from us." Story time was typical, she explained: many people attended but few bought books. "In fact, books got damaged," she said. "So story time ended up costing us."
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The Marin Independent Journal
explores the phenomenon of bookstore customers who come to many author
events, as shown by enthusiastic crowds at Book Passage, Corte Madera;
Open Secret , West Marin; Point Reyes Books, San Rafael; and Borders,
San Rafael.
Elaine Petrocelli of Book Passage, which stages 700 author readings a
year and has some customers who attend three or four events a week,
commented: "I think the independent bookstore is the last holdout of
the type of interaction that's dying in our culture; it's become the
town square of old. Here, everybody can come together and trade ideas.
Even for me, being in the business, whether I agree or disagree with an
author, I learn something every time."
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Even more holiday gift book suggestions:
Bloomberg
has a holiday list of business titles that begins, "With the subprime
chill spreading and the dollar dropping like a ski jump, Ebenezer
Scrooge won't be the only investor poring over his ledger this
Christmas Eve. So take pity on your anxious neighbor with a gift book
that explains why credit dries up, bankers get ousted and the rich
still manage to get richer."
Perhaps eating well is the best revenge? The Baltimore Sun has a menu of cookbook titles.
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The National Book Critics Circle is receiving the 2008
AAP honors, an award given by the Association of American Publishers to
people or organizations "outside the publishing industry for
significant achievements in promoting American books and authors." The
award will be presented March 5 during the AAP's annual meeting in New
York City.
The AAP commented: "As newspapers across the country slashed book
review space and fired experienced book editors in the name of
belt-tightening, the NBCC decided to fight back and earlier this year
launched the Campaign to Save Book Reviews, featuring blog posts by
concerned writers, interviews with book editors 'in the trenches,'
Q&A with newspaper editors and owners, a boots-on-the-ground
protest in Atlanta, and more than a dozen panel discussions around the
country to raise awareness of the issue. Since then the NBCC has fought
to foster a national literary culture, creating a Best Recommended
List, made up of the votes of its members and former book prize
finalists and winners, and kicked off several new essay series on
Critical Mass."