"Whatever happened to . . . Barbara Babbit Kaufman?" asked the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, referring to the founder and former co-owner of Chapter 11 Bookstores. The answer is that, in the six years since she "left her high-profile perch as one of the area's most-visible female entrepreneurs," Kaufman has written a book and become a motivational speaker as well as an accomplished athlete.
"I am very goal-oriented, and I like challenges," said Kaufman, whose lifestyle exemplifies the title of her book, Attitude. "With what is going on in the world, there is nothing we need more than good attitude. People are afraid. I think what I do is motivate you to know the things that are important, the things that you need to be successful. You can learn to have a great attitude."
---
If your bookstore sells magazines, you might be interested to know that competition on the subscription side of the business may be in for a techno-shock in September, when Time Inc. launches Maghound, "a service that promises to blend the convenience of subscriptions with the flexibility of newsstand sales," according to USA Today.
Maghound customers "will pay a monthly fee for home delivery of the publications they want. But unlike with subscriptions, which typically run for fixed terms, users can go online and swap one title for another whenever they want."
---
The complete program for Comic-Con International, which will be held July 24-27 in San Diego, Calif., is now available. The New York Times reported that highlights of this year's popular convention include "a first look at the film Watchmen, about flawed superheroes, based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel mini-series" and "a day devoted to the Star Wars franchise. News about books based on the movies and about a planned TV series will be announced, and there will be panels on cloning and costuming for a galaxy far, far away."
---
What's the difference between "vegging out" and "geeking out"? Are there genres anymore, and, if so, is science fiction still a genre? Boing Boing linked to a 40-minute talk by author Neal Stephenson at Gresham College, London.
---
What do critics want? The Observer asked a select group of veteran reviewers about the challenge to their field posed by online competition.
"If I were young now I'd not only be reading blogs but writing them," said the Observer's literary critic Hilary Spurling. "However, I think that voracious appetite for keeping up, for being in the swim, is a function of youth. . . . Is criticism being challenged? It will simply take another form, and I don't see anything wrong in that. It's essential that things don't become atrophied."
---
While the publishing industry scrambles to find and/or retain younger readers, David Sedaris is trying an alternative tactic--gift giving. The Ottawa Citizen interviewed him during a recent appearance at Collected Works Bookstore. Sedaris "likes to have something the kids can take home. . . . Sometimes, he hands out bottles of shampoo and conditioner from whatever hotel he's in."
"I'm so honoured when teenagers show up," he said.
---
"The ants are my friends/They're blowin' in the wind." New Yorker magazine's blog The Book Bench celebrated the fact that "Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary has finally found space for the word 'mondegreen,' which it defines as 'a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung.'"
---
Jeanette Winterson, writing on "the joy of books in translation" for the Times, noted that, "with my usual sense that my whole life has been an escape of a kind, I am not taking or making a holiday this year, but I am selecting my holiday reading for days off in the garden. This year, it's books in translation I would like to re-read, remembering them from that time in my life when I was finding foreign authors, and realising that the genies in the Arabian Nights were right; there are worlds piled on worlds. Even science says so now, but science always takes a while to catch up."