Books Alive bookshop, Chesterton, Ind., was named Retailer of the Year by the Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitor Commission. The Post-Tribune reported that owner Linda Kay "first set up shop three years ago in her house. She still resides in her quaint home of 28 years. Books Alive has a strong, loyal base that's been growing with time, she said, even in the midst of the economic downturn."
Books Alive received the Recognition of Service Excellence award for its "one-of-a-kind customer experience through its superior, unique products," said Ruth Keefover, county tourism spokeswoman.
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What does Dan Weiss, a bookseller at Dog Eared Books, San Francisco, Calif., do? The Chronicle asked him.
"I really love it when a customer asks, 'Is this book interesting?'" he said. "And I tell them, 'Oh, my God. You picked a great book.' We get a lot of regular customers, so the people I've had that interaction with will come back and say, 'That book is amazing! What should I read next?' I've gotten handwritten notes from people thanking me for recommending books.
"Working in a popular store on a popular thoroughfare is awesome," he added. "I really like the steady flow of traffic here. . . . Whenever I do anything, I tend to throw myself at it really completely. I get really uncomfortable if I'm not doing, like, 5 million things at one. I started a short-fiction book club that I run here. We've met three times so far. We've read Amy Hempel, Miranda July and George Saunders. I revived the Staff Picks section. I'm in charge of some e-mail stuff, like mailing lists. And then I started putting on an event the first Wednesday of every month, called Lessons in Adventureneering. It's this sort of weird variety-comedy-music show. It has nothing to do with books, but it's a means of getting people into the store. Bookstores have such a cool feel to them."
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A car crashed into the front of the Vista Book Gallery, Boise, Idaho, last Friday, according to KTVB News. No one was injured, but the store was closed for at least the day.
Cause of the accident: an older driver was parking and reportedly hit the accelerator instead of the brake.
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Ruth Padel, who became the first woman elected Oxford's professor of poetry (Shelf Awareness, May 19, 2009), resigned "amid claims she tipped off journalists about allegations that her rival for the post, Derek Walcott, had sexually harassed students," the Guardian reported.
"I genuinely believe that I did nothing intentional that led to Derek Walcott's withdrawal from the election," she said. "I wish he had not pulled out. I did not engage in a smear campaign against him, but, as a result of student concern, I naively--and with hindsight unwisely--passed on to two journalists, whom I believed to be covering the whole election responsibly, information that was already in the public domain."
Oxford University said, "We respect the decision that Ruth Padel has taken. This has been a difficult chapter for all concerned and a period of reflection may now be in order." The Guardian noted that "it is understood the university will hold a fresh election--but probably not in time for a professor to be in post by October, when Christopher Ricks, the incumbent, officially steps down."
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"One should never underestimate the collective fury of book lovers when their book supply is threatened," wrote Robin Hemley in the Far Eastern Economic Review. Earlier this month (Shelf Awareness, May 4, 2009), Hemley had written about "The Great Book Blockade of 2009," in which customs officials in the Philippines began requiring that duty be paid on all incoming books.
Hemley reported that, "Within a day or two of my story going online, bloggers all over the Philippines had caught it and were reproducing and commenting upon it, and hundreds and then thousands of book lovers were voicing their outrage. . . . Soon, the story hit the mainstream media in the Philippines when Manuel Quezon III wrote a column for the Philippine Inquirer, also titled 'The Great Book Blockade of 2009.' Now the story had gone beyond the blogosphere and other media started picking it up."
Finding himself "more or less at the center of this controversy," Hemley was even contacted by a U.S. Embassy official "who told me that if there's one lesson he had learned from this it's that 'we have greatly underestimated the power and reach of the internet as an organizational tool in the Philippines.'"
Hemley added, "As I write this, I’ve just heard from a friend that President Arroyo has lifted the book blockade, that effective immediately, there will be no taxes on imported books. Together, Filipino book lovers have performed what I consider a miracle in less than a month's time."
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An "Ask Amy" question in the Los Angeles Times tackled a tricky book club dilemma: "Dear Amy: I have a neighbor who is part of our book group. She doesn't often come to the meetings, but she has used our e-mail addresses to promote her and her husband's businesses and a student-exchange program. I only e-mail my neighbors about the next meeting. I am uncomfortable about this and would like to address the issue with her. Any suggestions?"
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Effective June 15, Ray Chateauneuf is joining Northeast Publishers Reps, where he will cover accounts in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He has been a publisher's rep since 1984, most recently for Simon & Schuster.