More on the closing this week of the bricks-and-mortar location of Lafayette Book Store, Lafayette, Calif., and its move to "Big Blue," the store's bus that is officially known as the Bay Area Bookmobile.
The store is having a Saying Goodbye to the Brick-and-Mortar Party Thursday evening that will include "a ritual marking our move from the old to the new--we're doing a bucket brigade to move all the books from the new section of the bookstore into the bookmobile."
The store will have Lafayette Book Store and Bay Area Bookmobile Facebook pages and continue sending out the newsletter. As owner Dave Simpson wrote: "We'll be active there with our schedule of appearances, announcements of author signings and events, and as always, our book recommendations (and you can offer your own!). Come join the conversation!"
He added that the bookmobile draws "a lot of attention! No matter where we're parked, people come up and ask what it is. Some are nostalgic for the bookmobile that brought them books when they were kids; others are thrilled because they've never seen anything like it. No matter the reason, we love bringing people aboard! The most common observation we hear is how big it is inside, and the most common comment we hear is, 'cool!' "
The bookseller is making arrangements to have Big Blue appear regularly at the Lafayette Farmers Market, the Lafayette Art & Wine Festival, the Rock the Plaza events, at neighborhood block parties, at Diablo Foods and Saturdays "at the new Fastframe of Lafayette location on Brown Avenue."
Cool idea of the day: for the launch party for her Communion: A Culinary
Journey Through Vietnam (Things Asian Press) two
weeks ago at Traveler's Bookcase, Los Angeles, Calif., author Kim Fay
invited the Mandoline Grill food truck to park outside. After a short
reading and q&a, customers lingered for hours in the store and on
the sidewalk, sipping wine and eating food from the truck, which
specializes in vegan-friendly Vietnamese cuisine. Fay called the truck
"a wonderful addition to the night, giving people a reason to hang
around longer. As well, it drew people in off the street." And it
related to the subject of the book. Hanging around (from l.): Fay;
Communion photographer Julie Fay Ashborn; Traveler's Bookcase owner
Natalie Compagno; and Mandoline Grill food truck owner Mong Skillman.
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Tree House Books, Holland, Mich., is closing at the end of August, the Kalamazoo Gazette
reported. Owner Michele Lonergan cited, the paper said, "the
increasingly competitive book industry and the growing popularity of
digital media."
Lonergan founded the 4,200-sq.-ft. store seven and a half years ago.
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The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg encountered U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in the aisles at Politics & Prose Bookstore,
Washington, D.C., and gave her "extra points on this blog for
self-deprecating humor, and, especially, for buying books on a Sunday
afternoon at an independent bookstore. How many cabinet secretaries do
you think actually read anything besides briefing books?"
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BrashTV unveiled the Kindle 9XXXD, which "skips ahead 9 models to bring the biggest, highest powered e-reader ever."
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The New England Independent Booksellers Association, the New Atlantic
Independent Booksellers Association and the Southern Independent
Booksellers Alliance are jointly sponsoring two workshops held in
conjunction with the Great American Bargain Book Show at the Hynes
Convention Center in Boston, Mass., August 19-20.
A session
called "Remainder Buying--Plain, Simple and Profitable," will take place
at noon on Thursday, August 19. At the session, remainder veterans will
talk about how booksellers "can sell more books and earn more money by
adding remainders to their inventory."
On Friday from 9-10 a.m.,
Karin Wilson, owner of the Page & Palette, Fairhope, Ala., will
moderate a session called "EESY CHIT: Easy, Effective Strategies You Can
Happily Implement Today."
For more information about the show, click here.
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NPR's
Scott Simon calls London cab driver Will Grozier "the best-read man
that I have ever encountered in my life." With that kind of
recommendation, it's probably no surprise that NPR checked in with Grozier for his favorite reads this summer, which include Solar by Ian McEwan, The Extinction Event by David Black, A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks, Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin and Pearl Buck in China: Journey to The Good Earth by Hilary Spurling.
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"Sizzling in the sun?" asked the Daily Mail in introducing its summer reads list. "You need a chiller... or the coolest chick lit and a red-hot Ian McEwan."
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At one time in Islamabad, Pakistan "people used to visit 'old
book shops' set up at different parts of the city to get books of their
choice at minimal price, but now these second hand treasures are no
more in the reach of common people," the International News
reported, noting that increased pricing was less a factor than the
"considerable decline in the trend of charity of books over the past few
years."
"Gone are the times when people think it a noble job to
donate their books so that they could be of any help to poor and needy
people," said Mumtaz Agha of Jinnah Super. "Now people like to decorate
their shelves with the precious books to show it off to their guests as
how literate they are."
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Although this year's prize
money was doubled for New Zealand's National Book Awards Maori language
category, no award will be given because no entries were submitted, the Herald reported.
"My
vision for the future is to see Te Reo fiction in every bookshop in the
country," said contest judge Paul Diamond, who expressed disappointment
while acknowledging that few books are being written in Maori for
adults. "Let's see Te Reo 'chick-lit,' Te Reo mystery series and
thrillers. It would be great to also see Te Reo cookbooks, histories,
biographies and more."
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Ayesha Mirza has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as marketing manager in the adult marketing department, in the New York office. She was most recently a marketing manager at Macmillan for its trade, academic and professional books, with a focus on online marketing and social networking. Earlier she was an associate marketing manager at Knopf.
Meagan Stacey has been promoted to associate editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Mariner Books. She was formerly assistant editor.
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Kathryn Tumen has joined Independent Publishers Group as a publicist. She was formerly a publicist at Penguin Group.