Indie resurgence stories seem to be a media trend recently. In a piece headlined "U.S. neighborhood bookstores thrive in digital age," Reuters noted that indies "are discovering how to flourish despite the growth of electronic books with some even looking to form an alliance with a formidable competitor--Google."
"We often say we're like Mark Twain: that the rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated," said Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, which has reached a deal with Google Editions that will allow members to sell Google's e-books through their websites. "Getting into the business of being able to provide digital content to consumers is one way in which to evolve," Teicher added.
"We anticipate Google Editions will be a popular channel for independent bookstores with a web presence," said Jeannie Hornung, spokeswoman for Google Books and News.
Rachel Meier, general manager at the Booksmith, San Francisco, Calif., agreed: "What we hear from our customers is a great deal of enthusiasm for price bundling, so you can read the physical book at home when you're in bed at night and when you're on the subway you can read the same book on your e-reader."
Reuters also noted independent bookstores' role in the increasingly popular "buy local" movement.
"People are rediscovering the value of an independent store that's connected to their neighborhood and understands them and their tastes," said Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, co-owner of Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Eileen Dengler, executive director of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, observed that indie bookstores "are still promoting the story, and whether you want to read it on paper or on your iPad, we still want to be able to sell that story to consumers. Everyone wants to do it. It's how they're going to do it."
--- 
Borders has opted for the silent treatment regarding questions about how many people are still employed at its Ann Arbor, Mich., corporate headquarters. AnnArbor.com reported that the bookstore chain, "faced with questions about its long-term viability as an independent company, is slowing external communications to a minimum. After completing its second round of layoffs at its corporate headquarters last week [Shelf Awareness, August 12, 2010], Borders is now refusing to discuss how many employees work at the Phoenix Drive complex."
"I don't think we're going to talk about it anymore going forward," company spokeswoman Mary Davis said, adding that Borders CEO Bennett LeBow isn't talking either. "Mr. LeBow just doesn't do media interviews. That's his personal choice."
Michael Norris, an industry analyst with Simba Information, "believes that the fate of Borders and Barnes & Noble may be intertwined as Amazon and Apple make an aggressive play for e-book sales," AnnArbor.com wrote.
"Borders, Barnes & Noble and the independent bookseller down the street have something in common--they have to sell books in order to stay alive," Norris said. "It's just going to be bad for publishers and bad for consumers if companies that don't have a stake in the future of books are the ones left selling them."
--- 
Calling the move "a sign of how seriously he is taking a coming proxy battle for three board seats," the Wall Street Journal reported that B&N chairman Leonard Riggio "has exercised options to acquire 990,740 shares in the company at a strike price of $16.96, or $16.8 million. Shares in Barnes & Noble were at $15.35 in 4 p.m. composite trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, up 29 cents. At that price, Mr. Riggio paid a premium of $1.61 per share."
The Journal added that Riggio's buy will enable him "to vote his entire equity stake. Although Barnes & Noble's most recent proxy statement shows that Mr. Riggio owns 17.9 million shares, or 29.9% of the retailer's stock outstanding, his options couldn't be voted. The options represented 1.7% of his 29.9% stake."
In a statement, the company said Riggio "continues to believe B&N's stock is undervalued and this exercise of his options demonstrates his belief in the long-term strategy of the company."
---
Escape Again, a new bookstore opened by Eddie Cardenas a few months after the city's only bookshop, a B. Dalton, closed (Shelf Awareness, December 17, 2009), "wants to make an impact in the city by not only having a 
place to buy books but also trading in used books for store credit," the Laredo Sun reported.
"I think people should have a place so they can go and browse for books," said Cardenas, "Maybe discover the next big thing in their life that they like to read about.... In a couple of years I would like to move into a space where I can also put up a café."
---
Jenni Wilke, owner of Books by the Way, Vashon, Wash., will realize a "longtime dream" when her bookstore relocates just a few doors away from a popular local coffee shop. Wilkes told the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber that "she constantly sees customers browsing her shop with lattes or cappuccinos in hand, drinks they purchased at Café Luna."
She plans to move to the new space during the last week of September, "enabling her to create an opening between her bookstore and the bustling café," the Beachcomber wrote. An October 1 opening is planned.
"There have been three different owners (of the bookstore) in the last decade, and they’ve all wanted this," said Wilke. "At least two times a week someone says it’s too bad you’re not connected."
---
As part of Barnes & Noble's Nook re-branding across its various eReading platforms, the company "has released a 'next-generation' Nook for iPhone application that incorporates many of the features found in its Nook for iPad app," CNET reported.
Fast Company suggested that B&N's recent overhaul of its iPhone and iPad Nook e-reader apps "shows the bookseller thinks of the Nook app as its future, as much as--or perhaps more than--the Nook device. E-books, as Amazon already knows, are all about the ecosystem."
--- 
The battle of the century. Newsweek created a boxing poster-style graphic announcing the world championship bout between books and e-books, complete with a "tale of the tape" that included relative weights: 2.2 pounds (print edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest) vs. 8.5 ounces (Kindle edition).
---
After 22 years and more than 200 titles, the University of Scranton Press is closing, "a victim of financial pressures and shifting priorities," the Times-Tribune reported.
"Basically, it was a budgetary decision. We are a tuition-driven institution, and these are tough economic times," said Harold Baillie, University of Scranton's provost and v-p for academic affairs. "Our main priority is the education of our students, and that takes precedence in the distribution of our resources.... It just reached the point where we could not sustain the losses in the face of our other priorities."
--- 
To mark the 110th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's original tale, actress Emma Thomson will write a new Peter Rabbit story, which is scheduled to be published in 2012, BBC News reported.
"They asked me to write a new story, so I'm going to take him to Scotland," she said.
---
At The Record: Music News from NPR, Jacob Ganz praised "two great books about music": A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta.
"Real critics don't often get to be that vulnerable, and it's a shame," wrote Ganz. "Novelists have the freedom, and the space, to use music as a way to let us get to know their characters, and then use their characters to help us get to know music in a new way."
---
Book trailer of the day: Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson (HarperCollins), which will be released September 21.
---
Happy but sad news: Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum, our good friends at
Unshelved, have begun the Ultimate Pimp My Bookcart contest "to see who
can best pimp, trick out, or otherwise improve a standard book cart."
But this is the ultimate contest in more ways than one: it will be the
last.
Any library, school or bookstore or other organization with
a book cart is eligible to enter. The first, second and third prizes
are provided by Smith System. Runners up receive gift certificates to
the Unshelved store. And for the best cart made just by kids
middle-school age and under, each participant receives an Unshelved book
and T-shirt.
Deadline for submissions is November 15. Bill and Gene will judge the winners. For more information, go to unshelved.com/pimpmybookcart.