What's the best birthday gift an indie bookstore could receive? On December 4, the community of Zebulon, Ga. (pop. 1,200) threw a surprise fourth birthday party for Chris Curry, Susan Formby and Karen Lacey, co-owners of A Novel Experience. Curry said that the culmination of the ceremony "was the presentation of a check--an account had been set up for several months at our local bank and, through a surreptitious e-mail and word-of-mouth network, our customers donated enough money to cover this month's mortgage payment.
"We were just blown away--couldn't even talk sensibly about it for days. We are a small, rural community in west central Georgia with customers who support the store, come to our book clubs, poetry and Classics groups, gallery receptions; a pretty cool group of middle school kids do a manga night every month. If there was ever an example of the value of independent bookstores for a community, this was it. "
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The weekend blizzard that snowed in the Midwest resulted in numerous business closures and event cancellations, but indie booksellers persevered.
David Enyeart of Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, Minn., noted that the "near-whiteout conditions didn't stop Alison McGhee, author of Bink and Gollie, Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing, among many other books. She strapped on her boots and walked to Magers & Quinn Booksellers for her scheduled signing. Thanks, Alison, for going the extra snowy mile!"
An e-mail newsletter update Saturday from the Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wis., probably typified indie booksellers' response to the situation: "We will stay open this evening as long as there are people in the store, so come on down and get a book before you are trapped inside with nothing to read!... Please note: Due to the inclement weather, the store may not be open tomorrow, Sunday the 12th, if so it may not be right away at 10:00 am. Staff will get here as soon as it is safe to travel. Please call us before you venture out in the storm! You are welcome to shop us anytime on our website, or e-mail us with requests."
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In his Los Angeles Times op-ed column "Why print survives," Tim Rutten considered the implications of last week's sale of a copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America (Shelf Awareness, December 8, 2010) for $11.5 million, as well as B&N CEO Leonard Riggio's remark recently that "digital publishing and digital bookselling will soon become the most explosive development in the history of our industry and will sweep aside those who aren't participating."
"Maybe," Rutten wrote, "or maybe it will just sweep aside the corporate concerns that arose during this anomalous era in which conglomerates gobbled up individual publishing houses, obliterated their distinctive characters, treated books like films or wildcat oil wells and paid a handful of superstar authors like movie stars. If that perfectly legitimate but not particularly edifying end of the business moves to digital formats for economic reasons, not much has been lost."
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The New York Times reported on a recent "Pitchapalooza" event at the Book Revue bookstore, Huntington, N.Y. Nearly 200 people attended, most of them hoping for a chance to pitch their book ideas to a panel of publishing experts. This was part of a cross-country promotional tour by David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut, co-authors of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How to Write It, Sell It and Market It... Successfully!
"Who knew how many people on Long Island are looking to write a book?" said Sterry, adding, "We try to inspire people. We don't want to step on people’s dreams--and you don't know what will sell.”
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Bookreporter.com named Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest the 2010 Book of the Year and Larsson's Millennium series the Trilogy of the Decade: "There was no denying the series' global impact upon the release of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. A copy of one of Larsson's books seemed to be everywhere you turned--in cafés, trains, buses, airports, pools, parks, and so on."
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Between the Covers Bookstore, a Telluride, Colo., institution for 36 years, has been purchased by Daiva Chesonis, the shop's book buyer, and Bobbi Smith, the manager, from Stuart and Joanna Brown, who had owned the business for the past 12 years. Although no major changes are envisioned, the new owners do plan to build an ABA IndieCommerce website, from which they hope to broadcast a bimonthly "Review with a View" from the top of the Telluride ski area.
"We're thrilled that all three part-time booksellers got to keep their jobs, and that in a sense, we were basically able to buy ours" said Smith.
"The community of Telluride keeps thanking us for buying the store but in turn we keep thanking them for their loyalty as it made it an easy decision to pursue this next adventurous chapter in our lives... pun totally intended," added Chesonis.
Hilary Douglas--the bookstore's sidelines buyer--and her husband, Jon Hubbard, purchased the café from the Browns. It will now be called the High Alpine Coffee Bar.
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Last Friday, Brian Buckley and Kate Hunter opened Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Cafe in Boulder, Colo. The owners said the bookshop's name was inspired by their love for Thoreau's Walden and the knowledge that "William Butler Yeats said that he wrote his poem 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' because his father used to read him passages from Walden as a boy.... We love that Thoreau's writings reached across an ocean and inspired a great poet, and we hope our store is an island in the busy world for similar retreats into self. Innisfree means Island of Heather--our poetry books will be our heather."
Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café is located at 1203 13th St., Suite A, Boulder, Colo., 80302; 303-579-1644; innisfreepoetry@gmail.com.
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International bookstore visit of the day: Homedug.com featured intriguing photos of Contrapunto Bookshop in Santiago, Chile, which "is distinguished by several materials such as open pore travertine marble and crystal for the façade, black iron for the entrance door, paqujo wood for the bookcases and lapacho wood for the floors."
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'Tis the season for more best books lists and gift suggestions:
The Washington Post featured its choices for top 10 books, top 10 books for young readers, best fiction and poetry, nonfiction, audiobooks, cookbooks, and home & design.
In honor of National Write a Business Plan Month, the Chicago Tribune recommended "four books--all written by Chicagoans and released in 2010--to get your economic juices flowing."
The Boston Globe showcased its best fiction, nonfiction and kids' books.
The Guardian focused on its choices for best photography books of the year.
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Number 16 among New York magazine's Reasons to Love New York: "Because We’re Home to Not Only the Publishing Industry But Also to a Woman Who Spends Her Days Smelling Books"
Six months ago, artist Rachael Morrison, who works at the Museum of Modern Art's library, began wondering about the unscented future of e-books and "decided to spend her lunch breaks chronicling the unique scent of each book in the MoMA stacks." Morrison said that "smelling books is really nostalgic for me--I am often reminded of my grandparents' homes, or libraries where I used to go when I was a child."
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"When Real Books Inspire Fake Books." Flavorwire looked at "five real books that exemplify literary life imitating fictional art."
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What does Sarah read? The Huffington Post reported that, in an interview with Barbara Walters that will air on ABC later this week, Sarah Palin answered in more detail the question that Katie Couric stumped her with during the 2008 campaign.
"I read anything and everything that I can get my hands on as I have since I was a little girl," she said. "I'm reading the best book right now--Dean Karnazes's book about being an ultra-marathoner [Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner]. I read a lot of C.S. Lewis when I want some divine inspiration... I read Newsmax and the Wall Street Journal. I read all of our local papers of course in Alaska because that's where my heart is."
