Booksellers New Zealand featured updates from Christchurch, the city that was ravaged by an earthquake last week. On Beattie's Book Blog, Mary Sangster of the Children's Bookshop
offered a more detailed damage report: "The shop is a mess. 70-80% of
the stock seems to be on the floor plus there is about 6 inches of waste
water through--what type of waste who knows, although I did see the
storm water drain at the back of us burst.... By fluke, there was only
one staff member downstairs in the shop at the time of the quake and she
and the customers all got out okay. The customers were shaken and Liz a
bit bruised, but otherwise okay.
"The rest of us were upstairs
having the time of our lives. Sheila and I were in the tearoom with only
a flimsy trestle table so we headed to safe spots. Mine moved as I
reached it and I was tossed around with a filing cabinet and some other
stuff. Sheila managed to hang on to something, she can't remember what.
The other two staff made it under their desks, then we had to move stuff
to get them out again. One, it was even a matter of climbing over
fallen book cases to get to her.
"The long and the short of it is
that we got all customers and staff out safely with minimal
injuries--Liz a few bruises, me bruised bones in my legs so I'm on
crutches now, everyone severly shaken but alive and breathing.... Thank
you everyone for the kind messages that we have received--if you want to
contact us, I've started a new temporary email address--cbschnz@gmail.com. We at the Children's Bookshop, and all the book sellers in Christchurch really appreciate the support."
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Late last week, the trustee handling Borders bankruptcy reorganization appointed the committee of unsecured creditors, which consists of some of the company's largest creditors: Penguin Group, Random House, HarperCollins, Perseus Books Group, Sony, General Growth Properties and Simon Property Group, the Wall Street Journal reported. The last two companies are among Borders' landlords whose leases it is breaking.
The committee will serve "as a kind of watchdog" and have a major voice in how and whether Borders will continue as a going business.
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The legendary Foyles bookshop in London is moving next door on Charing Cross Road into a building recently bought by members of the Foyle family, according to the Bookseller. The 75,000-sq.-ft. space will be rebuilt and will have three floors and more selling space than its current location, where Foyles has been since 1906. Move in date is 2013.
Foyles CEO Sam Husain said, "This is a wonderful opportunity for Foyles to create a modern, purpose-built flagship store and guarantee the future of bookselling on London's historic Charing Cross Road. Although our customers may not realise it, we currently occupy over 40,000 square feet in five separate buildings at 113-119 Charing Cross Road; our new home, just 15 yards down the road, will provide a fantastic environment for book lovers and booksellers alike."
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Amazon's
proposed $139.1 million distribution facilities in Southeast Tennessee
came under fire from critics who contend that "the tax giveaways to
Amazon could be nearly as much as the company will pay the 1,476 workers
it plans to hire this year in Hamilton and Bradley counties," according
to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Tennesseans for Fair Taxation estimates "state and local governments
could lose more than $30 million a year in sales tax revenues and
millions more in property and franchise taxes because of tax exemptions
granted to Amazon."
"The economic output from Amazon just won't
measure up to what is being given away," said Elizabeth Wright,
executive director of the group. "Amazon can afford to collect these
taxes, but Tennessee can't afford not to have them do so."
Chattanooga
Mayor Ron Littlefield argued that Amazon will boost local economy "and
all of those Amazon employees will pay taxes on the cars, homes and
goods they buy."
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Congratulations to Clarence Lusane, author of The Black History of the White House (City Lights), who will speak today with White House staff members "about the many generations of black servants who preceded them," as the Sydney Morning Herald put it.
Lusane met President Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, at the Winter Institute last month, and she passed on a signed copy of the book to the first family. Soetoro-Ng is coming out with her first book, Ladder to the Moon, in April.
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Cool idea of the day: Strand Books, New York City, has created Curated Collections: a selection of must-reads by authors and artists that are featured in the store and online. The first collection consist of picks by Art Spiegelman, who commented, "I always dreamed of working in a bookstore (though not on the payscale and probable tedium that comes with the territory) and the Strand has offered to fulfill the fantasy--the part where you get to shove the books you love in fellow bibliophile's faces!"
Upcoming curators include Maira Kalman, Nora Ephron, Gary Shteyngart, Jennifer Egan and Chuck Palahniuk.
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Book trailer of the day: Found: A Memoir by Jennifer Lauck (Seal Press), the sequel to her memoir, Blackbird, which came out in 2000. The music in the background is by the Dimes, a band Lauck, who lives in Portland, Ore., knows. The Dimes will perform at her launch party on Tuesday, March 8, at Powell's Books.