Get out your handkerchiefs.
Last Saturday, with the cooperation of store staff, Jed Carlson proposed to Emma Beyers at the Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, Minn., according to the Pioneer Press.
The pair are seniors at Bethel University who share a passion for children's books. "Both of our moms are elementary school teachers, and we've always had good books around," Carlson said.
Red Balloon helped out by creating a display of Beyers's favorite children's books with a sign saying "Emma Recommends" and decorated with ribbons using her favorite colors. They also played several of Beyers's favorite songs.
"After she said 'Yes,' the couple had a few quiet moments alone in the stacks," the Pioneer Press wrote. "Then two friends, Jennica LaPlaca and Sam Butler, took photos and admired Beyers' new white-gold diamond engagement ring, and bookstore staff presented the couple with a Red Balloon book bag, a bottle of champagne and champagne flutes."
Red Balloon events coordinator Amy Baum, who had never worked on an event like this before, commented: "It was truly a romantic moment for those of us who live inside the covers of a book."
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With government small business advocates like this, who needs enemies?
Australia's Minister for Small Business Nick Sherry said today, "I think in five years, other than a few specialist booksellers in capital cities we will not see a bookstore, they will cease to exist," according to the Canberra Times. He added that growth in online sales is "inevitable."
One of the three major chains in Australia, Angus & Robertson, which includes Borders, declared bankruptcy in February, in part because of growing online sales in Australia by Amazon.com and the U.K.'s bookdepository.com.
Strangely, Senator Sherry made the comments at the launch of the Driving Business Online campaign, a private-sector initiative that encourages small businesses to boost their online presence.
Australian Booksellers Association CEO Joel Becker told that paper he was "gobsmacked" by the comments and had written to Senator Sherry to say that "it's an industry that's obviously going through changes, and we're responding to those changes by working out ways for even the smallest bookstores to go online and sell e-books, we've been doing it so far without any support from the Government."
Becker added: "We're getting ready to have National Bookshop Day in August celebrating the role of the bookshop in the community and we just found his comments extraordinarily unhelpful. I've asked him to explain them to me, and the rest of the sector for that matter."
ABA president Jon Page of Pages and Pages Booksellers, Sydney, said that Senator Sherry showed "a distinct lack of understanding about the Australian book industry. It seems he'd rather promote overseas businesses who do not collect much needed revenue than help the ones within his portfolio. I doubt he's even looked at any industry stats to make a remark like that."
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By August 1, a Books-A-Million outlet will replace the Borders Express store at Millcreek Mall in Erie, Pa., which shut in the rounds of closings following Borders Group's bankruptcy filing earlier this year, the Erie Times-News reported.
The Borders Express store had 5,300 square feet of space.
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Will Grossenbacher, who just graduated from Ole Miss, has bought Union Street Books, Canton, Miss., from David Ingebretsen, the Madison County Herald reported.
The store "will be promoted as a local store with Mississippi themes, with books and artwork and crafts from local authors and artists you can't get anywhere else," Grossenbacher told the paper. "I'll continue what David did and sell used books and offer discounts on new ones. I'll work with each customer to help find books they're interested in, especially from Mississippi writers."
Befitting someone his age, Grossenbacher aims to boost the store's online and social media efforts. "I want to get people familiar with the store who haven't been in before," he said. "We'll put as many of our books as we can on our website and use Twitter and our Facebook page to build a customer base and get them used to coming in."
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In other news from the Magnolia State, Richard Howorth, owner of Square Books, Oxford, Miss., moved closer to becoming a member of the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority when the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved his nomination last week, according to the Tennessean.
Howorth is a former ABA president and former Oxford mayor.
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In its tour of pop culture landmarks, the A.V. Travel Club's Pop Pilgrims show journeyed to City Lights, San Francisco, Calif., where it received a short history of the store and publisher from events programmer Peter Maravelis. In addition, Daniel Handler--aka Lemony Snicket--spoke about his experiences as a customer and discovering Baudelaire, who changed his life. See the video here. (Incidentally A.V. is sponsored by Fiat, which has some nice shots of the new Cinquecento.)
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Book trailer of the day: Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: Seeking History and Hidden Gems in Flea-Market America by Maureen Stanton (Penguin Press). Check out trailer's gem: a little tap dancer dancing atop a record on an old-fashioned phonograph, filmed at a flea market in Massachusetts.
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"During the last 20 years, there's been a kind of quiet war going on. It's over who sells books and how they do it," public radio station KCUR in Kansas City, Mo., observed in a report by Alex Smith, who "visited some local stores to find out what's been happening on the front lines of the retail book war."
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The Riverside, Calif., Press-Enterprise profiled several area indie booksellers who said "they are staying afloat by holding onto loyal customers and expanding their thinking beyond the book."
Nadia Lee, co-owner of Downtowne Bookstore, said her shop attracts a substantial tourist as well as local trade: "We're kind of like this little secret people find." She added that the business is constantly experimenting with new ways to bring in customers.
Renaissance Bookshop's owner Gene Berkman "said the business has remained viable by offering specialized service in areas that include history, philosophy, economics, science fiction and foreign language," the Press-Enterprise wrote.
"You kind of have to move with the times," said Jessica Ackerson, manager of the Frugal Frigate children's bookstore.
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A pair of West Roxbury, Mass., indie bookstores "say their businesses are indeed sustainable. Although their reasons differ based on their store, the owners of Pazzo Books and Seek Books are connected in both believing that a knowledge of their respective markets is what will continue to drive them forward," the West Roxbury Patch reported.
"I actually think this is a time that independent booksellers could capitalize," said Seek owner Brad Kinne. "Unless you're a big chain in a big space, how can you possibly carry everything? And big chains do have selections of all that stuff, but obviously not enough to keep them in business.... I built the kind of store I would drive two hours to get to," Kinne said.
Tom Nealon owns used and rare bookshop Pazzo Books. Nealon's strategy in adapting to the Internet "has in fact been to use the Internet. Nealon estimates that he does 75% of his business online, with foot traffic being fairly low," the Patch noted.
"[The Internet]'s either going to put you under or you've got to use it like everyone else," Nealon said.
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Fans of "the enormous chess set from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone may want to contemplate their next move: Whether to buy a $250, scaled-down version of the game," Wired magazine noted in showcasing the Harry Potter Chess Collection, "which comes with a light-up board, two 'magic wands,' instruction manuals and a certificate of authenticity."
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Because "a good novel about the economic slowdown can take the pressure off of another grinding week at the office or on the job hunt," Flavorwire helpfully suggested 10 novels about lost wealth and the Great Recession.
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Effective July 1, Perseus Distribution will handle all sales and distribution in the U.S. and Canada for WS Publishing Group, formerly known as Wedding Solutions Publishing. WS Publishing, with headquarters in San Diego, Calif., focuses on wedding planning and wedding-related books as well as baby and pregnancy, children's, diet and fitness, home and finance and self-help titles.