Amazon, which is hiring hundreds of new full-time staff at fulfillment centers in Carlisle and Lewisberry, Pa., used its press release yesterday about the hirings to drive home the point that states that don't seek to have it collect sales tax will be rewarded.
"We have thousands of employees working hard in our Pennsylvania facilities every day, and we're delighted to be adding hundreds of new jobs in the state," said Dave Clark, v-p, Amazon North American operations. "The support we've received from Governor Corbett and other state officials has enabled our continued investment in the state."
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Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam created a stir earlier this week when he said he would prefer to have questions about Amazon’s tax status resolved by year's end, "preferably with the online retailer collecting sales taxes" from the state's consumers, the Tennessean reported. Thus far his administration has backed the assurances former Governor Phil Bredesen gave Amazon that its planned distribution centers would not trigger sales tax collection.
"We'd like to work out some arrangement that works for them to stay and grow in Tennessee and yet for us to collect the sales tax that we need," said Haslam.
WTVC-9 reported that Haslam's statement generated "concern and confusion." Bradley County Mayor Gary Davis said the comment was a surprise and worried him: "They've started building and spending millions of dollars in Hamilton and Bradley counties, and yet our state officials continue to talk about whether they should be taxed or not."
A spokesperson for Haslam's office explained: "In that quote he's referencing the ongoing comprehensive discussions about an expanded Amazon presence beyond the original agreement."
Representative Gerald McCormick met with the governor Wednesday. "His stance has really not changed from the beginning and neither has mine, we would both like to see at some point, all Internet re-salers collect state sales tax," he said.
McCormick also told the Tennessean he expects Amazon to reach an agreement in the near future: "They’re not in the business of legislative battles and legal battles. They’re in the business of selling things..... I think we stick to the deal that we made; we don’t break the deal. But I don’t think we’ll have to. I think they’re a good corporate citizen and want to come to a conclusion on this so that it’s no longer a distraction to them or the legislature or the governor."
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Books-A-Million has tentatively scheduled the opening of its new store at the Spotsylvania Towne Centre in Fredericksburg, Va., for August 18, MarketWatch reported. The location was formerly occupied by Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
"We've always recognized that the community we serve at Towne Centre demands a first-class bookstore," said Joe Bell, director of corporate communications, Cafaro Company, which owns the mall. Books-A-Million brings that level of quality and experience. It's a perfect fit. We're so happy to have this great bookseller join our wonderful lineup of merchants."
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E-book versions outsold print editions for four of the top 10 titles on USA Today's bestseller list this week. The digital winners were Now You See Her (#6), Catching Fire (#7), Cold Vengeance (# 8) and Mockingjay (#9).
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The butler did it. A new study by Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt of the University of California, San Diego, indicates that spoilers can increase our enjoyment of literature. "Although we've long assumed that the suspense makes the story--we keep on reading because we don't know what happens next--this new research suggests that the tension actually detracts from our enjoyment," noted Wired's Jonah Lehrer, who offered three "random thoughts" on the findings:
- In this age of information, we've become mildly obsessed with avoiding spoilers, staying away from social media lest we learn about the series finale of Lost or the surprising twist in the latest blockbuster. But this is a new habit.
- Just because we know the end doesn't mean there aren't surprises.
- Surprises are much more fun to plan than experience.
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Flavorwire got into the spoiler spirit by showcasing "10 classic books we read despite knowing how they end."
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NPR unveiled the results of its Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey, in which "more than 5,000 of you nominated. More than 60,000 of you voted.... Our panel of experts reviewed hundreds of the most popular nominations and tossed out those that didn't fit the survey's criteria (after--we assure you--much passionate, thoughtful, gleefully nerdy discussion). You'll notice there are no young adult or horror books on this list, but sit tight, dear reader, we're saving those genres for summers yet to come."
NPR also featured "a printable version, to take with you to the bookstore."
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USA Today featured a list of the 50 funniest American writers, according to Andy Borowitz, who said, "Anytime you do a best-of list, people get mad, except for the people on the list. Lists are lightning rods. That's the fun of it. And the most personal thing of all is deciding what's funny.... Someone else could do it and come up with another list: Mark Twain and 49 others. You've got to include Twain, no one stands up better over time."
Borowitz is the editor of The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to the Onion, which will be published by the Library of America October 13.
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Slate asked several authors, critics and editors to confess their least favorite "must read" book. Francine Prose selected Beowulf, confessing that she "preferred seeing How to Train Your Dragon with my granddaughter; at least it was in 3-D, and the monsters come flying at you out of the screen."
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"We all know that you can't judge a book by its cover, but you can surely judge people by the covers of their books," Brian Viner wrote in a Telegraph piece chronicling his disappointing holiday in Turkey, "where around the hotel swimming-pool my wife and I were able to make only a limited series of snap judgments about our fellow Brits, owing to the number of electronic books being read behind maddeningly unrevealing black cases. It simply hadn't occurred to me, until we arrived at the pool on our first morning, that I was about to lose my inalienable right as a paperback snob to see what is causing the fellow on the next sunbed to chuckle. And of course it's only going to get worse, as more and more people take their holiday reading in digital form."
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Bookcase of the day: Decorative industrial pipe shelving from DirtyBils Interiors "can be successfully used to flawlessly extend the influence of industrial design into your own home," according to Freshome.
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Book trailer of the day: Bohemian Girl by Terese Svoboda (Bison Books), which appears September 1.
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Nicole De Jackmo has joined Quirk Books as publicity manager. She was most recently a senior publicist at Running Press and earlier was a publicist at Simon & Schuster.
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At Lonely Planet:
- Gary Todoroff has been promoted to v-p, sales. He previously was trade sales director, Americas, and has been at the company eight years.
- Brice Gosnell has been promoted to v-p, publishing, and publisher, Americas, from publisher, Americas. Gosnell has headed the Americas publishing team for six years.
- Marc Visnick has been promoted to director of sales, North America. Previously he was national account manager, U.S. and Canada. He has worked for the company for 10 years.
- Avi Martin has been promoted to national accounts manager, online and e-books. She was formerly account manager, Amazon/bibliographic data manager and has worked at Lonely Planet for five years.