Hey, you!  Yeah, you, the one with the addiction to cute cards.  You know you have a problem.  You buy boxes of cards, but then only use half of them.  You hoard cards because they’re cute with the excuse, “well, I’ll want to use it for so-and-so’s birthday next year.”  But then you forget that you bought it because you have so many cards socked away.  You’ve made public promises not to buy any more stationery until you use what you already have, but that doesn’t stop you, oh no.  It just means you sneak the new stationery home in the bottom of your bag.

We understand, and we’re here to help.

We’re probably part of the problem.  Normally, we’re pushers of letterpress, and cute cards, and cards with rude stick figure characters, and some that bloom into wildflowers when planted. Cards with the skyline of Manhattan, with ice cream sandwiches, with fangs, with owls, with curse words, with WTF and OMG on the front.  How can you resist?  You can’t, unfortunately (for you).

But not this Sunday.  This Sunday, we want to make your life easier with our first ever STATIONERY SWAP!

It’s easy.  Bring the stationery that you’ve fallen out of love with, the half-used boxes, the cards that you can’t remember why you bought them anymore. Come down to our basement between noon and 3pm.  Leave your castaways and look through those of fellow addicts.  A simple way to rejuvenate your collection without spending a dime!

If you want to drop off unwanted cards for the swap but can’t make it on Sunday, feel free to drop them by the store anytime we’re open this week.  Otherwise, see you Sunday!

Over the weekend, you may have heard something about a controversy over recent changes to Amazon’s ranking system that are primarily affecting books with sexual content, and especially books with GLBT content, by removing their rankings and thus impacting their visibility on the site.  More information is easy to find, as the internet has basically exploded about the whole thing.

Though it’s not clear yet what’s happened, here at WORD, we wanted to take this opportunity to assure our customers that the problem of books with “adult content” not being ranked is not endemic across the book industry. In the interests of transparency, our bestseller list is calculated as follows:

1. On first day of new month, run sales report for previous month.

2. Type top ten bestselling titles on a list.

3. Print out list on yellow paper.

(Possible glitch: the manager forgets how to count.  If this happens, we’ll be the first people to let you know.)

As you can see, it is a simple process and any book can be a part. We invite customers to test this assertion by buying dozens of copies of whichever adult title they like best to drive it to the top of our bestseller list.  No one would be more amused than we by an April bestseller list composed of gay erotica and perennial bestseller Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

This should clarify our position nicely, but if you have any other questions, you are welcome to email us at [email protected], call at 718 383 0096 (no extension, no phone tree, and definitely no hold music), or for direct human contact, visit us in person at 126 Franklin Street.

There are a lot of things that are fun about working in a bookstore, and one is the following scenario.

An adult walks into the store.  He or she walks trepidaciously towards the children’s section.  Looks around.  Hesitates.  Looks a little more.  Walks up to the counter.  Looks sheepish.  Dollars to donuts the first word out of his or her mouth is HELP!

And why not? Children’s books are tricky enough to keep on top of even when you love them and sell them all day.  So we’re starting a new feature online and in the store.

HELP! I’m looking for…

WORD’s suggestions for frequently asked questions.

There are certain types of books that people are asking about over and over.  So, sort of like our staff picks program, we’ll answer those questions with the books we would hand you if you came up to the desk and asked.  Many questions have more than one answer, so we might post multiple answers over time.  But for now, this is what we’re starting with:

HELP! I’m looking for a gift for a baby shower!

Sounds like you need one or multiple board books by Sandra Boynton.  They’re the exact right amount of silly and will withstand the worst of teething.  And they’re very easy to wrap (although, of course, when you buy them here, we wrap them free of charge).

HELP! I’m looking for a birthday present for a kindergartener!

What you’re looking for is a great read-aloud.  The parents will be busy buying super-educational presents, so let’s give the kid a break and give them something just for fun.  Right now we’re pretty into Meg Rosoff and Sophie Blackall’s Meet Wild Boars, a book about some atrociously-behaved wild boars who, should you ever meet in person, you should basically run away from.

HELP! I’m looking for a book for an 11-year-old who loves to read!

Man, the list could be a mile long!  But we’re going to recommend The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.  It’s got enough little jokes that you have to read it multiple times to find all of them—and luckily enough, the book only improves with age. 

HELP!  I’m looking for something for a teenager that isn’t Twilight!

We applaud you! Try out Pure, by Terra Elan McVoy.  We’re not just recommending it because she’s coming for an event soon, either.  It’s a fantastic book about friends, figuring out what you believe in, and the many pressures teenage girls face.

What can we help YOU with?

Check out the post here.

Follow us!  We’re at https://twitter.com/wordbrooklyn

We’ll be tweeting event reminders, as well as about books we love, especially when they show up at the store.  An easy way to keep up-to-date with Greenpoint’s independent bookstore!

“Few places are as undeniably valuable in the artistic life of a community than great independent bookshops. For an individual, they can provide a refuge; for a community, they provide a meeting place for like-minded people; and for the wider population, they provide an alternative source of information to the mass market chain bookstores. . . . The chain stores and the Internet are winning the price war, but still, the spirit of resistance fights on. It is a fight in which our future literary culture may rest. The removal of these shops would damage the opportunities for upcoming writers and make our cities a little more lifeless.”–Alan Perkins in Seven Magazine, writing about City Lights Books, San Francisco, Calif., and Shakespeare & Company, Paris, France

Author Roy Blount Jr. published a great holiday message on the Author’s Guild website. You can check it out here, but it’s so good we just went ahead and copied it in full in case your clicking finger is feeling lazy today.

Holiday Message from Roy Blount Jr.:
Buy Books From Your Local Bookstore, Now

December 11, 2008. I’ve been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren’t known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don’t lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn’t in the cards.

We don’t want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let’s mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that’s just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they’re easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children’s books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they’ll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: “Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see…we’re the Authors Guild.”

Enjoy the holidays.

Roy Blount Jr.
President, Authors Guild

Addendum: Forward and Post!

December 11, 2008. The Guild’s staff informs me that many of you are writing to ask whether you can forward and post my holiday message encouraging orgiastic book-buying. Yes! Forward! Yes! Post! Sound the clarion call to every corner of the Internet: Hang in there, bookstores! We’re coming! And we’re coming to buy! To buy what? To buy books! Gimme a B! B! Gimme an O! O! Gimme another O! Another O! Gimme a K! K! Gimme an S! F! No, not an F, an S. We’re spelling BOOKS!

Yours,

Roy

We thought this photo of famed librarian Nancy Pearl was too cute not to share. Maybe next year at WORD, Nancy?

According to the New York Press, at least.

And we agree.

Thanks to all that braved the UNBELIEVABLE heat to spend time hobknobbing with book folk at the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 14th. It was the best turnout yet, according to organizer and Akashic publisher Johnny Temple, and the crowds definitely proved it. Our booth was packed from open to close and we met lots of nice people and hopefully turned them on to WORD. We had three authors read and sign at our booth, and overall thought the day was a great success. Check out more pics on our flickr page, but here’s one of our booth:

We know many of our lovely customers like this one have hoped for an expanded art section and we are currently working on doing just that. So keep your eye out for some new, reasonably-priced art books to adorn the WORD shelves in the very near future.

TWELVE NIGHTS
A journey through Italian cinema

(All projections start at 7.30 pm. Free entry)

09.29.08 Deep Red (Profondo rosso, 1975) Directed by Dario Argento

10.27.08 Toto who Lived Twice (Toto che visse due volte, 1998) Directed by Daniele Cipri & Franco Maresco

11.24.08 Rabid Dogs (Cani arrabbiati, 1974) Directed by Mario Bava

12.29.08 Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia, 1971) Directed by Luchino Visconti

01.26.09 Three short films:
Toby Dammit (Toby Dammit, 1968) Directed by Federico Fellini.
The Drop of Water (La goccia d’acqua, 1963) Directed by Mario Bava. La Ricotta (s/t, 1963) Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

02.23.09 The Consequences of Love (Le conseguenze dell’amore, 2005) Directed by Paolo Sorrentino

03.30.09 Almost Human (Milano odia: la polizia non puo’ sparare, 1974) Directed by Umberto Lenzi

04.27.09 Girl with a suitcase (La ragazza con la valigia, 1961) Directed by Valerio Zurlini

05.25.09 Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all’italiana, 1961) Directed by Pietro Germi

06.29.09 Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom (Salo o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, 1975) Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Check out the great poster that we’ve proudly displayed on the Milton side of the store. We love the message of supporting local independents. Help spread the word!

Thanks to Kat at Neighborbee Blog for this great post!

We will now be open 12pm - 8pm on Sundays. That gives you two more hours of shopping. Woohoo!

Thanks to Brooklyn Based (a must-read email for all Brooklynites, I think) for doing a “What We’re Reading” update from Brooklyn independent bookstores. WORD got top billing, check it out!

We had a great listing in the L Magazine for our first monthly game night which happened last night.

Check it out here.

And from the turnout, obviously other Greenpointers like games too. Here are some pics from our packed Scrabble night. Each third Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm we will have some fun game thing going on, as always with free booze. We’re thinking Taboo for next month, what do you all think?

I just finished the new novel by Greenpoints’ own Kate Christensen called The Great Man. I realized half-way through that I was pretty wrapped up in it when I actually thought a customer in the store could have been Teddy, a character in the book. The book takes place in Greenpoint and the writing is so good, it’s hard not to picture these characters roaming the streets around WORD. I definitely recommend reading this one, especially if you’re a Greenpointer.

Yesterday I read an article about another Greenpoint writer, Anna Godberson, whose young adult book The Luxe is getting great reviews. I was happy to recognize her name as a customer here at WORD. I just ordered her book in and will check it out soon.

Watch your back Park Slope! Greenpoint’s writers are ready for a fight.

Whew. What a great holiday season. You needed gifts? We sold them. You wanted boozy hot chocolate? We served it. You supported us in our first holiday season here at WORD and we thank you for it. We’re trying to get back into the swing of things, after several days sitting on the couch playing Guitar Hero. But we couldn’t let the holidays wither away without sharing our holiday card with you, it was sent to all our nearest and dearest and proclaimed the two things we were most thankful for in 2007: WORD and Wii. Enjoy!

Remember a few days ago when I posted about the National Book Critics Circle blog, and the WOMAN (yes, she’s a woman, as am I, and there’s no reason I can’t call her that, it’s not sexist, just a fact) who called my store not independent because I carried books published by big publishers?

Well, our war of words has continued, and I just can’t stop myself from reading her posts and getting involved. Now another blogger has witnessed our war and taken my side. I will repost it here for effect:

“This post about the NBCC’s Best Recommended list debuting at bookstores is interesting, but the comments on the post really caught my attention. I’m sure to call down the wrath of the internet for even commenting on it, but I have to defend the independents from the first commenter Fran. I get that you’re upset to not have been published, but if this is how you talk to the local indies in your neighborhood, no wonder they won’t carry your book! I’d love to see her open her idea of an “independent” bookstore and see how long it lasts. Besides, is it really a crime to carry the books of Michael Chabon and Denis Johnson? Isn’t that throwing out the baby with the bath to suggest that all books from larger publishers are inherently bad? Maybe your books aren’t picked up because they’re no good! And I’ve got another statement that’s going to piss folks off: Far too many people think that they’re great writers these days. Anyone who’s stubbed their toe thinks they should write a memoir about it. It’s fine to write, go for it, but everyone shouldn’t expect to get published. There’s just no way. Rant over.”

Thanks Book Dwarf! I don’t know you but I can tell you are sane and reasonable, and not a literary asshole in the least bit.

Oh, and to make this story even better (if it can possibly get better) an adorable couple I met playing Bingo at Black Rabbit this past Sunday night have also become obsessed with my nemesis and have added their own comments the fray.

Here they are sharing a copy of George Saunder’s Braindead Megaphone in between Bingo games:

It’s all too good. And boy, it’s wasting WAY too much of my time.

As you know, I owned a small, half-used, half-new bookstore in Northport, Long Island for six years prior to moving to Brooklyn. Some of my best and most loyal customers still order from me on a regular basis, emailing or calling when they need something shipped to them.

One customer has used me as her personal shopper for the last several years, providing me with a list of her nieces and nephews, their ages and interests, and I come up with gift ideas for all of them. She would usually pick up the boatload of books on Christmas Eve when she traveled home to be with her family, but she moved to London this year so she won’t be home for Christmas. However, she still emailed me her ever-growing list and I have been wrapping and shipping books to her various family members all weekend. This is the kind of loyalty that really touches me, and makes me feel like all my hard work does often pay off.

PS: Sure, I’ll be your personal shopper too, just ask. That’s what I’m here for.

We liked this piece in NY Magazine, we thought you might like it too.

We’re so excited for our event with author Bob Eckstein on Tuesday, December 18th, even though we’re still not exactly sure of the tastiest recipe for spiked hot chocolate (any suggestions? I’ve heard Peppermint Schnapps is the way to go, but I’m not convinced).

Check out Bob’s website for some fun snowman updates to get you psyched for the event. I love yesterday’s post about the snowman amusement park in Norway.