How to use this Page

As you may know, I spent a brief but producctive stint working for BookStream, an independent book wholesaler for the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. It's a company staffed by smart, passionate, book-savvy folks, and dedicated to raising the level of discourse and profitability across the book industry.

To that end, BookStream geniuses Carolyn and Ken have once again cooked up a fabulous TitleWave event: author readings, staff picks, lunch, and free galleys! They've got some fabulous authors lined up for the August 4 event in Princeton, NJ. It's almost a mini-trade show or Winter Institute, and a chance for booksellers to get a look at the books coming out in the next season and learn how to sell them better. I've included Carolyn's press release below with all the details. I'm encouraging all of my colleagues to go, to support BookStream's efforts, and to take advantage of this chance for professional development. And there's no arguing with a free lunch!

BookStream's second TitleWave Event to be held on August 4

Following on the heels of the success of its first TitleWave on February 27, 2008, BookStream has announced a second TitleWave to be held on August 4, 2008, from 10:00am – 4:00pm at the Nassau Inn, in Princeton, NJ.

The purpose of the event is to familiarize booksellers with up-and-coming authors and titles using both author appearances and a presentation of picks-of-the-lists selected and presented by BookStream staff. The event is free and open to all employees of independent bookstores so that they may be part of an information exchange that will lead to more successful hand selling and knowledge of new titles.

Featured authors will be David Ebershoff (The 19th Wife, Random House), Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz (The Miracles of Prato, William Morrow) and Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (Baked, Stewart, Tabori & Chang). After each author’s appearance, booksellers will have a chance to meet them and receive signed copies of their books (and in the case of the Baked authors, samples of their delicious deserts!).

The rest of the day will include lunch, presentations, and a forum for booksellers to have peer-to-peer interaction, including a discussion of favorite titles and ideas that have succeeded in their stores. With this in mind, BookStream asks that booksellers arrive prepared to share at least one title that they’ve enjoyed reading recently.

The Nassau Inn, centrally located in Princeton, NJ, can be accessed easily by train or car. For directions, information on carpooling, and to RSVP for this free event, please contact Carolyn Bennett at [email protected] or (866) 416-1112 x209.



* * *

And for your Monday afternoon cute/weird/clever dosage, check out the new blog Corpus Libris. That's my fellow Emerging Leaders Council member Emily Pullen with the fist in the inaugural post, demonstrating once again that Skylight Books is one of the coolest places in L.A. I may have to bust out the digital camera at work and send some photos to them myself. Have fun!

It's been brought to my attention recently that I've been remiss in updating the ol' blogroll with some of the blogs I actually regularly read, and some of the bookstore blogs that I'm just discovering. So I have gotten at last off my tush and added some of my favorites-- read 'em (at right) and weep.

Book Soup has the best (obscene but true) tagline.

Word has the best Brooklyn stuff, natch.

Bookavore is a fellow Emerging Leaders type, a true book nerd -- her description of how she became a bookseller made me want to be her new best friend.

Wordsmiths has the best ongoing narrative (home town store makes good, moves into the bank building, graphic novels go in the vault!) -- and awesome event photos; they're my newest model for how I want to run my bookstore blog.

there is no gap is the thoughtful stuff you'd expect from Shaman Drum's Karl Pohrt.

Archimedes Forgets is the off-hours (but still awfully booky) project of the ABA's lovely Sarah Rettger.

The Inside Flap is a brilliantly done multi-author blog from the bookstore crown jewel of Wisconsin.

Bookninja is an always prescient Canadian litblog (and the source of half my links these days), run by a poet acquaintance of mine who used to live in New York.

There's more, of course -- explore, explore!

* * *

Today is also my last day as a BookStream employee. I'll be working for the company a bit on a freelance basis, but today I'm wrapping up loose ends and saying goodbyes. It's a bit melancholy, but I've already got new irons in the fire -- meeting to get to, phone calls to make -- in the pursuit of the Brooklyn Bookstore.

What I'm hoping for in between is a little of this. While I can't remember the last time I spent three hours in the tub, like the author of this Guardian piece, I agree 100% with the following proposition:

"Baths are one of the few pleasures body and self can appreciate simultaneously. This is entirely because reading in the bath is the height of civilisation."

It's a bit of a cold wet day in Brooklyn -- after I wrap up the work day, I'm looking forward to a little height of civilization. Since I'm a wimpy Californian, sometimes in the winter the bath is the first time I feel really comfortable all day, and it's all the better with something to read. Jessa Crispin of Bookslut also famously reads in the tub (in Chicago I don't blame her), and I suspect it's a widespread practice among bookish types (it's also as cheap as luxury gets).

My bathtime reads tend toward the New Yorker, or a collection of essays (I'm currently reading Michael Chabon's forthcoming Maps and Legends) -- I find a bit of wit, a turn of phrase, the path of an idea (though not too heavy), is just the thing for winding down in a hot tub. (And I agree with some of the commenters: a glass of red wine "perched death-defyingly on the rim of the sink" can sometimes improve the experience.)

What do you like to read in the bath, if you do indulge? If not, what's your height of reading relaxation/civilization?

New year, time to update the ol' Blogger template, eh?

In his December 26 post, fellow bookseller/blogger P.J. Grath muses "Is there a bookseller alive who can resist books recounting the experiences of other booksellers?" It seems the same is true of blogs. I've realized that my Google reader is increasingly populated with blogs by booksellers, and that they tend to be some of my preferred reading. In spite of many great blogs focused on a specifc genre, on developments in the book world, on the reading of a particular person or group of people, I find that more and more I want to read about fellow booksellers in the trenches. Those blogs tend to include reviews and news, but also stuff about the daily retail life. I'm feeling irresistibly warm and fuzzy thinking about this little community of us.

So I've added a whole new category to my links on the right: Bookseller Blogs. These are just the few that I tend to read on a regular basis. Kash's Book Corner out of Boulder is rightfully famous (his December 8 post particularly cracked me up, and made me realize we weren't alone in our pre-holiday paranoia). Grath's Books in Northport is rapidly becoming one of my very favorites, especially the pictures of her cozy shop, Dog Ears Books, in all that Michigan snow. Bookdwarf is an old fave, of course, and I love it when Megan writes about doings at Harvard Bookstore. Constellation Books in Baltimore I'm proud to have inspired to start blogging (and Lauretta and the rest of the staff are doing an awesome job!), and Lori of Brookline Blogsmith became a bookseller friend at the last NEIBA. Atomic Books are my pop-culture idols, of course.

And there are tons more out there. I found the Inkwell Bookstore Blog just by searching for other Blogger profiles that listed "bookseller" as their occupation. There are 519. I tore myself away from reading the whole list (I do have work this morning), but I can't wait to explore them.

And I'd just be willing to bet that you Written Nerd readers have your own favorite bookseller blogs. Care to share, so I can add them to my blogroll too?

PW has an an article on Borders today that discusses how the company is trying to save itself from oblivion. As a low-ranking, part-time/full-time (depends on the week) bookseller at the other major chain, I feel more than qualified to lend my BBA-educated two cents.

But all joking aside, I do have a major pet peeve with Borders that generally sends me to B&N or Bookpeople when I need to buy a book: I can never find a freaking human to help me. There is always someone in the cafe and someone else behind the register, but as far as I can tell, there's never anyone else working the store. I actually assume that they must be there somewhere, but Borders employees must be masters of camouflage and handily avoid my searching. This is very ironic because I don't normally like asking employees for help. One thing I like about Borders is that they have computers I, as a customer, can use to see if things are in the store. The problem occurs when the computer says something is there, but I can't find it on the shelf. Now, this happens all the time at B&N, but since I work there, I have sneaky suspicion of where the book might be, and I can then go walk around past all the suspects. Is it in the front window? In backstock? On a cart in receiving, etc. The list goes on. When I'm in a Borders I need a similarly privileged person to do the same thing. And I can never find one. And then Borders loses my sale. This can't only be happening to me.