BN.com has posted a variety of top ten lists for 2008 (fiction debuts; haunting historicals; stories on the edge; luminous lives in fiction; history; sumptuous books; our modern world; and life stories). Among their Number One selections: Child 44 by Tom Rob SmithPeople of the Book by Geraldine BrooksA Most Wanted Man by John Le CarreUnaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa LahiriThe Forever War by Dexter FilkinsThe Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane MayerMy Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte TaylorThe Hunger Games […]
Bookstores
Two Looks at Used Books
Because it was in the NYT, David Streitfeld’s weekend column about “feeling sheepish” about buying and selling used books online has gotten a fair amount of attention even though it’s purely personal. Working from impression rather than fact, he decides the liquid online market for personal buying and selling of books is suddenly to blame for the industry’s troubles though it has been brewing for years. “Don’t blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual suspects, including increased competition for the reader’s time or diminished attention spans. What’s undermining the book industry is not the absence of […]
Borders Buys Another Month
Borders announced yesterday that they have extended the deadline by one month on both the repayment of their $42.5 million senior secured term loan to Pershing Square, as well as the “put” to require Pershing to purchase their Paperchase subsidiary for $65 million. Both deadlines have been extended to February 16. In late November when reporting quarterly earnings Borders said they were “in discussions with Pershing Square regarding an alternative financing transaction.” The nearly worthless stock has still managed to decline another 20 percent in early trading today, though Barnes & Noble has suffered weak trading the past two days […]
Another Portland Store Faces Closing
Portland, Oregon’s Twenty-Third Avenue Books is the latest longstanding independent store to put out a call for help as they approach their twenty-ninth anniversary. In “a call for help this holiday season,” the store writes that “we’re wondering if that date [the January 1 anniversary] will be the final closing of our beloved shop.” They note: “We’ve all been affected by the current state of the economy, like so many of our fellow independent bookstores, and Twenty-Third Avenue Books is no different; we’re behind in our rent and facing eviction. With no funds to relocate, such a state of affairs […]
Bookstore Worker Held for Embezzlement
Forty-three-year old Anna Susan Kosak was charged with embezzling $348,975 from Quail Ridge Books & Music over the past seven years. The News Observer says she was the bookstore’s bookkeeper until September. General manager Sarah Goddin said they missing money “went undetected because it disappeared over a long period of time.” Co-owner Nancy Olsen says their sales are about $3.4 million a year. “We’re shocked,” Olsen said after the arrest. “We felt a professional closeness with her. We thought a lot of her.” She adds, We thought we were watching our every dollar. I guess we weren’t.” Olsen notes that […]
Harper Studio Finds a Taker for Nonreturnable Books: Borders
Borders will buy books from the Harper Studio imprint at a deeper discount of 58 percent to 63 percent off, on a nonreturnable basis. Borders evp of merchandising and marketing Rob Gruen repeats the company’s expressed position since George Jones took over: “The idea of taking inventory and then shipping it back isn’t a good idea for anybody. We’re open to all publishers to discuss alternatives to the traditional return model.” WSJ