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 […]
ScrollMotion Unveils Deals with Multiple Publishers for iPhone Books
We mentioned ScrollMotion’s interface for iPhone books a few weeks ago and now the company is unveiling some of their other arrangements with multiple publishers (ok, so they’re tech guys, not publicists). Random House gives their press release in advance to AP and as result the story only mentions that the company will release a dozen books on iPhone, including Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and Peter Matthiessen’s award-winning Shadow Country. Wired reports more broadly via a blog that ScrollMotion’s release will include such other books as Kindle bestseller Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, along with Scott […]
Canadian Bestsellers
BookNet Canada, which tracks point of sale data, his released their list of bestsellers for 2008 (through the week ending December 14th): Top 5 Overall A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle (Penguin Group, trade paperback) $15.50 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, trade paperback) $11.50 Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, hardcover) $23.99 Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, trade paperback) $21.99 New Moon, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, trade paperback) $11.50 Top 5 Trade Paperback Fiction, Adult The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity, William P. Young (Windblown Media) $15.99 The […]
The Lists Don't Stop: EW's Top 10s
Entertainment Weekly presents an entirely Bolano-free list of the best fiction and nonfiction of the year: Fiction1. SAY YOU’RE ONE OF THEM, Uwem Akpan2. THE BOOK OF DAHLIA, Elisa Albert3. OLIVE KITTERIDGE, Elizabeth Strout4. LUSH LIFE, Richard Price5. BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON, Dash Shaw6. THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, Margot Livesey7. DISQUIET, Julia Leigh8. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, David Wroblewski9. AMERICAN WIFE, Curtis Sittenfeld10. WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K., Irina Reyn Nonfiction1. BEAUTIFUL BOY, David Sheff2. NIXONLAND, Rick Perlstein3. THE FOREVER WAR, Dexter Filkins4. PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION, Mark Harris5. THE BIN LADENS, Steve Coll6. BOTTLEMANIA, Elizabeth Royte7. THE AGE […]
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 […]