Following close on the heels of their recent shady pronouncement that they will be carrying less inventory and altering their display strategy to display more books face-out Borders announced today that they are hiring two Wall Street heavyweights to "explore strategic alternatives, including a sale of all or part of the company". They have also accepted a cash helping from the hedge fund Pershing Capital Advisors (at 12% interest).PersonaNonData has a look at the numbers.The Millions has the face-out issued covered here and here and offers the soundest advice for finding that "strategic alternative." By acknowledging that books are a...
The Ghost Hunters Visit the Library
Jacques J. Benoit, the library custodian at the Clapp Memorial Library in Belchertown, Massachusetts , has being seeing some "strange, unexplained happenings at the library for the past nine years.""At first it was disturbing...It still makes me uneasy at times" says Benoit.What exactly did Benoit witness?-He said he has heard loud noises, like the sound of a bookshelf falling over and then checked and found no bookshelves fallen.-He has heard quiet noises, like the sound of someone flipping through the pages of a book or shuffling through a magazine, and found nobody there.-He had seen a woman walking up the...
Books and Bicycles
The Indianapolis 500 isn't the only prominent wheeled event in Indiana. The Lily Library at the University of Indiana is home to a stunning collection "of books, trade catalogs, periodical literature, photographs, sheet music, manuscripts and ephemera related to the early history of cycling"Their online exhibit features an introduction to the history of cycling with a sampling of their holdings in various cycling categories.The exhibit highlights 5 areas:Early BicyclesBicycle TouringCycling in FictionWomen AwheelCycling MusicWheel away!
The Book Social Networking Race : Shelfari, Goodreads and LibraryThing Accelerate
As expected, the first quarter of '08 has seen a whirlwind of activity from the Big 3 of the Book Social Network world. All have added new employees and all have added a host of new functionality to their websites. Here is a recap of some of the goings on:LibraryThing:-started the year off with the unveiling of Thomas Jefferson's library. They have since added nine others, ranging from Marie Antoinette to Tupac Shakur, and have a dozen or so heavyweights in the process of being added.-launched a neighborhood bookstore program which integrates the inventory of participating local bookstores with the...
How To Open a Book
Click image to enlargeFound this little gem in a book recently. The text originally appeared in Modern Bookbinding Practically Considered : A Lecture Read Before the Grolier Club of New York, March 25, 1885 with Additions and New Illustrations by William Matthews and was published by the Grolier Club in a limited edition of 300 copies in 1889. There is no printing or publishing history present on the Notice.The New York Times actually published the excerpt above in the Saturday Review of Books and Art section on December 23, 1899!