Since the 1950s, when then senator John F. Kennedy published “Profiles in Courage” which won the Pulitzer Prize and helped him become president politicians have been writing their way to electoral victory or defeat.With all the negative energy surrounding the printed format of the book it is pretty astonishing that this campaign season the book is a candidate must have. Julia Bosman covers this phenomenon in her article in the New York Times "Time to Throw Their Books in the Ring"Peter Osnos of PublicAffairs talks about the three types of "candidate books":- the “introduction” book, in which candidates without much...
Of Mice and Money: John Steinbeck at Auction
In the middle of what seems like an endless stream of the "book is dead" articles it is nice to know that books still sell!From the London Times online article "Could This Be the Final Chapter in the Life of the Book" to last Sunday's "The End of the Book?" story at the Orange County Register one would think that the book is on life support. Should I start looking for a copy of the last book ever printed?Then here comes the John Steinbeck auction. It was the most signed and inscribed books by Steinbeck ever offered at auction.The auction...
The Kenyan Literary Express
It was almost 3 years since Maude Newton first blogged about the Camel Library Service that serves the semi-nomadic people of Northeastern Kenya. Author Masha Hamilton went for a visit in early 2006 to get some first hand experience for the novel on the Camel Library Service she was working on. The book is due out in the spring.From Hamilton's Story Behind the Book:The actual Camel Bookmobile made its first run almost a decade ago. Three dromedaries trudged through arid northeastern Kenya near the unstable border with Somalia to bring a library to settlements so remote they had become nearly...
The Harlequin Romance and Nascar: A Marriage Made in the Boardroom
The New York Times ran a story today on the new partnership between Harlequin the publisher of Romance novels and Nascar, the stock-car racing association. The deal calls for a 16 book series with ‘Nascar settings’ with the first and last books to include a cameo by a real life Nascar driver. The vice-president of licensing for Nascar says of the new partnership “It’s probably more of a brand-building and P.R. bonanza for us." He also sees a potential TV series in this.“Booksellers and other publishers are following the Nascar-Harlequin hookup with interest.” (I think we can substitute big-box retailer...
The Reader as Window Dressing
I am all for mixing it up a bit to try and stay competitive and to keep things fresh but this story has me feeling a little uneasy.Through Saturday, if you're in Hamilton, Montana and walk past the Chapter One Bookstore you will see someone sitting in the window reading. The store is encouraging their customers to do a two hour stint sitting in the front window.There is enough pressure on the "reader" and the bookstore these days that I worry that by displaying a reader in the front window we are perpetuating and reinforcing the 'reader and bookstore as...