This email recently arrived from the Seattle Stolen Book Network:*********************Subject: ThieveHey everyone,Just busted this guy shoving books down the back of his pants. I don't have apicture but he has long brown hair, skinny white guy. early 30's. He has some skin condition so he has red spots. He looks at metaphysical and alt. health. 86 on sight-Thanks*******************I don't know where to start with this one.For you booksellers out there, past and present, what's your have favorite book "thieve" story?
Mixing the New with Old : 21 New(er) Books We Like
Display table at Wessel & Lieberman that holds many of the 21 New(er) Books We LikeFor those who follow Book Patrol you've heard this song before. For a bookshop to survive in today's rapidly changing landscape one must take a more integrated, holistic approach to bookselling. The days of being able to survive selling just new books, or to a lesser extent used books, are just about up. The current seismic tremors in the publishing world coupled with the new and emerging modes of content delivery just might be the straw that breaks the traditional bookstore's back.Here in Seattle, in...
A Test and a Survey
Brad Johnson of The Book Shop in Covina, CA has circulated this little test within the gates of Facebook. It was created in the late 1960's and is attributed to Charles B. Anderson of Anderson’s Book Shop in Larchmont, New York. The test is both humbling and encouraging and reminds me that one of the reasons I love bookselling is that the learning curve is always vertical.How Good a Bookman Are You?This is a test designed to determine your bookman’s I.Q. A score of 20 right should entitle you to consideration as the editor of the next edition of “The...
Booksellers Talking
Are you wondering what's happening on the frontlines and how technology, chains and the slumping economy are taking their toll on the bookselling community?Three podcasts of note hit the airwaves in the last few weeks giving us a inside look on the current state of the trade.Nigel Beale, host of the radio show The Biblio File, recently passed through the Twin Cities and interviewed booksellers Rob Rulon-Miller and Kathy Stransky co-owner of Midway Used and Rare BooksBeale's interviews are worth a listen. At around 20 minutes each they are long enough to give one a real sense of the challenges...
Image of the Day : Funeral for the Book
This image accompanies bookseller John Schulman's article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Next Page: The Book Is Dead? Its Sellers Are Dying?I couldn't quite make out who the artist is, but will post the credit once I find out.The article itself is worth reading as well. Schulman urges us "to remember what bookstores can provide that the Internet cannot,"and uses numerous cinematic examples to remind us of all that can happen at the bookshop.He also believes:that as the years go by there will be "Internet backlash," most readers will return to the shops. It will be like "Night of the...