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...
Autistic Woman Assembles an Amazing Library
This is truly a remarkable story.Her name is Amanda Baggs and her blog is Ballastexistenz. She describes herself as "a non-speaking physically disabled and autistic woman who’s lived in institutions, whose income comes from a disability check, and whose services are funded by the state."She is also a book collector. From a recent post on her blog comes this:"One of my hobbies is collecting books by autistic people. At this point, I don’t even always read them, but I love to obtain them, put them on the shelf, and keep them in order."Those words can only originate from a book...
Another Bookshop Eulogy
David Streitfeld of the L.A. Times jumps on the 'end of the world for bookshops' train with his story Bookshop's Latest Sad Plot TwistIt is; however, one of the better ones to emerge from this recent painful trend. Streitfeld is one of the first to be able to cover the plight of the new and non-new bookstores seamlessly. Like the book trade, the media has always tended to treat these two aspects of bookselling as separate animals instead of what they are and that is two branches from the same tree.Some lowlights from the eulogy:-Technology changes behavior, which reshapes the...
Powell’s To Buy Books Online
Powell's, the poster child for independent book stores, has just quietly unveiled a new program where you can now sell them your books online. The story was covered in Publishers Marketplace (a fee site) and appeared in the daily email from Shelf-AwarenessHere is how it works:-You submit the ISBN numbers for the books you want to sell-The books that must be in good condition, meaning that there is no underlining or highlighting-Hardcovers have the original dust jacket,-No pages are torn, etc.The site checks the ISBNs and will then either decline the book or make an offer. If the seller agrees...
The Next Generation Book Collector: Four Bay Area Booksellers Weigh In
While so much energy is focused on the present or future state of bookselling little goes toward the much more vital issue of who is going to buy our books.The non-new book community calls this species book collectors while the new book community calls them readers. Though this post focuses on the antiquarian slant it is not a far reach to substitute 'reader' for 'collector'. This is a pressing issue for anyone who sells any type of book.Bruce McKinney of Americana Exchange took a film crew and headed to the Bay Area to talk with four preeminent booksellers. The topic:...