A bold thought but are we starting to see at least some withering of this biblio monster?Barnes & Noble reported their 3Q earnings (or should I say loss) today.The first flag is that they called these results preliminary. As you might know, they are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is never a good sign. They responded to the investigation by creating a special committee of its board to undertake an internal review of the company's option grant practices. The way I read it is that once they tell the truth one will see a very different...
It comes in 3’s- 3 Literary misfortunes
In the last couple weeks the literary world suffered 3 unfortunate, sometimes violent events.1. Three intruders broke into Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer's home in South Africa assaulted her, locked her in a storeroom and stole cash and jewelry.2. Vandals desecrated the grave of Nobel Prize winner Boris Pasternak, covering it in wreathes then setting it on fire.Lastly, and luckily not as severe unless of course you are the museum's archivist, the 3rd misfortune and hopefully the one that ends the bad literary juju.3. The owner of Alex Haley's original manuscript for "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" is suing a...
Eric Carle 70 Books and Counting
If you are a late baby boomer or a baby boomer with kids there is a good chance you have either read or been read a children's book illustrated by Eric Carle.For me it was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (1967, his first illustrated book) which was in heavy rotation when my daughter was about a year old.The Tacoma Art Museum is having an exhibit of his work through January 21, 2007If you are driving up to Seattle or down to Portland or beyond it might be worth a quick pit stop in Tacoma.Beside his stature as...
Bookseller Resisters League: Book Stalls Demolished – Booksellers Resist!
Due to the changing landscape in the book world many booksellers have closed up shop recently but this story tops them all. Over 100 bookstalls were demolished in one fell swoop in the Koti area of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. The government has built new stalls for the booksellers elsewhere and when the November 4 deadline to move came and went the demolition team showed up with many book stall owners still entrenched in their stalls"The Koti book stalls besides being a landmark are popular among the students for availability of all kinds of secondhand booksPolice resorted to lathi-charge...
New York Times Visits the Arion Press
Nice plug for Andrew Hoyem and his Arion Press in the Week Ahead section of today's Sunday New York Times. Michael Kimmelman paid the press a visit and in its San Francisco digs and ties it in nicely to the Arion booth at the International Print Fair in New York.There is still hopeNYT article hereArion Press here