I’m very lucky to live within walking distance of Harvard Bookstore, one of my favorite bookstores on earth. The fact that it’s an independent bookstore is just icing on the cake—the store is just wonderful, with a great staff, and in a decade I’ve never once succeeded in visiting without spending a half-hour [...]
It doesn’t happen often—a guest getting the last word on The Colbert Report? But it happened just earlier this week, when author Ann Patchett came on the show to explain why she helped open Parnassus Books in Nashville: because she was horrified that her town had NO bookstores.
I was lucky enough to hear Ann Patchett [...]
You’ve probably read about Amazon’s most recent promotion–they encouraged customers to use their price-check app in stores, scan an item, and then get an extra 5% discount for buying that item on Amazon instead. This promotion occasioned much ranting, including a piece by Richard Russo in the Times, and then a rant from an opposing [...]
New Yorkers know and love the St. Mark’s Bookshop, a stalwart on the Lower East Side. But lately, the bookstore has been struggling to pay the market rent asked by its landlord, Cooper Union. The NY Daily News reports:
The co-owners of the book shop, Terry McCoy and Bob Contant, are set to meet [...]
Yesterday we talked about why Borders’ demise doesn’t necessarily mean the end of books. Great, you may be saying. But where am I supposed to buy my books now?
Well, for new books, consider your local indie bookstore—you can find one near you on the IndieBound website. But there are also amazing used [...]
Borders may be a thing of the past, but does it mean there’s no market for books anymore? The MobyLives blog of Melville House does some pithy analysis:
Was this whole thing basically a fifteen-year-long advertisement for Amazon?
In a word, no. The story of Borders failure is, first and foremost, a real estate story. Simply, Borders [...]
isappointed by the lack of bookstores in her hometown of Nashville, writer Ann Patchett is taking matters into her own hands—and opening one. Reports the Christian Science Monitor:
As Patchett’s been recounting in interviews on her book tour, a frame shop where she has been a customer since high school asked her if they should [...]
It was an unbridled love fest.
And not only because I was there, Tuesday night in New York City, swooning a little to be in the presence of all those Europa-eans. Author Stacy Schiff described Europa’s Old Filth, by Jane Gardam, as “unforgivably perfect.” Two of the press’s translators, Alison Anderson and Ann Goldstein, [...]
One of my favorite bookstores, Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA, has a new sign up:
The sign is intended to remind patrons that buying books in indie bookstores—not just browsing there—is what keeps those stores alive. Explains the bookstore’s email newsletter:
The sign is in response to a growing trend at Harvard Book Store (and indeed [...]
Welcome to Thursday Morning Candy, where we highlight a sweet online journal or writely resource.
Attention, Chicago writers! Newcity Lit is a website devoted to the Windy City’s writing scene. Says the site:
We start with the core coverage found each week in Newcity magazine, Chicago’s only locally owned and operated cultural weekly, where [...]
