Celeste pointed me to this great blog, Writers Read, where writers — among them emerging/debut authors Darrin Doyle, Kyle Minor, Greg Sanders, Kristina Riggle, Brendan Short, and Nathaniel Rich; and established authors Antonya Nelson, Porter Shreve, Darin Strauss, Rachel Kadish, and Jane Smiley — share what they’re reading. It’s interesting to see who reads mostly within genre and who branches out…
This is courtesy of The Millions, who gave us the first incarnation of this tour in 2007. This updated, expanded map and itinerary is also a eulogy for the bookshops we’ve lost and those that won’t be with us for much longer… And, as of today, you can edit and update the map to include the independent bookstores and bookish places you love anywhere in the world. Follow these instructions to help create The Millions’ Collaborative Atlas of Bookstores and Literary Places. Who will add Shaman Drum to the Atlas? Do so, let me know you did, and I’ll order […]
An Open Letter from Julie Ellison The following message was originally posted here and has been making the rounds as an email. Please refer other book lovers and writers, especially those in the Ann Arbor area, to this announcement and the letter it links to. Dear Friends and Colleagues, I am writing to let you know about a collective effort to save Shaman Drum Bookshop, now incorporated as the Great Lakes Literary Arts Center (GLLAC). The statement (click here to download the PDF) explains the reasoning behind a new coalition to preserve Shaman Drum. Those of us involved in this […]
In the late 1990s, I ran a small, independent bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin, called Canterbury Booksellers. I knew I wanted to be a writer at the time, but I had no idea how to go about the process. Working at the store gave me not only shelter as a writer-in-progress, but also afforded me the opportunity to meet other writers, learn about the publishing industry, and to spend my days surrounded by people who loved nothing more than discussing writing and books. It was, in short, idyllic. But this was also during the era when chain stores were proliferating and […]
FWR readers should check out Book Balloon, a great online community of
Idlewild Books, a new Manhattan bookstore specializing in international literature and travel, shelves guidebooks and novels together, organized by location. As a fiction devotee, I like this idea for two reasons: First, would-be-explorers can get a taste of their destination’s literary landscape. Second, this is further testament to fiction’s (and, yes, memoir’s) ability to capture a specific, detailed sense of place and experience — to offer a more “true” account, in many respects, than the brief synopses and practical advice you’d get from a guidebook alone. You can read the New York Times review here or visit the store itself […]
