"A bookstore is somewhat like an ocean--it may look the same but it is always changing if you are a careful observer."

Jessica and Gregory Bogard, owners of Looking Glass Books, La Grande, Ore., "are giving a nod to the past and looking ahead to the future as they get set for a major remodel," the Observer reported.

This Saturday, the bookstore will close temporarily as the Bogards and a team of volunteers move their main floor inventory to a nearby location. This is the initial step in an ambitious improvement and expansion project that "will include restoring the floor to its original condition, and establishing a café in the loft in back," the Observer noted, adding that the owners "were inspired to do the project when they happened across a 1903 photograph of the interior of the building their business sits in."

"The picture showed the original wood floors, and skylights. We want to bring back that beauty," Jessica said. The tentative goal is to have the flooring done and open the bookstore by February 15. "We have a wonderful community that will follow you through anything," she added.

Amazon may offer bricks-and-mortar retailers a POS system that uses Kindle tablets "as soon as this summer," the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources who were briefed on the company's strategy, while cautioning that the online retailer's plans "remain fluid and the project might be delayed, altered or canceled."

Noting the project would move Amazon "into the realm of physical retail stores, where more than 90% of commerce is still conducted, and open up a new trove of data from consumers' in-store spending habits," the Journal added that because larger retailers already have "extensive, complicated checkout systems that may be difficult or costly to give up, Amazon is likely to focus the project first on small and midsize retailers."

Matras, Poland's second largest bookstore chain, has been put up for sale, Warsaw Business Journal reported. Marketing director Jolanta Liżewska-Zyzek said there are four companies interested in taking over a controlling stake in Matras, including publishers, though "at this time we cannot give any more details."

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Dutch bookstore chain Polare, which had to close 20 bookstores this week "due to serious financial problems," could reopen with investor help, NL Times reported, adding that the CEO Jan van de Wouw said the company is "negotiating with two parties" and "the discussions are serious and have been ongoing for a while now.... It concerns parties that are willing to invest additional capital in our organization, in the range of  €2 to  €3 million [$2.74 million to $4.1 million].... We are optimistic about the future."

It was billed as a panel about indie retail success, but with moderator Betsy Burton from the King's English in Salt Lake City (a bookstore and a city in the forefront of the shop local movement), two forthcoming Seattle indie retailer panelists and a roomful of curious booksellers, the session turned into a fruitful back-and-forth about the realities (successes and failures) of independent retailing.

Michel Brotman said he has been in retailing for what "seems like an eternity." He owns two gift/souvenir stores outside of Seattle's Pike Place Market: he's run Simply Seattle at the location for 26 years and opened the Chocolate Box next door a few years ago.

Matt Vaughan was 19 when he opened Easy Street Records (with a bed in the back room and a shower at a friends' place two blocks away). Now 46, Vaughan has had as many as 60 employees and two locations. In the past, he said, when community members asked him, as a local business, for things, he used to turn them down. But when he started listening, it led him to help found the West Seattle Street Fair, which now features 150 vendors, live music and sales on the sidewalks of the neighborhood for four days.

Burton quickly raised the "$64,000 question": How do these small business owners compete with Amazon and other online retailers? Seattle, both retailers pointed out, is home not only to Amazon, but Costco and Nordstrom as well. The key for both Brotman's gift/chocolate businesses and Vaughan's music store is to know how to give consumers what other retailers can't.

Betsy Burton, Michel Brotman and Matt Vaughan

Brotman shared some words spoken 25 years ago by an executive at Sony, who said he tried to eliminate as many people as possible between himself and the customer. "As booksellers, you have strong relationships with your customers," Brotman said. "And if you keep your eye on that, you will do really well."

"It wasn't too long ago that booksellers and record sellers were tabloid fodder, and they were pounding nails in our coffins," said Vaughan. "The fact that we're here is pretty f**king cool."

As for selling online, Brotman said he has found that "if you have a product that needs a lot of explaining, it doesn't work." With many in-store events that cannot easily be replicated, Brotman said the Chocolate Box has become a place for chocolate/wine education and entertainment. He estimated that 85%-90% of event attendees had never been to the store before. "Willy Wonka shows up every once in a while," he added.

Cutting right to the chase, Susan Weis-Bohlen, owner of breathe Book Store Café in Baltimore, Md., asked, "How many days a week are you actually in your stores?"

Brotman said he's there seven days, but not always for eight hours at a stretch. "I like being in my store--I don't always like being on my feet," he said.

Vaughan shared that when he took his eye off of one of his stores, he almost lost it to embezzlement. "My ego got ahead of me," he said. "But I came to understand that you are always paying your dues and you always will be, but you can't drown in your own sweat."

Vaughan has since moved his office--without a door--into the center of his remaining store. But while Easy Street managed to get through the embezzlement episode, when the lease on one of its shops came up for renewal, Chase Bank came in and offered three times more than Vaughan could pay.

"Your lease is your business," said Brotman, who explained that he has been blessed with an "almost partner" relationship with the family that owns the building in which he leases space. "I value and nurture that relationship."

For Brotman, the same is true when it comes to key staff. "No one is going to care as much as you," he said, "but they can take pride in their work." He has found that the best employees are store customers. Even so, he said, you never know how someone will work out until they work for you. "I hire quickly and I fire quickly," Brotman said. And he explains to new hires that their employment starts on a trial basis.

Record collectors, said Vaughan, "are the worst employees." And, as much as he hates to admit it, inexperienced workers are better than those who think they know how to run your business. "When they are green, they grow," he said. "When they are ripe, they rot eventually."

Perhaps, Burton suggested, ABA might add a Winter Institute session in the future on how to keep staff on the floor engaged and energized. --Bridget Kinsella

Whether a bookseller is in the "I heart social media" camp or the group that just wants it all to go away, a panel at WI9 addressed issues concerning the various communication platforms.

Whitney Keyes, author of Propel: Five Ways to Amp Up Your Marketing and Accelerate Business (Career Press), advised, "The first thing to focus on is your strategy." Keyes, who teaches at the University of Washington, suggested that booksellers probably have students in their communities who are familiar with the many social media platforms and who "would love to work with you."

Amanda Bullock from Housing Works in New York City admitted--much to the delight of overwhelmed attendees--that she has an intern who helps with the social media platforms that she might not be skilled at--or fond of. For instance, she said, Housing Works has lots of Tumblr followers, because she likes Tumblr. "Focus on the ones that you feel are working well for you and that you like," said Bullock.

Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Calif., said the store started with social media by empowering its staff to post on Facebook. Of course, he said, that means trusting staff to represent the store. As for Twitter, when no one on staff wanted to do it, Mulvihill decided to do it himself.

Top, Jonathan Welch; (front, l.-r.) Whitney Keyes, Pete Mulvihill and Amanda Bullock

"It's not a matter of the amount of time you spend on it," said Mulvihill, "it's important to make it be a piece of your day." He said he spends about 5-10 minutes a day on Twitter, and added that it is important not to be selling all the time on any social media platform. "Voice and authenticity are very important," he said.

Bullock said she tried to "have a personality without being personal." "Don't feel you have to do everything that everyone else is doing," said Keyes.

Serving as moderator, Jonathan Welch from Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, N.Y., said he has learned not to "get into the trap" of trying to measure the results of social media. "This comes back to you in all sorts of ways," he added.

At the very least, Mulvihill said, social media "reminds people who like you that you are still around." Recently, Green Apple used Twitter to promote an off-site event with Allie Brosh, author of Hyperbole and a Half (Touchstone). "Three hundred people showed up," he said. Then customers shared links on Facebook. Green Apple also used Twitter to crowd-source ideas for a Chinese New Year fortune cookie promotion.

Calling himself an "older bookseller," Roger Page from Island Books on Mercer Island, Wash., said he finally came to the conclusion that social media was nothing like advertising. "It's a way to extend the counter," he said, "so I pretend I'm at the counter on a rainy day."

As Keyes reminded booksellers, when it comes to social media, "it's okay to fail, because it is free." She also stressed that when it comes to social media, one advantage indie booksellers have over Amazon is being "agile and nimble" and "able to turn on a dime." --Bridget Kinsella

On Monday, Warwick's, La Jolla, Calif., hosted a discussion and signing featuring Patrick Ness, author of The Crane Wife (Penguin Press). Here's Ness and his appreciative audience.

photo: aalbc.com

This Saturday, Marcus Books, San Francisco, Calif., is hosting a "Keep It Lit" social media fund-raising blitz to raise $1 million as part of its effort to keep the bookshop in the Jimbo's Bop City building. Thus far, Marcus Books has raised more than half of its full $2.6 million goal since the campaign was launched in December.

The St. Louis Public Library's Central Library was presented with a 2014 Honor Award by the American Institute of Architects, which noted the "transformation of the 3-story 1912 Beaux Arts structure focused on the north wing, replacing multistorey, non-public book stacks with a new 'building within the building' for public use. Now light filled and welcoming to its urban neighbors, the north wing is a new entrance surrounded by upper stories of books visible to all. The original entry and public rooms are restored and revitalized, continuing their active use as a vibrant public resource." The library reopened in 2012 after a $70 million renovation, KSDK-5 reported.

Waller McGuire, executive director of the St. Louis Public Library, said, "Working with Cannon Design throughout this great undertaking was not only a wonderful professional experience, but simply a joy.... For Central Library to win the highest recognition from both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the American Institute of Architects shows the depth of talent that St. Louis brings to the field. From the architects to the engineers to the workers who delicately restored the original lights and marble floors, Central Library shows the world what St. Louis can do."

Rustic Chic Wedding: 55 Projects for Crafting Your Own Wedding Style by Morgann Hill (Running Press).

Tomorrow on the View: Greg Behrendt and Amiira Ruotola, authors of It's Just a F***ing Date: Some Sort of Book About Dating (Diversion Books, $19.99, 9781626811201).

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Tomorrow on Tavis Smiley: Angelique Kidjo, author of Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music (Harper Design, $27.99, 9780062071798).

The first trailer has been released for The Fault in Our Stars, based on the novel by John Green, Indiewire reported. The movie stars Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), Ansel Englort, Willem Dafoe, Nat Wolff, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Mike Birbiglia and Emily Peachey. The Fault in Our Stars hits theaters June 6.

Word & Film noted yesterday that after "a short clip on the Today Show and a full morning of Twitter updates from the author, the trailer has been made available and has seen--in the half a minute it's been online--over 300 views (Green saw over 5k retweets in under five minutes)."

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, February 1
12 p.m. Book TV visits Olympia, Wash., to interview several of the city's authors and tour its literary sites. (Re-airs Sunday at 9:45 a.m.)

4:45 p.m. Robert Watson, author of America's First Crisis: The War of 1812 (Excelsior Editions, $24.95, 9781438451343). (Re-airs Sunday at 7:45 a.m.)

8 p.m. Marwan Muasher, author of The Second Arab Awakening: And the Battle for Pluralism (Yale University Press, $30, 9780300186390).

9 p.m. Bill Yenne, author of Hap Arnold: The General Who Invented the U.S. Air Force (Regnery History, $29.95, 9781621570813). (Re-airs Monday at 4 a.m.)

10 p.m. After Words. Dimitri Simes, president and CEO of the Center for the National Interest, interviews Angela Stent, author of The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, $35, 9780691152974). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist Strikes Back: How to Run--or Ruin--an Economy (Riverhead, $27.95, 9781594631405). (Re-airs Sunday 7:30 p.m.)

Sunday, February 2
12:30 a.m. Michael Levi, author of By All Means Necessary: How China's Resource Quest is Changing the World (Oxford University Press USA, $27.95, 9780199921782). (Re-airs Sunday at 4:45 p.m.)

12 p.m. In Depth. Bonnie Morris, author of six books, including Revenge of the Women's Studies Professor (Indiana University Press, $19.95, 9780253220622) and Women's History for Beginners (For Beginners, $16.99, 9781934389607), joins Book TV for a live interview. Viewers can participate in the discussion by calling in during the program or submitting questions to booktv@c-span.org or via Twitter (@BookTV). (Re-airs Monday at 12 a.m.)

6:45 p.m. Ian Haney Lopez, author of Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class (Oxford University Press, $24.95, 9780199964277).

The longlist has been announced for the £1,000 (about US$1,660) Branford Boase Award, which honors "an outstanding first novel to a first-time writer of a book for young people." Both the author and editor of the winning book are recognized. The shortlist will be released May 1, with a winner named July 10 in London.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, February 4:

Confessions of a Wild Child by Jackie Collins (St. Martin's Press, $26.99, 9781250050939) explores the teenage years of Lucky Santangelo.

The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity by Pedro G. Ferreira (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28, 9780547554891) chronicles the history of Einstein's theory of relativity.

Glitter and Glue: A Memoir by Kelly Corrigan (Ballantine, $26, 9780345532831) focuses on a mother-daughter relationship.

Somerset by Leila Meacham (Grand Central, $26, 9781455547388) is the prequel to Roses (2010), following antebellum migrants to Texas.

Landry Park by Bethany Hagen (Dial, $17.99, 9780803739482) is young adult dystopian fiction.

Stillwater by Nicole Lea Helget (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24, 9780547898209) focuses on twins in a frontier town on the Underground Railroad.

Doing Harm by Kelly Parsons (St. Martin's Press, $25.99, 9781250033475) is a murder mystery set in a hospital.

"I am interested in the way that memory works, in what we do with it, and what it does with us," the 80-year-old Penelope Lively writes in Dancing Fish and Ammonites. "And when I look around my cluttered house.... I can see myself oddly identified and defined by what is in it: my life charted out on the bookshelves, my concerns illuminated by a range of objects. These, then, are the prompts for this book: age, memory, time, and this curious physical evidence I find all around me as to what I have been up to--how reading has fed into writing, how ways of thinking have been nailed."

Regarding age: "You get used to it. And that surprises me. You get used to diminishment, to a body that is stalled, an impediment?" Lively is well aware of who she is today, as opposed to who she was years ago, but it is her remarkably healthy continuity of mind that prevails--not a failing body.

Lively came into the world under one set of assumptions and, as she notes, will be leaving under quite another. Society changed drastically during her lifetime, with the shifting ground of class and social distinctions in England, the upheavals of feminism and the seismic shift in attitudes toward sexuality. She offers many insightful and entertaining thoughts on all three topics.

Unlike some memoirists--so self-conscious and self-serving their books become empty exercises in solipsism--Lively never loses sight of what is going on in the world outside herself. She looks out at the world and then back at herself in it, examining everything through the scrim of a prodigious intelligence and a memory that is "the mind's triumph over time."

Lively admits to having a house full of books and having read almost all of them--entirely believable considering her vast knowledge and easy reference even to rather obscure texts. She also writes about some of the objects acquired over her lifetime--including the leaping fish shard and the two little ammonite fossils she picked up on a beach in Dorset that give her memoir its title. Lively is as much an untrained archeologist as she is a writer and insists upon taxonomy and proper naming, which she shares with the reader. Dancing Fish and Ammonites is chock full of anecdote, opinion, insight, lore and the sheer delight of a life lived fully. --Valerie Ryan

Shelf Talker: Booker Prize winner (Moon Tiger) Penelope Lively's memoir explores the intersection of age, memory and time.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Forever with You by Laurelin Paige
2. Chance for Love (McCarthys of Gansett Island) by Marie Force
3. With You by Nashoda Rose
4. Lucky Number Four by Amanda Jason
5. Torn from You by Nashoda Rose
6. Raw by Belle Aurora
7. That Autumn in Edinburgh by Ciji Ware
8. The Ex Games 3 by J.S. Cooper and Helen Cooper
9. A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest
10. The Ex Games by J.S. Cooper

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]