In the first quarter ended April 30, total revenues at Hastings Entertainment dropped 2.6% to $128 million and net income rose 29% to $2.5 million. Sales of books at the company's 154 stores open at least a year dropped 1.3%. By comparison, comp-store music sales dropped 13% and video games fell 5.8% while movie sales rose 4.9% and electronics were up 17.5%. The company said the drop in comp-store book sales occurred "as a result of fewer sales in our value book offerings, offset partially by stronger sales of new release hardbacks."

CEO John Marmaduke attributed the earnings gains to the company's focus "on improving our merchandising and buying functions" and said that Hastings began to have "positive results in the first quarter in our product mix, markdown expense, and gross profit. We will continue this focus throughout the year and I anticipate that this and other performance measures will continue to improve."

In the past few months, Hastings's store in Conroe, Tex., relocated and now has 26,770 square feet of selling space.

The company stated that while it is confident that earnings will continue to grow, "we are concerned about general economic conditions, particularly the price of gasoline, which has a measurable negative impact on retail sales."

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For the fiscal year ended March 31, total consolidated revenues at Indigo Books & Music rose 2.7% to C$875 million (about US$807 million) and net earnings rose 18.4% to C$30 million (US$27.7 million).

Sales at superstores and small-format stores open at least a year rose 2.5% and 2.2%, respectively. Online sales grew 9.1% to C$86.7 million (US$79.9 million).

Sales growth occurred despite "two challenging factors," the company said: 2005 was "a Harry Potter year" and "the average price of U.S.-published books slipped by 6% as a result of the strong Canadian dollar against its American counterpart." Earnings grew, Indigo continued, because of "strong fourth quarter revenue growth, improved operating margins and lower interest costs."

In a statement, Indigo CEO Heather Reisman called the results "a significant achievement considering the meaningful decrease in book prices and the absence of any strong hits during the important holiday season."
 

Like states and their presidential primaries, Knopf and Little, Brown again have bumped up pub dates for their biographies of Hillary Clinton, today's New York Times reported. Knopf's A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein will now appear on Tuesday, June 5, while Little, Brown's Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. will be published on Friday, June 8. The books' most recent pub date was Tuesday, June 19.

Knopf's Paul Bogaards said that the Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire on June 3 "presented a significant coverage for our book." Watergate reporter Bernstein will appear on the Today Show on pub date.

Michael Pietsch of Little, Brown said his house's book, by a former and a current New York Times reporter, would be excerpted in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, June 3, which resulted in the pub date change.

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Because the bidding process for a bookstore at Miami International Airport was restarted after a year and a half, initial winner Borders is departing from competition, the Miami Herald reported. Susan Zewicke, v-p of U.S. operations for Borders, which operates one bookstore at the airport already, told the paper: ''We're extremely disappointed in terms of the process they are having us go through again. As a result, we're not going to be rebidding for this one. It's not worth it to us.''

The main competitor for the 1,747-sq.-ft. space has been a joint venture between Hudson Group and a company owned by a longtime airport tenant and a former airport lobbyist. (The joint venture has an unfortunate name for a book-related company: AMS South Florida.)

AMS fought the approval of Borders based on how much credit or not Borders should have received for working with a disadvantaged business enterprise, i.e., a company that is minority- or women-owned. AMS is considering bidding again.

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The Mystery Company bookstore in Carmel, Ind. will host a Read-a-Thon Friday, June 1 through Sunday, June 3. According to the Indianapolis Star, the event, which will benefit Indy Reads adult literacy programming, "will feature volunteers reading books or stories of their choice for approximately 30 minutes at a time . . . continuously for 50 hours, or 3,000 minutes."

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Bookselling This Week profiles Brownstone Books in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, which was founded in 2000 by Crystal Bobb-Semple, an urban planner. The 700-sq.-ft. store aims to be a community bookstore and offers "a wide selection of classic and popular literature including bestsellers and required reading selections for schools," as well as titles of interest to Brownstone's many African-American and Caribbean-American customers.

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O.K. A last word on bagels in New York, we hope! One reader cleared up the Ess-a-Bagel confusion. The store, a favorite of many noshers, has two locations: one is at 359 First Avenue near 21st St., and the other is at 831 Third Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets. Still, she says: "Ess-a-bagels are just too big, but they do have the best lox and fish spreads."

As for New York bagels, Debra Goldenberg, a retired bookseller from Oregon State University Bookstore who calls bagels "my teething rings," says fuggedabout it and instead go to . . . the Mile End district in Montreal and "have a bagel from the wood-fired ovens of St.-Viateur Bagels. Bagel-wise, you will never be the same. They need to open a shop in New York. Or Portland!"

And Anne Greenberg suggests, "how about a bialy or a bulka or a pletzel instead? Go to Kossar's at 367 Grand Street and get one straight from the oven."

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Tony Rose, executive director of the African-American Pavilion at BEA, told the Black Star News that total participation in this year's show "will grow to 80 exhibitors, up from 35 last year." He credited the expansion in part to increased participation by young entrepreneurs who view publishing as "a viable career path."

"Many young African-Americans begin as self-publishers, learn about marketing and distribution and go on to build a business," said Rose, adding that this year's pavilion will have "less street-lit, more self-help and literature.”

 

Shall we raise a glass to bookstore- and beer-fueled science forums? The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that the popular "Science on Tap" series has just celebrated its third birthday. Hosted monthly by the Pub at Ravenna Third Place Books in Seattle, a "Science on Tap evening usually starts with a brief lecture by the night's presenter, who then takes questions from the crowd. The topics are wide-ranging across fields. Past speakers have discussed fuel cells, nanotechnology and stem cells."

Gretchen Meller, a Swedish Medical Center research scientist and organizer for the Science on Tap series, noted that the lectures "create a mellow space for the exchange of scientific ideas.

"People always have questions about science," she said. "You can read a lot of really great science writing, but there isn't really a place to ask the questions."

As we get closer to BEA, Shelf Awareness is running a series of announcements, tips, party mentions, interesting panels and more that have struck us as useful and fun.

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BEA, the Emerging Leaders Council and Emerging Leaders NYC are throwing a party on Wednesday, May 30, 7-9 p.m., at Floyd, NY (at 131 Atlantic Ave. between Henry and Clinton St. in Brooklyn, "steps from" the Hotel ABA), for booksellers under 40. The agenda is "a great evening with your fellow booksellers. We hope to have some surprise author guests, plenty of free drinks, music and indoor bocce! We'll also have some substantive information for you in the form of educational info, BEA navigation tips, a survey and anything else that we can pull together in a few weeks!"

For more information, contact BEA's Lance Fensterman or Jessica Stockton of McNally Robinson. RSVP to Jennifer Terentiuk.

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Here's a tip from the very same Jessica Stockton, who besides being a bookseller at McNally Robinson is the author of the Written Nerd blog: "I've recently discovered hopstop.com, a website which has subway and bus directions for major metro areas. If you click on the New York button, then put in your start and end address (make sure you've selected the correct borough), it will give you the quickest subway to take to get to your destination, with a map of how to walk to the station.  And you can tweak it to include buses, more or fewer transfers, etc. It's a great way to figure out how to get to the Javits Center, Hotel ABA or any of those publisher parties in unfamiliar neighborhoods. (And no, I don't work for them! The site was pointed out to me by a great woman in a business development office in Fort Greene when I had a long walk home.)"

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Veterans of Doubleday & Co. before its purchase many years ago by Bantam are planning to get together on Saturday, June 2, during BEA. (Among people who learned their skills at the house and went on to bright careers elsewhere are Larry Ashmead, Sally Richardson, David Gernert and Dick Heffernan.) For more information, contact Phil Bruno at Pinto1212@aol.com.

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What's the big idea? Mike Shatzkin, founder of Idea Logical Co., attempts to answer that question, with what he calls "a Big Thoughts speech" on Thursday, May 31, at 10 a.m. in Room 1E04 at the Javits Center, part of a day of publishing-oriented programming. Officially the session is called The End of General Trade Publishing Houses: Death or Rebirth in a Niche-by-Niche World and focuses on "how digital change is eliminating the ecosystem that sustains general trade publishing houses," Shatzkin wrote. "But the good news is that the ecosystem we see replacing it is one general trade houses can actually migrate to, if they recognize the challenge, accept some painful realities, and start now."

At 2:30 in Room 1E11 on the same day, Shatzkin is moderating a session called Digital Search Intermediaries: New Roles and Channels for Publishers, about digital asset distribution and digital asset distributors, whom Shatzkin calls DADs.

Two people with whom Shatzkin recently worked with on a digital marketing program are also presenting sessions. Ted Hill's Best Practices in Digital Marketing: The Publisher's Perspective is at 10:30 in Room 1E03, and Brian O'Leary's Quantifying Digital Marketing Expenditures at 2 p.m. in Room 1E03.
 

This morning the Today Show is cooking with Mark Bittman, author of Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times (Broadway, $18.95, 9780767926232/0767926234).

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Today on Good Morning America, Khaliah Ali, a daughter of boxing great Muhammad, offers advice from Fighting Weight: How I Achieved Healthy Weight Loss with "Banding," a New Procedure that Eliminates Hunger--Forever (Collins, $22.95, 9780061170942/0061170941).

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The Early Show's author line-up:

• Douglas Brinkley, historian and editor of The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan (HarperCollins, $35, 9780060876005/006087600X). Today Brinkley is also on Good Morning America for the second of a two-part feature as well as on Anderson Cooper's 360 and Chris Matthews.
• Stanley Bing, who unveils a fully revised and updated edition of Crazy Bosses (Collins, $21.95, 9780060731571/0060731575).
• Rebecca Odes on From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Becoming a Parent (Three Rivers, $21.95, 9780307237088/0307237087).

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Today Live with Regis and Kelly broadcasts from New Orleans, where the pair are joined by Emeril Lagasse, whose culinary tomes include Emeril's Potluck: Comfort Food with a Kicked-Up Attitude (Morrow, $24.95, 9780688164317/0688164315).

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Today the Oprah Winfrey Show shapes up with the talk show host's favorite trainer, Bob Greene, author of The Best Life Diet (S&S, $26, 9781416540663/1416540660).

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Tonight on Dateline: Robert Mayer, author of The Dreams of Ada (Broadway, $14.95, 9780767926898/0767926897), the true story of the 1984 disappearance of a young woman in Ada, Okla., the same town chronicled by John Grisham in The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (Doubleday, $28.95, 9780385517232/0385517238).

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Tonight Larry King Live is joined by Al Gore, author of The Assault on Reason (Penguin Press, $25.95, 9781594201226/1594201226). The former VP will be featured on NBC Nightline.

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Erica Wagner, literary editor of the Times of London whose first novel is Seizure (Norton, $23.95, 9780393061482/0393061485).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: John Amaechi, former NBA player and author of Man in the Middle (ESPN Books, $24.95, 9781933060194/1933060190).
 

Selected titles with a pub date of next Tuesday, May 29:

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf $25, 9780307266354/0307266354). The first novel in six years from the author of The English Patient and Anil's Ghost.

The Fourth Order by Stephen Frey (Ballantine, $24.95, 9780345480644/0345480643). The explosive issues of national security, terrorism and human rights lie at the heart of this thriller.

The Good Guy by Dean Koontz (Bantam, $27, 9780553804812/0553804812). Koontz's dark suspense tale pits an ordinary guy against a powerful killer.

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco, $26.95, 9780061236822/0061236829). The daughter of immigrants finds her American pilgrimage an odyssey of erotic risk and daring, ingenious self-invention and bittersweet triumph.

Maximum Ride #3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson (Little, Brown Young Readers, $16.99, 9780316155601/0316155608). The concluding chapter of Patterson's YA suspense trilogy.

Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice by Karen Traviss (Del Rey, $25.95, 9780345477408/0345477405). The fifth book in the series.

Richard M. Nixon by Elizabeth Drew (Times Books, $22, 9780805069631/0805069631). From the American Presidents Series, a provocative and revelatory assessment of the nation's only chief executive ever to resign.


On sale in paperback May 29:

Angels Fall by Nora Roberts (Jove, $7.99, 9780515143171/0515143170).

Beach Road by James Patterson (Warner, $9.99, 9780446619141/0446619140).

The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 9780143112303/0143112309).

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (Dell, $7.99, 9780440242864/044024286X).

Liza Dalby is an anthropologist, specializing in Japanese culture. She has moved from nonfiction books (Geisha and Kimono: Fashioning Culture) to historical fiction (The Tale of Murasaki) to her latest collection of short essays, East Wind Melts the Ice (University of California Press, $24.95, 9780520250536/0520250532). Since putting up a website of cultural background for The Tale of Murasaki, she has become interested in creating visual imagery to accompany her books. The essays in East Wind Melt the Ice all have audiovisual counterparts that can be found on www.lizadalby.com. Here Liza answers questions we occasionally put to people in the industry:

On your nightstand now:

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery, Miyazawa Kenji Selections by Hiroaki Sato, The Naming of Names by Anna Pavord, Haiku wo Yomu to Iu Koto (The Thing About Reading Haiku) by Yumiko Katayama, Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I don't usually have so many books going at once.
 
Favorite book when you were a child:

Pussy Willow by Margaret Wise Brown.

Your top five authors:

Vladimir Nabokov, John McPhee, Salman Rushdie, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Diane Ackerman.

Book you've "faked" reading:

Mrs. Dalloway. Simply have never been able to wade through Virginia Woolf, although I try again every few years. It seems so crass to dislike Virginia Woolf.
 
Book you are an "evangelist" for:

The Secret of Scent by Luca Turin. Life of the nose, and for the first time I feel that I understand chemistry.
 
Book you've bought for the cover:

Funny Ways of Staying Alive by Willis Barnstone. The spine is violet with a dab of lime green. Bought for the cover, read for the content. Quirky, delicious, and true.
 
Book that changed your life:

The Tale of Genji. As a teenager, this was my first taste of Japan.
 
Favorite line from a book:

"How the proud and mighty doth fade away--like a dream of a spring night." Tales of the Heike. Sounds better in Japanese.
 
Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Pnin