Notes: New, Resurrected and Damaged Stores
Linda Cox, a former employee of Copperfield and Co., Macomb, Ill., which closed earlier this year (Shelf Awareness,
August 3), has joined up with Richard Hunsley, a friend with retail
experience, to form New Copperfield's Book Service, which opened last
month, the Peoria Journal Star reported.
One way the pair plan to compete: by offering "Web-based searching and [a] guarantee that customers can pick up their books within a day or two, without paying shipping costs."
---
The Kansas City Star profiles Vivian Jennings, owner of Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year and is best known for putting on author events, about 300 a year.
Saying she felt pressure from publishers whose tour costs are rising, this summer Jennings "adopted a new policy for any author's appearance sponsored by her store. She began requiring patrons to buy a book as admission. No other local bookstore charges for appearances."
---
A car hit by another car going through a stop light drove into the Bookstack, Staunton, Va., according to the Staunton News Leader. No one was injured and the building appears structurally sound. People from other businesses helped clean up the mess, which surprised and touched owner Suzi Armstrong, who said, "It's one of the things that shows us the value of our community." The store may reopen today.
---
The Guardian tries to decipher the sudoku phenomenon, noting that P.D. James has suggested that puzzles fulfill "a need we have for 'restoration of order.' "
The paper continues: "When the day's sudoku puzzle has been completed, we have reasserted control over our environment. One part of the world is complete. Tim Preston of Puzzler Media, which supplies much of the press with its sudoku puzzles, sees the appeal in the essentials of the game itself.
" 'People could understand what to do,' he says, 'and were surprised to find that they could do the puzzle even though it was number-based.' (Though, of course, sudoku--unlike kakuro--is not about numbers, but repeating symbols. It can be done using nine letters or pictograms.)"
---
One of the people arrested last week for ecoterrorism has a bookstore connection. According to the Arizona Daily Sun, William C. Rodgers, charged with one count of arson, runs an "informational, leftist" bookstore called the Catalyst InfoShop in Prescott, Ariz. Shockingly his girlfriend told the paper that the store operates at a loss.
---
In a story about the theft of two 1840s editions of the Book of Mormon from the LDS Salt Lake City University Institute of Religion, Salt Lake City bookseller Ken Sanders, past chairman of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America's Security Committee, told the Salt Lake City Tribune that book theft and fraud has risen in past few years. The culprits: the Internet and TV programs like Antique Roadshow, which have made the public more aware of the value of antiquarian items.
Six years ago, when Sanders began his term as chairman, he issued "a couple of dozen book-theft and fraud alerts each year. In April, when he stepped down, he was issuing more than 100 alerts a year."
---
Borders Group has raised its quarterly dividend by a penny to 10 cents per share, payable January 25.
---
Friends of the struggling Brighter Day Bookstore, which has sold gospel music and Christian titles geared to black churches and Christians since 1982, are holding a benefit concert for the College Hill, Ohio, store, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Called "A Shining Light for Brighter Day," the concert will be held this coming Friday.
"There's a lot more competition now, and this landmark institution that was there for the community is struggling," LaShaunda Ewing told the paper. "When there was nobody else, Brighter Day stuck its neck out for the community. Now, it's our turn to pay them back."
---
LAist.com offers this tidbit: "A new bookstore, Sandpaper Books in Highland Park [in Los Angeles], is having a pre-opening sale all day, from 10-5pm. It's got used books in the strong-lefty tradition (so we hear). It's also got a pile of silk saris from India, just for fun & fashion. There should be coffee and snacks too."
---
James E. Adkins has opened three businesses in one building in St. Petersburg, Fla.: Bayside Christian Bookstore, Bayside Travel Agency and Bayside Art & Music Center, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
---
Book Traders, which features new and used books, puzzles, plush toys and finger puppets, opened on December 2 at 2181 W. Wisconsin Ave., in Grand Chute, Wis., according to the Appleton Post Crescent. Owner Debbie Luebke told the paper that she is a voracious reader so that "I can say with certainty, 'This is a good book.' "
One way the pair plan to compete: by offering "Web-based searching and [a] guarantee that customers can pick up their books within a day or two, without paying shipping costs."
---
The Kansas City Star profiles Vivian Jennings, owner of Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year and is best known for putting on author events, about 300 a year.
Saying she felt pressure from publishers whose tour costs are rising, this summer Jennings "adopted a new policy for any author's appearance sponsored by her store. She began requiring patrons to buy a book as admission. No other local bookstore charges for appearances."
---
A car hit by another car going through a stop light drove into the Bookstack, Staunton, Va., according to the Staunton News Leader. No one was injured and the building appears structurally sound. People from other businesses helped clean up the mess, which surprised and touched owner Suzi Armstrong, who said, "It's one of the things that shows us the value of our community." The store may reopen today.
---
The Guardian tries to decipher the sudoku phenomenon, noting that P.D. James has suggested that puzzles fulfill "a need we have for 'restoration of order.' "
The paper continues: "When the day's sudoku puzzle has been completed, we have reasserted control over our environment. One part of the world is complete. Tim Preston of Puzzler Media, which supplies much of the press with its sudoku puzzles, sees the appeal in the essentials of the game itself.
" 'People could understand what to do,' he says, 'and were surprised to find that they could do the puzzle even though it was number-based.' (Though, of course, sudoku--unlike kakuro--is not about numbers, but repeating symbols. It can be done using nine letters or pictograms.)"
---
One of the people arrested last week for ecoterrorism has a bookstore connection. According to the Arizona Daily Sun, William C. Rodgers, charged with one count of arson, runs an "informational, leftist" bookstore called the Catalyst InfoShop in Prescott, Ariz. Shockingly his girlfriend told the paper that the store operates at a loss.
---
In a story about the theft of two 1840s editions of the Book of Mormon from the LDS Salt Lake City University Institute of Religion, Salt Lake City bookseller Ken Sanders, past chairman of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America's Security Committee, told the Salt Lake City Tribune that book theft and fraud has risen in past few years. The culprits: the Internet and TV programs like Antique Roadshow, which have made the public more aware of the value of antiquarian items.
Six years ago, when Sanders began his term as chairman, he issued "a couple of dozen book-theft and fraud alerts each year. In April, when he stepped down, he was issuing more than 100 alerts a year."
---
Borders Group has raised its quarterly dividend by a penny to 10 cents per share, payable January 25.
---
Friends of the struggling Brighter Day Bookstore, which has sold gospel music and Christian titles geared to black churches and Christians since 1982, are holding a benefit concert for the College Hill, Ohio, store, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Called "A Shining Light for Brighter Day," the concert will be held this coming Friday.
"There's a lot more competition now, and this landmark institution that was there for the community is struggling," LaShaunda Ewing told the paper. "When there was nobody else, Brighter Day stuck its neck out for the community. Now, it's our turn to pay them back."
---
LAist.com offers this tidbit: "A new bookstore, Sandpaper Books in Highland Park [in Los Angeles], is having a pre-opening sale all day, from 10-5pm. It's got used books in the strong-lefty tradition (so we hear). It's also got a pile of silk saris from India, just for fun & fashion. There should be coffee and snacks too."
---
James E. Adkins has opened three businesses in one building in St. Petersburg, Fla.: Bayside Christian Bookstore, Bayside Travel Agency and Bayside Art & Music Center, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
---
Book Traders, which features new and used books, puzzles, plush toys and finger puppets, opened on December 2 at 2181 W. Wisconsin Ave., in Grand Chute, Wis., according to the Appleton Post Crescent. Owner Debbie Luebke told the paper that she is a voracious reader so that "I can say with certainty, 'This is a good book.' "
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