Owner Rani Saijo, who bought the store in 2000 from founders Mark and Barbara Komer, cited "the changing economy and stiff competition from huge online booksellers," the paper wrote.

Still, she looks back fondly. "We've watched kids come in with their parents, then later as a teen or as an adult they continue to keep coming in here and reading and buying books," Saijo said. "We've been able to make this a comfortable place to browse and buy books."

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We're trying to learn about how book people and book-related businesses in and around Nashville, Tenn., have fared following the flood earlier this week.

Speaking for Ingram Content Group, Keel Hunt of the Strategy Group, South Nashville, yesterday said that Ingram's facilities in LaVergne were not affected by the high water and all deliveries have been made on time. Some employees had difficulty getting to work on Monday and Tuesday even if they lived on high ground, but those problems have alleviated. However, some Ingram staff members have had what Hunt called "heartbreaking losses."

Hunt described a kind of tale of two cities: "There are many, many places where the sun was out yesterday and today, with blue skies and no difficulties. But then there are flooded areas downtown or in Bellevue or in Franklin."

He added that two statistics related to the flooding have struck him. For one, the area has an average annual rainfall of 48 inches, and "we had a quarter of that in two days." The other: the Cumberland River's normal depth is 19 feet, and earlier this week "it got up to 51."

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Nashville-area writers Amanda Morgan, Victoria Schwab and Myra McEntire are holding an auction to raise money for those affected by the flooding and are accepting donations from publishing professionals. For more on the auctions, go to Facebook or their blog.

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Cool idea of the day: tonight at 7:30 p.m., Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown are hosting a virtual book launch for their new book, Picture the Dead, at the Booksmith, San Francisco, Calif., during which they will read from and discuss the mystery. Among guests: Lemony Snicket spokesperson Daniel Handler, who, like the authors, will be in costume; he will read an introduction.

The launch can be watched live online. Questions may be posted at TeenFire's website.

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Musician Jim Bob, whose "comic fictional autobiographical novel and collection of short stories," Storage Stories, was just released in the U.K., chose his top 10 illustrated books for adults in the Guardian.

"I have mild OCD," he wrote. "One of the symptoms is that when I read a book I often have to read each sentence two or even four times before I feel I can move onto the next one without thinking one of my loved ones will die in a plane crash. Big fat doorstops of text are a daunting prospect. The 560,000 words in your copy of War and Peace could be as many as two-and-a-half million for me. I like short chapters, big titles and even gaps of empty page. I think this might be one of the reasons why I like books with illustrations."

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Everybody's a critic: The Huffington Post featured a TMZ.com video in which Jon Gosselin thumbs through a copy of his ex-wife Kate's book, I Just Want You to Know, at a Target store.

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NPR's latest What We're Reading list includes The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman, A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond by Craig Robinson, The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall and Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler.

BookExpo America starts officially Tuesday, May 25, with an open plenary session on "the value of a book," featuring heads of a range of book companies and associations.

Cosponsored by BEA and the American Booksellers Association, the panel consists of Bob Miller, group publisher, Workman; Esther Newberg, executive v-p, International Creative Management; Skip Prichard, CEO of Ingram; David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Group; Oren Teicher, CEO of the ABA; and author Scott Turow, incoming president of the Authors Guild. Jonathan Galassi, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, will moderate.

The CEO panel takes place from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the Javits Center Special Events Hall. The ABA's Day of Education and BEA's conference sessions follow.

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Later on Tuesday, the Independent Book Publishers Association hosts a roundtable of heads of houses who discuss how they wound up on the Publishers Weekly "fastest-growing indie" list. Participants are David Borgenicht of Quirk Books, Rudy Shur of Square One Publishers, David Hancock of Morgan James Publishing and Harriet Ziefert of Blue Apple Books. The roundtable is moderated by Tom Woll of Cross River Publishing Consultants and introduced by Cevin Bryerman of PW.

Part of IBPA's Publishing University, the roundtable takes place 2–3:15 at the Hotel Roosevelt at 45 E. 45th Street in Manhattan.

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this week 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, May 8

12 p.m. Beth Whitehouse, author of The Match: "Savior Siblings" and One Family's Battle to Heal Their Daughter (Beacon, $24.95, 9780807072868/0807072869), explores where science might take us in the future if politics allows it. (Re-airs on Sunday at 5 a.m.)

10 p.m. After Words. Ted Conover interviews Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (Spiegel & Grau, $25, 9780385523387/0385523386), who details her experience within the legal system; she was convicted more than 10 years after her offense. (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

11 p.m. Stefan Halper discusses his book The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century (Basic Books, $28.95, 9780465013616/0465013619). (Re-airs Sunday at 3:30 p.m. and Monday at 6 a.m.)

Sunday, May 9

1 a.m. John Rich, author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men (Johns Hopkins University Press, $24.95, 9780801893636/0801893631), presents several portraits of young men trying to escape their violent inner cities lives. (Re-airs Sunday at 10:45 a.m.)

7 a.m. David Shenk, author of The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong (Doubleday, $26.95, 9780385523653/0385523653), argues that our genes play a smaller role in shaping how smart we are than was previously believed.         

1 p.m. John Hill, author of The Political Centrist (Vanderbilt University Press, $35, 9780826516688/0826516688), suggests that government has a role to play in economic opportunities and establishing moral norms, but doesn't have to be large to do either. (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m. and Monday at 4 a.m.)

6 p.m. Rosalyn Carter, former First Lady and author of Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis (Rodale Books, $22.99, 9781594868818/1594868816), explores how far the treatment of mental health issues has come in the U.S. (Re-airs Sunday at 11 p.m.)

7 p.m. Former First Lady Laura Bush, author of Spoken from the Heart (Scribner, $30, 9781439155202/1439155208), speaks with journalist Cokie Roberts.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, the final movie based on Stephenie Meyer's vampire series, will be released November 18, 2011, according to the Hollywood Reporter, though there is still no confirmation whether Breaking Dawn "will be one movie or two (probably because [Summit] still doesn't know as they are in talks with the actors on the subject)."

The Hollywood Reporter also noted that in June at this year's Los Angeles Film Festival, where "the lineup of 200 feature films, shorts and music videos announced Tuesday will probably be overshadowed by the world premiere of David Slade's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the third installment in the teen vampire series. Summit will unveil the film, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, at an invitation-only event at the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live on June 24."

The winners of the 2010 Christian Book Awards, sponsored by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, are:

2010 Christian Book of the Year: The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns (Thomas Nelson)
Bibles: Glo by Immersion Digital (Zondervan)
Bible Reference and Study: The New Moody Atlas of the Bible by Barry J. Beitzel (Moody Publishers)
Christian Life: The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns (Thomas Nelson)
Fiction: Watch over Me by Christa Parrish (Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group)
Children and Youth: B4UD8--Before You Date by Hayley and Michael DiMarco (Revell/ Baker Publishing Group)
Inspiration and Gift: Grace Notes by Philip Yancey (Zondervan)

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The National Book Foundation's second annual Innovations in Reading Prizes, awarded to organizations "demonstrating passion, creativity, dedication, and leadership in the service of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading within their local community or beyond," have been won by:

826 Valenica, San Francisco, Calif., for its volunteer-run after-school tutoring program;
Cellpoems, Brooklyn, N.Y., the online poetry journal that distributes poetry via text messages;
Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, Washington, D.C., which uses books and creative writing to empower teenaged boys in jail charged as adults;
Mount Olive Baptist Church, Hopkins, S.C., which has a "secular" library;
United Through Reading, San Diego, Calif., which helps military families unite by reading books.

For more information on the awards and winners, go to the Foundation's website.

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin (St. Martin's, $26.99, 9780312554163/0312554168) as her pick of the month for May. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote:

"Emily Giffin just keeps getting better. Heart of the Matter, this month's Book Pick, is all the proof you need. Tessa Russon and Valerie Anderson have little in common, but are brought together, after a traffic accident, to face unimagined circumstances.

"I read this novel in a weekend and immediately wanted to share it with my friends. Giffin's characters are complex, engaging, relatable--human. And the story brings up several questions concerning the nature of love, loyalty, trust, forgiveness and friendship.

"The book deals with issues all women face in their intimate relationships. And, like life, it's peppered with humorous moments."

As a literary agent at Writers House, I run among my circle of editors, publishers, agents, publicists... and oh yes: authors! Our company represents Stephenie Meyer, Ken Follett, Michael Lewis, Nora Roberts, Christopher Paolini, Rebecca Skloot, Neil Gaiman, Dav Pilkey and many others. But there's one creature that I've rarely met: the independent bookseller. So recently I decided it was time to take a walk on their wild side and visit a bookseller for a week.

Full disclosure: This mission--much like this article--started with a shameless ulterior motive. I wanted to push copies of my authors' books. In October 2008, my friend Nikki Furrer opened an adorable store in her hometown St. Louis called Pudd'nhead Books (Shelf Awareness, August 12, 2009). When she invited me to visit, I laughed. After all, between her store and my office in New York, we often trade messages that require an agent-to-bookseller translation.

Me: Have you read this exciting debut novel that sold for a zillion bucks last year?

Nikki: Dan, I can't give that book away.

Or:

Me: Publisher is printing my author's paperback with a shiny step-back! So exciting!

Nikki: Dan, in the store, we call those "1 out of every 5 is damaged."

But one day, Nikki and I were discussing a debut novel by my author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani: I Do Not Come to You by Chance. (If you loved Little Bee, please read Adaobi's wise and hilarious novel.) "Oh, Dan," Nikki said, "No one wants to read about Nigerian spammers." I sputtered. I fumed. "I'm getting on a plane," I said, "and coming to sell that book properly!"

So I did, bringing along a big pile of my authors' titles, and showed up at Pudd'nhead Books on Day One like the first day of school. I sell to editors all the time. How hard could it be to sell to customers?

My first customer was a nervous man who burst in, saying, "My wife's in labor. I need something to read!" (I was curious why he wasn't at the hospital, but I didn't ask.) I handed him a copy of Leonard Mlodinow's The Drunkard's Walk. "Looks good," he said, bought it and left. Swish!

Beginner's luck, it turned out. I had my own agenda, but--wouldn't you know it?--customers arrived, one after the other, with agendas of their own! For a literary agent, getting used to other people's agendas is a learning curve.

One remarkable bookseller talent I quickly noted was Nikki's ability to pinpoint a book based on the most random description.

Customer: "You know that book? About work? And Bill Gates?"

Me: (Sweating)

Nikki: Outliers!

Happily, when a customer asked for that "novel about the talking dog," I identified The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst. (I know her agent.) Later, a customer came in for a coffee, and--hooray for the upsell!--I sold her a copy of Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos when, as we chatted, I learned she was an actress with a librarian girlfriend. (Booksellers, if your customers love Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Patchett, be sure to have Stevie's book on hand!)

One of the most time-consuming aspects of my job as an agent is discussions about book jackets. We cajole and nitpick and spill blood and scream over these covers. Working in Pudd'nhead Books solidified my resolve to stand firm when a cover is not yet perfect. (Nikki has a shelf called "Bad Cover, Good Book." Brilliant!) Here's just one example: HarperCollins has graced my author Jennifer McMahon's novels with jackets that sell themselves. Place four books in the front of your store and include Jennifer's first bestseller, Promise Not to Tell--you'll see nearly every customer walk over to Promise first. I guarantee it. (Booksellers, if your customers love Gillian Flynn or Tana French, they'll be spellbound by Jennifer's poignant, creepy novels.)

I have lived in New York for almost 10 years, and nothing I ever saw in the mean streets of Manhattan terrified me more than my experience...

Of trying...

To sell books...

To children.

Kudos to Pudd'nhead's Melissa Posten, who is a master at selling children's books. She talks a mile a minute and reads twice as fast. Effective book jackets help here, too. Hand Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins to a child--sold. Same with If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen. I watched three copies sell in just one week--in fact, in less than two years of business, Pudd'nhead has sold more than 150 copies of this book. I learned fast: my big mouth proudly sold copies of The Phantom Tollbooth and my author Ingrid Law's Savvy.

Another fascinating lesson: boys are notoriously reluctant readers, the numbers tell us in New York--but if they're already in your store, they'll respond to a great pitch. Perfect example: Hero.Com and Villain.Net. Kids who download superpowers. Wham, bam, sold! Girls read more voraciously, the numbers tell us in New York, but they are tough customers. I have experienced nothing in this lifetime more ego-crushing than standing in the bookstore trying to sell books to fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked, pink-bedazzled little girls.

I felt most like a literary Jane Goodall in the bookstore mist watching Nikki meet with a sales rep. This isn't the time or place to discuss live reps versus phone reps--at Pudd'nhead, I saw merits to both--but the very glaring lesson for me was simply: Are there reps? The Penguin Group has three reps that visit Nikki's store. Some other major houses, I learned, don't send her even one. No doubt, the national accounts are going to drive success for many books. But for others, it's the indies with the big mouths that make all the difference. Nikki was obsessed with Ron Currie, Jr.'s Everything Matters! She may have sold more copies--more than 150 in hardcover, no less--than some national accounts.

I learned that some customers are perennial browsers and some are serious buyers. I met customers who demanded recommendations but refused to be impressed. In New York, we talk so glowingly of "the power of book clubs" that the very name conjures up for me an image of darling women around a sepia-colored, brownie-filled, apron-festooned kitchen. But at Pudd'nhead, I met the Book Club Shit Talkers. Life will never be the same.

The biggest lesson came courtesy of a novel called Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. I have no connection to this book; I bought it on vacation in San Francisco (shout-out to Habitat Books in Sausalito!) months before my Pudd'nhead mission. It's a heartstoppingly, devastatingly wonderful book that still burned in my head. I sold more copies of this book than any other. When one customer told me, "I just read To Kill a Mockingbird," my recommendation was Mudbound. When another customer told me her book club had just read The Help, the natural connection was Mudbound. (It was already in paperback and even had the same orange palette.) And when another customer--a minister--told me he wanted "a book that will teach me about the reality of our world and humanity, but without preaching to me," I resisted the temptation to run sobbing to Nikki for help; I just handed him Mudbound.

When I got back to New York, I realized handselling at Pudd'nhead has made me think in new ways about how I sell books to publishers. And here's another handsell: my author Tiffany Baker's glorious novel The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is now out in paperback and is available from her agent. (P.S. It has a shiny step-back!)
--Dan Lazar

The following were the bestselling books on AbeBooks.com in April:

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
3. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4. Tinkers by Paul Harding
5. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
6. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
7. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
8. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Though the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
10. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

The following were the bestselling signed books on AbeBooks.com in April:

1. Solar by Ian McEwan
2. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
3. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
4. Tinkers by Paul Harding
5. Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
6. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
7. Horns by Joe Hill
8. The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell
9. Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime by John Dunning
10. Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

[Many thanks to AbeBooks.com!]