Cool idea of the day: EclecFest, a monthly "flea market and festival"
begun in December, makes its next appearance this coming Saturday,
January 7. Organized by Jaz Vincent, who opened the RealEyes bookstore
in the North Davidson art district of Charlotte, N.C., a year ago
(
Shelf Awareness, July 5), EclecFest features some 30 vendors who will
show and sell art, food and more. The artists include musicians,
jewelry makers, sculptors, painters and others. The Kid's Corner offers
face-painting, storytelling, arts and crafts and a moon bounce.
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Serving James Madison University, University Outpost in Harrisonburg,
Va., has moved into larger, more visible quarters, a site that has been
the home of a series of failed restaurants. Jeff Wolter, who owns the
store with his sister, told the
Harrisonburg Daily News-Record that he thought the store can beat the jinx because "we've been open more than five years, and we're not a restaurant."
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Afro-In-Books & Things, Miami, Fla., "a Liberty City landmark," as the
Miami Herald
put it, has closed. Owned by William "D.C." and Stephana Clark, the
store has been a center of community activism and cultural activity.
The Clarks bought the store in 1993 from Earl and Eursla Wells, who
opened it in 1978.
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In an op-ed piece in today's
New York Times, Nick Chiles, editor-in-chief of
Odyssey Couleur magazine and co-author of
A Love Story,
excoriates street lit and ghetto lit and laments that many chain stores'
African-American literature sections consist "almost exclusively [of]
pornography for black women."
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Bob and Sue Rozankovich, owners of Yesterday's Books in Parchment,
Mich., have closed the bookstore after 25 years in business, according
to the
Kalamazoo Gazette.
The couple will continue to buy, sell and search for books and other
materials such as photos via yesbooks@chartermi.net and will do
appraisals.
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The
Tribune
offers a Q&A with Jason Daub, new owner of Firehouse Books, Ames,
Iowa, a used bookstore. Considering the highly competitive bookselling climate, he has the
right spirit: asked what character in a book he would like most to be,
he replied Aragorn from
Lord of the Rings because "he just kicks everyone's ass."
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After being closed for six months, the House of Books, damaged in a
fire, is reopening in Crawfordville, Fla., this Friday, according to
the
Tallahassee Democrat. The used bookstore is owned by Adene Beal.
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Books-A-Million plans to open a store soon in Acworth, Ga., in the
northwestern suburbs of Atlanta. The store will be an anchor in the
Lakeside MarketPlace. BAM has 13 other stores in Georgia.
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Today's
Wall Street Journal reviews the new Playaway audiobook,
which, in effect, is "a book, which happens to come with a cheap
player." The audiobooks don't connect to computers, no downloading is
involved, selections cannot be recorded over, and it costs $35-$55 per
book. The verdict: "Playaway is easy to use, and certainly very
convenient. But unless you have some reason to dislike downloading
books, and have lots of cash, it's not the best way to go."
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Scott Hatfill has joined Diamond Book Distributors in the new position
of director of international sales and will be responsible, among other
things, for expanding Diamond's business in the U.K., Canada, Asia,
Australia, Europe, India, South Africa and the Middle East.
Formerly international v-p at A1books, he also worked 16 years at
Ingram, most recently as director of sales and international market
development. In those days, we bumped into Hatfill regularly, but only,
it seemed, on other continents.
Diamond Book Distributors is also hiring Allan Greenberg as a sales
manager focusing on library and school sales, some of the
fastest-growing areas for the company. He has worked nearly 16 years in
sales at Diamond Comic Distributors.
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Biblio, the small new and used bookstore in Tucson, Ariz., that opened in 2002, is closing, according to the
Tucson Citizen.
Owner Maggie Golston, who said part of the store's mission was "to make
books cool," explained that the first year was "very promising," but
that "while it became fairly obvious that people really dug our store
and thought it was cool, we just didn't make enough money to live." The
store specialized in literature and culture, poetry and art books and
aimed to be urban and cool but warm and inviting, as the paper put it.
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Sudoku is hot both with crossword-puzzle fans and college students at
Cata's Books in West Frankfort, Ill., owner Candice Lahr told the
Southern Illinoisan.
One reason the numbers for sudoku are so good because of the puzzles'
low entrance bar: unlike crosswords, no specialized knowledge is
required.
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