Seeking to sell itself, Borders Group has not received any offers for the whole company but has received several offers for parts of the company, Bloomberg reported.
Barnes & Noble expressed interest in buying some 10 stores, and other groups have made offers. According to the Wall Street Journal, B&N also wanted to buy Borders's website and customer lists.
One offer that has stood out is for more than 200 stores. The Journal said that the entity behind the bid would continue to operate the company and is interested in "the large retail outlets that garner the bulk of the company's revenues."
Borders had set a deadline of May 6 for bids that would keep the company operating.
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Arcadia Books will open this coming Friday in downtown Spring Green, Wis., about 20 miles west of Madison, and will carry a selection of literature, drama, poetry, history, cookbooks, children's books and current bestsellers. The store will also house the Kitchen at Arcadia Books, which will offer coffee and espresso, beer and wine, sandwiches, salads and other snacks.
The store is owned by James Bohnen, a frequent director at the American Players Theatre, the classic theater in Spring Green, who said, "I've long dreamed of owning a bookstore in the right place. Through my association with APT over the years, I have come to love this community and I am excited to be able to contribute to it by offering good books, good talk and terrific food."
Arcadia Books will host book clubs, children's story hours, local and national author appearances and signings. The grand opening event will be held Friday, June 10, at 6 p.m. and feature local writer Dean Bakopoulos, whose new novel, My American Unhappiness, is being published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in June.
John Christensen is Arcadia Books' manager. Jacki Singleton, a local caterer, is in charge of the café. The store will be open seven days a week and is located at 102 E. Jefferson St., Spring Green, Wis. 53588; 608-588-7638.
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Maple Street Book Shop,
New Orleans, La., is planning an expansion into a pair of additional
city neighborhoods. The Faubourg Marigny shop will be located within the
New Orleans Healing Center at 2732 St. Claude Avenue and will open for
business in late June. The Faubourg St. John location, at 3141 Ponce de
Leon #1, is scheduled to open later in the summer.
In a message posted on the bookstore's blog Fighting the Stupids,
owner Donna Allen cited a variety of reasons for the decision, "none
the least of which is that the rate of illiteracy in New Orleans is
unacceptable. It's nearly twice the national average. How can this be in
our wonderful city? Literacy is vital to the growth and well-being of
any community, whether that community is a well established one located
near universities or one having to rebuild itself from the ground up
after a massive disaster. Maple Street Book Shop has always been a
neighborhood book shop and as New Orleans continues to rebuild its
neighborhoods, we want to be there to offer the residents a source for
quality literature, a source for affordable reading materials, a source
for reading materials in all formats, and a place for literary events."
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"At
the end of the day, the bottom line is dollars and cents--that's what
we needed to convey for them," Xochitl Mora, a city of Laredo
spokesperson, told the Morning Times regarding last Friday's opening of the new Books-A-Million store (Shelf Awareness,
May 12, 2011) . "We needed to convey not just the passion for literacy,
but the fact that they would be successful financially. For them to
decide to come here during this time shows that they have faith in our
community. They know they're going to make money because people read."
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Congratulations to Boulevard Books & Café, Brooklyn, N.Y., which is celebrating its first anniversary this coming Saturday. Events include storytime and dancing with Yo Gabba Gabba!, game time with Bingo, Brain Quest and Bananagrams as well as an evening cocktail party with readings and signings by Suzanne Corso, author of Brooklyn Story, Alison Espach, author of The Adults, and Jane Borden, author of I Totally Meant to Do That.
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Women's Voices for Change profiled Julie Summerfield, "the clever and personable woman who has managed the Haverford College Bookstore for the past 28 years"--and one of our favorite booksellers ever.
While the store, in Haverford, Pa., sells all the kinds of supplies and tchatchkes like sweatshirts and snacks, "it's still about the books," Roz Warren wrote. "Not about formulaic bestsellers, or titles a publisher has paid the store to feature, or inventory that a distant corporate office has decreed should fill the shelves. Books that somebody (Julie) has taken the care to select. Books that I may not have heard of before I stopped in, but that I'll enjoy reading when I get home."
She described a visit this way: "When you enter the store--you're greeted personally, often by name. Bookstore staff recognize the regulars and make an effort to get to know the newbies. 'Did you finish that paper?' Frank asks a student. Another is congratulated about a recent sports victory. I was asked about my son's upcoming wedding. It's clear that many students drop by just to enjoy browsing and kibbitzing with bookstore staff. And its not just students who feel at home here. Professors (and their kids), visiting parents, alums, and friends of the store like myself are all made to feel welcome.
"It's like Cheers, but with books instead of beer."
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Salon presented a Trazzler slide show
of "the world's most inspiring bookstores," which includes some old
favorites--even if we've seen a few only in pictures: Powell's Books,
Portland, Ore.; City Lights, San Francisco, Calif.; Daunt Books, London;
the Selexyz store in an old church in Maastricht, Netherlands; and El
Ateneo Grand Splendid, in an ornate former theater in Buenos Aires,
Argentina; as well as some striking lesser-known stores, like King
Books, Detroit, Mich., and the Montague Bookmill in Montague, Mass.
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A slide show depicting the creation of a colorful "wall of books" outside Rainy Day Paperback Exchange, Bethel, Conn., was featured by the Bethel Patch.
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In a Guardian video, Eoin Colfer read from his first Artemis Fowl book and answered questions from young readers.
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The witch is dead... and a bookmark. The Daily What's "Wicked Bookmark of the Day" was made by Kira Nichols, who "created this lovely Ruby Slippers/Wicked Witch of the East polymer clay bookmark after becoming inspired while reading Wicked."
"We have bent with the technology and 25% of our sales
are online. Of course, with that came complications. We have a 15,000-sq.-ft.
warehouse upstairs and another the same size in Brooklyn, and dealing with that
inventory is a challenge. If we have 15 versions of Huckleberry Finn, we have
to figure out how to get the right one to the customer. On the other hand, we've
expanded our brand internationally. Busloads of Japanese tourists come to buy
our tote bags."
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The Independent Book Publishers Association's 
The children's art auction and reception that used to benefit the Association of Booksellers for Children has now become a fundraiser for the new 
The judges praised Queen Anne for its "clear understanding of the needs of young readers at different ages and stages," for "its creative ways to reach them (in store, in schools, in libraries, in the community)," and for "not overlooking the oft-forgotten secret weapon, the parents." Queen Anne was also cited for reaching out "to children in foster homes and give discounts for parent-child book groups [and] the Bookworms Little League team."
The judges lauded Fairytales Bookstore & More for "the comprehensive approach it takes to involving kids in reading, from creative play and storytelling, to music, and visual arts" as well for its daily story time that offers "many ways for kids to engage with reading and books." It also was praised for its attention to parents and their need to "relax and rejuvenate" in the store.
Your top five authors:
Post-Wall East Berlin, before the city got its bearings and turned
into a boomtown, provides the perfect eerie setting for Inka Parei's dystopian
novel of threat and survival. Hell lives in a mostly deserted apartment house
that is about to be demolished; her one neighbor, Dunkel, has disappeared
without warning, and Hell is worried that something bad has happened to her. Though
she's tempted to do nothing and avoid complications, Hell sets out to solve the
mystery of Dunkel's disappearance and perhaps rescue her.