In a letter to booksellers yesterday calling on them to spread the word about Amazon's business practices, American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher emphasized what might be the biggest problem concerning Amazon for many book people, whose experience with the retailer is decidedly different from the rosy view many Americans have:

"We should be honest with ourselves: Amazon has established a strong relationship with many consumers, coming in second in a top 10 ranking of national brands, according to BrandIndex. In addition, Amazon is rated number one by parents with children under the age of 18, young people aged 18-34, and consumers who identify themselves as members of the Democratic party. (Try to figure that one out!) And, notably, the Kindle occupied the ninth spot in the BrandIndex top 10.

"You and your bookselling colleagues know the real narrative of the Amazon story, but it's important that we keep in mind the viewpoint and experience of our customers. Amazon's public message of low prices and wide selection are, regrettably, the only story that many consumers know."

Citing "a growing record of their questionable business practices," Teicher said that ultimately "the most influential and trusted voice in helping to tell the true story to your customers is you. Armed with the facts--and those facts are extraordinarily persuasive--your outreach to your customers is critically important." He offered an extensive list of links to a variety of research, newspaper and magazine stories and more that "make clear that Amazon's narrative of growth, value, and productive contribution to communities is highly distorted. These resources suggest that the real story is a combination of complex strategic machinations, brass-knuckles capitalism, and a myopic disregard of the consequences for any stakeholders save itself. As the company concentrates its power and influence in a nexus of commerce, government, and media, Amazon's actions should draw even more scrutiny. And, I believe it's our job to help encourage and promote that increased scrutiny."

For people in the book world, Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, owners of Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C., have an unusual perspective on the purchase of the Washington Post by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. As they wrote on the store's website, "each of us spent significant portions of our working lives at the newspaper--Brad as a foreign correspondent, editor and Pentagon reporter, and Lissa as a reporter and editor on the metro and sports staffs."

They say they "fervently want to believe that the Graham family's decision to sell the paper to Bezos is a smart business move that will, as supporters of the deal contend, breathe new life into the Post and enable it to prosper during the digital age. The Grahams have made clear they are counting on Bezos' deep pockets and on his reputation as a visionary and innovator to re-think the newspaper business and finance necessary changes."

Yet, they continued, "In the past two years, as stewards of another local cultural institution--Politics & Prose--we've routinely encountered a different version of Bezos. Indeed, among many independent booksellers he is perceived as a ruthless competitor bent on disrupting traditional retailers, including bookstores, without regard for the civic and commercial value that local bricks-and-mortar establishments still bring to neighborhoods around the country…

"Perhaps because those of us in the bookstore business view Bezos through the lens of frontline combatants, we have difficulty sharing Don Graham's confidence that the Amazon founder (a Washington outsider with no newspaper experience who plans to continue living in Seattle) will do the right thing and maintain the Post's high journalistic standards and deep commitment to the D.C. area. In any case, the Post purchase will certainly enhance Bezos's--and Amazon's--influence in Washington, which already is considerable. Just look at President Obama's decision last month to travel to an Amazon facility in Tennessee for a speech highlighting job creation. Or the Justice Department's recent action against Apple and major book publishers, accusing them of colluding to raise e-book prices and reduce Amazon's dominance of the e-book market."

In a nice touch, Graham and Muscatine concluded with a public offer: "Now that Bezos will be a D.C. business owner, we'd like to extend our own welcome to him. We even hope that he might find time when in town to visit Politics & Prose and be reminded of the benefits afforded by local bookstores--the joy of browsing shelves, the help provided by expert staff, the pleasures of attending author events, and above all, the shared sense of community."

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, author and bookseller Ann Patchett offered a somewhat friendly if wary welcome to new Post owner Jeff Bezos.

Writing wistfully about change and hoping that Bezos can help the Post thrive, she said, "I realize that I'm extending optimism and goodwill without knowing Bezos's vision for the paper. I also realize that optimism and goodwill toward Bezos may seem a little strange coming from me, a spokesperson for independent bookstores and someone who is forever climbing up on a chair to rail against Amazon.... Bezos has been a forceful visionary, an industry leader and often a steamroller. While I disagree fiercely with many of Amazon's business practices, I regard Bezos as a man who makes things work."

She ended with a bit of bookseller-to-bookseller advice: "Since it's safe to assume that Bezos is reading the Post thoroughly these days, let me offer a piece of advice that will benefit us both: Expand the book review offerings. Nothing beats newspaper reviews for selling books. And bookselling, after all, is one of the businesses we're both in."

Revenue at Indigo Books & Music fell 8.1%, to C$171.5 million (about US$166 million), in the first quarter ended June 29, and the net loss grew to $15 million from $5.5 million in the same period a year ago.

Revenue declined primarily because of a difficult comparison with the first quarter in 2012, which was marked by "the phenomenal success of the Fifty Shades and Hunger Games trilogies," the company said. Without the two trilogies, revenue would have declined only 1.3% in the quarter. In addition, Indigo has eight fewer small-format stores this quarter. Sales of lifestyle, paper and toy products had double-digit increases. Online sales were flat.

Sales at Indigo and Chapters superstores open at least a year fell 7.3%; at Coles and IndigoSpirit, small-format stores open at least a year fell 13.1%.

The company said that the net loss grew mainly because of "the decline in hit-related book sales, higher inventory markdown as well as intentionally higher selling and administrative expenses compared to last year. As part of its transformational strategy to drive top-of-mind consumer awareness in its key growth categories, the company invested more in building its general merchandise capabilities and in marketing."

In other news, Indigo will open 39 !ndigotech shops within its shops during the second and third quarter. The shops feature Apple products and other design-inspired lifestyle electronics and accessories.

Michael de Zayas's Kickstarter for Hullabaloo.

Another new bookstore in New York City!

Hullabaloo, a 250-square-foot bookstore, will open next month in Crown Heights, in Brooklyn, the Daily News reported. Owner Michael de Zayas, who also runs a coffee shop and gourmet cheese shop, aims to create "a home for the arts" in the neighborhood.

Hullabaloo will carry new and used books. De Zayas commented: "The printed book is a passion of mine. I love having a library, I love seeing books. The sight, the smell the touch of books is a fundamental joy to me and one I think a lot of people in this neighborhood share."

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and Ingram Content Group are collaborating to make it easier for booksellers to order books and celebrate Banned Books Week this year, September 22-28. 

Under the program, booksellers can order ABFFE's list of banned and challenged books, including many new titles this year, with additional discounts. For the first 150 qualifying orders, Ingram will also deliver a promotional kit on behalf of ABFFE that contains everything booksellers need to assemble a Banned Books Week display, including 200 bookmarks, 30 buttons, 10 bumper stickers, 30 feet of "Caution" tape and a Freadom T-shirt.

For more information about the promotion, e-mail info@abffe.org or contact an Ingram sales rep or Ingram Customer Care at 1-800-937-8000.

In other Banned Books news, Above the Treeline has posted more than 120 banned and challenged titles on Edelweiss, and Banned Books Week has another virtual read-out of banned and challenged titles that includes videos from booksellers featuring customers and authors reading excerpts of their favorite books.

ABFFE's website features a Banned Books Week Handbook with many suggestions to participate, including posters that can be downloaded for free. The American Library Association also provides Banned Books Week resources. ABFFE's promotional products are on sale, with Freadom T-shirts marked down 40% and an additional discount on orders for 10 or more shirts. Sale prices are available using this form.

Kate Birkel, owner of the Mystery Bookstore, Omaha, Neb., was able to get a glimpse at the man suspected of burglarizing her shop in late June after police released surveillance video of the break-in, FOX42 News reported.

Birkel said the thief broke a window and spent two hours inside the store, taking $90 in cash, a jewelry-making tool and her gym bag. She added that "the biggest mystery was a thief breaking into a bookstore to find money."

Barbara Mertz, who wrote more than 35 mysteries under the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters and 29 suspense novels as Barbara Michaels, died yesterday, the Associated Press (via USA Today) reported. She was 85.

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Lloyd Moss, a classical music radio announcer and children's book author, whose Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (illustrated by Marjorie Priceman) was named a Caldecott Honor book for illustration in 1996, died Saturday. He was 86.

"Last chapter for independent bookstores? Not just yet," CNBC observed in showcasing several indie bookstores, including 25-year-old McIntyre's Books, Pittsboro, N.C.

"We had double-digit growth in book sales for years until a Barnes and Noble opened on a highway near us around 1991, and then it all came crashing down," said manager Keebe Fitch, daughter of the shop's founders. "But we've buckled down and have been able to hold on for the long haul. Our gross sales are up 14% so far this year and were up 13% in 2011. We've learned how to change and get stronger."

Dick Brulotte, manager of Beehive Books, Delaware, Ohio, said, "When the box stores came into vogue, everyone quickly moved on from smaller stores because the allure of being able to see and purchase a much larger quantity of books was very enticing. Those that tried to stick it out had to find a niche, which would still draw in customers," he said. Brulotte had worked full-time at a Borders location after his retirement from teaching.

McIntyre's Fitch noted that they "didn't want to be a superstore, so we learned how to get books that people couldn't find online, and to cater as much as we could to the customer. When a customer walks in, we try to make them feel wanted and at home. It's a very personal experience."

Her advice for prospective booksellers: "Do your homework. Learn the business. Don't just do it because you love books."

Kristin Keith of W.W. Norton & Company has won the 2013 Helmuth Sales Rep of the Year Award, sponsored by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association.

Keith has been in the business for 20 years, starting with a two-week temporary Christmas job at Tower Books in Portland, Ore. After managing a Tower Books in Fairfax, Va., she became a buyer at Koen Book Distributors. She then became a regional PGW rep, staying with the distributor the first two years of the Perseus merger.

She will receive the award during the NAIBA Fall Conference September 30-October 2 in Somerset, N.J.

Europa Editions has won NAIBA's Original Paperback Book of the Year award. NAIBA Awards Committee chair Lucy Kogler of Talking Leaves Books, Buffalo, N.Y., commented: "Europa Editions publishes elegant books in translation, literary fiction and non-fiction and world noir. Michael [Reynolds] is one of the most impassioned editors-in-chief in the industry. He is so obviously proud of the relationship that he has with independent booksellers and we booksellers know his books will appeal to our discriminating customers. Each book is an artistic, french-flapped, original-in-paperback treasure that we are thrilled to place in our stores."

Reynolds said, "Indie bookstores were our first friends in the business and have always been our most supportive retail partners. It is no exaggeration to say that without independent booksellers, it would be well-nigh impossible for Europa and many other fine indie publishers to do what we do. Among the members of NAIBA there are some of America's savviest, most committed and most innovative bookstores, and it is particularly pleasing to receive this sort of recognition from them."

The German Book Office has chosen A Schoolboy's Diary by Robert Walser, translated by Damion Searls (NYRB Classics, $14.95, 9781590176726), which will be published September 3, as its August book of the month.]

A Schoolboy's Diary is a new collection of more than 70 stories that center on, the GBO wrote, "schoolboy life--the subject of [Walser's] greatest novel, Jakob von Gunten--and dispatches from the edge of the writer's life, as Walser's modest, extravagant, careening narrators lash out at uncomprehending editors, overly solicitous publishers, and disdainers of Odol mouthwash. There are vignettes that swoon over the innocent beauties of the Swiss landscape, but from sexual adventures on a train, to dissecting an adulterous love triangle by 'wading knee-deep into what is generally called the Danish or psychological novel,' to three stories about Walser's service in the Swiss military during World War I, the collection has an unexpected range of subject matter."

Walser, who lived from 1878-1956, was born into a German-speaking family in Biel, Switzerland. He left school at 14 and led a wandering, precarious existence while writing poems, novels and many "prose pieces" that became his hallmark. In 1933. he was confined to a sanatorium, which marked the end of his writing career.

Damion Searls is a writer and a translator of many classic 20th-century authors, including Proust, Rilke, Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard.

One Punch from the Promised Land: Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, and the Myth of the Heavyweight Title by John Florio and Ouisie Shapiro (Globe Pequot).

Tomorrow on NPR's Studio 360: Lynda Obst, author of Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781476727745).

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Tomorrow on Huckabee: Capt. Scotty Smiley, co-author of Hope Unseen: The Story of the U.S. Army's First Blind Active-Duty Officer (Howard, $24.99, 9781439183793).

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Tomorrow on Oprah's Next Chapter: Wil Haygood, author of The Butler: A Witness to History (37 Ink, $18, 9781476752990). Haygood will also be on MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry Show on Sunday.

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Sunday on MSNBC's Disrupt with Karen Finney: Heidi Boghosian, author of Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power and Public Resistance (City Lights Publishers, $18.95, 9780872865990).

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Sunday on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered: Ruthann Robson, author of Dressing Constitutionally: Hierarchy, Sexuality, and Democracy from Our Hairstyles to Our Shoes  (Cambridge University Press, $32.99, 9780521140041).

A trailer has been released for Captain Phillips, based on the book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips and Stephan Talty. Indiewire reported that the film, directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks, "looks like pretty bracing stuff, and another movie to notch on the must-see schedule for the rest of the year." Captain Phillips premieres at the New York Film Festival in September and in theaters October 11.

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A new trailer for Cormac McCarthy's The Counselor, which was written for the big screen, offers "the biggest peek yet at what is one of the fall's biggest films," Indiewire reported. The movie is directed by Ridley Scott, who "has stacked the cast for this one," including Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Dean Norris, Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer, Goran Visnjic. The Counselor will be released October 25.

Showtime released a three-minute trailer for Masters of Sex, based on Thomas Maier's book The Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson the Couple Who Taught America How to Love. Indiewire noted that the trailer "for the upcoming show actually positions itself as a pretty intriguing looking drama about the intersection of love, sex and science." The project, which stars Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, debuts September 29. Johnson died on July 24.

The finalists for the 2013 Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award are:

• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (Random House)
• The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power by Hugh White (Black Inc.)
• China's Search for Security by Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell (Columbia University Press)
• From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia by Pankaj Mishra (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 by Odd Arne Westad (Basic Books)

The winner will be named in September.

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcovers
In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods: A Novel by Matt Bell (Soho Press, $25, 9781616952532). "In a narrative voice like smooth bourbon, Bell's excellent debut novel is a modern folktale of opposing elements: lake and dirt, bear and squid, song and ghost. Telling the tale with a quiet brutality, Bell finds heart and perseverance in nature that is red in tooth and claw, as the unnamed narrator inexorably strives against forces vastly more powerful than he could ever hope to be, for the woman he loves and the family life he wants." --Josh Cook, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass.

Instructions for a Heat Wave: A Novel by Maggie O'Farrell (Knopf, $25.95, 9780385349406). "What happens to one Irish family living in London during the oppressive 1976 summer heatwave when patriarch Richard Riordan mysteriously disappears on a seemingly simple walk to buy the morning newspaper? As his three adult children return home to support their mother, Gretta, past resentments and longstanding secrets emerge in this insightful portrait of a family in crisis. I was immediately engaged by all of the characters, who are not only vulnerable, but also endearing. Subtle, graceful writing at its best!" --Jane Glaser, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wis.

Paperback
Wallflower in Bloom: A Novel by Claire Cook (Touchstone, $14.99, 9781451672770). "Deirdre Griffin's life is not her own. Her high-maintenance, charismatic brother, Tag, is a New Age guru and a national sensation. As his gatekeeper and personal assistant, Deidre's frustrations with her family, and herself, bring her to a hysterical moment. After drowning her sorrows in vodka, Deidre gets herself voted onto Dancing With the Stars as a replacement by way of Tag's online followers. This is a very funny read that will make you roll your eyes about family!" --Joanne Doggart, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Chatham, Mass.

For Teen Readers
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson (Tor Teen, $17.99, 9780765320322). "Joel desperately wants to be a Rithmatist--part of a select order that can bring chalk drawings to life to battle wild chalkings and keep the human race safe. But since he's not, Joel spends his time learning everything he can about Rithmatics and befriends an outcast professor and another student, who end up helping him in his own battle. This well-plotted story is perfect for all sorts of readers--the math geek, the fantasy lover, and the sucker for happy endings. I can't wait for a sequel!" --Melissa Oates, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, S.C.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

photo: James Cham

Yangsze Choo's debut novel, The Ghost Bride (Morrow, August 6, 2013), is a B&N Fall 2013 Discover Great New Writers pick, an August Indie Next List selection and the Bookseller Editor's Pick. Born in Malaysia, Choo lives with her husband and children in Palo Alto, Calif., where she eats and reads too much and can be found writing about both at her blog.

On your nightstand now:

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, about hilarious mishaps with animals and relatives. Oh, and James Herriot. You can see a theme here.

Your top five authors:

Hard to choose... how about Haruki Murakami, Isak Dinesen, Yukio Mishima, Vikram Seth and Susanna Clarke.

Book you've faked reading:

Moby Dick. I never got further than the bit in the beginning about ordering chowder. I think they had fish and clam chowder and all sorts of other New England cuisine. At that point, I inevitably started to feel hungry and wandered off.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Sacred Book of the Werewolf--no, this isn't a zombie/monster thriller. It's actually an incredibly funny, biting satire about the Russian oligarchy and the oil industry by Viktor Pelevin. I've tried telling people about this, but the words "satire" and "oligarchy" seem to put them off for some reason....

Book you've bought for the cover:

Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red. This actually turned out to be one of my favorite books, rich with layers of unfolding intrigue. In fact, the other day I was trying to squeeze more books into my double-parked bookcase when I picked this one up to reshelf and lost an extra 45 minutes rereading bits of it.

Book that changed your life:

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. I think I have almost all his books in physical form, but I especially love this one. His simple, direct style taught me that a story doesn't need any frills to be completely addictive.

Favorite line from a book:

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." A short sentence that nonchalantly assumes the reader buys into Tolkien's world. And of course, it can only refer to the One book.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I was sad to get to the end even though I almost got a hernia toting this hefty book around. Her footnotes, in particular, break almost every rule about footnotes for fiction, yet are so strange and winsome that I was completely charmed.

It sounds like you have a lot of books if you need to double-park them:

I'm addicted to books and start feeling panicky if I'm traveling and there's no reading material. If I don't have anything, I'll start desperately reading real estate circulars and the backs of cereal boxes. The last time I went home on a long flight to Malaysia I solved this by downloading all the Game of Thrones books onto my Kindle. I have no recollection of the next month other than that I spent every spare moment reading them, only to discover at the end that "Nooo! It's not finished!!"

In their repetition of familiar arguments, debates about evolution between atheists and believers often yield more heat than light. Lauren Grodstein's smart, compassionate novel The Explanation for Everything offers a welcome respite for anyone seeking fresh paths over this well-trodden ground.

Andy Waite teaches evolutionary biology at a nondescript liberal arts college on the edge of New Jersey's Pine Barrens. A disciple of Princeton professor Hank Rosenblum, an aggressive atheist in the mold of Richard Dawkins, he teaches a course whimsically nicknamed "There Is No God," insisting on the first day of class that "Darwinian evolution explains everything about us. Everything." Outside the classroom, he's trying to raise two young daughters eight years after the death of his wife, killed in a collision with a drunk driver (her silent ghost is a character in the story), and he's stymied in the experiment he needs to support a grant that will assure he receives tenure.

Andy's angst snowballs when Lionel Shell, a fundamentalist student taking his course for the second time, introduces him to Melissa Potter, another believer, who persuades Andy to support her independent study on intelligent design, the theory litigated in the 2005 Pennsylvania court case that Grodstein has said inspired her novel. Andy finds himself growing attracted both to Melissa and to her spiritual life, "for having belief he wanted to borrow," and in the process he's forced to question everything from his adherence to Rosenblum's frequently cruel dogmatism to his own merciless determination that the driver who killed his wife serve a full prison term.

In any novel that tackles a controversial subject, there's a danger the characters will serve as little more than mouthpieces for prepackaged points of view or that the deck will be stacked in favor of one side. Grodstein, a self-professed atheist, sidesteps these traps. Whether it's Andy, Rosenblum, Lionel or Melissa, she's careful to give each of her characters a distinctive personality, and in doing so invests each with emotional depth and, above all, humanity. She also understands that, for many believers, faith is grounded in something much more subtle and profound than a carefully constructed theology. In exploring the conflict between faith and science in a story that's as much about the mysteries of the human heart as it is about religion or evolution, she shows how art can be a surer road to truth than even the most intellectually elegant ideology. --Harvey Freedenberg

Shelf Talker: Grodstein's third novel (following 2009's A Friend of the Family) takes a fresh look at the conflict between religion and science.

"Those entrepreneurial bookstore owners who can see the opportunities inherent in bringing our communities together online and in real life, and innovating throughout a new age of digital publishing, they, the pioneers and trailblazers, will stay on trend and relevant, playing an important role in modern society and, with our support, continuing to flourish."

You'll probably still be sleeping tomorrow when members of the Australian Booksellers Association begin celebrating the third annual National Bookshop Day (@NatBookshopDay), with bookshops hosting events and promotions across the continent. The official launch of the festivities is the announcement of this year's Favorite Bookshop by actor and author William McInnes during a ceremony at the Sun Bookshop, Yarraville. Check out this promo video featuring McInnes that was filmed at the bookstore. And, for good measure, here's another promo featuring NBD ambassador Markus Zusak.

Four Aussie publishers produced free mini-editions for booksellers to distribute to their patrons: Amazing Experiences (Lonely Planet), Rain Queen by Katherine Scholes (Penguin), The Dig Tree by Sarah Murgatroyd (Text), Secret Kingdom Activity Book and Sea Question Activity Book (both from Hachette).

Bloomsbury Australia is running a #lovebookshops campaign across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, asking booksellers to send photos of their stores.

Australian indie booksellers are participating in numerous ways, some of which could easily be in the running as future Shelf Awareness "Cool Idea of the Day" features. Here's a sampling:

In addition to hosting the official NBD launch, the Sun Bookshop's Younger Sun store has invited children to dress up as their favorite Leigh Hobbs character, participate in a drawing workshop with the popular author/illustrator and "afterwards join us for fairybread and cordial."

Electric Shadows Bookshop, Canberra, hosts a fundraising event with author and local Labor MP Andrew Leigh to raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Writers are being put to work behind the counters as celebrity booksellers at Pages & Pages Booksellers as well as at Avid Reader, Brisbane, where other planned events include free henna hand painting and "jazz on the footpath."

The National Bookshop Day theme this year at Potts Point Bookshop is "(Wo)Man's Best Friend and we are hoping you'll agree that there's no better company than a book, other than perhaps your furry companion." Featured events include Dr. Mim & Claire, "who will be opening PP Vet Hospital," a doggie photo booth and Fairy Poppilina, who "will have you barking in your seats with her special storytime session."

At Riverbend Books & Teahouse, Bulimba, the staff is wearing pajamas to work to celebrate local bookstores in the community. "If you are also feeling gluttonous, tired and literary, then come along and join us in the festivities, where we will be encouraging everyone to eat, sleep, and--most importantly--read local. The first 50 adults and 50 children to visit us wearing their pajamas, or even just a dressing gown, will receive a free book!"

"Read-ins" are being held at TLC Books, Manly, where customers are being encouraged to "come down and cop a squat in or around the bookstore and read"; as well as Mary Who? Bookshop, Townsville, where patrons are asked to "bring a chair (or lounge!) and a book and find a spot in the dappled sunlight directly out the front of MW?... to read... in the lovely company of other readers! Bring a crowd if you can!"

Robinsons Bookshops in Frankston, Chadstone and Greensborough are celebrating National Bookshop Day by launching Blind Date with a Book, "a fun way to try new authors and discover great reads ... [that] involves hand-picked quality fiction titles completely wrapped in brown paper. A few vague words are the only hint as to what lies within."

So, happy National Bookshop Day! The ABA's NBD cat probably sums up the festivities best:

I buy books in my local bookshop so I...
help employ humans
help the environment
kept my money in Australia
and embraced the uniqueness of my favorite bookshop.

--Robert Gray, contributing editor