"I was struck in a negative way by the way women appeared. Women who put themselves forward sexually were responsible for all the mayhem. I wanted to turn the tables on [Raymond] Chandler--I'm petty and vengeful."--Sara Paretsky explaining one of her motivations for beginning to write crime fiction, at a reading at Centuries & Sleuths, Forest Park, Ill., as reported by the Journal of Oak Park and Forest Park.

The concept of bookstore tourism is rolling into San Diego next month: the Southern California Booksellers Association is sponsoring a bus tour of five San Diego area bookstores on Saturday, August 27, geared for local readers. SCBA led a bookstore tour May 10 in the Los Angeles area--a "sold-out blast," according to executive director Jennifer Bigelow--but that was for booksellers and others in the industry.

Participants will pay $40 for the tour and visit Bay Books in Coronado, Book Works in Del Mar, Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, Warwick's in La Jolla and Yellow Book Road in La Mesa.

At each stop, the tourists will hear a talk or meet authors as well as have time to shop. Lunch will be served at the Coronado Historical Museum's Tent City Restaurant, where Christopher Reich, author of The Patriots Club, will speak. At Yellow Book Road, Kathleen Krull, author of Harcourt's "Lives of . . ." series, will discuss and sign her books. During the ride, Liza Palmer, author of Conversations with the Fat Girl, will talk. The closing reception features authors Alan Russell and Ken Kuhlken, who have collaborated on several books.

Called the "I Feel the Need to Read" tour, the all-day event was inspired by Larry Portzline, the founder of bookstore tourism who has been running bookstore tours since 2003 and wrote to regional booksellers associations promoting the idea. SCBA president Terry Gilman of Mysterious Galaxy, one of the tour stores, "jumped on the idea," Bigelow said. She noted, too, that members say two association priorities should be "promoting to the public the idea of shopping at independents" and the opportunity to network, both of which bookstore tourism addresses.

The goal for the San Diego trip is to have at least 50 participants, and already Warwick's has received many responses from a Sunday newspaper ad. If the bus tour rolls, SCBA will consider doing other bookstore tours in Los Angeles, Orange County and perhaps, "if we get ambitious," to Santa Barbara and the wine country, where participants will visit both bookstores and wineries. Mmmmm.

The Boston Globe today profiles the Toadstool Bookshop in Milford, N.H. (one of three Toadstool stores). Among the tasty morsels: in addition to the range of book clubs associated with the store, a knitting group called Eats, Knits & Leaves has just started.

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The Arizona Daily Wildcat discusses four independent bookstores in Tucson: Reader's Oasis, Antigone Books, Bookman's and Biblio.

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Varsity Group and Baker & Taylor have extended until 2008 their agreement whereby B&T handles Varsity's fulfillment and drop shipment services, which it has done since the company's founding.

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In a piece today about the expansion of chain stores into the capital's fast-growing far suburbs, the Washington Post focuses on Warrenton, Va., where Borders will open in November (see following item). While the town aims to "keep Main Street charm," most citizens apparently welcome the newcomers. Fauquier County's director of economic development told the paper: "When word came that Borders was coming, people stopped on the sidewalk and said, 'Hey, that's great news.' "

Later this year, Borders will open six more stores, three of which are in Virginia, all of which will carry nearly 200,000 book, music and movie titles and operate cafes and Paperchase sections.

The Virginia stores, which will open in November, are in:

• Newport News--a 21,017-sq.-ft. store has a life to live in the Patrick Henry Mall at I-64 and Jefferson Boulevard.
• Winchester--a 20,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to arrive in the Winchester Station Shopping Center at Pleasant Valley and East Tevis roads.
• Warrenton--a 19,750-sq.-ft. store will be in the Warrenton Center Shopping Plaza at West Lee Highway and Route 17.

In September, Borders is opening a 23,000-sq.-ft. store in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., in the Victoria Gardens Lifestyle Center at Daycreek and Foothill boulevards. This store will have an expanded Spanish-language section, including fiction and nonfiction for children and adults.

In October, Borders is opening a 20,000-sq.-ft. store in Crestview, Ky., in the Crestview Hills Town Center at the Dixie Highway and I-275. It is Borders's first store in northern Kentucky and the fifth in the Cincinnati area.

Also in October, the company will open a 19,121-sq.-ft. store in Middletown, N.Y., in the Crystal Run Mall.

Tomorrow Leonard Lopate speaks with:

• Peter Carey, winner of Booker Prizes for Oscar and Lucinda (Vintage, $14.95, 0679777504) and True History of the Kelly Gang (Vintage, $14, 0375724672), reveals how he discovered the world of anime with his son, as described in his recent book, Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey with His Son (Knopf, $17.95, 1400043115).
• Graphic novelist Daniel Clowes whose latest, Ice Haven (Pantheon, $18.95, 037542332X), features 29 interconnecting stories about life in the town of Ice Haven, which is gripped by anxiety over a missing child.
• Animal scientist Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Scribners, $25, 0743247698), who explains how her autism gives her special insights into understanding animal communication.
• Kwame Anthony Appiah, whose latest book is The Ethics of Identity (Princeton University Press, $29.95, 0691120366), on the subject of how and to what extent we are defined by our race, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality.

Tomorrow Diane Rehm talks with national security historian Timothy Naftali, author of Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism (Basic Books, $26, 046509281), who goes out on a limb and says the country did not fight terrorism adequately before Sept. 11.

At 40 acres, the University of Texas at Austin has one of the largest urban campuses of any educational institution in the country, but there is no general bookstore within walking distance of the school. (The UT Co-op stocks only texts and nonbook items.) This was not always so: until this spring, when it closed, there was a Barnes & Noble superstore across the street from the school's main entrance, along what's called the Drag. A short time later, a branch of Half Price Books that was also on the Drag moved to a larger location farther uptown.

The absence did not go unnoticed by members of the faculty, including English professor Jim Garrison and others, who circulated an open letter to the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts Richard Lariviere and other administrators asking them to remedy the situation.

The letter, as quoted by the Austin American-Statesman, read in part: "We have now become the only major university in the country without a bookstore. . . . This development is deeply embarrassing for us as a center of intellectual excellence. It has immediate practical consequences, as well, for the UT community no longer has a place to browse for new books and current journals or magazines, to satisfy curiosity about new areas of interest, or simply to be surprised to find writings of unexpected interest. . . . The 'Drag' without a bookstore runs counter to the University's oft-repeated goal of excellence. Accordingly, I, along with others, ask the UT administration immediately to take the initiative in restoring bookstore facilities on or near the campus."

Dean Lariviere told Shelf Awareness he'd received approximately a dozen letters from faculty and confirmed that the University has had very preliminary discussions with bookstores, including Labyrinth Books, which has locations in New York City near Columbia University and New Haven, Conn., near Yale.

The University, Lariviere said, is "still open to negotiating with other stores. What we're looking for is someone who will serve this unique community of 80,000 people who are interested in something beyond a chain bookstore. The Barnes & Noble did moderately well here, but no better than they would have in an average strip mall. They basically didn't adapt their offerings to this market."
 
The dean emphasized that the University wants a store that will be a destination for scholars visiting the school as well as students and faculty. Acknowledging the challenges academic bookstores face from the Internet, he said he feels some nostalgia for bookstores of yore and the cross fertilizations that browsing in those stores offered. "What's missing is the open-stack shopping experience like the great bookstores of the past offered to scholars and scientist. I remember when you could go into into Paul's in Madison [Wis.] and walk up and down the philosophy section and the biology section, and maybe you saw a book you'd read a review of and just buy the book immediately. That sort of thing doesn't happen on Amazon.com."

Booksellers interested in opening a store at the University of Texas should contact Kevin Hegarty, the University CFO, by e-mail at hegarty@mail.utexas.edu or by phone at 512-471-1422.--Edward Nawotka [ink@edwardn.com]