"We're never going to sell enough three-dollar paperbacks to pay the rent. And it's probably a waste of space, but there's enough of the old, used bookman in me that if someone comes in here and wants Moby Dick or Barbara Kingsolver, it irritates me if I don't have it."--Ken Sanders, owner of Ken Sanders Rare Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, profiled in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Cool idea of the day: HarperCollins has created an 8 1/2" x 11" sign for booksellers to use for a display of National Book Award Finalists--from all publishers. Stores can e-mail their Harper rep or Carl Lennertz for a Word document that they can print out. The sign contains the official National Book Award seal; the NBA has OKed the seal's use to promote store displays.

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James Shepherd, who had retired from Southern Territory Associates, which he founded in 1977, died on October 6 in Dallas, Tex. He was 63. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Boy Scout Troop 890 Grant Milner Memorial Scholarship Fund, 3905 Eversham Dr., Plano, Tex. 75025. The Dallas Morning News has some information about his interests and family.

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Bookselling This Week offers a diary by Ann Lacefield, who is opening a store in Greeley, Colo., later this month--her happiness and nervousness will be familiar to anyone who's opened a store! After 24 years of teaching, she was inspired to jump into bookselling in part by Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail. In the diary, she mentions being interviewed by the Greeley Tribune, which has just published a story about her and the store. Lacefield told the paper that An Open Book "is going to be your neighborhood bookstore where you can come in, sit down and read a book. It's going to designed like a seaside cottage with antique furniture, a place where you can come an relax in a cottage next to the beach."

An Open Book is located at 1509 44th Ave. Court in the College Green Commons, Greeley, Colo. 80634.
 

Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, author of Work Hard, Study . . . And Keep Out of Politics!: Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Political Life (Putnam, $28.95, 0399153772).

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: John Grisham, whose new book is nonfiction, Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (Doubleday, $28.95, 0385517238). 

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Tomorrow on Larry King Weekend: actress-author-entrepreneur Suzanne Somers, author of Ageless: Bioidentical Hormones and Beyond (Crown, $25, 0307237249).

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Sunday Weekend Today stars Marc Eliot, author of Jimmy Stewart: A Biography (Crown, $25.95, 1400052211).

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Sunday on Weekend Today: Laura Kipnis, author of The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability (Pantheon, $23.95, 0375424172).

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On Sunday on 60 Minutes: David Kuo, author of Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (Free Press, $25, 0743287126).

Another week, another embargoed book bought at a bookstore and leaked.

This time it's Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction by David Kuo (Free Press, $25, 0743287126), which MSNBC "obtained" at a bookstore and discussed yesterday on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The story has been picked up by some media; Kuo is to make his first major appearance for the book on 60 Minutes on Sunday. It's official pub date is Monday.

Kuo worked in the White House in the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and calls himself a conservative Christian. In the book, he charges the White House with cynically using evangelical Christians, writing, "National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy.' " He also charges that many of the Office's activities were blatantly political and that the effort was underfunded.

Without commenting on the book in particular, a White House spokesperson told today's New York Times that faith-based initiatives are "near and dear to the president's heart."

Orhan Pamuk, the 54-year-old Turkish writer who only last year was charged with insulting "Turkishness" for comments made to a Swiss magazine complaining that no one in Turkey would talk about the genocide of Armenians and killings of Kurds, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. (The case was dropped, but only on a technicality, and other writers are being prosecuted under the 2005 law.)

The Swedish Academy praised the author this way: "Pamuk, in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city [of Istanbul], has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."

Pamuk, who has been teaching at Columbia University, told Reuters, "These are troubled times for my country but I think that in the end, these troubles will be over. There will be full democracy in my country. We will enjoy the benefits of freedom of speech and then I think the Turkish literature will flourish even more."

He told the AP (via Newsday) that he considers the prize not just "a personal honor, but as an honor bestowed upon the Turkish literature and culture I represent."

Pamuk wins $1.4 million and will be invited to a gala banquet in Stockholm on December 10. Among other awards, last year he won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, given by the Boersenverein, the German book trade association, and in 2003 his My Name Is Red won the IMPAC Dublin Award.

His major works available here are:

• Snow (Vintage, $14.95, 0375706860)
• Istanbul: Memories and the City (Vintage, $14.95, 1400033888)
• My Name Is Red (Vintage, $14.95, 0375706852)
• The Black Book (Vintage, $14.95, 1400078652)
• The White Castle (Vintage, $12.95, 0375701613)
• The New Life (Vintage, $13.95, 0375701710)
  

Random House said yesterday it is printing another 100,000 copies of Snow and doing smaller reprintings of My Name Is Red, The Black Book and Istanbul. 

 

Along with page turners, Laguna Beach Books, which opened late last month in Laguna Beach, Calif., offers its customers an entertaining photo opportunity. A seven-foot-tall structure stands near the front of the store, a replica of the town's famous lifeguard tower. Already some people have been taking pictures in front of it, according to owner Jane Hanauer, who created the tower replica to be the focal point of a display featuring local and regional interest maps, guidebooks and surfing-related titles. It's lit up at night and is visible from the Pacific Coast Highway. "It's the first thing you see when you enter the store," said Irma Wolfson, an independent book buyer and consultant who worked with Hanauer on the store's opening.

Laguna Beach Books is in a shopping center called the Old Pottery Place on the site of the Pottery Shack, a huge pottery shop that was well known locally. "The location is perfect," Wolfson said, "because there are so many supporting businesses around it," including an art gallery, a home store, a clothing boutique and a shoe emporium. It's also a block from the ocean, and an outdoor seating area commands a view of the Pacific.

Hanauer worked with architect Dennis Delorenzo (whom she met at BEA after hearing him speak) to design the interior of the 2,200-sq.-ft. store, which in addition to books features such items as calendars, journals and note cards with vintage images of Laguna Beach. The children's section, which Wolfson described as "one of the largest in Orange County, certainly for an independent bookstore," has a "living floor": a floor that when stopped on, lights up in the store's colors of blue, green and white, which Hanauer thought would appeal to children.

Laguna Beach Books was originally scheduled to open in May, but obtaining the necessary permits took longer than expected because of the building's historic status. Books were ordered in anticipation of the earlier opening, and since the store was not yet ready shipments went to manager Lisa Kaplan's garage before being transported to a storage facility. Despite the delay in opening, the store has received "very strong support from Laguna residents," said Hanauer, and has also benefited from the tourist clientele that frequents the town's beaches and local resorts. Hardcover fiction and political titles, noted Wolfson, are selling particularly well.

The store will hold its first event on October 28, hosting five Orange County women who contributed to the anthology Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul. (October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.) A second event will take place on November 11, when the local chapter of the American Association of University Women holds its monthly meeting at the store. Open to the public, the featured speaker will be Gene Kraig, author of The Sentence: A Family's Prison Memoir.

Hanauer, who candidly admits she has no prior bookselling experience, has made it a point of visiting bookstores during her travels, both in the U.S. and abroad. "I don't know what it's like in other industries," she said, but the countless booksellers she has talked to over the past two years have been "so good about sharing what has worked for them. They really are just wonderful." And now she can count herself among them.

Laguna Beach Books is located at 1200 S. Pacific Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach, Calif. 92203; 949-494-4779; lagunabeachbooks.com.--Shannon McKenna

The following were the bestselling titles at member stores of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association and the Midwest Booksellers Association during the week ended Sunday, October 8, as reported to Book Sense:

Hardcover Fiction

1. For One More Day by Mitch Albom (Hyperion, $21.95, 1401303277)
2. Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (Random House, $26.95, 0375509321)
3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin, $23.95, 1565124995)
4. Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich (HarperCollins, $26.95, 0060584033)
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, $24, 0307265439)
6. Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen (Random House, $24.95, 0375502246)
7. Under Orders by Dick Francis (Putnam, $25.95, 0399154000)
8. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Atria, $26, 0743298020)
9. When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton (Doubleday, $22.95, 0385516711)
10. The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $21.95, 0375423001)
11. Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund (Morrow, $26.95, 0060825391)
12. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (Doubleday, $24.95, 0385520514)
13. The Mission Song by John le Carre (Little, Brown, $26.99, 0316016748)
14. The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer (Warner, $25.99, 0446530999)
15. A Stolen Season by Steve Hamilton (St. Martin's, $22.95, 031235360X)

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. State of Denial by Bob Woodward (S&S, $30, 0743272234)
2. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (Knopf, $19.95, 0307264556)
3. Marley & Me by John Grogan (Morrow, $21.95, 0060817089)
4. Saving Graces by Elizabeth Edwards (Broadway, $24.95, 0767925378)
5. The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman (FSG, $30, 0374292795)
6. Culture Warrior by Bill O'Reilly (Broadway, $26, 0767920929)
7. The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich (Penguin Press, $25.95, 159420098X)
8. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris (Knopf, $16.95, 0307265773)
9. I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! by Bob Newhart (Hyperion, $23.95, 1401302467)
10. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Morrow, $25.95, 006073132X)
11. Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks (Penguin Press, $27.95, 159420103X)
12. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin, $27, 0618680004)
13. Faith and Politics by Senator John Danforth (Viking, $24.95, 0670037877)
14. The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright (Knopf, $27.95, 037541486X)
15. The Faith Club by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner (Free Press, $25, 074329047X)

Trade Paperback Fiction

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 0143037145)
2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House, $13.95, 0812968069)
3. Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan (Ballantine, $14.95, 034546401X)
4. March by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, $14, 0143036661)
5. On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Penguin, $15, 0143037749)
6. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton, $13.95, 0393328627)
7. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $14, 0743454537)
8. Skeleton Coast by Clive Cussler and Jack B. Du Brul (Berkley, $16, 0425211894)
9. The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich (Harper Perennial, $13.95, 0060515112)
10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Vintage, $12.95, 1400032717)
11. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead, $14, 1594480001)
12. The March by E.L. Doctorow (Random House, $14.95, 0812976150)
13. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (Back Bay, $15.99, 0316154547)
14. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (Regan Books, $16, 0060747226)
15. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Vintage, $14, 1400078776)

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

1. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $14, 074324754X)
2. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage, $14.95, 0375725601)
3. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (S&S, $19.95, 0743270754)
4. The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (Penguin, $15, 0143036939)
5. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Picador, $14, 0312425414)
6. The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion, $14.95, 0786888768)
7. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt (Scribner, $15, 0743243781)
8. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (Rodale, $21.95, 1594865671)
9. Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda (Random House, $13.95, 0812974409)
10. 1776 by David McCullough (S&S, $18, 0743226720)
11. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (Back Bay, $13.99, 0316013269)
12. Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter (S&S, $15, 0743285018)
13. The End of Faith by Sam Harris (Norton, $13.95, 0393327655)
14. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen, $12.95, 1878424319)
15. Plan B by Anne Lamott (Riverhead, $14, 1594481571)

Mass Market

1. Dance of the Gods by Nora Roberts (Jove, $7.99, 0515141666)
2. Predator by Patricia D. Cornwell (Berkley, $9.99, 0425210278)
3. Mary, Mary by James Patterson (Warner, $9.99, 0446619035)
4. The Camel Club by David Baldacci (Warner, $7.99, 0446615625)
5. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (St. Martin's, $7.99, 0312938853)
6. School Days by Robert B. Parker (Berkley, $7.99, 0425211347)
7. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Warner, $7.99, 0446616451)
8. New Comprehensive A-Z Crossword Dictionary edited by Edy Garcia Schaffer (Avon, $7.50, 0380724251)
9. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (Bantam, $7.99, 055358202X)
10. Lifeguard by James Patterson and Andrew Gross (Warner, $9.99, 044661761X)

Children's Titles

1.  Blizzard of the Blue Moon (Magic Tree House #36) by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca (Random House, $11.95, 0375830375)
2. Mommy? by Arthur Yorinks and Maurice Sendak (Michael Di Capua, $24.95, 0439880505)
3. The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl #5) by Eoin Colfer (Miramax Books, $16.95, 0786849568)
4. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd (HarperCollins, $7.99, 0694003611)
5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Putnam, $10.99, 0399226907)
6. Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic, $4.99, 0439376149)
7. Is There Really a Human Race? by Jamie Lee Curtis, illustrated by Laura Cornell (Joanna Cotler, $16.99, 0060753463)
8. A Very Brave Witch by Alison McGhee, illustrated by Harry Bliss (S&S, $12.95, 0689867301)
9. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (Dial, $17.99, 0803731531)
10. Angelina's Halloween by Katharine Holabird, illustrated by Helen Craig (Puffin, $5.99, 014240621X)
11. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (Knopf, $9.95, 0375826696)
12. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler (Puffin, $6.99, 0142501123)
13. I Spy a Pumpkin by Walter Wick, illustrated by Jean Marzollo (Cartwheel, $3.99, 0439738636)
14. Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton (Workman, $6.95, 0761143726)
15. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, illustrated by Eric Carle (Holt, $7.95, 0805047905)

[Many thanks to Book Sense, GLBA and MBA!]