In the fifth annual Readers' Bowl, Minneapolis, Minn., reclaimed the title America's Most Literate City for 2007 while Seattle, Wash., fell to the number two spot, according to USA Today. And in what might be seen as a Twin Cities bid for national reading dominance, St. Paul, Minn., sustained its long-term momentum, having "climbed steadily, from 11th place in 2003 to third place this year."
The top 10 overall, as compiled by "researcher Jack Miller, who for five years has been ranking the nation's largest cities based on their support for and commitment to reading":
- Minneapolis
- Seattle
- St. Paul
- Denver
- Washington, D.C.
- St. Louis
- San Francisco
- Atlanta
- Pittsburgh
- Boston
The top 10 cities in the bookseller category, which ranks for every 10,000 people the number of retail bookstores, number of rare and used bookstores and number of ABA members, are:
- Seattle
- San Francisco
- Minneapolis
- Cincinnati
- St. Louis
- Portland, Ore.
- Pittsburgh
- St. Paul
- Cleveland
- Washington, D.C.
A complete list of the rankings is available at America's Most Literate Cities.
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"In order to keep local shops in business, the solution is simple: patronize them," advised the Twin Cities Daily Planet in an article that highlighted local independent bookshops Amazon Bookstore Cooperative and Garrison Keillor's Common Good Books.
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Al Roker has chosen the Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley as the next pick of the Today Show Book Club for Kids. The first book in the series is The Fairy-Tale Detectives (Amulet, $5.95, 9780810993228). For more, check out the Today Show website.
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Cool Idea of the Day: RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, N.H., has initiated a program "to raise awareness about the need for affordable housing in the Seacoast, benefiting six local nonprofits addressing the issue," according to Seacoastonline.com.
During 2008, "for two months at a time, RiverRun will feature information about a different local nonprofit agency addressing the issue of housing and those affected by the lack of affordable housing in the region. At the conclusion of each two-month period, the featured organization will also receive two percent of RiverRun's gross earnings. United Way of the Greater Seacoast has partnered with RiverRun to work with the recipients and help spread the word."
Tom Holbrook, RiverRun's owner, said, "We're excited to be working with United Way on this project. Their ability to see the bird's eye view of the community, and their work on finding long-term solutions for the housing issue make it a perfect match."
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Books-A-Million is opening its first store in Pennsylvania, in the Foundry at 439 Washington Road in Washington, Pa. The company said it had decided on opening a store in the southwestern Pennsylvania town "based on its knowledge of this growing market," gained from its new store in nearby Wheeling, W.Va.
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Some Borders stores are being shut this month, including ones in East Brunswick, N.J., and Wayne, N.J. In the case of the 15-year-old East Brunswick store, lease renewal was an issue, according to the New Brunswick Home News Tribune.
Borders is apparently closing some "slower" Borders stores and many of its Waldenbooks outlets.
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The Southtown Star profiled Azizi Books, Matteson, Ill., and owner Kevin Roberts, who said, "Our books are written by, and of interest to the black community. And we stock a good supply of well-known writers as well as some of the lesser-known authors."
Azizi Books held its grand opening last November. "I did market research and demographic studies to help avoid the pitfalls of opening a business," said Roberts. "There are very few African American bookstores in the U.S. And there's also not many independent bookstores in general--the independents have a tough time going up against the large chains." The bookshop's name means "rare," "treasured" or "precious" in Swahili.
Azizi Books is located at 134 Lincoln Mall, Matteson, Ill. 60443; 708-283-9850; azizibooks.com.
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Two bookstores in the Hudson River Valley in New York State are up for sale, according to the Journal News. Scott Meyer wants to sell Merritt Bookstore in Cold Spring, N.Y., the former Salmagundi Books, which he bought in 2004. He also owns bookstores in Millbrook and Red Hook, N.Y. He told the paper that his other stores are integral parts of their communities but it was too difficult to make a third store an integral part of its community.
Also Good Yarns in Hastings-on-Hudson is for sale. Co-owner Chris Kerr, a principal of Parson Weems, the book rep group, told the paper that he can't devote sufficient time to the store. "At best it is a break-even proposition," he commented. "Publishing is in a period of transition--there is a lot of consolidation, the number of books sold is flat. We would have to work in the store ourselves to turn a profit, and at this point in our lives, we just can't do that."
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As noted in the Baltimore Sun, among businesses in Baltimore, Md., that opened on Christmas Day was breathe books, owned by Susan L. Weis, a columnist for Shelf Awareness. Weis told us that more than 50 people came by "to watch Louise Hay's new movie, You Can Heal Your Life, eat Chinese food and just schmooze." She called the annual event "about community." The store donated 20% of sales to charity, the Seva Foundation.
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Will Harry the Eighth inherit the throne? The Daily Mail reported that J.K. Rowling confessed to "'weak moments' when she feels she will pen another novel about the boy wizard," but if she does surrender to temptation in a decade or so, she said she doubts "that Harry would be the central character. I feel I've already told his story."
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An office of one's own? The AP (via KCCI.com) reported that Tanja Shelton, of Sioux Center, Iowa, was fired from her job for writing a romance novel on company time. Shelton, who began working at Sioux Automation in August, attracted the attention of a supervisor who noticed that she was "typing almost constantly." An investigation of her computer revealed "what appeared to be a romance novel with the working title Taylorville. It focused on the summertime activities and desires of a teenage temptress named Taylor."
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has made the following appointments in the trade and reference division of the company formed from the purchase of Harcourt by Houghton Mifflin:
- Bridget Marmion has been named senior v-p of marketing for the division. She joined Houghton Mifflin in 1998 as corporate v-p, director of marketing. Before that she was v-p, director of sales and marketing, at Random House and earlier worked at FSG.
- Laurie Brown has been named senior v-p for the division. She joined Harcourt in 2002 as senior v-p of sales and marketing and earlier was senior v-p of sales and marketing at FSG.
- Mia Camacho has been named senior v-p of finance and operations of the division. She joined Houghton Mifflin in 2004 as corporate v-p, director of finance, planning and operations. Earlier she was v-p of trade, finance and systems at Scholastic.
