Notes: Moody's Wary of B&T; Beachcomber Bookseller Job
Ouch. Baker & Taylor Acquisitions, which is controlled by private equity fund Castle Harlan, has been listed on Moody's Investors Services's new, quarterly "bottom rung" list of companies at a high risk of default or bankruptcy, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.
The Journal wrote: "Baker & Taylor has seen a drop in business, particularly on the retail distribution side. The company's significant debt, combined with a weakening ratio of revenue to its interest payments, led Moody's to lower its default rating last month to B3, with a negative outlook."
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We don't usually run employment ads, but this is a wonderfully sunny story for difficult times.
Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books, with stores in southern Florida and the Cayman Islands, is looking for a manager for the Cayman Islands store. He is seeking an experienced manager, preferably familiar with WordStock, who--oh hardship--is willing to relocate. Send resumes to mitchell@booksandbooks.com.
Shelf Awareness is already planning a trip next winter to check in on the new manager's progress.
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Check out pictures of some of the "most interesting bookstores of the world" here. Our favorites include El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lello in Porto, Portugal, and a store in Calcutta, India.
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The Daily Beast offers "best moments" from the tribute for the late John Updike held this week at the New York Public Library.
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Popular reviewer phrase putdown.
In the Guardian, Alastair Harper took on a common word of praise that is "guaranteed to turn the stomach of any reader."
Unputdownable,
the offending word, is "a Germanic agglomerate of a verb, an adverb, an
adjectival ending and a privative prefix that bring to mind some
indomitable hardback with springs wired into its spine. No matter how
many times you throw it away--angrily at first, then in desperate
terror--it always bounces back to smack you on the nose."
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Do men and women read differently? The Telegraph
reported that a recent survey found women are more avid readers, and
that "almost half of women are 'page turners' who finish a book soon
after starting it compared to only 26% of men. . . . The survey of
2,000 adults also found those who take a long time to read books and
only managed one or two a year were twice as likely to be male than
female."
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Effective April 1, Christopher K. Navratil becomes publisher of Running Press.
He was most recently publisher of Accord Publishing, the children's publisher bought by Andrews McMeel Universal, where he emphasized the development of interactive titles like Bee & Me.
Before that, Navratil was editorial director of Potter Style, which publishes diet/health, humor, cooking, pregnancy/child care and pop culture titles in a range of formats. He was also executive director of sales at Chronicle Books, where he launched the custom publishing division and helped launch Giftworks, the gift and stationery line. He was also special markets director at Chronicle and earlier was a regional manager at Barnes & Noble and has edited several literary anthologies and been a book reviewer.
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Debra Lande, most recently director of product innovation for Chronicle Books, will become publisher at Klutz, a division of Scholastic, effective March 30.
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Effective immediately, Lerner Publishing Group has become exclusive distributor for ARC Press, a division of American Reading Company, King of Prussia, Pa. Beginning this fall, Lerner will carry 87 new paperback titles from ARC Press designed to build reading readiness for beginners. Lerner will sell the titles to classroom wholesalers, distributors and direct to classrooms and school districts.
