The headlines reporting last Thursday's burglary at Common Good Books, St. Paul, Minn., spoke volumes:
"Bookstore break-in: A case for Guy Noir?"
"Innocence of Lake Wobegon lost on burglars at Garrison Keillor's bookstore"
"Keillor's bookstore burgled, owners on the lookout for 'goateed loser'"
"This sort of thing wouldn't cut it in Lake Wobegon," the Pioneer Press observed, adding that "store management has gone on the offensive, posting screen grabs of the crooks online and even 'tweeting' a description of the man on Twitter: 'If anyone saw a goateed loser in long shorts and Longhorns cap carrying a safe at 1:20 last night, plz call the St Paul PD.'"
The store opened Thursday morning, but Martin Schmutterer, Common Good's assistant manager told the Press: "We're all not very happy."
"Thankfully, no one was hurt," Schmutterer noted on the bookstore's blog.
The Star Tribune reported that Keillor "stopped by the store Thursday night to watch the surveillance footage of comings and goings in the upstairs entryway, and he gave his staff a 'keep-up-the-fight fist pump when he left,' Schmutterer said."
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In Japan, there has been a notable increase in sales of manga delivered to mobile phones, with last year's revenue "up 43% from the previous year and from next to nothing in 2003, when manga first became available by cellphone," according to the New York Times.
"At present, cellphone comics is the only one roaring ahead in sales," said Shinichi Yoshizawa, Kodansha's director of digital media business development.
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Two scoops of Sh-sh-sh-sherbet, please. The Guardian
reported that "Ben & Jerry's is considering launching a
library-themed ice-cream flavor, after a campaign by a New Jersey
librarian gathered thousands of supporters."
Andy Woodworth "already has more than 4,400 people signed up to a Facebook group
supporting his plan, which he hopes will raise awareness of libraries
'in the face of stagnant or slashed state, county, and municipal
budgets,'" according to the Guardian.
Suggestions thus far include Gooey Decimal System, Cookie Bookie, Li-Berry Pie and Rocky Read.
Said
Arnold Carbone of Ben & Jerry's: "From Cherry Garcia to Bohemian
Raspberry, some of our best-loved flavours have been fan suggestions.
We've honoured rock'n'roll icons, so why not librarians?" His
suggestion? Malt Whitman.
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Wahrenbrock's Book House, San Diego, Calif., closed abruptly Thursday, the Union-Tribune reported, noting that when the final customer of the day left, "co-owner Charles Valverde Jr. laid off his last two employees, locked the doors to the 74-year-old downtown landmark and boarded up its windows."
"What a horrible, lousy day," Valverde said. "Like many other bookstores in San Diego, not enough people came in. These days, you can get just about everything you want off the Internet."
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That's Kendall, not Kindle. The Beacon News reported that Leah Condon-Guillemette would like to open a bookstore in the old village hall in Oswego, Ill., and cited a lack of independent bookstores in the area as "a problem, not just in Oswego, but throughout all of Kendall County."
Condon-Guillemette's "'little project' . . . is a joint endeavor headed by her and her aunt. Both are teachers, both live in downtown Oswego and both believe the community would benefit from a bookstore," according to the News.
"The village has needed a bookstore for so long," she said, though she will have to wait for town officials to make a decision about leasing the property.
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In Johannesburg, South Africa, Boekehuis--Afrikaans for "house of books"--has become a venue for discussing "tough topics, and in the gentlest of settings," according to the Associated Press (via the San Francisco Chronicle), which reported that manager Corina van der Spoel, "has created more than a shop. After nearly a decade, Boekehuis has become a comfortable place for South Africans to meet to define themselves as they grapple with what it means to be modern, multicultural and post-apartheid."
"A friend of mine calls it a salon," said van der Spoel. "It is that."
South African writer Sindiwe Magona praised the bookseller, noting that van der Spoel "has created an arena where people can come to an honest discussion about things they feel strongly about. It's an arena where real dialogue can take place. It's a brave undertaking."
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Julia Eccleshare, the Guardian's children's literary editor, offered recommendations for "the best books to keep kids of every age entertained" during the summer holidays, "from picture books, through the tricky territory of early independent readers and pre-teens to the more complex terrain of literature for the over-12s, and gives her key rules for choosing the best books for children."
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"Gandalf v Dumbledore: Who is the greatest wizard of all?" asked the Guardian's Books Blog, and then put them to the test.
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We all love a good mystery, especially one that pairs books with bookies. As betting opened on the Man Booker Prize longlist (Shelf Awareness, July 31, 2009), a "mysterious rush of bets . . . has seen the novelist Hilary Mantel installed as early favourite after 95% of all wagers on the contest were placed on her," the Independent reported, adding that "William Hill said yesterday that it had 'never seen a betting pattern like it' and slashed the odds on a win for Mantel's longlisted Wolf Hall from 12-1 right down to 2-1."
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Louise Brown, a 91-year-old Scottish woman "is believed to be Britain's most prolific library
book reader," according to the Guardian. Brown is on the verge of borrowing her 25,000th book.
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