"They say that nobody reads in Hollywood but I am currently staying in Tinseltown itself, in a house so full of literature that every time I look around the room I seem to discover yet another bookshelf cleverly tucked into the rafters. What's more, these volumes haven't been bought on Amazon or at Borders, but in independent bookshops--something that Los Angeles, a city more associated with boobs than books, is surprisingly full of."--Sophie Heawood in a Telegraph piece titled, "I've seen the future and it is literate."

Spurred by the popularity of the movie Julie & Julia, Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck will be No. 1 on the New York Times advice and how-to bestseller list next Sunday, today's Times reported in a front-page article.

Among tidbits in the delicious story:

• The book sold 22,000 copies in the last week tracked by Nielsen BookScan, more copies than it sold in any year since appearing in 1961.
• Julie & Julia, the basis for the movie that has drawn so much attention to Julia Child, has been reprinted 13 times this year.
• My Life in France, which also served as a basis for the movie, has been reprinted nine times.
• Julia's Kitchen Wisdom will be No. 1 on next Sunday's advice and how-to paperback list, the second-fastest selling cookbook next to Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
• Discount stores such as Sam's Club, which has never sold Mastering the Art of French Cooking, are placing orders.
• Many stores have run out of Julia Child's classic. Knopf's Paul Bogaards said, "We won't be caught up for a while.
• Julie & Julia screenwriter and director Nora Ephron commented: "This was a secret dream that the movie would sell a lot of books. I'm completely delighted that people are walking out of the multiplex and into the bookstore."

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Posman Books, which has a store in Grand Central Terminal and began with a store near New York University, is opening a branch in Chelsea Market, between 15th and 16th Streets, in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, in September. Coincidentally September marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of Posman's Grand Central store.

The new Posman will be managed by Logan Fox, who was the longtime owner of Micawber Books, Princeton, N.J., which closed in 2007 (Shelf Awareness, December 5, 2006). The space is near the 10th Avenue end of the shopping arcade "in the shadow of the High Line" and will offer "a generous selection of new books catering to a broad yet discerning readership" as well as a strong food and wine section. In contrast to the Grand Central store, this Posman will be able to host readings, children's story times, book club meetings and more, in an events space next to the store.

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A second company that intends to introduce an e-reader competitive with the Kindle said that it will ally itself with Barnes&Noble.com, All Things Digital reported. The company is Irex Technologies, which plans on a fall introduction of its e-reader. Last month, Plastic Logic said that it would sell its e-reader early next year via B&N.com (Shelf Awareness, July 20, 2009). In both cases, the alliance will be nonexclusive.

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Downtown Books, Craig, Colo., will stay open despite the tragic death of owner Carol Jacobson July 29 in a rafting accident near Dinosaur National Monument. The Daily Press reported that "Caroline Dotson, who has worked at Downtown Books for two years, is gaining full ownership of the store and plans to keep it open."

"She would have wanted it that way," said Dotson. "A lot of people I know come into the store because they want to be where she was. They want to be where her energy is. Others called me and said they really wanted to come down but just thought it would be too hard.

"The community support has been phenomenal, though," she continued. "People have come in and said, 'What do you need? Time? Money? Anything I can do to help.' I'm so grateful for it. I just want to keep it the way we envisioned it. I think we really figured out what the community needs."

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In Saturday's edition of the e-newsletter from Nantucket Bookworks, Nantucket, Mass., readers were given a literary heads up (surf's up?) on Hurricane Bill's approach: "BILL THE STORM WARNING: Check supplies, you might need more books! If you get lucky, maybe you'll even end up stuck on Nantucket for an extra day or two . . ."

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The Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., "comes with strings attached," according to the Rutland Herald, which spoke with sales floor manager Erik Barnum about the shop's decision to blend books and bluegrass in a corner of the sales floor on Saturdays.

"It was kind of an experiment. I wanted to keep it low-key and informal . . . some nice mellow musicians to kind of serenade our browsing clientele and guests," said Barnum of the appearances by the Bondville Boys. "It was an experiment that happily came to a good conclusion."

According to the Herald, Barnum hopes to go "full steam ahead to expand the live entertainment program so music and other fun treats will be found more frequently 'round a corner. He is looking to branch out and audition more local acts--customers can look forward to a classical duo playing soon--as well as have live entertainment on Friday and Sunday."

"I like in-store surprising things," he said. "It's all about the organic, spontaneous musical events. They're always the best. I want our guests to discover things in the store that are unique. What it does to the ambience of the place . . . it adds to the nice feeling of the bookstore."

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"Best Places for Freelancers to Work," MediaBistro's series on friendly and productive locations for New York's burgeoning freelance workforce, showcased Housing Works Bookstore Café, Brooklyn, which has "a homey vibe and is filled with hipsters, and their laid back attitude is contagious. We'd suggest a visit on your most stressful days."

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Shades of Larry Portzline's bookstore tourism:

The Boston Globe reported that "Alan Korolenko makes his home in New Bedford, but his heart belongs to the one-of-a-kind bookstores in Greenwich Village. . . . Over the past year Korolenko has organized four bus trips from New Bedford to explore the 20-plus bookstores in the Manhattan neighborhood."

"If you love books and love the literary atmosphere that you can rarely find except in Greenwich Village, it's sort of the perfect day," Korolenko said.

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October is the third annual National Reading Group Month, sponsored by the Women's National Book Association. Celebrations and events will take place in the association's 10 chapter cities, including the newly formed Charlotte, N.C., chapter.

The National Reading Group Month Signature Event takes place in conjunction with the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Tenn., at the Nashville Public Library on October 10. The event features a breakfast and book signings with Marie Brenner, Holly Goddard Jones, Perri Klass, Inman Majors and Kathryn Stockett.

For a full list of events and participants, go to NationalReadingGroupMonth.org or wnba-books.org.

To celebrate Julia Child's birthday, which fell on August 15, Kepler's, Menlo Park, held an open house and cookbook sale last Thursday. Staff members baked items from Mastering the Art of French Cooking--a bestseller now thanks to Julie & Julia--and raffles were held for such things as a Le Creuset terrine, discounts on dining, tickets to cooking classes. Draeger's Market contributed a strawberry custard cake featuring Julia with her cleaver (above).

In Pasadena, also last Thursday, Vroman's held its first Cupcake Bake-Off, inspired by Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat. The winner (left) had chocolate butterflies on top. First prize was a copy of the Martha Stewart book.

Two months after Kemble Scott became one of the first authors to upload a novel on Scribd.com, he is releasing a hardcover edition of the book, The Sower, with Numina Press, a Rafael, Calif., publisher, and distributing the limited edition exclusively to the Bay Area independent booksellers whom he credits with making his first novel, SoMa, a bestseller.

The latest leg in The Sower's unusual publishing history began when Scott was approached by Praveen Madan, co-owner of the Booksmith in San Francisco, about being the focus for the first e-book event at the store. The event is part of a series in which the store chooses one author per month and gets behind their new title, which is how it sold hundreds of copies of Rodes Fishburn's Going to See the Elephant (Delacorte). In the course of discussing the event, Madan also suggested Scott consider making his book available in other formats.

"Praveen sat down and did spread sheets with me," Scott said. (Madan and his wife and business partner, Christin Evans, both brought their management consulting backgrounds with them when they bought the legendary Haight bookstore in 2007.)

"It's so important at this stage of the industry to be open-minded and to experiment," said Madan. It's important, too, to be open to new partnerships, he added.

Scott had been approached by three publishers interested in doing a print edition of The Sower but picked Numina because the press's Yanina Gotsulsky knew his work, an advantage because Scott tends to write potentially controversial novels.

The Sower is the story of a man who becomes the carrier of a manmade supervirus that cures all diseases, but the only way to pass the cure on is through sex. Because his work is set in an "alternative version of the present day," Scott did not want to wait months to have a printed version because then the cultural references would be dated. Using print-on-demand technology Numina went from contract to delivery to the author in four weeks. Scott is working bookseller-to-bookseller to sell and distribute the books, which he received last Thursday.

Bay Area indie booksellers have welcomed his method for rolling out The Sower. "It's wonderful that Scott really supports the independent bookselling community, and I think it's a good way to counterbalance the whole online thing," said Kathleen Caldwell, owner of A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland. (Scott credits Caldwell's help in redesigning the printed book.)

The two-year-old Numina Press specializes in bringing public domain titles back into print but also offers current authors a publishing model in which the author gets 80% of the book's net profits after printing, shipping and bookseller discounts (50%) are subtracted. The Sower is priced at $23.95.

Gotsulsky said that's Numina's approach can be especially attractive to midlist authors willing to promote their work actively. "We're putting the power back in the writer's hand," she commented.

The Booksmith's Madan says the way The Sower is going to be available on Scribd.com and as a printed book shows that there is a need to have books in many formats--and that the market will "self-segment" itself. Booksellers, he said, should not be afraid of the e-book.

"At the heart of this is that customers care what independent booksellers think," Madan explained. "And it's not just Booksmith. All independent booksellers play a market-influencing function, which is something we actually do better than Amazon."

Scott decided to start exclusively with Bay Area indies because of his confidence in their handselling power. "I still believe the independent booksellers have the ability to move books," Scott said. "And we all should be exploring new partnerships."

Since Scribd.com added its social component last week, Scott said he now has 10,000 followers--that's a lot of  potential buyers who might walk into a local Indie to pick up a copy of The Sower.--Bridget Kinsella

The man behind New York City's Books of Wonder, Peter Glassman, will now have a monthly national presence on Sirius/XM Radio's "Kids Place Live" (on XM 116). Glassman, who opened his bookstore in Greenwich Village 28 years ago (it's now located at 18 W. 18th Street), will be the featured children's literature expert on "Absolutely Mindy on Sirius/XM's Kids Place Live" every second Tuesday of the month at 4 p.m. EST.

In a statement, host Mindy Thomas said that Glassman "comes to the show with passion, and charisma, and a collection of children's books that fit together like a table of dynamic guests at a most perfect dinner party." Booklists of new and classic titles plus their on-air book discussions will be featured and archived on both the Kids Place Live and Books of Wonder websites.

Glassman was honored earlier this year for his advocacy of children's literature by the Children of Bellevue at their annual gala hosted by Tom Colicchio, "Toast to the Children" (Shelf Awareness, April 6, 2009).

Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Scott Rosenberg, author of Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters (Crown, $26, 9780307451361/0307451364).

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Today on Fresh Air: T.R. Reid, author of The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care (Penguin Press, $25.95, 9781594202346/1594202346).

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This week on NPR's Tech Nation: W. Brian Arthur, author of The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves (Free Press, $27, 9781416544050/1416544054).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: J. Randy Taraborrelli, author of The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (Grand Central, $26.99, 9780446580823/0446580821).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show:

• Alana Stewart, author of My Journey with Farrah: A Story of Life, Love, and Friendship (Morrow, $23.99, 9780061960581/0061960586).
• Kathy Reichs, author of 206 Bones (Scribner, $26.99, 9780743294393/0743294394).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Gwen Cooper, author of Homer's Odyssey (Delacorte, $20, 9780385343855/038534385X).

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Today on the Dennis Prager Show: Ian Plimer, author of Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science (Taylor Trade Publishing, $21.95, 9781589794726/1589794729).

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Tomorrow night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in a repeat: Peter Laufer, author of The Dangerous World of Butterflies: The Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and Conservationists (Lyons Press, $24.95, 9781599215556/1599215551).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next picks:

Hardcover

The Confederate General Rides North: A Novel by Amanda C. Gable (Scribner, $26, 9781416598398/1416598391). "Amanda Gable has given us an unforgettable character in 11-year-old Civil War scholar Kat McConnell. As the navigator for her beautiful, but volatile, mother's escape northward from Marietta, Georgia, Kat plots their course to hit every major battlefield. As Kat imagines the scenes of desperation and despair from those old battles, we see the ones occurring in her world and love her for her fierce intelligence, loyalty, and bravery."--Laura Keys, Blue Elephant Book Shop, Decatur, Ga.

The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars by Christopher Cokinos (Tarcher, $27.95, 9781585427208/1585427209). "In this incredibly personal book, Cokinos has successfully blended natural science, biographical memoir, and bits of humor into an immensely engaging read. Deftly splitting his focus between the dedicated people who have hunted meteors over the years (including himself) and the space rocks themselves, Cokinos has written one of those rare books where every page was a pleasure to take in."--Jerry Fieldsted, Windows on the World--Books & Art, Mariposa, Calif.

Paperback

Ground Up by Michael Idov (FSG, $14, 9780374531546/0374531544). "Based upon hard-won, first-hand experience, this debut novel is an entertaining tale for anyone who has fantasized about opening a restaurant or café. Ground Up follows a young couple through their journey from wealthy semi-idle artists into coffee shop entrepreneurs. Idov's snappy dialogue, economical visual descriptions, and potent supporting characters combine to give the reader a richly layered view of contemporary New York."--Robert Sharp, Nightbird Books, Fayetteville, Ark.

For Ages 9 to 12

The Swamps of Sleethe: Poems From Beyond the Solar System by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Jimmy Pickering (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $16.99, 9780375846748/0375846743). "This collection is an exploration of outer space that is not for the faint of heart. There are many imaginative ways to perish in these darkly comic, cautionary verses about unexplored worlds far beyond the solar system. The book also includes anagrams for those who love word puzzles!"--Jennifer Wills Geraedts, Beagle Books, Park Rapids, Minn.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

It's hard to know what to expect from Nicholson Baker, whose works have ranged from a novel in the form of the transcript of a lengthy phone sex encounter to, most recently, an idiosyncratic account of the origins of World War II. In his new novel he's delivered a charming, if undeniably quirky, tribute to the art of poetry.

Paid to compile and introduce an anthology of rhyming poetry ("the genius's version of the crossword puzzle--when it's good. When it's bad it's intolerable dogwaste."), poet Paul Chowder (whose name happily evokes the rich stew that is this book) is stymied by a massive case of writer's block. The product of his affliction turns out to be a discourse on the craft of poetry that both entertains and instructs. In his hands, to cite but one of many examples, the concept of iambic pentameter as a "slow kind of gently swaying three-beat minuetto" makes a weird kind of sense. And it's clear he's obsessed with making his audience embrace poetry, for all its oddities and shortcomings, as much as he does. "My life is necessary," he writes, "because I sustain the idea of poetry through thick and thin. That's my job."

Chowder doesn't shrink from calling out his poetic villains, like haiku ("a kind of poetry that makes perfect, thrilling sense in Japanese, and makes no sense whatsoever in English") and free verse (dismissing nonrhyming poems as "plums"), with special scorn reserved for modernists like Ezra Pound. Yet he doesn't spare all rhyming poets, saving a special brickbat for Algernon Swinburne, whose propensity for rhyme "was like the application of too much fertilizer to a very green lawn."

As he struggles with his task, Chowder brings onstage a parade of poets, among them Theodore Roethke, W.S. Merwin and Elizabeth Bishop, whose popular poem, "The Fish," receives an extended analysis. Meanwhile, he mourns the end of a relationship with his girlfriend, Roz, while scheming to win back her affections by stringing together a beaded necklace that itself becomes an act of poetic creation. Along with this he must endure the intrusions of daily life, from a badly sliced finger to the task of organizing his office that includes boxing up his collection of poetry anthologies.

Read this novel for the sheer pleasure of meeting Baker's oddly appealing narrator and because you may well conclude when you've finished that if poetry isn't part of your life, you're missing something important. Whether or not that turns out to be the case, it's safe to say you'll never read a poem quite the same way again.--Harvey Freedenberg

Shelf Talker: In his latest novel, Nicholson Baker delivers a sly and charming tribute to the art of poetry and its practitioners.