End of an era.
Anderson's Bookland in downtown Florence, Ala., has closed, the Times Daily
reported. Founded as a newsstand in 1917 by Clyde Anderson, the
business grew into the bookstore chain Books-A-Million and the American
Wholesale Book Company. Anderson's grandson Clyde B. Anderson is BAM's
chairman.
Books-A-Million has another Bookland store and a BAM store in malls in Florence.
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Wanting to retire, the four longtime owners of Capitola Book Café, Capitola, Calif., plan to sell the store--most likely to four employees who have already assumed management responsibilities and are trying to arrange financing, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.
Wendy Mayer-Lochtefeld, one of the group of four aspiring owners, told the paper that because "we want the store to remain a vibrant part of the community," the group is talking about "any improvement we can make to any aspect to keep it vital."
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The owners of the Avid Reader in Sacramento (Stan Forbes) and the Avid
Reader in Davis (Alzada Knickerbocker) are close to signing a lease to
open a store in Tower Books's old flagship location on Broadway
in Sacramento, according to the Sacramento Bee.
If the deal goes through, Forbes would close his store. A new Avid Reader might open as soon as March.
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In a long feature, yesterday's Baltimore Sun shed some light on street lit.
Sean Bentley, buyer of black fiction at Borders, told the paper that
"African-American literature has seen double-digit growth in the last
few years" and that urban literature accounts for about 25% of his
purchases. "It is popular," he continued. "It is speaking to a group of
people that for a long time did not have an opportunity to have their
lives told."
Likewise, Vicki Stringer, the street lit writer and publisher who wrote
her first work in prison and now owns Triple Crown Publications, a
major street lit house, said that the genre "is going to continue to
grow. It is very similar to music and clothing. Now it is literature.
Everything is urban. Generation Y has an appetite for it."
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Jason
Geller has joined Chooseco, publishers of the Choose Your Own Adventure
(CYOA) books, as national sales director. He was formerly retail sales
director at Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen.
Founded by CYOA authors R.A. Montgomery and Shannon Gilligan, Chooseco
intends to relaunch the series and brand, which has sold more than 250
million copies worldwide, by appealing both to original fans and new
readers..
"Our focus is two-fold," Geller said in a statement. "We aim to be in
every independent bookstore in the country and move into special
markets like museum stores and gift shops, while servicing the larger
box stores and chains. And we haven't even reached out to libraries
yet. Librarians are some of the biggest fans of the series for the
books' exceptional ability to lure boys into reading, while still being
popular with girls."
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Congratulations
to Village Books, Bellingham, Wash., owned by Chuck and Dee Robinson,
whose Chuckanut Radio Hour tapes its debut program this Wednesday,
January 10. The variety show will feature authors, music and other
entertainment and be taped at the American Museum of Radio &
Electricity in Bellingham. The show will air later on KMRE-FM.
For the pilot, TV newsman and commentator Floyd McKay will interview Erik Larson, author of Isaac's Storm and The Devil in the White City whose new book is Thunderstruck.
The house band is the Walrus; other performers include a 13-year-old
saxophonist and the Honeybees. The Poet's Corner will feature Jim
Bertolino; Alan Rhodes will offer "a slice-of-life essay." Some
audience member will compete in a literary quiz.
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What do you know.
A week after the New York Times blithely said that independent
bookstores have been "steadily dropping away, one by one," and that
"the battle is reaching some of the last redoubts" (in its story about the closing of Micawber's Books, Princeton, N.J.), the Times's Sunday travel section
takes a spin closer to home and finds "an eclectic collection" of
independents in Manhattan, "where specialized collections, cozy
atmosphere and friendly and knowledgeable staff win out over huge
selection, standardized décor and jam-packed cafes."
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In honor of Chuck Pacheco, the longtime book buyer at Harvard Book Store who died last year of brain cancer at age 56 (Shelf Awareness,
March 7, 2006), the store has established a memorial lecture series
that will be given annually. The first lecture features Calvin Trillin,
who will speak about his new book, About Alice, with Christopher Lydon, on Friday, January 19.
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Apparently
downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., hasn't been revitalized as much as local
leaders hoped. River Banks Books & Music, which opened a little
over a year ago with the help of redevelopment tax breaks and grants (Shelf Awareness, December 10, 2005), has closed, the Grand Rapids Press reported.
Owner Debra Lambers, who also runs the Book Nook and Java Shop in
nearby Montague, indicated that "the numbers required to keep the doors
open just would not support it."
The store paid "almost no state or local tax burden aside from sales
tax," the paper said. In addition, the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority gave
the store a $50,000 grant for building costs.
Rockford Development, which lured Lambers to the site, wants to put another bookstore in the site.
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A bookseller at Magers & Quinn Booksellers and ex-owner of the
Hungry Mind/Ruminator Books, David Unowsky is now an ex-candidate for
the St. Paul City Council. The Pioneer Press
reported that Unowsky has dropped out of the race, stating, "I have come to realize that being a
candidate and a politician is not a role that suits me. I can and will
continue to work successfully on the issues that are important to me
without the expense of time, energy, and financial resources required
for a long campaign. . . . I look forward to working with [supporters]
on issues of social, economic, and environmental justice; participatory
democracy; sensible development; universal and affordable health care;
and toward building a stronger, more locally based economy."
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The family of Ron Goldman, who was killed along with Nicole Brown
Simpson, has won a federal court order in Los Angeles freezing the
money O.J. Simpson received as an advance for If I Did It, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Simpson has said that he spent the advance, estimated at $1
million. A Goldman family lawyer said "the money had been laundered and
that
the goal was to show that Simpson was hiding it," according to the Times.