Today's New York Times business section surveys real estate books and finds that new titles reflect tough times. The story features, for example, Wiley titles by Ralph Roberts: his Foreclosure Myths: 77 Secrets to Saving You Thousands on Distressed Properties, appears in August, and Foreclosure Self-Defense for Dummies, was published earlier this year. Other books on avoiding foreclosure and selling, buying and managing foreclosed properties are coming from Adams Media and Penguin's Alpha imprint.
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In a Q&A with the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos still won't tell how many Kindle units have sold. Concerning the future of the book and e-book, he stated:
"Over some time horizon, books will be read on electronic devices. Physical books won't completely go away, just as horses haven't completely gone away. But there is no sinecure for any technology. If you think about books, it's astonishing. It's very hard to find a technology that has remained in mostly the same form for 500 years. And anything that has stubbornly resisted improvement for 500 years is going to be hard to improve.
"That is what we're trying to do with Kindle. We see this as an effort to improve upon the book, even though it's resisted change for 500 years.
"To do that, you have to capture the essential element of a book, which is that it disappears when you get into the flow of the story. None of us when we're reading a book think about the ink and the glue and the stitching. All that fades away, and you get into the author's universe."
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Bookstores in Newark, N.J., are hard to find. According to the New York Times,"America's Most Literate Cities," a study Jack Miller, president ofCentral Connecticut State University, revealed that Newark "ranked lastamong the nation's 69 largest cities in the number of bookstores percapita, with 15 stores for 281,000 people, or 0.53 stores per 10,000residents."
"Newark needs bookstores," said Mayor Cory A.Booker, who has tried unsuccessfully to lure a Barnes & Noble tothe city. "It's a gathering place. They're community-fixers."
Onthe other hand, the study found that Newark ranked 49th overall whenfactors like "education, Internet use and local publications" as wellas "the library's popularity and the circulation of the city's dailynewspaper, the Star-Ledger," were considered.
"We'rejust a community that's used to malls," said Frank Murphy, who, withhis wife, ran independent bookstores for years, including one inNewark's Pennsylvania Station. "Downtown is not where it's at."
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Thecancellation of an author event at Politics & Prose Bookstore,Washington, D.C., generated controversy recently, and both sidesoffered their thoughts on the situation in Op-Ed pieces for Sunday's Washington Post.
Saree Makdisi, author of Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation, was scheduled for an author reading last month. He wrotethat his event "was canceled when the bookstore owners realized that mybook concludes by questioning the viability of a two-state solution tothe Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead it proposes a singledemocratic, secular and multicultural state in which Israelis andPalestinians live peacefully as citizens with equal rights." He alsonoted his invitation to read at Politics & Prose has since beenreissued.
In her response, bookstore co-owner Carla Cohen wrote,"Since its opening nearly 24 years ago, Politics and Prose Bookstorehas been characterized by its program of presenting authors. One of ourprimary objectives is to connect authors and readers. As we have grownin size, sales and reputation, our author events schedule has grown. Wenow regularly feature 40 talks in our adult section each month.
"Howdo we make the choice among the scores of authors we are asked to host?The highest priorities go to Washington area authors and nationallyknown authors on tour. We also will schedule authors on topics that areof interest to our customers. Obviously, our goal is to sell books. Weare not simply a forum for ideas. We schedule authors with new booksfrom established publishers so that there is media attention behind thebooks."
Cohen wrote that authors chosen for events do notnecessarily have their books vetted before being scheduled, and"Makdisi's book arrived after the event was booked. When I finally gota chance to read his book, especially its conclusion, I was verydisturbed."
After explaining her objections, she added,"Nevertheless, I now believe that I was mistaken to cancel SareeMakdisi's presentation at Politics and Prose. We will extend aninvitation for him to talk at the bookstore at a time that works forhim and for us. He can present the ideas that form the basis of hisbook. Our customers can make their own decisions on whether theysupport Makdisi--or disagree with him."
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Spending that stimulus check yet? The San Francisco Chronicle contacted Bay Area business owners, including a couple of booksellers, to find out whether the money is trickling down.
PeteMulvihill, co-owner of Green Apple Books and Music, San Francisco, waspleased that the bookshop "just had our best May ever in the midst ofan otherwise stubborn long-term pattern of flat sales. We can't seem toexplain it--it could be a fluke or rebounding tourism or such, butwe're so puzzled that we think it might be the economic stimuluspackage."
At Laurel Book Store, Oakland, Luan Stauss said, "Ihave had a few customers tell me that they are spending some of theirstimulus check here at the bookstore. I can recall three so far."
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Could the bad economy be good for used book sales? Several used book dealers told the Virginian-Pilot they thought this might be so.
BenWysor, co-owner of the Recycled Reader, Elizabeth City, N.C., said hissales for the first quarter of this year were up 18% from last year."Maybe this bad economy is helping," he added. "So many people do saywhen they get a stack of books from us and it costs them $20--thatwould be one book at Barnes & Noble. They're pleased at how muchthey can get for their buck."
Ethel Barritt, owner of threestores in Virginia Beach, Va., said two of her stores were up over2007's numbers: "More and more people are thinking about gas and foodand everything else. But people who love to read aren't going to giveup books."
The Virginian-Pilot also noted that "themarket has been less generous to traditional booksellers," though SarahPishko, owner of Prince Books, Norfolk, said her business had bouncedback from an earlier dip: "Generally, my customers are not going tostop buying a book."
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Responding to the question, "Where have all the book stores gone?" the Vacaville, Calif. Reporter lamented the disappearance of indies in general and Bookends Bookstore, Napa, in particular.
"Howcan I describe Bookends?" wrote Brian Hamlin. "It was just one of thoseplaces that welcomed any and all who happened to stroll by, a placethat was convenient if you were trying to get out of the rain or tryingto find the latest Carl Hiaasen novel. . . . Bookends was a great placeand, like all those old book stores from my hometown so long ago, I'mgoing to miss it."
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If you've ever wondered what aslow day in a bookstore is like, Thomas and Cheryl Upchurch, owners ofCapitol Book & News, Montgomery, Ala., described one of theirs inthe Montgomery Advertiser.
Amongthe exciting events was "a long-range dispute over grammar with FrazerDobson, a former employee of ours, and his wife, Sally Brewster, ownerof one of America's great bookstores, Park Road Books in Charlotte,N.C."
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Unless you're a June bride this year, in which case it won't help much, Newsday offered suggestions for bridal books that "cover from a proposal to planning." And in an apparently unrelated reading list, Newsday's sports section featured "a look at two books and one DVD set I checked out for those shopping for Dad."
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For literary-minded riders of New York's subway system, an era has ended. The New York Timesreported that the "Poetry in Motion" campaign, a "public project thatprovided lyric respite from ads for bunion cures, acne doctors andpersonal-injury lawyers, came to a quiet end last month, more than 15years after its first placards appeared in the subways." Replacing thepoetry will be a series of prose pieces under the name "Train ofThought."
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In the books they trade, used booksellers have found a range of treasures, some marketable and some not, ranging from cash, a diamond ring and a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card to a marriage certificate from 1879, a baby's tooth, dried flowers and World War II discharge papers. A survey by AbeBooks.com of its member stores established also that one customer discovered $40,000 in a cookbook she had just bought. For a full list, click here.
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Truman Metzel, longtime owner of Great Expectations Bookstore, Evanston, Ill., died on Friday. He was 82.
Metzel was remembered last year by Robert Sandberg as "curmudgeon, friend, store guide, and host to hundreds of Northwestern faculty and students."
He added: "I will certainly never forget my first visit to the store one fall afternoon in 1968. I was a freshman at Northwestern. After a half hour or so of browsing, I walked over to Truman and asked where I might find Hume's Treatise of Human Nature. Sitting at a desk messy with invoices, packing slips, book orders, he looked up at me over his half-rims and responded, simply, with his deep voice, unblinking eye-contact, and slow delivery, 'Which edition, what publisher?' "