In what the Lexington Herald called a "shocking turn," Robert Langley of Langley Properties--owner of the Mall at Lexington Green--"pulled financial support" from Neil Van Uum, president of Joseph-Beth Booksellers, and outbid him for the company's Lexington, Cincinnati and Cleveland stores at a bankruptcy auction yesterday.
"My main concern was making sure the stores wouldn't liquidate," Van Uum said. "I put together enough money to beat the liquidators, but (Langley) kept coming, and I couldn't fight him off any longer."
Top bidder for the Davis-Kidd store in Memphis and the Fredericksburg, Va., Joseph-Beth was the Gordon Brothers liquidation chain, though Van Uum said a deal has been worked out for the Fredericksburg store to transfer to Books-A-Million, the Herald reported.
Van Uum added that the Memphis landlord "was also part of my (financing) team and didn't take nicely to what Robert was doing." He said that Langley informed him the move was made to "safeguard" the future of Lexington Green.
"I have the utmost respect for Neil Van Uum, and I made a business decision that I thought would be best for Joseph-Beth and Lexington Green," Langley said. "Neil is a good guy; he did a great job starting Joseph-Beth."
The next step in the proceeding will be a hearing April 27 at bankruptcy court in Lexington, seeking approval of the auction results, the Herald wrote.
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In the Kansas City Star, columnist Steve Rose praised Rainy Day Books, noting that owner Vivien Jennings and her bookstore "should have been squashed like a bug years ago.... Yet, somehow Rainy Day Books has not only survived, but appears to be outlasting the brick-and-mortar giants."
Rose credited the shop's success to the fact that "Jennings saw an opening for a niche no one else was filling. She went ultra-personal when everyone else was impersonal. She pampers each loyal customer, recommending books to their tastes. And, perhaps most important, Jennings has put Kansas City--and her bookstore--on the map."
Rose concluded that "we need Rainy Day Books to remind us that, against all odds, a few home-owned stores can still make it. Undoubtedly, those who have survived have also found their very special niche."
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The financial troubles at Borders Group have sparked feelings of nostalgia for NeighborhoodNewspapers.com's columnist Thornton Kennedy, who recalled Atlanta's Oxford Books, a "venerable" indie that was "heaven on Earth for anyone who ever read a book.... It was one of the first bookstores in country to have a coffee shop, the Cup & Chaucer."
Owner Rupert LeCraw opened Oxford Books in 1973 and it "experienced a rapid ascent in the 1980s," expanding its space at Peachtree Battle Shopping Center and opening other branches. "To many, though, Oxford’s home was always Peachtree Battle," Kennedy wrote. "That location closed in summer 1996. By 1997, the company was bankrupt and the Pharr Road location closed as well. Oxford II (now called Oxford Comics & Games) is still around and houses an outstanding collection of comic books at its Piedmont Road location. Perhaps one of these empty Borders locations will attract a Rupert LeCraw to open another truly independent, quirky, magnificent bookstore. There is a need, even if it is just to create a place to get lost among the books."
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Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: Stories of Work (Harper Perennial) was published this week. Proceeds from the anthology's sales will go to 826Michigan. Richard Ford, the story collection's editor, spoke with the New Yorker's Book Bench blog about the project's genesis: "The anthology was my good idea. 826Michigan invited me to come visit and to see what they’re about. I did; and I was so taken by the variety of good things they do there (teaching children to write, acquainting them with what publication might mean, getting kids to act together in projects, even down to helping children with their homework) that I volunteered to dream up something I could do to help fund their efforts. The anthology was what I came up with."
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Does anyone want to be "well-read?" Roger Ebert considered this question in a thoughtful essay for the Chicago Sun-Times. "That's how I've done my reading: Haphazardly, by inclination. I consider myself well read, but there has been no plan," Ebert wrote, concluding: "Why do I think reading is important? It is such an effective medium between mind and mind. We think largely in words. A medium made only of words doesn't impose the barrier of any other medium. It is naked and unprotected communication. That's how you get pregnant. May you always be so."
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Sam Munson, author of The November Criminals, suggested "the best novels, from Invisible Man to Wonder Boys, featuring marijuana and its users" for the Daily Beast. "Being high is just not all that remarkable--less suited to literature, our culture suggests, and more suited to movies (some of which, like The Big Lebowski, undoubtedly the most penetrating treatment of the subject, are serious and subtle works of art), television, horrible jam bands (yep, they still exist), rap videos, and various effusions on YouTube. And yet, if you look closely, it's there, it's leached into literature."
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Screenwriter, producer, director and composer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly) spoke with the New York Times about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the wildly successful Internet musical starring Neil Patrick Harris; as well as the recently published companion volume Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: The Book (Titan Books).
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Book trailer of the day: Expand This Moment: Focused Meditations to Quiet Your Mind, Brighten Your Mood, and Set Yourself Free by John Selby (New World Library)
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Anna McKean has been promoted to publicity manager for Simon & Schuster Children’s Books. She joined the publicity department at S&S in 2008, after nearly three years at FOX Searchlight. Her P.R. campaigns include bestselling authors and artists such as Jon Scieszka, Becca Fitzpatrick, Carter Goodrich, Scott Westerfeld, Laurie Halse Anderson and, most recently, the launch of Brandon Mull’s Beyonders series, A World Without Heroes.