Bookselling This Week

In which Omnibus gets a new caretaker

By Sarah Rettger on Wednesday, Aug 25, 2010

I'm really quite bad at goodbyes, so I'm not going to dwell on the fact that this is my last Omnibus post before I leave ABA for grad school. It's been a lot of fun, and I hope you all have enjoyed it. If you have questions, complaints, or suggestions - any thoughts on Omnibus, really - send them along to estimable editor Dan, who will once again have the blog all to himself. And now the links. Way better than a teardown:

Book art is cool, Hackers is old, and it's time to learn more about Spartacus

By Sarah Rettger on Thursday, Aug 19, 2010

Hmm. As I'll soon have a new apartment to furnish (assuming I finally find one - sorry, I'll spare you that rant), I am intrigued: "The Count of Monte Cristo poster is created using the first 17 chapters of the book." Had no idea. Now to find out more about it:

Blog post on a floppy disk

By Sarah Rettger on Thursday, Aug 12, 2010

Even a non-gardener like me can appreciate horticultural noir: "Listen, you’ve got to be tough to grow vegetables. Tough, smart, and a little bit mean. Because plants are headstrong and narcissistic, prey to all the sins of the flesh. They’ll strangle each other when you aren’t looking. Make no mistake—in the quest for food, beauty, and truth, a lot of creatures are going to get hurt."

How the military-industrial complex made Gatsby a classic

By Sarah Rettger on Thursday, Aug 5, 2010

Every time I think I qualify as a nerd, something like this proves me wrong: "Today’s publishing landscape increasingly looks like Vulcan shortly after the Romulans injected Red Matter into the planet core." A new fundraising method from our Australian friends:

The American general's (potential) bookstore

By Sarah Rettger on Wednesday, Jul 28, 2010

The logistics frighten me, but I like the concept: "If physical bookstores are to survive they need to truly be destination spots, great good places where book people love to hang out, offering something the internet giants can’t. I’m not sure the same old tired, library style category headings and inventory organization fit that vision."

The reason book people need to understand calculus, among other things

By Sarah Rettger on Wednesday, Jul 21, 2010

Fair point:

Read these posts

By Sarah Rettger on Thursday, Jul 15, 2010

While there are wonderful books published all the time, this is often too true: "What's astonishing is the sheer amount of energy, time and money that has been spent to push it into our hands. Why this book? What does it have to recommend itself? Only this: It is New while all the other, better books are Old." (and this)

"Every bleeping flowery word of it"

By Sarah Rettger on Thursday, Jul 8, 2010

Little Shop of Stories gets the scoop: "LeBron James, formerly of Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cleveland, has accepted a new position. 'This fall, I'm going to take my talents to Miami Beach and join Books & Books.'" I want to see this quote on an Anne of Green Gables dust jacket:

Of punctuation and summer reading

By Sarah Rettger on Thursday, Jul 1, 2010

It may be time for an article on the relationship between booksellers and their UPS/FedEx/USPS lifelines: "We love getting books in the hands of readers, and we'll even chase down the UPS man to do it. And maybe that's why we've been here for over 50 years." For those who want to know something more about the interchange fee regulations:

Wild Rumpus, Diamond Ruby, and timelessness

By Sarah Rettger on Wednesday, Jun 23, 2010

No quote for this one, as it's wordless. But take a lesson in nonverbal storytelling from the winner of "Ukraine's Got Talent." (via) Not your average bookstore fundraiser: