The Written Nerd

Bloggin' on my break at the bookstore, crammin' it all in... Via Vroman's : The annual Tournament of Books at The Morning News has begun! Click over for an irresistible death match between this year's top works of fiction, judged by the literati with unabashed prejudice and total transparency. Way more fun than the Booker or NBA, if far more tongue-in-cheek. Brownstoner has a post on the borough's newest comic shop : Bergen Street Comics in Park Slope. Ha, scooped -- I blogged about that on Friday ! Had a delightful retailer-to-retailer chat with owner Tom -- and it's totally awesome to have a new comics purveyor in the nabe. Via Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn : TheBrooklynInk chronicles Heights Books' move from Brooklyn Heights to Smith Street. Speaking of comics -- our Graphic Novel Book Club discussion of Watchmen on Thursday night was AWESOME. I was so happy with the size and diversity of our group, and the conversation was totally exciting. I saw the mo...

Happy Labor Day, all you bookish types! I'm sure anyone who works in an office is far away from a work computer at the moment -- more power to you. For us retail types, it's a work day -- we're taking bets on whether the bookstore will be dead because all the New Yorkers are on vacation, or jumping because all the tourists are on vacation here. With gas prices and the Euro being what they are, my bet's on a sales uptick, but it's anybody's guess --we'll see at the end of the day. It's also my first official day back from my August hiatus -- and I'm surprisingly eager to jump back into the swing of things. You can read about the progress of my bookstore plans on my other blog by tomorrow or so, but today I want to fill you in on some of what's caught my eye over the past month elsewhere in the world of books. * 7/29 A venerable Brooklyn bookstore is moving - but not closing! * 7/30 Danny Fingeroth has a pretty legit list of his top 10 graphic nov...

My thrice-weekly email from the fabulous folks at Brooklyn Based was both exciting and chagrining this morning: a new bookstore in Brooklyn! With comic books and art installations by great local comics! That I'd NEVER HEARD OF before! Desert Island (dude, also a great name), according to BB, "is one of those places that shines in the consumer retail rough. Proprietor Gabriel Fowler opened the Williamsburg store in February of this year, with nothing more than a bank loan, a small community of artist friends, and a desire to share some o f his favorite comics, zines and books. Fowler grew up around indie record and comic shops in Florida, which “were the only exciting places to hang out in a cultural wasteland.” Powered by his professed “obliviousness” of the weak bookselling market, Fowler built and decorated the store entirely by hand, with a few key installations from his friends: Marie Lorenz, who made a delicate and intricate paper chandelier, and Chris Patch, who ma...

Monday, an article in the New York Times confirmed the story that the Barnes & Noble on Astor Place in New York is closing , and put to rest the rumors we'd been hearing that a new branch would open in Chelsea. The Astor Place branch will close on December 31, citing astronomical rents, the bane of all bookstores in NYC. (Strangely, the quoted yearly rent of $1.15 million for 32,000 square feet works out to only about $35 per square foot -- well within reasonable range, even for a bookstore.) The Times reports that a new B&N will open at 270 Greenwich Street in TriBeCa on November 28, "so the total number of Barnes & Noble stores will be unchanged." However, a Tuesday article in the New York Post makes that last statement questionable. Real estate sources say that the Chelsea Barnes & Noble won't renew its lease when it comes up next May, though Barnes & Noble hasn't confirmed this. But the Post also says the chain may have signed a l...

Link Madness (late edition) I guess I was overcome by Labor Day laziness and forgot to blog on Monday, so here are some late and rather eclectic links. * Author Alex Kuczynski has a somewhat smirky article in the NY Times about the contemporary book party , describing the "colossal blowouts" for books by Tina Brown, Holly Peterson, and Patricia Marx, as opposed to the warm-wine-and-skimpy-brie affairs of yesteryear. Her contention is that today's parties are hosted not by publishers, but by wealthy authors and friends of authors; hence the extravagance in hopes of garnering publicity. (Thanks to Ron at Galleycat for the link, and I'll second his notion that if it's media mentions you want, invite a blogger or two along with the glitterati!) I'm not sure I agree with Kuczynski; we've hosted some pretty swanky publisher-sponsored digs at the bookstore, and sold books offsite at several more, though there are still plenty of author-sponsored cheap wine ...