The Written Nerd

Seems like it's been ages since the last book review around here, huh? (Though it doesn't much affect my ad-less site, there's another debate raging in blogland about blogger book reviews and commercial ethics; click here for the opening volley and some of the responses. Thanks to Max at the Millions for the link) My reading time lately has been taken up with several books I've been assigned for review, as well as some guilty pleasures in between. First, the work reading (which won't be out for several months). Review #24 ALL FOR LOVE by Dan Jacobson (Metropolitan/Holt, September 2006) It's a true story: in the last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, a princess fell in love with a lower-class cavalry officer, defied her husband and her family and ran away with him. When the forces of the status quo caught up with them, he was thrown into prison and she into an insane asylum, until he won his release and staged a daring breakout of the asylum. Then they fl...

Sorry I suck! I had to run an errand in deepest Queens today (which is a heck of a subway ride from Brooklyn), and now I've run out of time for the bazillion and one other things I have to get done on my day off. I'll be back on Friday with a couple of book reviews.

Trying to remember, much less find and post, all the bookish things on the web I've been longing to share with you this week can be well-nigh impossible (especially when you keep getting mysteriously kicked out of Blogger... aargh). Consider the following a tiny, abbreviated list of the good stuff happening out there this week. I've gotten several requests to include additional independent bookstores on my list of links. Keep 'em coming! If you don't see your favorite indie on the links list at right, it's not because I'm not a fan of the store or even because I don't know about it -- I'm just updating the list slowly but surely with my pokey HTML skills. So feel free to jog my memory. Here are the new additions for this week. - Vroman's Bookstore of Pasadena, California, home of Emerging Leaders co-founder Allison Hill (they have a MySpace page , too) - Square Books of Oxford, Mississippi, the local favorite of author and blogger Leslia Valentine ...

So we need more indie bookstores, right? And the ones that exist need to learn how to be dynamic and innovative in order to survive and thrive. Whatcha gonna do about it? A little group of booksellers -- all "lifers" in independent stores, though not owners -- started thinking about what kind of help could be offered to those who are likely to shape the future of bookselling: the Emerging Leaders of our industry. After lots of brain-wracking, here's the mission statement they came up with: The Emerging Leaders Project recognizes the need to deliberately retain, develop and support the industry's future innovators and leaders. Emerging Leaders Conversations are set up for peer networking and discussion of topics that relate to the future of bookselling, leadership development and industry education. The Emerging Leaders Project is tailored, but not restricted, to people forty and under, who plan on sticking with the industry for the next twenty years and demonstrate a ...

(Reader beware: this is a really long one.) Before I get to what you've said, I want to mention what's being said elsewhere. I promise I didn't plan this timing, but today's editions of The New York Times and Shelf Awareness both have pieces that pertain exactly to the subject(s) of today's posts. "Digital Publishing is Scrambling the Industry's Rules," trumpets the Times, but it's less about e-books than about first chapters posted online, reader talkback on author websites, and a couple of convergence projects combining print and digital mediums. There's the requisite acknowledgement that John Updike is horrified by all this (I missed his speech at BEA, and I can't say I'm terribly sorry), along with some other, more equivocal voices from authors and others in publishing about the potential implications. No booksellers or mention of the effect of this stuff on the means of distribution, but the article is relevant nonetheless. And alm...

I'm sorry to bail on y'all again, but I just don't have time to give the question and the compilation of comments the attention they deserve today -- I've taken on a few too many projects and I have to catch up a bit. So I'll give you the weekend to continue to register your comments on the question I posed on Wednesday: Q: What is the future of bookselling? I'll post your thoughts and mine on Monday. Some other aspects of the question to consider: How will developments like Buy Local First, Slow Food, and the organic movement affect bookselling, if at all? Will author tours mean that writing will become more performative, and how will that affect bookstores? What will the bookseller of the future look like, or is there room for both the businessperson and the idealist? Thinking outside the chain vs. indie question, how will all bookstores be changed by new technologies, new demographics, new forms of literature and information? Can we even make viable general ...

I know I promised a meaty post today, but I'm still doing a bit of research for the one I want to write, and I also really, really, REALLY have to get some non-blog-related work done today. So in lieu, I'm asking all you smart book people a question. Q: What is the future of bookselling? Lots of media and industry types have sounded off on this, but I want to know what you, the folks in the trenches think. We've talked about what ought to happen, but now I want to know how you think it's really going to play out. How will bookselling venues evolve, including chains, superstores like Wal-Mart, independent stores, and the internet? Who will rise and who will fall? Are we headed toward increased corporatization or increased local independence? How are consumers' and readers' tastes changing or remaining constant? How will authors' roles evolve? What will independents need to do to stay viable? What will the next generation of booksellers be like? The ...