The Written Nerd

I've just received word that the members of the Litblog Co-Op have spoken, and the Fall Read This! selection has been chosen! But... it's a secret, and I can't tell ya whether Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage from Coffee House Press Sideshow: Stories by Sidney Thompson from River City Publishing or Manbug by George Ilsley from Arsenal Pulp Press is the big winner. That announcement will come on October 16, followed by lots of chats with the authors (of the winner and the two runners up) and blog posts by the clever literary folks who read the books and made the call. Pick up one or more of these books if you have a chance in the meantime - these links will send you to the Powell's website, or you can pick them up at your local indie bookstore. * * * And now I have a serious question for you, the readership. I've been approached by another blogger about a new service called Brainiads, which will allow bloggers to work with individually ...

One of these days Mondays will again be about Link Madness, but I always seem to have some catching up to do. Here's a rundown of my reading over the last month or so – at least the ones I finished. We're in Week 40 of the calendar year, so I've still got a chance to make my 52 book goal by December 31. Book Review #35 KOCKROACH by Tyler Knox (William Morrow, January 2007) I picked this one up with giddy enthusiasm – it is, as the ALP observed, my kind of thing. Here's the first paragraph: As Kockroach, an arthropod of the genus Blatella and of the species germanica , awakens one morning from a typically dreamless sleep, he finds himself transformed into some large, vile creature. Obviously, Knox is channeling and reversing Kafka's most famous short story, "The Metamorphosis", in which hapless Gregor Samsa finds himself transformed into a cockroach. Such an allusive and fantastic premise piqued my curiosity, and I was definitely not disappointed. Like Kaf...

Coupla links -- 'cause it's been a long time. Larry Portzline at the Bookstore Tourism blog has a thoughtful review of the documentary film about independent bookstores that's been causing a lot of buzz (in our little world). Jacob Bricca's "Indies Under Fire: The Battle for the American Bookstore" tells the story of the pitched battle between Borders and independents in the Bay Area. Hopefully we can bring a screening of the documentary to a New York book industry audience sometime soon, perhaps through Emerging Leaders; Larry's review makes it sound like a fascinating conversation starter. Bookseller Chick (who is SO good with the posts and links; how, how do you find the time?) had a little guest blog series recently, including former bookseller David De Beer on "The (Gradually Changing) Bookstore Environment". His insights into indie bookstore customers' resistance to change (at least shocking, overnight change) were eye-opening and yet e...

On September 17, 2006, at the Breakfast of Champions at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association trade show in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, author Libba Bray received NAIBA's award for Best Young Adult Book of the publishing year for her novel REBEL ANGELS. Her acceptance speech, titled "Ode to Independent Booksellers," brought waves of applause and dozens of requests for copies. Bray, who worked at an independent bookstore as a teenager in Texas, has given me permission to reprint her speech here. Please forgive me for running two guest posts in a row; I wanted to share this wonderful speech while it is still fresh. Ode to Independent Booksellers Independent booksellers rock. They are a cup of black coffee, straight up no chaser, in a half-caf-vanilla-hazelnut-with-whipped cream kind of world. When you walk up to independent booksellers and say, with deepest apologies, “I’m looking for this new book about the Victorian era and I can’t remember the author’s na...

Today's guest blogger is Lady T: reader, former bookseller and author of the blog living read girl . The opinions expressed here are hers. Register your agreement, disagreement or further thoughts on this subject in the comments. Let's get a conversation going. Confessions of a Former Genre Snob Before I begin this talk about literary genres and how they're perceived, marketed, etc, I should tell you right up front that yes, I used to look down my nose at certain ones and feel superior to those who openly bought and read such "trashy" books. The Romance section of any bookstore I treated like the part of a magazine rack where Playboys and Penthouses leered up for all to see. Even in my early bookselling days, I made the occasional joke about the Nora Roberts "book-of-the-month" club and insisted on the theory that she had an army of ghost writers at her beck and call. What changed me? Well, for one thing, I was being hypocritical. In my teens, horror f...

And now, the rest of the NAIBA trade show. Friday Okay, first the omissions. I neglected to mention that as we drifted into the dinner on Friday night, we were greeted warmly by members of the NAIBA board of directors: past president Sheilah Egan (who directs children's literacy programs now), executive director Eileen Dengler (who is not a bookseller but an incredible organizer – one of her previous jobs was putting together BEA practically single-handedly), Rob Stahl of Colgate University Bookstore (whom I apparently usurped as the youngest member of the board, and who is a great conversationalist and reader as well as fierce competitor… but more of that later), incoming past president Lynn Gonsher of Tudor Bookshop & Cafe in Kingston, and incoming president Joe Drabyak of Chester County Books & Music (who took me aside and told me that I'd made a mistake weeks earlier on this blog: I am most definitely NOT the only non-owner on the board, as Joe and Rob are both mere...

Wednesday Tomorrow, dear readers, I will finish the saga of the NAIBA weekend (and try to correct the mistakes I've already made). Wednesday, as I've mentioned, is my day off from the bookstore, and it may take the whole day to recall and recount the events of Saturday and Sunday. In the meantime, look to Shelf Awareness and Bookselling this Week (links at right) for the lowdown on the show and other events. Friday This week will see the first in (what I hope will be) a series of Friday guest bloggers! The first installment will be a piece by Lady T of the witty and charming (and super intelligent) blog living read girl . Her topic: "Confessions of a Former Book Snob", about her complicated relationship to chicklit and other "genre" fiction. It's something I think many of us book nerds have struggled with, and I'm eager to read her take on it and talk back. And if anyone would like to write a guest post about the Brooklyn Book Festival, I'd be mo...