The Written Nerd

I'll forego the traditional link madness today in the interest of catching up on some book reviews. These are more or less in the order read. My calendar says we're in Week 33 of the calendar year, so I'm right on schedule for hitting that 52 books mark this year! (Just one linky suggestion: the discussion has begun over at the Litblog Co-op of MICHAEL MARTONE by Michael Martone, and several of that clever gang are writing their comments in the form of fictional autobiographical "Contributor Notes," in homage to the form of Martone's experimental novel. It's a funny way to find out everything that never happened to Dan Wickett and Edward Champion, and may turn you on to a new book. My comments won't show up there until the fall round of titles, but everything these guys pick tends to be interesting.) Book Review #30 BROOKLAND by Emily Barton (FSG, February 2006) This one has been on my to-be-read list for a long time. As a devoted Brooklynite, as well ...

Okay, as I might have suspected, it's taking longer than I anticipated to recover from my little vacation. I spent the weekend here at my baby sister's wedding, which was completely wonderful and exhausting, as weddings tend to be, and even more so because the weekend involved hiking, rafting, dressing up in bridesmaid clothes, and many meetings of new family members over huge meals. I'm back in Brooklyn, but still gathering my wits, so bear with me for a bit. I hope you've enjoyed the spirited exchange on the American Booksellers Association and the Booksense programs that's been happening here in my absence, starring Dave, Andy, Carl, and a few other brave souls willing to jump into the fray. I hope there's been a bit of learning from each other happening, as well as an articulation of our own positions. I would encourage anyone who has opinions on these matters to share your thoughts with the ABA leadership. You can find them by going to the ABA website...

At my request, HarperCollins VP for Independent Retailing Carl Lennertz has agreed to guest blog today. The opinions expressed here are his. Register your agreement, disagreement or further thoughts on this subject in the comments. Let's continue the conversation. Response to Dave about ABA and Book Sense Dave makes some thoughtful, reasoned comments about his concerns about ABA and Book Sense . Full disclosure: I worked at ABA for 4 years on the Book Sense project. I’m not going to go point for point on the ABA issues; my brief was solely Book Sense. All I want to say is that I bet the hardware, video and music stores wish they had such a strong association, especially the past 10 years, and that the ABA has been a very strong voice in Washington, DC for the independents. As for the value of education, the Thursday before BEA starts has been the single most important day of the year for booksellers to share ideas the past 25 years. Every innovation in the business has been introdu...

In response to my request, Carl Lennertz of HarperCollins and the blog Publishing Insider (whom I know to be a longtime advocate of BookSense) has written a response to guest blogger Dave's comments from July 14. Look for his comments here tomorrow, along with your chance to jump into the conversation about the American Booksellers Association. Things may heat up again around here, so don't miss it!

Man, I couldn't even get on Blogger yesterday to tell everyone that I couldn't post. Sorry -- I blame the Internet. Or my ancient computer. But here I am today to tell you that I'm taking a break. I'm going to be out of town quite a bit in the next two weeks, and I'm feeling that late-July exhaustion. I need to step away from the computer for a little while, let some ideas percolate, spend some time with books and family, refresh and recharge for the energy surge of the fall. I may be able to offer you the words of a guest blogger in the meantime: Carl Lennertz of the blog Publishing Insider has agreed to write a post in defense of Booksense, so we can continue the ABA conversation from another angle. If his busy schedule allows it, you should see that post here sometime later this week. And I'll be back on August 7, fresh with news about bookstore visits, plans for the future, and that ever-interesting question "what did you read on the plane?" ...

Book Review #28: Conversations with Mr. Prain by Joan Taylor Melville House (June 2006) Book Review #29: The Best of Slate: A 10th Anniversary Anthology Edited by David Plotz, Introduction by Jacob Weisberg, Foreword by Michael Kinsley Atlas Books (June 2006) In typical fashion, I've managed to find a theme in the two totally disparate books I've read most recently: they're both about people who love to talk. In the first, a fictional twosome from opposite sides of the track exemplify talk as battle of wills (and method of foreplay); in the second, members of the digital intelligentsia spout opinions about every issue of the last ten years, making for a lot of conversation for the folks at home. (And for once, both books are actually already available in bookstores.) CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. PRAIN was actually the first book I received through the auspices of Fresh Eyes Now, Robert Gray's project for linking authors with booksellers. His strength is that he knows what we ...

The theme of today's link madness is community, in all its forms: neighborhood community, internet community, bookstore community, etc. As you may have noticed, this is one of my primary passions and one of the reasons I'm such a nerd about this independent bookstore thing. I think people coming together voluntarily, or being thrown together because of propinquity or common interests, or forming coalitions, or learning each others' names, or supporting each others projects, or learning from each other... well, it's just so darn cool. Yesterday I went to my first-ever political rally: the gathering sponsored by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn to protest the crazy development project for the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards (remember, the reason they tore down the Underberg...) The New York Times has this article about the event. For a more exciting, if much more partisan view (with pictures), here's the website of Develop Don't Destroy . The main contentions of the pro...