The Written Nerd

It's not my usual posting day, but I have a smitch of time and some odds and ends for y'all. Simon Owen of the media commentary and interview blog Bloggasm has an interview with yours truly . He does his research on everyone he contacts, which makes for some interesting questions (also check out the interview with C. Max Magee of The Millions ). I got a chance to send shout-outs to my favorite book industry lit-bloggers at the end; thanks for being around, guys! - - - Two blogs have posed open-ended questions to readership lately, and I thought I'd extend the questions to you. Feel free to respond in comments here, or on the source blogs. Matthew Tiffany of Condalmo asks , what's with the hostility toward the short story? I never got around to answering the question myself, but several others did, and Matt has compiled their comments in this post . Feel free to continue the conversation with your own thoughts on short fiction and its discontents. Dan Wicket of the Emer...

[Note: I'm having trouble uploading photos to Blogger again, so I'll add the photos to this post later if I can.] As I'm working on the business plan for my eventual Brooklyn bookstore, and as I'm getting to know my fellow booksellers through the New Atlantic Independent Bookstore Association and the Emerging Leaders project, I've gotten the opportunity to spend time in some great independent bookstores. All of you readers and book people probably spend a fair amount of time in bookstores, as I do, but it's surprising what I've begun to notice as I'm looking at these stores from a business person's perspective. What follows are accounts of my recent visits to two area bookstores that have taught me a great deal about good bookselling and good business sense – not to mention being home to delightful booksellers. Voices & Visions The Bourse, Philadelphia, PA Proprietor: Angela Roach I met Angela at an "Emerging Leaders" meeting sponsored ...

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?" ...