The Written Nerd

Dear readers, not only was yesterday the day-long winter meeting of the NAIBA board (where we were joined by ABA staffers and had a great discussion of upcoming projects), it was also the night of bookstore inventory, which lasted until the wee hours (I left around 2:30 AM, and there were folks still blearily uploading stuff to the computer). As I may have mentioned, I am a girl who needs her sleep. And right now I'm feeling like I have a book-scanning hangover (I'm sure I'll be hearing the beep of the scanner in my dreams). And as my extremely practical and outspoken colleague Pat Kutz of Lift Bridge Books says, "I do need ONE day in my life that isn't all about books. Don't you?" Yes, I do. So I'll see you after Comic Con. I'm going back to bed.

Hope some of you are enjoying the three-day weekend and thinking kind thoughts about pres. Washington, Lincoln, et al. Of course, lots of people use their holiday Monday to go shopping, so us retail types are on the job as usual. But here are some linkety-links before I head off to the store. - Hooray, an optimistic article about indie bookstores! This piece in the Christian Science Monitor (from several weeks ago) chronicles some recent success stories, while still acknowledging the struggle (and the fact that none of us are planning on becoming milionaires). It's a nicely balanced piece, and quotes hometown favorite Adam Tobin of Adam's Books (thanks to Sarah Weinman's Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind for the link). - Case in point: Waynesville, NC's fabulous Osondu Booksellers , which has just remodeled and installed a wine bar in the bookstore! Proprietor Margaret Osondu is already kind of famous for her campaign get Oprah to visit Osondu Booksellers, and...

Mmmmm.... sleepy today, as a result of a late night last night and an early meeting this morning. It's probably too late for any of you to read this post at work today, but I've got the time to get it off my chest and leave time for links on Monday. It's been ages since there were any book reviews around here -- anyone ever notice that the more involved one gets in the book industry the less time there seems to be to read? Actually, I think that's a fallacy, but I have seemed to be in the reading doldrums until recently. What I have had the time and energy to read has been fairly escapist fare, though not stupid by any stretch. I was tempted to describe my January books as "diet reading" -- a take on the "light reading" idea -- but really, it's more like candy reading, or junk food reading -- though it's not junk, just on the more fun side than the intellectual side -- oh, the whole food metaphor breaks down. Just read the reviews. FRAGI...

Ready for some links, O my bookish friends? * Here's that piece in Bookselling This Week about the Book Nerd experience at Winter Institute. Read for all the bits you didn't get here. * At the WI session on PR, there was a round of indignant applause when one bookseller mentioned "the same old story" that major media had decided was "sexy", especially in the days since You've Got Mail. You know that story: woe to independent bookstores, they are dying if not already dead, the only reason to go to them is sentimentality, what a tragedy. (Never mind the opening of 97 new independent bookstores last year, the success stories from New York City to North Carolina, the innovative new stores and those that have continued to evolve for decades, the smart business people who are educating themselves and adapting to a changing retail environment... but don't get me started.) Well, here's another version of the same old story from the L.A. Times (go ...

So this Thursday in Bookselling This Week you should be able to read my official report from the Winter Institute, though written in the same rambling, overlong style you've come to expect from this particular loggorheiac blogger. But only here on The Written Nerd can you read about what you really want to know about: The partying. Somehow I found myself drinking later and more often at this event than even at BEA with its host of publisher parties. One theory is that when one isn't exhausted by a day on the show floor there's more energy for going out. But the day sessions were plenty rigorous and intense (and in case any of my coworkers are reading, I DID learn enough useful stuff to justify you covering my shifts last week). My theory is that Portlanders are secretly way hipper than anyone in the world, and have a higher alcohol tolerance, which they inflict on folks like us hapless Easterners. Or maybe there were just a lot of awesome people there that I don't s...

Okay, folks, you'll have to wait until Wednesday for the big, long, rundown of the ABA Winter Institute in Portland (note: I vote that we start referring to the event as "we," like the new video game platform Wii, and because it's all about us - er, we. That started out clever and got silly.) Today it's all about catching up on the stuff that's happened in the meantime. I may still be suffering from some remnants of jetlag, so forgive the irreverant (or incoherent) tone. * In the "uber-indieness of the one counterbalances the corporateness of the other, all for the benefit of literature" category: the Litblog Co-Op's Fall Read This! pick , Sam Savage's FIRMIN, has made the finals of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards! We like to think that we, the rat-obsessed bloggers, had a teensy bit to do with this. Either way, go Firmin! * Also in LBC news, there's a pretty sweet roundtable discussion going on there now a...

For once I've got an afternoon flight for my trip to Portland... which means time for breakfast, lazy packing, and a quick post. The book blogging world is about to lose one of its best voices. Bookseller Chick is losing her job , as her West Coast store closes. Her posts pounded into my head the fact that chain store employees are booksellers too, and chain stores aren't immune to the tragedy of closing doors. In my opinion, few booksellers in any kind of store have the depth of insight, egalitarian spirit (i.e. romances get pride of place next to "literary" stuff), connection with both readers and authors, open-minded inquiry into why the book industry is the way it is, and skill at wryly expressing the bookstore life that this anonymous chick does. Check out her poignant postings on the closing process, and click through the archives for a wealth of conversations about books and bookstores. Hopefully, BS Chick will continue to blog about her future book world e...