The Written Nerd

Well, if you're in New York today you know exactly why a four-hour drive to the NAIBAhood gathering in Rehoboth is out of the question... "wintry mix" being some of the scariest weather imaginable, especially on the roads. Disappointed as I am to miss Steve Crane's workshop on buying non-book inventory, there's something to be said for hunkering down in our own hometown on such a day. Before I meet up with some bookselling buddies for an impromptu brainstorming session, here are some book reviews for this wintry day. Working through my backlog of read books, in order of reading... Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead: Stories By Alan DeNiro (Small Beer Press, 2006) This is one of the Litblog Co-Op nominees for spring , and it's one of those happy coincidences where I find myself obliged to read a book I'd been meaning to read anyway. Small Beer Press, the brainchild of indie fantasist Kelly Link and company, is one of the best of the new small presses...

Hey, remember when we used to talk about books around here? Appearances notwithstanding, I have actually been reading the darn things this year, though not at the pace to which I have been accustomed. There are some great ones in the "done" pile, so I'd like to dish on 'em before they go the way of Billy Collins' quadratic equation . In approximate order of reading, since the last installment: The House Without the Door by Elizabeth Daly (Felony & Mayhem, 2006) The publishing arm of mystery bookstore extraordinaire Partners & Crime turns out another winner with this reissue from 1942. The ALP, recalling my fascination with the trippy Christie-meets-colonialism Devil in the Bush , picked this one up for me, and I proceeded to once again sink into the strange alternate universe of pre-War America. The oddest and most interesting thing about this book, aside from the genuinely unexpected revelation of the villain at the end, is realizing how much people ...

Link time, kids! - The fabulous online periodical The Morning News is well underway with its annual Tournament of Books , the most exciting of all of the literary awards, at least in terms of process. Imagine Celebrity Death Match between Gary Shteyngart and Chimamanda Ngozi Achidie! Or Richard Powers vs. Claire Messud! Or, in possibly the weirdest matchup, Brian K. Vaughan vs. Thomas Pynchon! All the excitement is there as prominent critics, bloggers and authors judge two books head-to-head, making for a March Madness of the book world. In a way, the results are as arbitrary as they are for any book award, but rather more transparent, and a lot more fun. (Incidentally, it was Dale Peck's behavior in last year's ToB that inspired my series of posts about Snarks; Mr. Peck has not been included in this year's judging pool, though I can't claim to have anything to do with that.) I was honored this year to be asked to participate in the Bloggers' Office Pool ;...

It's the season of Lent, that exciting time of sacrifice and self-examination...I'm using it to put in some extra hours at the bookstore and catch up with the backlog that seems to still be there from Christmas or Winter Institute or something. Hopefully our webpage, our events series, our sales floor, and our overcrowded back office will be the better for it. Then there's wedding planning -- an all-too-delicious distraction, which does take up a certain amount of a girl's time. Which leaves blogging time scarce, again. So check out my posting from Friday and weigh in on what Max from the Millions calls the "Widget Wars" : Amazon Look Inside!, Google Book Search, HarperCollins Browse Inside, and Random House's Insight (the last two partnering with BookSense), in an effort to... make shopping online more like browsing a bookstore? Compete for demanding digital customers? Just make sure we've got what everyone else has got? The goals of the various...

Here's some food for thought for the weekend. This falls under the category of "I'm still figuring this out, so you look at it with me and tell me what you think." I recieved this press release from the good folks at Random House the other day. I'm pasting it here 'cause that's what press releases are for. INSIGHT, NEWLY LAUNCHED DIGITAL SEARCH & BROWSING SERVICE, TO OFFER 5,000-PLUS RANDOM HOUSE, INC. U.S. TITLES (New York, February 27, 2007)—In a giant stride forward in the emerging world of digital book search, Random House, Inc., the U.S. division of the world’s largest trade book publisher, has announced the launch of its own online book content search and browsing service, named Insight. Through Insight, Random House will make the text searchable for more than 5,000 of its new and backlist titles from across the company’s U.S. publishing divisions. Random House expects to add several thousand more of its books to Insight this spring. Insigh...

Time at last to talk about the big pop culture event of the weekend... New York Comic Con ! (What, did you think I meant that awards show ?) Your Book Nerd was there, both overwhelmed and underwhelmed by it all, but having a good time nonetheless. My bookstore had been asked by HarperCollins Publishers to do retail sales at their booth for the Con, so I spent all day Friday and part of Saturday in bookseller mode. I was at first a bit put out to be working when I'd rather be exploring, but it was worth it when I waltzed past the four-block-long line of fans on Saturday morning, flashing my "Exhibitor" badge (the ALP had to wait in line outside for another hour, and it wasn't warm this weekend...) Being on the other side of the booth was interesting -- I can see why my publishing buddies don't look forward to BEA with as much alacrity as my bookselling buddies, since being in the same place answering many of the same questions for 10 hours or more can be a bit ...

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.