The bookstore massacre is coming Brett Arends' ROI - MarketWatch

The bookstore massacre is coming Brett Arends' ROI - MarketWatch

This article by Brett Arends made me sad, but, alas, I have to agree with him: the massacre of the American bookstore is coming. Apparently, Barnes & Noble is going up for sale. I closed my bookstore business almost two years ago. We were just beginning and headed in the right direction when the recession knocked up a fatal blow. I believe bookstores are making themselves obsolete with e-book readers. Gadgets are fun, but I'm hoping some form of bookstores will remain.

Layoffs at Borders Headquarters

Read the Publishers Weekly article - click here.
Layoffs at Borders Headquarters

I can't help but wonder if the recent announcement of more layoffs with Borders is a direct result of recent increases in e-book sales. Everytime I bring up e-books with my writer friends I hear the same thing, commonly surmized by the idiom "You can't fight progress." Also, I can't help but wonder if the salespeople at the big book chains realize when they push the e-readers on their walkin customers, their got-in-a-car-drove-themselves-to-an-actual-bookstore-to-buy-a-book customers, if they realize they're helping put themselves out of a job.

Bye-bye bookstores. We'll miss you.

this season's book cover trends - cover art for the book fashionista

Elizabeth Bluemle takes a humorous look at this year's book covers, with an emphasis on the YA market, in her online blog post "The Season of Windblown Hair - Or, the Zeitgeist of Book Covers."

For my part, I happen to be reading Kimberly Derting's The Body Finder, which appears in Bluemle's first line-up of floral covers. I have to admit, it is a fashionable cover.



And on that note, I'm looking forward to the premiere of Project Runway Season 8. Episode one is entitled "And Sew It Begins."

Crime and Squirrels Lead Foreign Lists

Publishers Weekly reports on international novels making the scene.
Crime and Squirrels Lead Foreign Lists

Crime novels and feel-good story about the squirrels of Central Park head the list of must-read international novels. I've never been a big fan of crime novels, but The Squirrels of Central Park Are Sad on Monday by French novelist Katherine Pancol has piqued my interest. How about combining the two ideas? A murder in Central Park orchestrated by a rouge band of squirrels -- Of Crime and Squirrels. I kid, of course. Or, do I? Hmmm...