This Week in Indie Bookstores
Indie bookstore news from across the country and around the world!
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Posts Tagged: bookstores
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Snail Mail’s Beloved Books
Wherever I go out on tour, I always have a book with me, and another for when I’m finished.
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Texas bookstores hold their own Independent Bookstore Day. Dissident Hong Kong bookstore owner threatened by the Chinese government is attempting to open a bookstore in Taiwan.
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The Rumpus Interview with Kea Wilson
Kea Wilson discusses her debut novel We Eat Our Own, the influence of film on her work, and what she’s learned from working as a bookseller.
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Loganberry Books in Cleveland, Ohio is drawing attention to female authors by turning books by men around on the shelves, leaving the books pages out to hide the spine. A Pittsburgh bookstore is providing a home to books by writers in exile, drawing attention to the authors’ works. The collapse of the coloring book market is hurting […]
...moreBringing Diversity to the Comic Book Store World
Ariell Johnson, owner of Amalgam Comics and Coffeehouse in Philadelphia, is the East Coast’s first black female comic book store owner. For CNN, Ryan Bergeron talks with Johnson about opening up the geek world to young black girls, bringing comic authors of color to the forefront, and creating a welcoming space for comic lovers everywhere.
...moreA Safe Harbor
Book clubs have long been a mainstay in literary and bookish circles. Claire Kirch, writing for Publisher’s Weekly, takes a look at how some indie bookstores have leveraged this to increase sales—thereby helping to ensure they will stay open to serve said book clubs, as well as other book-lovers. And while we’re talking book clubs, be […]
...moreBooks by Bicycle, within an Hour
Londoners, if for whatever conceivable reason you need a book on your front doorstep within the next hour, there’s an app for that. NearSt is a new London-based app that offers a selection of books from nearly forty local bookstores that can be browsed, ordered, and delivered straight to you via bicycle courier. However, the app […]
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Louise Erdrich
The esteemed author talks about the themes of justice, atonement, and reparation in her fifteenth novel, LaRose, and about the importance of Planned Parenthood to her success.
...moreBooks That Aren’t Books
Bookstores around the world have been working to reinvent themselves in the wake of Amazon’s rise, and stocking gift items has been a chief tactic. If you’ve never been to a Waterstone’s in the UK, here’s a sampling of what it’s like: Gifts now seem to take up as much space as books, at least […]
...moreThere All Along
After all they’ve done for literature, it’s about time someone wrote an ode to bookstore cats: It began as a working relationship, but became something more than that, something deeper.
...moreA Love Born of Mystery
“I was looking at books… Gary and I had seen each other. We didn’t know one another. And he walked over to me in this particular bookstore and handed me a book by Teran and said, ‘You’ve gotta read this book, it’s really good.’” NPR shares the love story of Gary Shulze and Pat Frovarp, retiring owners […]
...moreThe Missing Hong Kong Booksellers: A Rumpus Roundup
Hong Kong functions as a semi-autonomous city-state, a condition imposed when the United Kingdom ceded control to Beijing. Hong Kong’s special status has allowed its independent bookstores to sell two kinds of books banned in mainland China: political books and smut. But late last year, four associates of Causeway Bay Books, an independent bookseller specializing […]
...moreMistaken Identity
A New Age book and gift shop in Denver, Colorado called Isis Books and Gifts changed its branding after vandals smashed its sign, thinking the store was related to the Islamic State. The sign now reads “Goddess of 10,000 Names,” which is an honorific for the ancient Egyptian goddess. On Facebook, the store owner said, […]
...moreDistrict of Books
The American city that spends the most money on books, magazines, and newspapers—Washington, DC—will soon be left without any chain bookstores. Melville House reports that as of Dec. 31, 2015, there will no longer be any chain bookstores in the nation’s capital. “… [T]he closure of this particular Barnes & Noble doesn’t mean Amazon has stolen the hearts […]
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Email is evil… Which explains why Millennials like it so much. Probably. Speaking of Millennials, they get a fancy new, techy bookstore in London. So, that’s nice. Quitting Facebook makes you happier.
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The Rumpus Interview with Elisabeth Egan
Elisabeth Egan discusses her debut novel, A Window Opens, life as a book lover, workplace jargon, and the question we should ask ourselves in place of can we “have it all”.
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Old Friends Or Lovers
I was becoming awed by the wide horizon of the speech that arose out of an individual life lived in a single era and generation. I was becoming attracted to the writer’s creativity.
...morePrinted Books Are Here to Stay
A recent New York Times report showed that e-book sales are declining while printed book sales are doing well. Over at Lit Hub, Adam Sternbergh argues that the printed book is going nowhere, for at least another 500 years: Whatever medium the music is delivered in, the song remains the same—once it gets to your […]
...moreA Look Back at Amazon’s Twenty Years
Publisher’s Weekly has a retrospective on Amazon.com’s 20 years of selling books, DVDs, electronics, and everything else. The article cites the introduction of the Kindle and the Kindle e-bookstore as Amazon’s most important innovation, but is quick to cite the company’s other advances—as well as the many controversies sparked by said advances. For example, before it […]
...moreJapanese Bookstore Beats Amazon to the Punch
In what can aptly be described as a preemptive strike against online retailers like Amazon, major Japanese bookstore chain Kinokuniya bought up to 90% of the first print run of Haruki Murakami’s latest book of essays, Novelist as a Vocation. A Kinokuniya representative had this comment to offer: To rival online book retailers, bookstores across the […]
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Memphis-area Burke’s Book Store celebrated its 140th year of selling books. The current owners plan to use the milestone reintroduce the store, and that includes investing in a custom bicycle to make book deliveries. Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi started because owners Richard and Lisa Howorth believed William Faulkner’s town should have a bookstore. They […]
...moreGo Refund a Watchman
After all of the hype and controversy surrounding Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, some readers found themselves a little bit disappointed when they read the actual book. One book store in Michigan has started offering refunds for regretful readers. NPR has the full story.
...moreMaking Room on the Shelf
Women writers, like women activists, have always done a considerable amount of the intellectual heavy lifting required for innovation. And yet try to find many of these women in bookstores: Kay Boyle, Grace Paley, Janet Flanner, Laurie Colwin, Meredith Tax, Dawn Powell, Meridel LeSeur, Colette, Nella Larsen, Paule Marshall, Dorothy West, Mina Loy, Josephine Herbst, […]
...moreBookstore Plans to Charge Admission
A Portuguese bookstore popular with tourists plans on charging admission, reports WTVY. The bookstore is not just a stunning architectural monument, but also the inspiration behind the library at Hogwarts. Before writing the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling taught English in Oporto, Portugal where Livraria Lello is located.
...moreGetting Lost at The Strand
New York City’s The Strand bookstore is one of the world’s great literary institutions. For literary pilgrims, The Strand is a destination akin to Shakespeare and Company in Paris or Powell’s in Portland. Now, The Strand is modernizing. Many of its quirks, like its mandatory bag check, have been eliminated while novelties, like lollipops and socks, are […]
...moreBookstore Blues? Not So Fast
Many of us remember the glory days of Blockbuster, and its gradual fall. Many of us also question the fate of bookstores at the hands of technology. At Electric Literature, Jeremy Hawkins argues that bookstores will not suffer the same fate as video stores—in fact, he says, indie bookstores are doing better than ever.
...moreWeekly Geekery
Mars: The ultimate back up planet. Goodbye, ladyblogging. How does social media walk the line between enabling hate speech and not giving it a megaphone. The Kindle cannot kill the bookstore. NOT EVER! Using algorithms to buy art. Connecting into the hive mind.
...moreBook Shopping with the Author
Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jonathan Lethem gives us a tour of the books he’s buying at Skylight Books in Los Feliz.
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