Archive for August, 2008
What’s in a book?
Friday, August 29th, 2008Anyone who’s ever worked in a bookstore has stories to tell of the bizarre stuff they find in books. Sometimes you’ll find funny pictures of people in outdated clothing (usually stuck inside of yesterday’s bestseller thriller), receipts for the purchase of the book (boring), dollar bills (now we’re talking), love notes, unsent postcards or [...]
Laying siege to your local library
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008Make no mistake, in the world of books, there is no idyllic indian summer. No lazy dog days’ afternoons. No sweet corn harvest. No last minute dash to the coast. For this is the beginning of the Library Sale Wars. This is the time that tries the souls of booklovers. [...]
Seven words you can’t upload
Friday, August 22nd, 2008Many of us older than compact discs (they turned 26 yesterday, hooray) remember George Carlin’s classic comedy routine, Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV. The routine was controversial, memorable, and (at least to me) quite hilarious. Carlin’s routine has recently come to mind here at Biblio World Headquarters, as we’ve [...]
Books, Thieves, Churches and Stupidity
Friday, August 22nd, 2008Yes, they’re all connected in this breaking news story from the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Haywood County Sheriff’s chief detectives continue investigating a series of burglaries Tuesday night (August 19) near the intersection of N.C. 209 and Old Clyde Road in Waynesville, NC. They believe the five break-ins are connected. Thieves targeted three churches and two businesses.
Items stolen [...]
Monday, August 18th, 2008
When you spend a lot of time looking at books like commodities, as I do in our business, sometimes you sort of forget that the books have things in them. Things like information, sometimes true and sometimes false, heartrending, well-told stories and trite, really badly told stories. When I go home and pass [...]
Save Wordsmiths! And your other (local) bookstores…
Friday, August 15th, 2008I was driving home from the office the other day and heard a compelling story on NPR about Wordsmiths Books, an independent bookstore in Decatur, Georgia, that is currently asking for financial contributions to help offset their start-up debts. Start-up debts, you ask? What do you mean Catherine?
Well, according to owner Zach (no last name [...]
Digital Generation Gap for books?
Friday, August 8th, 2008I’ve collected books my entire life. I treasured my Hardy Boys collection above all things (yes, more than the dog), back when I was four feet tall (my treasured books today are considerably older, better written, and more significant, but I digress). And I’m also the parent of two teenagers. I strongly doubt there’s such [...]
Is Kindle the One? being an account of 1983 Buicks and other heresies
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008I know I’m putting myself perilously close to being burned as a heretic, but I have to say that I think the Kindle is pretty good. There. I said it.
But, before you cast me into the lake to see if I float, at least give me a chance to prepare my defense. [...]
Advice to a teenager… don’t read these books
Friday, August 1st, 2008As a teenager, I suffered from pretty severe iconoclasticitis. Most everyone else called it by its common name: rebelliousness.
But, when I wasn’t staging some inane sit-in or walk out over a meaningless point of bureaucratic trivia, or heckling my calculus teacher (who liked to ask the class a question, and then grab the [...]