I just read this article in The Atlantic (the Atlantic has opened its archives by the way) about how great the chain bookstores are. I feel a little dirty now. Yes, the author makes some valid points, but she also doesn’t mention that the publishers often pay the chains for placement of their books in windows and displays. I’m glad that the non-urban areas of the country now have access to books, but I also know that most of the money spent in my store will stay in the local economy. Money spent at Barnes and Noble? Not so much. I’m glad it’s Friday and that my blog is working again.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Louisville, Kentucky for the third ABA Winter Institute for three days of educational programming. I’m being reprogrammed! To buy nothing but Nora Roberts and James Patterson books! Just kidding. It’s very fun. I get to see loads of booksellers from around the country, meet some authors, drink lots of bourbon. I’m bringing along some books by authors that will be at the show: America America by Ethan Canin, The Resurrectionist by Jack O’Connell, and How the Soldier Repairs the Grammaphone by Sasa Stanisic. Don’t know much about any of them, but they look like a good lot.

I’m hoping to finish my current read K.J. Parker’s Devices and Desires before I leave tomorrow. We expanded our scifi/fantasy section last Fall and I’m trying to read more so I can add the right books to the section. So far this book is engrossing not to mention huge—over 600 pages in just the first book of the trilogy. I like the style. It’s not so serious as Tolkien. There are a lot of references to fencing and I mean a lot. has anyone read this series or any of Parker’s other books?
I did finish Mark Sarvas’s book Harry, Revised over the weekend too. I spent the better part of Saturday gulping it down. It’s good folks. I’m really proud of Mark’s accomplishment with this novel. It’s funny, sad, and reflective. The parts involving Anna were wrenching. So run out to your local bookstore when it comes out and pick up a copy. Better yet, if you’re in the Boston area, you can come see him read here at my store on May 15th.

A galley of Harry, Revised, Mark Sarvas’s debut, just landed on my desk! I’m very excited to start reading this book. I don’t care if I get accused of cronyism. Sarvas may be a friend of mine, but he’s got excellent taste in books (our tastes are scarily similar) and I imagine he’s a very good writer. So I’m going to promote the hell out of his book. I’m hoping to start it later today or tomorrow.

Sorry for the silence around here. My buying season kicked off last week. Even the snow storm on Monday didn’t deter reps from coming to my office. I’m a buying machine. In the meanwhile, I’ve read two wonderful books and am working on a pretty good but informative book right now (look at the sidebar to see what it is).

I had mentioned in a previous post that I was reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a debut novel by David Wroblewski. I finished it last week. You’ll be hearing a lot about this book I guarantee. It’s a bestseller for sure and if not, I don’t deserve my job. It’s a tremendous, emotional, gripping debut. The story of a boy and the dogs that his family raises on a farm in Wisconsin does not sound like my cup of tea normally. I’m not a dog person—I like dogs, but not an enthusiast. I like all animals—but I found myself pulled into this book. I can’t believe I’m admitting this on the internet, but I even cried. Last night, I had the good fortune to meet the author at a lovely dinner which the publisher put together to introduce a few authors to booksellers. Gil Adamson, author of another incredible debut called The Outlander, also flew down from Toronto to meet us all. i found both authors charming and I can’t wait to see what sort of reactions their books get when the finally hit the shelves.

The other book I read since then was Wilkie Collin’s The Woman in White.  First serialized in 1859-1860, it’s considered to be among the first mystery novels. It took a while to get through, mainly because of the older edition I was reading, which seemed to be printed on thin bible paper with minuscule text. It’s a great read. To use a Briticism, I found it smashing.

Now I’m about two thirds of the way through David Kamp’s The US of Arugula.  It’s the “behind the scenes” story of the American food revolution after WWII. I’m finding it informative, but the gossipy tone can be a bit much sometimes. After this, I’m not sure what I’ll read next. I’m tempted to read Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonson Falcones, an “international phenomenon” due out in April. It’s set in 14th century Barcelona around the building of a cathedral. I started a beginner’s Spanish class last night, so this might be just the thing.

I’m perusing the catalogs again to get ready for appointments. One obvious trend I’ve noticed across the board is a movement toward “green”, be it living green, thinking green, buying green. Often the title will be something like So-and-So’s Awesome Guide to Living/Thinking/Working/Loving Green. The catalog page will have a big dot that says “Printed on Recycled Paper!” This reminds me of a Simpsons episode where they’re touring the Springfield Shopper factory and Lindsay Naegle says that a percentage of each newspaper is printed on recycled paper. Lisa, spotting some phony business-speak, asks what percent and Naegle’s response is zero. “Zero’s a percent!”

It’s not that I’m against the green movement. It’s more that I’m wary of the way in which companies are now marketing towards this movement, as if simply buying something “green” will make you a better consumer. Replacing everything in your house with organic products won’t make you more environmental. People should try and do what they can to reduce their carbon footprint especially those in the US and Europe. Read Jared Diamond’s Op-Ed piece about first world countries’ consumption factor which is 32 times higher than the third world.

This all sort of goes against what I do for a living, selling a product based on chopping down trees. I’d like to see the publishers move to printing all books on recycled paper. Also, they should print fewer galleys and quit sending so much wasteful marketing materials—posters. pins, bookmarks—that end up in the trash anyway. I’m not sure how to go about making this happen.

I read many books last year—108 to be exact. Looking over the list, there were some high points and low points. I had tried to write a little something about each book, but you can see that I gave up after a while. I’ll try again this year.

I finished Robert Graves’s Good-Bye to All That on 1/1/08 but I’m including it in last year’s list anyway. It’s a great book on which to end the year–what a wonderful memoir! Graves gives an excellent portrait of a nation on the brink of change. The First World War changed everything, including Graves. An officer sent over to France, he grew appalled at the callousness of the military command, not to mention the people back home reveling in their jingoism while scores of men died absolutely horrific deaths in the trenches.

I started reading a novel that won’t be out until this summer, which is why I’m not linking to it on the sidebar as there’s no book jacket info yet. It’s a debut novel by David Wroblewski titled The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. They’re calling it a modern retelling of Hamlet set in Wisconsin. Lee Boudreaux is the editor from Ecco and I tend to like the books on which she has worked. Hopefully this will be number one on my Reading List of 2008. Has anyone else started a good book?