Author Archives: bookdwarf

Lots o links

I’ve managed to catch up on some reading today:

Michael Dirda answered reader questions about bookstores at the Washington Post (my store gets mentioned several times!).

Dan Wickett, who must never sleep, interviewed Ron Rash, author of Saint at the River and also winner of the O. Henry award for his short story “Speckled Trout”.
Dan also interviewed independent bookseller Corey Mesler, who owns and operates Burke’s Books in Memphis.
And he also ran a panel with more bloggers.

Robert Birnbaum interviewed Tom Bissell, author of the just released collection of stories God Lives in St. Petersburg and Other Stories and Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia.

Moving update

Back again. Phew, moving really sucks. The move itself went fine, die to the fact that we hired 2 guys and a truck. There was no way I was moving my 40 or so boxes of books (I actually never counted the boxes but there were enough, believe me). Arranging a new house takes forever. Thanks to everyone for all the kind words about the NYT article and the move. And don’t be offened if I don’t get back to you right away. Part of the problem is that we have no internet at home and we won’t have it back for at least a week! Man, have I missed you, internet! We are dumping Comcast (hate them!) in favor of Verizon, but they are slow with the sending of the modem. So I will be posting throughout the week and will even try to get up the Globe review review.

Back in a few days

I am about to dismantle the computer to pack it away. We are moving bright and early in the am and I won’t have internet at home for at least a week. This doesn’t mean you won’t hear from me at all. It just won’t be until Monday when I get back to work. Wish me luck.

In which the Grey Lady notices us

So the NYT has been paying attention apparently. Sort of. Sara Boxer’s ‘Critics Notebook’ column talks about blogs reviewing reviews. She doesn’t mention all the other things we do. But that’s okay. Bookdwarf is happy she got mentioned at all (yes, I ran out and got a copy of the paper). We are discussed in some great company: Beatrix, Conversational Reading, Golden Rule Jones, The Reading Experience, Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, Return of the Reluctant, and Our Girl in Chicago.

Okay, I am secretly jumping up and down with excitement.

A Travesty in pink

I am not sure if I want to thank Galleycat for showing me this link. Fox has a new comedy debuting in April starring Pamela Anderson, Tom Everett Scott, and Christopher Lloyd. And it takes place in a bookstore! Meet Stacked. Here’s the box of kleenex.

Christian values demonstated for non-Christians

As an Easter treat, I am providing a link I stole from Ron who took it from Ed who got it from somewhere else I imagine. Stephanie Perry reviewed a book called Leah’s Way from a small independent press and is now receiving a lot of flack from said press because she didn’t like the book and had the nerve to say so. I started getting review requests months ago from small presses that frankly I’ve never heard of before. I am nervous about agreeing to review their books for this very reason. The woman from the press who wrote to Stephanie just sounds terrible.

Hi, Did it ever occur to you that the other 100 or so positive reviews of Leah’s Way are right and that you might be wrong? Or are you the typical Gen-X whiner who is completely self-absorbed and sees herself as always picked on, a perpetual victim? Look at yourself. You pride yourself on being a critical bitch, pampered, on a college scholarship that obviously led to nowheresville, you’re a failure in life, you judge books not on their merit but on your own prejudicial beliefs, and like a typical liberal you are only tolerant of people who think like you do. Liberals are the most intolerant people on the planet, all the while “preaching” tolerance.

Everyone, I would restrain myself from buying anything from Windstream Press until they apologize to Stephanie. Maybe this is just one bitter woman working amongst a great group of people. I don’t know. But until I do know, I am not planning on doing any business with them. I appreciate that small presses have a lot of trouble. They have small budgets and a harder time getting mainstream coverage of their books. But that does not justify what this woman has written to Stephanie. Not much does.

Now I have a question for everyone—-If a small press, or any press for that matter, asks you to review one of their books and you don’t like it, do you write a review or just decline to review it period?