January 2009

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A New Place for Stories in Los Angeles

January 25, 2009 in bookstore, location, used books by Kim | 1 comment

There’s a new kid in town–Stories Books in Echo Park (for the Dodger fans out there, the store is close to the Sunset stadium entrance).  Stories is a new and used Stories in Dwellbookstore with a yummy cafe in the back.  Co-owner Claudia was a member of the Dutton’s North Hollywood team.  After it closed, she decided to continue the Dutton’s legacy by opening her own bookstore.  Dutton’s Brentwood contributed shelving to the new store, Stories recycled the shelf/counter from the order desk in the North area to their own front counter giving it a second life as the heart of a bookstore.

Claudia and her co-owner, Liz, chose Echo Park because it is an up and coming area of Los Angeles.  Stories is a cozy neighborhood bookstore with an abundance of paperback books, new and used shelved together.  There is a nice selection of authors with a solid backlist of selections.   We visited just after the new year so the children’s selection was a little sparse due to sales (yahoo!).  There is one shelf of hardbacks, since Stories can’t compete with the big box stores on these Read the rest of this entry »

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Future of Books and Bookstores Discussion

January 24, 2009 in publishing by Kim | No comments

Recently, two terrific posts on the future of the book appeared in The Daily Beast.  Both find the foundation of literary future in downloadable content.  Another question was asked by Booksellers Blog, how are bookstores going to respond to the changing market.

Peter Osmos writes in “Who Says the Book Business is Dead?”that this round of digital readers are the beginning of a new way to receive and read  books.  He believes digital readers work for books (and will work better and cheaper with innovation), but they aren’t as effective for newspapers and magazines.  Moreover, audible reading is taking hold as people are listening to more written word content, “Earbuds are everywhere, and by no means are all of them blaring music.” 

In “An Autopsy of the Book Business” by Jason Epstein, he traces the decline of book publishing to the population shift from cities to the suburbs.  When people congregated in cities, there were independent bookstores with Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m a Reader’s Challenge Junkie

January 23, 2009 in Challenge by Kim | No comments

I react like Pavlov’s dog whenever a stack of books is put in front of me, I just want to plow through.  I love goals and lists, especially the crossing off part of lists. I already decided that as part of my New Year’s resolution I would spend the first third of the year reading an essay a day, the second third a short story a day, and the third trimester a poem a day.  (For purposes of my New Year’s resolution, “a day” means a work day, Monday through Friday, and all holidays, such as my birthday, anniversary and vacations, are off.)  So, I’ll sign up for the short story challenge and the essay challenge.  Kyle saw the world citizen challenge and wanted to do it.  Excited to be given the opportunity to do something different with my teenage son, I jumped at the chance and joined in.  Then I realized I was reading a book right now (My Name is Red) that would qualify for the art history challenge, and that I received for Christmas several art history books, so I’m in for that one also.  At which point I thought, I could join the RYOB Challenge because overlaps among challenges are allowed.  I think I’m nuts and I’ve tried to talk myself out of it, but I’m going to go for it. 

I’ll be keeping track of my challenges through the Kim’s Nightstand page, please follow along.  Let me know if you’re joining any challenges and maybe I won’t feel quite so obsessive compulsive.

And check out our own Independent Bookstore Reader’s Challenge, we’d love to have you join!

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Frost/Nixon Nominated for Oscar for Writing Adapted Screenplay

January 22, 2009 in book review, film by Kim | 1 comment

Earlier this month, the entire Allen-Niesen family watched “Frost/Nixon.”  It was the first official R rated movie for my kids.  I say ‘official’ because on the way to the theatre they both listed other R rated movies that they’ve watched, apparently when I’m out of town there are movie events occurring.  To put the “Frost/Nixon” story in perspective, and to refresh the memory of those of us who witnessed the events as children ourselves, we spent Saturday night watching “All the President’s Men” and discussing Watergate.  Sunday we saw “Frost/Nixon.”  (I’m guessing the movie is rated R due to the language, but as my high school freshman noted, “I hear more foul language 20 minutes into lunch everyday.”)

I read the play by Peter Morgan, who also wrote the screenplay, before seeing the movie.    I was intrigued by how the opinions about Nixon were personified by the characters.  Jim Reston voiced the deep resentment of the public for the wrongs Nixon committed and his refusal to acknowledge them or apologize for them.  He told Frost during their first meeting, “The American people need a conviction.  Pure and simple.  The integrity of our political system, or democracy as an idea, entirely depends on it.”  Jack Brennan showed the small segment of the population that continued to respect Nixon for all that he accomplished despite his flaws.  When discussing the interview, he tells Nixon “Frost is just not in our intellectual class.  You’ll be able to dictate the terms.  Rebuild your reputation. . . if enough people saw it and revised their opinions–you could move back East.  Way, way earlier than we’d expect.”  Through David Frost and Swifty Lazar, we saw how Nixon was manipulated to make a buck and that Nixon was in on that game from the very beginning. Read the rest of this entry »

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Announcing the Independent Bookstore Reader’s Challenge!

January 21, 2009 in bookstore, Challenge, chick-lit, graphic novels, young adult by Kim | 6 comments

Announcing the Independent Bookstore Reader’s Challenge!

challenge

Thank you Robin for the image!

I recently found scores of reader’s challenges on the Internet, I’d never heard of them.  There is a reader’s challenge for everything:  short stories, WWII books, world citizen (history and politics), art history, graphic novels (Claire should join this one), RYOB (read your own books), essays, chick lit (everyone participating in this challenge should read Claire’s three fiction books), Notable books, chunkie books (books longer than 450 pages), young adult books, and many more.  Then it occurred to me, Claire and I could do the same thing.  I’m really excited about hosting our own challenge right here on Bookstore People.  So we’re announcing the Independent Bookstore Reader’s Challenge.  Claire’s a bit terrified about the prospect, but I’m confident she’ll love it. 

Challenge Guidelines

Here are the rules: go to independent bookstores that are new to you between January 1 and December 31, 2009 and have some sort of interaction.  The challenge comes with different levels you can sign up for:

  • Scout – Visit 2 independent bookstores (easy!)
  • Specialist – Visit 2 subject matter specialty bookstores (i.e., travel, children, cooking)
  • Nationalist – Visit 2 independent bookstores and 1 additional bookstore in a state you do not live in
  • Continental – Visit 2 independent bookstores and 1 additional bookstore in another N. American country (that would be the USA, Canada or Mexico)
  • Globetrotter – Visit 2 independent bookstores and 1 additional bookstore on a different continent (if you’re going to Europe, check out Bookstore Guide)
  • Type A Personality to the Max – Satisfy any two categories

We’ll have a page dedicated to the challenge where you can sign up and leave comments.  Plus, we’d love to have a review of the stores you’ve found and liked (we ignore stores with bad service or stock), we’ll post it with a description of you and a link back to your blog (if you have one), just e-mail it to me at kim@bookstorepeople.com.  In fact, we encourage cross posting bookstore reviews so post on your blog, Indiebound, Yelp, City Search, City Guide and any other place that would like it. 

We’ll Give out a Prize!

But wait, there’s even more, at the end of the year we’ll have a random drawing among everyone who satisfied their challenge for a gift certificate from BookSense.  What more could you want?  Sign up now and start exploring the wonderful world of independent bookstores.

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