New local reading series

I don't often plug for stuff here--but there is a new series going in town that is too cool not to mention.

Bill Caperton(musician, cheesemonger and lover of words) has done the hard work on this. Info can be found at http://crashcourse.tumblr.com

Readings for, and by, the people. With smart themes. Win-win as far as I'm concerned. Many thanks to Bill for getting this show rolling. We're lucky to have him here.

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything."

Homer Simpson, author of above quote, went on to say that, "14% of people know that."

I thought of this quote yesterday when I was doing some data entry for late summer/early fall titles and saw that "Freakonomics" was finally coming out in paperback. At one time, not so long ago, that book needed no introduction or explanation. It was at the top of the NYT bestseller list, the authors were being interviewed seemingly everywhere and people were(mostly) in love with their quirky math. But, in the book world, that was eons ago. So let me step back a moment.

The book was published originally and quietly in April of 2005. It quickly picked up steam and, what followed, was all the aforementioned success. Crazy findings coupled with "sound" numbers became the 'it' thing. So the book sold and sold and sold...So much that when the normal time arrived for a paperback to release--generally one year--the publishers said, "Aw, forget it. We'll keep selling this thing until it dies." Reports are that 3 million copies were sold. That comes from their own website http://freakonomicsbook.com .

I wasn't down on the decision to keep it going until they made one mistake. A new edition was planned and put together to revise some mistakes, update some data and make it a little spiffier. The problem was they did this in another hardcover--published in 2006 and more expensive than the original at $29.95 For on-line and other discount retailers this might not have made a difference. But for normal bookstores it was quite odd and required lots of explaining to customers who were surprised by the lack of a paperback and the increase in price.

So, now, we come to the paperback which is due in August and will retail for $15.99 The word is also out that they're working on a new book, "Superfreakonomics." Books are like movies in that anything that does well must be copied and pushed to its furthest logical point so I certainly don't begrudge the new book or their overall success. I, in fact, really enjoy lots of the pieces. But why wait so long? I wonder if, in the end, the book wasn't done a disservice. Is it possible that the book and its ideas have been forgotten--even by the reading public? I don't know the answer to those questions and I'm no publisher or economist--so the answers, very well, could point to the opposite of my thoughts.

In a time when publishers and readers are feeling an economic crunch from all sides is it better to offer more for less? I think so. So here's to hoping for great things from their new works--and a more sensible paperback release time frame.

Book geekiness and super intensity

I'm an admitted book geek and I understand, truly, how odd my love of books is to the great majority of the world. But I own my geekiness. One of 'odd shelves' of books is true stuff--and specifically, true crime related to books and other art.

So I was very happy to find a copy of "The Man Who Loved Books Too Much" by Allison Hoover Bartlett waiting for me at the store yesterday. The book doesn't officially come out until September 2009 and I'm only twenty-five pages in so it's way too early to know if it's good yet. But I was struck by one of the epigrams.

"For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner...let him be struck with palsy, & all his members blasted...Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, & when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever."--Anathema in a medieval manuscript from the Monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona.

Now, I'm all for serious punishment for serious crime and whatnot--but that is some serious venom coming from those monks. Just another reminder not mess with religious orders or theft.

Corpus Libris

Hey Good People: I did decide to return from NYC despite enjoying the Great Lawn, Shake Shack and wonderful public transportation an awful lot. I'll be getting to the winners of the swag in the next couple days(don't get too excited--it's recession swag) but I want to post something real quick and point you to an incredibly fun book blog. http://corpuslibris.blogspot.com/ is a site where they post pictures of people posing with book covers. I submitted one a few weeks back and we'll see if it makes the cut. Sadly, we had a hard time lining it up just right because my face is longer than a cheetah's. Almost, but not quite right.

And now I'm gone...

Not yet, really. But I will be going to New York this week for a yearly bookseller's convention. At BEA(Book Expo America) there are lots of things going on. Panels upon panels upon panels covering everything from the new books for Fall to social media(like blogs!) to ways to increase profit by selling a lot of sidelines/bizarre materials in no real way related to a bookstore.

We decided, from the beginning, that we would make it by selling actual books. Not gadgets like head-lamps for reading in bed. Not beanie babies or chewing gum or hand-towels with Shakespeare's face on them*. Not e-books. All of those things have a place in the American marketplace--we know that and do not want to seem snobbish in our regard to them. But books are what we know and love dearly. So I will head to the BIGAPPLE and try to remain focused on our task at hand--namely, getting good and different books into your hands.

So I will ignore the trinkets and madness that can accompany any trade meeting. I will go to meetings and listen to other booksellers talk about what has/has not worked for them. I will get some advance copies of books due in the coming months so we can talk to you about them. I will order more remainder books(discounted and foreign titles) that allow our customers to have some choices that are both cheap and interesting. I will talk to agents, sales reps, publishers, authors and booksellers. I will attend some cocktail parties and do my best at what I do worst--making small-talk. I will walk and walk and walk.

BEA will be different this year. Lots of publishers are scaling back the number of author appearances, parties and the size of their booths--the economy, of course, necessitates that. But I will continue to preach my gospel: the Midwest is not fly-over land. Small bookstores can still matter in a world of Costco's, Target's and a million on-line retailers. We have readers here. Readers who choose to select their own books. Readers who still depend on words printed on paper. Readers who, despite the trends, still read things beyond the national bestseller lists.

I also promise to collect some swag. The first five e-mailers to micawbers@popp.net will get some kind of gift I bring back from the convention. It might be a canvas bag. It could be some free books. It could be something I cannot even imagine. Just put free stuff in the subject line of your e-mail. Or call the store and tell them I promised something.

In any case, I'll be back around the 1st of June.

Until then....

Hans

Excuses are like opinions...

So, it's spring and I've been slacking on posting. One of the reasons is that I've been selling books at lots of events outside of the store. Author events are like anything else in life. They can seem exciting--but after time they aren't always so great. It's similar to the pizza joint your best friend worked at in high-school. At first, it's thrilling and wonderful. Then it becomes mundane and boring.

So after ten years and about 1,000 total events I'd recently become a bit jaded by events. You often hear the same questions from audience members(what time of day do you write/do you write on paper or the computer/what does it mean). And authors frequently read for far too long in my experience. Yet, in the past few weeks I've attended two events that were revelatory. Very different in many ways and similar in all the ways that are good.

Norah Labiner is a talented novelist whose style is all her own. She has published three amazingly creative novels with local Coffee House Press. I attended an event at the Loft Literary Center two weeks back--she read and was accompanied by her husband on pump organ. It was a fascinating evening and I really encourage you to see her read if at all possible. Two more chances are coming soon: 5/21/09 at the Hamline Midway Library at 7 p.m. and 6/30/09 at the Ridgedale Library also at 7 p.m. This is a great example of a small press working with a talented, if fairly unknown, author. Her novels are mind-blowing in their creativity and genre-bending ways.

This past Wednesday evening, we sold books at the Minneapolis Club for Graywolf Press and their author Elizabeth Alexander. She's now best known as the woman who read a poem at Obama's inauguration. Now a big name in the world of poetry--she has long been a stalwart at Graywolf. And only when she began to read the now famous poem did I realize that I was witnessing a truly historical moment--if on repeat. Her reading was measured and simple and powerful. She also discussed all of the pressure and madness that was involved with her writing the poem and getting it into print. Graywolf rushed a very beautiful chapbook edition of the poem into print and it is available for $8.

What these two events reminded me of was a pretty simple fact I had forgotten: events can make a powerful book or work even more powerful. Art, in person, is a very different thing than art on paper.

A bonus is that we got 20 copies of "Praise Song For the Day" signed by Elizabeth Alexander. We'll only be selling one copy per customer to limit dealers and collectors from hoarding them all. Available until they're gone.

2009 Best of the Twin Cities

We're happy to have been named Best New Bookstore(there is a Used category as well) by City Pages for 2009.