Bookavore

Today the first of my new column, Namastechnology, appeared in Shelf Awareness.  The column–which was named by a fellow bookseller who I will mostly definitely be crediting next month, because he deserves for people to know how clever he is–will be about bookselling and technology, trying to bring them into balance with each other.  This first one is a guide to Twitter, and even if you’re not a bookseller, I hope it might help make Twitter make a little more sense.

I wanted to add something here, though–the article got long and we had to cut something, but I love it too much to let it go completely.  And we’re supposed to be adding value to everything now, right?  So here’s the added value for this month’s catalog.  It’s a quote from LeVar Burton, who has been dear to my heart since my PBS-riddled childhood, from a blog post about his discovery of Twitter:

“After lurking for a while (not in a creepy context, simply observing) it occurred to me that I had encountered in Twitter a bona fide community of individuals bound together by common interests and occasionally, ideals. Which brings me finally, to my point. If we are to get through these trying times in which we live, and I definitely believe it our destiny to do so, it is important for us all to remember that none of us is in this alone. It makes sense to me that we are going to need each other to get through this! During a time such as this when monetary resources are scarce, the one commodity we have unlimited access to is the currency of our compassion. It is, I believe, incumbent upon each of us to be willing to extend ourselves to those around us, to support one another through these interesting times. It seems to me that our willingness to engage one another on that level is as good a way as any, to bring a blessing from a curse.”

I love it because I think there are so many echoes of what indie booksellers have been saying for the last year or so—”individuals bound together by common interests”—I mean, you’d swear the man had read the Declaration of IndieBound!

Have you been using Twitter?  Why or why not?  Any good stories to share?

From Ask Nicola, a blog I found through Twitter:

“Do you want to leave literature in the hands of amateurs, poseurs, and lowest-common-denominator craphacks? If you’re not buying new books that’s what you’re doing.”

Don’t make the same mistake as many commenters did!  Actually read the whole thing and don’t get defensive.

I now have a Twitter. Do you? Here’s mine: http://twitter.com/bookavore.

I haven’t decided what to use it for yet, though I’m thinking that if I tweet everything I read, rather than blogging it, I won’t end up with a sprawling and lethal pile of books by my bed that I continue to, however stupidly, think that I will blog someday.

As I am not a professional satirist, I feel obligated to point out that I do not, actually, believe that booksellers should be able to invoke “rule of conscience.”  I am a strong believer in that famous quote oft-mis-attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”   Just wanted to point out how ridiculous a rule of conscience is at all!

O yeah, I almost forgot, here’s today’s challenge.  We got more clues as it went on.  I’ll try to re-create the experience here.

Customer (a very nice lady, it must be said): “I’m looking for a book, by a father and son, that is very popular.  It’s a one word title.”  She didn’t know what it was about.

At a loss?  So were we.  Then we got: “I think their last name starts with Mc.”  As in, the father and son.

Three of us instantly figured it out.  Keeping in mind that when you play the bookseller game, not all the clues are necessarily accurate, do you know which book she wanted?

I just had to post this before I forgot!  If you had been in the store a minute ago, you would have heard the following:

Bookavore, while reading Shelf Awareness: “Head Buyer, did you see that next Tuesday the new Rhonda Byrne book is coming out?”

HB: “Oh, lord, what is it?”

B: “The Secret Daily Teachings.”

HB: “Oh, god.  It’s always the daily guidebook second.  Next it will be a journal.  And then a special version for teens.”

B: “The Secret for Men!  The Secret for Dogs and Their Owners!”

HB: “The Secret for Dangerous Cats.  The Secret for Men Who Play Too Many Video Games.  The Secret for Women Who Love Men Who Play Too Many Video Games!”

-hysterical laughter-

-fin-

Firstly, I have never liked Emily the Strange.  And now I see that my visceral dislike may have been well-founded in the knowledge that she was STOLEN from Nate the Great! (via Journalista)

Next, if you have 20-30 minutes, this story by Paolo Bacigalupi is one of the better short stories I’ve read in a awhile, and it’s free! (via io9)

Finally, this might not be interesting to anybody but me, but: this is a very intriguing analysis of a comic series called Invincible–why it didn’t sell very well until issue #14, and what factors affected it.  If you’ve been wondering at all what the “Direct Market” (comic sales at comic stores) is like in terms of ordering and so on, this would be interesting to you.  (As for the comic itself, I liked it, but did not love it, although I know a number of people who do.  I prefer his other Image book, The Walking Dead, which I bet you would like too, even if you don’t like zombies.)  (also via Journalista)

You may have noticed a certain bookavore lurking in this week’s Bookselling This Week in this article, “10 Easy Steps to IndieBound.”  Thanks to Paige at ABA for helping to make my incoherent rambling IndieBound to-do list into something that has the potential to be of use to other people!  In other BTW news, I found this article about maybe doing a reading marathon VERY intriguing.  I am fond of saying that if reading were an Olympic sport, I would represent my country with pride.  This is not the same thing, really, but still interesting.

And one more media link: an article in PW this week about Book Buddies, a program that I love being a part of!  Really, I get paid (by my store) to occasionally go hang out in another bookstore with other booksellers who I love.  How does one woman get so lucky, I ask you.

you have a dream about explaining IndieBound to a customer.  You wake up, wonder about it, fall back asleep, and then have a dream about two booksellers (not from your store) you know getting married in a fabulously garish theme park wedding.  You wake up again, get weirded out, and spend the rest of the morning reading and eating mochi ice cream.

I mean, I dream about the store constantly, but these two dreams were definitely out there.  I know at my store dreams about bookselling are common; how about the rest of you?

BEA: Thursday, part A Declaration of Independents

This is the Declaration created to mark the starting of IndieBound, read by ABA board members. You can sign this declaration yourself, bookseller or not, on IndieBound’s website!