Ungeek by Reading Well
The Lifehacker “geek to live” blog, usually a source for how to use technology to increase your productivity, recently ran a post about how to “ungeek” by reading well. The post provides tips for finding good books and touts reading as a source of relaxation and comfort. If you read this blog with any regularity, you probably know how to find good books that will hold your interest. However, there were some gems in the post, like this one:
B. Dalton’s is not a bookstore. If it’s in an airport, it’s crap. Don’t go to Borders or Barnes & Noble…find your local bookstore owner. Give her a hug. Visit frequently, even if only to buy one book at time.
Amen. The post also includes nonfiction that may do well on the back of your toilet. Nice.
September 22, 2008 12:51 pm 4 Comments
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The Means of Distribution, Part I « Are You Happy Now, Norman Mailer? — September 23, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
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By sallyrogers, September 22, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
Wow. As a seven year veteran of the B. Dalton ranks AND as the former manager/training manager for an airport bookstore chain I feel a little wounded!
B. Dalton is not a bookstore… but it used to be. Back in my day we may not have had the depth that a true literature lover might crave but we had a good selection of National Book Award and Pulitzer winners from the present and the past. I read many good books while working there. I remember reading Cormac McCarthy and Paul Auster at the recommendation of other booksellers.
All of that being said, it’s not my go-to bookstore now that I don’t get 30% off. But I had to defend my old employer. They paid my way through college and bought me my first car.
Now, for airport bookstores…. there was a time in the early to mid-1990’s when a British bookstore chain, Waterstone’s, invaded the US. The anchor store was in Boston and another free-standing store was in downtown Chicago on Michigan Ave. They were three-stories of literary heaven. I almost fainted when I visited the Boston store.
Under the umbrella of another British chain, W H Smith, they opened airport stores in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Omaha, Anchorage, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. I ran two of the three stores in Atlanta and was the director for the openings of the three stores in Los Angeles.
Waterstone’s was a booksellers dream…. I was able to have 100% control over my inventory. I was free to order what I wanted when I wanted it. Our store on Concourse E catered more toward the world traveler, our store on Concourse B store was slightly more corporate. When it moved to Concourse A it doubled in size and the range was both wider and deeper with everything from cookbooks to a full shelf of Faulkner.
Yep, we had the Grishams and the Clancys and the Kings. Sue Grafton came to sign and was the nastiest person I ever met. Anne Perry also signed and was the nicest author I’ve worked with. (And to think that she was a murderer…)
Waterstone’s is now a thing of the past. I don’t know if it was too British for the average airport palate or if operating expenses were too high. All I know is that now the shell of what was once a bookstore of superior quality is now a home to every mass market piece of trash the “average” traveler wants to read. We tried… My stores were profitable for all but one quarter in one store. (There was a flood that closed 3/4 of the store but our budget was not adjusted accordingly.)
Anyway… I’m not really totally arguing with the quote above but had to be the voice that says, “I tried, dammit.”
By Tim, September 22, 2008 @ 3:21 pm
This article argues, in part, that the loss of local control has played a large role in the “death of publishing” – so don’t take it too hard.
I was in an airport – somewhere that I can’t recall – that had a New York Times bookstore that was pretty good. It’s also hard to argue that the Powell’s in the Portland airport is terrible.
By sallyrogers, September 22, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
I agree that the loss of local control has damaged bookselling and therefore publishing to a terrible degree. When I first started working for B&N the store managers had a percentage of titles over which they had control as well as displays over which they had control. By the time I left every single display had a pictogram behind it. We had no autonomy at all.
Anyway, like I said I understand the sentiment about airport bookstores and B. Dalton. But you have to defend even your ugliest cousin because they are family and that’s what caused my defensiveness!