Oh Garrison, you know we love you, but...

we hope you realize why people were justly upset with your comments of late.

Comment one: 

Garrison Keillor commented that Common Good Books, St. Paul, Minn., which he opened in 2006, "is sort of slowly making its way. I don't know. It's not making money. Nobody makes money with bookstores."

It's the blanket of "nobody" that stands independent bookselling hair on end. It is certainly difficult to make money selling books. Living in 90% of the world today, you'll find difficulties making money in most businesses that don't revolve around oil, weapons, or governmental bailouts.
This buys into the dangerous MYTH of the dying bookstore. Times are tough. Some great stores have closed their doors. Bookselling alone has brought few independent wealth. But to say that no one makes money on it, that we're non-profits without 501-c status rather than integral and innovative members of the business community- that's where we disagree. Most vociferously with the perpetuation of that myth that bookstores are a dead-end for business - the myth that big box stores and online warehouses would love to use as examples of us being quaint dinosaurs. The only way someone should mistake us for quaint dinosaurs is in hearing our roar combined with our impeccable customer service!

Comment Two:

"I love bookstores. I love to hold books in my hand. And to give that up is painful. It's like if Minnesota passed a law against fishing, it wouldn't affect the food supply that much. You know, if we passed a law against guys going out in a boat with a rod and a reel and bait and fishing for sunfish and crappies, people would still eat, nobody would go hungry who hadn't before. But it'd be painful. It's a part of our culture."

This has the trademark mix of whimsy, locality and heartfelt nostalgia that keeps people tuning in to hear the news from Lake Wobegon, but I'm just not so sure how relevant it really is to books or bookselling.
Are the fish books and fishing bookselling? Or is fishing the act of reading? Are bookstores fish? I agree that losing bookstores would be painful, but, for me and many, many others, it would be more akin to losing a limb and a sensory perception than not being able to eat fresh pike. Also, why mention just the sunfish and crappies? A good book is at least a walleye or a bass or a northern pike one needs to wrestle with to pull it from depths to appreciate glimmering in the full light of day - its sleek muscle and brutality, it's deep coloration and streamlined design; it's ultimate fragility.
Books are communication, not just good reads. If the internet was a replacement, booksales and books published wouldn't be increasing. If electronic readers were acceptable substitutes, they wouldn't need to work so hard to replicate features like turning the page.
If bookstores are fishing then it would be a painful, detrimental loss. But it wouldn't be because of a law being passed, but rather a law not being passed to level the playing field of taxes (that's another blog post to come on this story). The real way we would lose that part of our culture would be for people to believe that first myth of the dying bookstore. Just as fishing is more than a hobby, bookselling is a passion and a lifestyle. If too many people decide that they would rather have frozen fishsticks or some other conglomeration of processed protein in stead of getting out on the lake, spending time with friends and family and meeting one's meal(or, to our vegan/vegetarian friends - rather have nothing but frozen entrees than fresh organic produce). If people start to think it's all just a hobby - that the man leaving Grand Marais at 5am every morning and coming back with food to sell at a restaurant, feed his family and sell a bit more; that the dedicated booksellers reading as many books as they can so that they can match other booklovers- other seekers of knowledge with -with the best books out there... that would be a painful loss.

But it's avoidable. First step is to ignore and fight that dangerous myth. Second is to think of where one is spending money and if they are really making purchases that will add value to their lives and communities. Click here for more hints and steps in that direction.

I'm sure people love Common Good Books, and while Keillor may not be making money, he is able to hire highly capable people to keep the store running. We hope that, in evaluating the state of Independent Booksellers, in the future he give more of a weighty pause that makes the questioner consider the question further... because the answer lies somewhere in that space between the concerned customer and the dedicated bookseller. Not in some abstract blanket statement.

Population 485

As you hopefully are aware, Duluth has chosen Michael Perry's Population 485 as our "One Book, One Community" selection for 2009. When I first heard the selection, I wasn't sure if the book was one I could relate to because if I was to write a book about the "town" I grew up in, it could be titled "Population 3.8 Million." Well, I can say that those 3.8 million people aren't any more interesting than the 485 people that Michael Perry describes.

Michael Perry writes beautifully and one can feel his appreciation for the people and town of his boyhood to which he returns as an adult. He has experienced an interesting combination of occupations and each chapter ties together several story lines. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and think it's an excellent choice for our community to read, share, and discuss.

As part of the "One Book, One Community," we have reading guides for Population 485 at Northern Lights Books and Gifts. In addition, you are invited to attend an evening with Michael Perry and his band "The Longbeds" at Lake Superior College on Friday, May 1st, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for students. We hope you will join us for this wonderful event.

#Amazonfail - a quick overview

Twitterers and bloggers have been abuzz over #Amazonfail these past few days. So, if you've missed out because you were with friends and family, outside breathing fresh air or otherwise not glued to the twitter updates, here's a quick summary. *edit* And here is another great summary of the situation from a bookselling/public relations perspective.

First Twitter= a network of mini-blogs. Users follow individuals and institutions they're interested in and receive updates - short 140 character postings detailing current status (enjoying a great lunch at Sir Ben's); links to interesting sites or news items (click http://bit.ly/6CBRo for more information on #Amazonfail); re-tweets (reposting someone else's posting); and replies @username.

The # is used to precede a topic that is then more readily searchable through Twitter, so you can go to Twitter.com and search for the diverse conversation threads surrounding the topic of #Amazonfail.

Adding FAIL as a suffix (actually attached or just following) is a trendy way of saying that something has significantly fallen short of the perceived objectives. Misspellings in signs, funny mishaps caught on film, etc.

The actual controversy (in an extremely condensed nutshell): Amazon makes books with "adult" content harder to find and sometimes (somehow...) removes them from the sales ranking. If you're looking for something specific, you're still likely to find it, but you're not very likely to come upon it by cyber-browsing or relying on their algorithms to find a book you might like. It sounds like a responsible enough policy. Then people started noticing that LGBTQ content was being "removed/processed" under this "policy" while Playboy and other "adult" content featuring or catering toward a heterosexual (and predominantly male) sexuality was still showing up in the sales rankings and browsing. Thus segregating and de facto censoring LGBTQ content. Some say that feminist theory books were included. Twitter postings and re-tweets abounded. Blogs were both hastily written and thought through and written.

As of my writing right now, I'm unaware of the final say: Amazon claims it's a "glitch" they're fixing. Many in the LGBTQ community see it as discriminatory policy enacted to make non-hetero-conforming sexuality even less visible than it already is. Some accuse tech-savvy(ish) conservatives of recognizing the adult material policy and systematically tagging literature they view as subversive to be "adult."

In any which way, it is a demonstration of why no one entity should be given the control over the distribution of so many diverse voices and viewpoints. So, with no accusation nor malice, I invite you to use this as an opportunity to consider how many algorithms and single-company policies you've allowed to make selections for you rather than speaking to a friend, colleague or someone who dedicates themselves to the sale of a particular media in an independent store that specializes in a media and may be very close to your community (like, say maybe an independent bookseller!)

Search books, bookstores and many many things independent at IndieBound.org.

Authors, Publishers, Bloggers, Organizations, etc...: you're NOT tied to amazon either. There's no reason for you to be at the mercy of their rankings, policies, algorithms or glitches. Become an IndieBound.org Affiliate!

Children's Stories

I can't speak for her book myself, but Author and Professor Maria Tatar speaks very well in this short video about how it is that children, and even we as readers who fell in love with reading as children, choose and become immersed in books.

It reminds me of the last post of Lil' Red and many of Neil Gaiman's successes.

One Book, One Community: Population 485 by Michael Perry

We're very proud to announce that the One Book, One Community selection for this spring is Population 485 by Michael Perry. Small town life viewed through the lens of an EMT re-entering his community after being gone for 12 years. Raucous, tragic, humorous, touching and insightful - these accounts are written with a careful ear for language and a finger on the pulse of the relationships that make and sustain communities.

There will be discussions across the city in the months ahead and a discussion guide available in March. On May 1st, Michael Perry is scheduled to be in town giving talks, and culminating in a reading at Lake Superior College. We'll be looking forward to his newest book, Coop at the same time. See the Duluth Public Library, Northern Lights Books and this blog for updates.

John Beargrease: Legend of Minnesota's North Shore

With the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon (much longer than a marathon, discuss) held nearly every year just beyond our backyards, many of us have become quasi-experts of the sport of sled dog racing - at least to the degree of eyeing up all of our pets for a good lead dog/cat/parakeet.
But that sense of expertise seems to level off when we think of the man after whom the race was named. I felt rather proud for many years to tell people "he was a mailman, of some sort, who delivered mail by sled dog, at least during the winter. He should have had my sheltie at the lead, and then he'd really have been a legend." My lack of knowledge deflected by keen sled dog strategizing.
Those days of deflection are at an end! No longer will we live in ignorance of one of the great icons of the North Shore. Daniel Lancaster has gathered and compiled an insightful, engaging and very readible biography of the man who traversed the North Shore. Published by Holy Cow! Press, heritage comes to life through the story of John Beargrease who, through his determination, connected small communities, traditional Anishinabe life and the burgeoning modernity of Duluth.
Read the reviews from Lake Superior Magazine and The Star Tribune and listen to his interview with Cathy Wurzer on MPR.

From the page to the screen

Ok, I'm not very good at keeping up with movies and movie adaptations of books. Just recently I've missed announcing and reviewing:The Spirit, The Secret Life of Bees, Revolutionary Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and probably a dozen others.

Largely this is because I'm not a huge movie-goer. (For just a few dollars more, I can own the book and be the visual director.) I'm also wary of adaptations because they are re-tellings of stories; stories that we've come to love because they were originally told so well! But, it can also be very magical to see and hear another person's vision of what you've loved.

I have a feeling that this movie will be one of those magical, visual experiences. Coraline by Neil Gaiman looks to be quite tremendous. For those of you who are not familiar with Neil Gaiman, here's my reductive impression of his works: he understand Story(yes, with a capital S) to an extraordinary level; he is not afraid of the dark; because he truly embraces Story, his works span age levels very easily; he has a great wit; and he has a true knack for teaming up with brilliant visual artists. Take that writing force, apply it to a story of a little girl who is fleeing the ordinary and then trapped by the wondrous, compose it with an innovative/creative production company and you have a potential classic on your hands.
Opens February 6th. I'll have to watch it February 7th, since I'll be listening to Michael Ryan read at CSS. So, if you can't make it to listen to Michael Ryan, I highly suggest you see Coraline.
Here's the Gaiman approved trailer:

Twin Cities Book Festival and National Book Award

Thanks, again, to M&Q for giving a heads up to Utne's vlog coverages of the Twin Cities Book Festival. It's a fantastic event put on by one of my favorite zines, Rain Taxi (available at the store for free!). We were lucky to come across many of these books and booksellers and publisher reps at MBA. Now you can experience it second hand and be aware of the event for next year.


The Milkweed and Coffeehouse books are on my to-read list, Once and Future Celt is on my table at home, and Graywolf's Refresh Refresh sounds right up my alley!

If none of these great books leap out at you, then check out these National Book Award nominees for 2008. We'll do our best to get them in/ keep them on stock at the store for you!

More Banned Books Thoughts as Banned Books Week Draws to a Close

Via Powell's Bookstore Blog another perspective on Banned Books Week that acknowledges the possible complacency through self-congratulatory posturing, a la "Good thing we saved Harry Potter from those barbarians!"

In a lot of ways, David Ulin's piece could be applied to many celebrations and memorials and the over-simplifications involved. His L.A. Times piece asks us to respect the responsibility of fighting censorship while acknowledging the full power of books (often at the root of people wanting to ban them - not to be dismissed as "simply" fanaticism). Read his full story here.

As Banned Books Week Comes to an End

I think the best part of this week is to reflect on the great literature out there that may have been ripped from the collective conscience because someone disagreed with the politics, the characters, the religion, the relationships and/or the author. To think that book bans are in the past is to open the door to those who would seek to stamp upon the discourse of ideas now and in the future.
This post says it all VERY well

Say what?!

Nobel Judge dismisses US Literature.

I tend to agree with person who offers up a reading list to the callous judge. There is something to be said about Americans not having the availability of translations or seeking them out as much as we might, but the longer recorded histories of Europe and close proximities of cultures and languages do not automatically equate better writing.

I guess this means we won't be seeing any Flarf poets crowned on the Nobel stage for a few more years.