OKAY, so I got carried away (again) by the fantastic discoveries of
independent booksellers on the web, and I'll tellya, a year or two ago
you just didn't see the kind of diversity of resources and inventive
services that are now available to Internet customers from independent
booksellers.
So who wouldn't get excited - or a little windy - at compiling a guide
to bookstore websites on the Internet? They all put that dull and dowdy
old dumbed-down A----- to shame, but of course you expected that.
But because the list is so lengthy I'm breaking it up into digestible
chunks of a dozen each or so, none of which (particularly this one) are
listed in priority, and no attempt has been made to cover any bases in
terms of specialty or location. It's just the list I'm honored to start
with, and it, with the others-soon-to-come added on, will soon be posted
on its own page at www.holtuncensored.com.
Meanwhile, remember: You can do a lot of holiday shopping on the
Internet through the websites below, many of which offer unexpected
resources that will surprise and delight even the most weary shopper. So
here's the first batch:
BOULDER BOOKSTORE - http://www.boulderbookstore.com
With its rustic Rocky Mountain feel and its invaluable subsites
(YogaSight.com and BuddhaSight.com, which feature databases,
conferences, seminars and such items as Yoga mats and cushions), this
blue-as-the-sky website offers wide-ranging staff recommendations and
lists of prize winners (though I wish these were updated more
frequently) and still runs, for those who missed it, Modern Library's
list of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century and the Radcliffe
Publishing Program's not-so-snooty own list in response. Its politics as
a community activist bookstore are evident in the story behind the
Boulder Independent Business Alliance - a model for many retail
coalitions. The Boulder Bookstore Shares Program (giving back to the
community) are as inspiring as the site's intriguing links (Reclaim
Democracy; Academy of American Poets, Library of Congress, etc.).
Searchable; emailable; sign up for monthly listing of author events.
BLUE STOCKINGS - http://www.bluestockings.com/
With a lovely watercolor painting of its storefront on the home page,
Bluestocking's bookstore, cafe and art galley in New York City's lower
east side welcomes us to walk in the door and consider staff picks that
will be unfamiliar to some and a delightful find to many. The store's
collective strives "to be multi-lingual, open to all sexualities and
spiritualities." Here is an "intergenerational" emphasis on books that's
out to "challenge racism, classism, ablism, sexism, ageism and sizism."
Being against all the "isms" ain't easy in this prejudiced world, but in
this store it means you can trust the staff's politics and its
dedication to find the books its cybercustomers want.
HARRY W. SCHWARTZ BOOKSHOPS - http://www.schwartzbooks.com/
Milwaukee's oldest and largest independent bookstore (founded in 1927)
is so much fun to visit online (see its "Short Irreverent History"
complete with a wine-stained napkin note to William Faulkner and the
original Harry's "slashing attack" on book collecting) that you may
forget to peruse its "Features page" with great picks and unexpected
discounts. But don't miss the "Schwartz 100" books of special merit
(which unfortunately ends at #8, so you have to email a request for the
full catalog). Schwartz's five stores are loaded with "serious readers"
on the staff who are "passionate about our favorite authors and
subjects. Some of us are writers and many of us have spent our adult
lives in bookselling. Living as we do in a time when alienation from
one's job, we are
privileged to spend our days in an occupation we love." And it's a
privilege for travelers in cyberspace to see the commitment of the store
(see "Schwartz Gives Back") and to understand why they say "providing
readers with the books they seek is a commitment we do not make
lightly." This is a searchable website, and you can send queries by
email.
BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH - http://www.brooklinebooksmith.com/
"You gotta love a bookstore where dogs are welcome," as the Boston
Phoenix wrote when its readers named the Booksmith "Best Store for New
Books," and somehow this website recreates the store's atmosphere of
"creaky floors, wooden shelves, reading chairs and the smell of printed
paper." It's a very heady, literary, joyously eccentric and opinionated
place where you can save money because you're on the Internet with the
Online Bargain Title of the week and fall in love with the articulate
and enthusiastic mini-reviews. When I read the Staff Picks page at the
Booksmith, I want to buy ALL the titles. Don't miss pages with great
ideas for gifts and for kids. Searchable; emailable; sign up for online
newsletter.
CODY'S BOOKS - http://www.codysbooks.com
Here is one of the best collections on the Internet of literary
information from varied sources: A lengthy and diverse list of
succinctly described Staff Picks; holiday gift ideas; cookbooks;
children's books and archived backlist are just the beginning. Juicy
interviews follow with authors ranging from Simon Winchester ("The
Professor and the Madman") to children's writer Jack Prelutsky, plus
first-person essays by diverse authors (mystery writer Dana Stabenow,
poet Albert Goldbarth). A feature worth checking frequently is "Read
Up!" - essays and annotated lists of books related to the news (the
Gore/Bush election, events of 9/11 and aftermath); books that inspired
movies (and whether the film adaptation changed the ending!); books
after The Pill; and the BookSense 76. Store bestsellers, book awards
(national and regional, with links) and essays on the book industry make
this one helluva stop for booklovers. Searchable, emailable.
SQUARE BOOKS - http://www.squarebooks.com
You'll feel almost set down in the hot and leafy Courthouse Square of
Oxford, Mississippi, as you meander toward the cool interiors of the
two-story Square Books that's pictured on the home page. The store's
entire catalog is featured in full color on the site each season and a
joy to see and peruse. Square Books offers an astounding range of books
about the South - "Mississippi Lit" in particular - as well as a full
inventory of new books for the general reader. Don't miss "Dear Reader,"
the newsletter that updates us about up-and-coming Southern authors,
University of Mississippi writers' conferences and visiting (or
returning) favorite authors. Signed collectibles a big plus here.
Searchable, emailable; subscribe to online newsletter, the Speed Reader.
JOSEPH BETH - http://www.josephbeth.com
It's fun to put a face to the recommendation when this site's "Master
Booksellers" - veterans, "legends," experts, all - offer their own
smiling mugs to introduce an eclectic array of books, neatly and
succinctly reviewed. Since these Master Booksellers come from the Joseph
Beth stores (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Lexington) and their sister
bookstores Davis Kidd (Nashville, Jackson, Memphis), over time, you can
find the bookseller whose tastes are closest to yours and not only
follow his or her recommendations but also send email questions about
titles that will fit your interests even more snugly. An addictive
service called "Bringing Readers and Local Authors Together" entices
online readers to view photos of author events and read about local
authors and books with universal appeal at every location. And don't
miss "JB Author Interviews," a lively and growing archive. Searchable;
sign up for email list of author events.
POWELL'S CITY OF BOOKS - http://www.Powells.com/
The grandaddy of online independents still has that youthful exuberance,
hilarious cynicism, kick-up-your-literary heels and wiseacre
adventurism that makes this Portland, Oregon-based site as enjoyable as
it is informative. Miss good reviews at home? Subscribe for free to
Powell's Review-a-Day emails (culled from various sources) or better
yet, watch for continued musings called "Bibliolatry: Opinions from a
VERY Independent Bookseller" named Carlisle whose wide-ranging essays
are erudite, cranky, humorous and downright convincing. Like the big
barn-within-a-barn-within-a-barn atmosphere of the store itself.
Powells.com is loaded with sections to browse, annotated lists, "Other
Voices" (great links), author interviews, "Host Bookshelves" (from
Atlantic Monthly, BlueEar.com, Mother Jones, etc.), award winners,
collectibles, "Great Deals," staff picks and "HOT TITLES" (as quirky and
reliable as the word of mouth they're based on). Don't miss readers'
picks called "The Daily Dose," which includes cash prizes for
Internetlopers. Of course this site is fully searchable, and be sure to
subscribe to Powell's email news, one of the newsiest, most erudite and
hilarious newsletters on the web.
POLITICS AND PROSE - http://www.politics-prose.com/
Talk about widely read - the wise and articulate owners of this
legendary Washington D.C. bookstore seem to march forward with all their
staff members alongside to help you find exactly what you're looking for
even if you don't know what that is. See, for example, the stunning,
exhaustive and magnificent treasure trove of book suggestions in their
Holiday Book Catalogue (including a section for stocking-stuffing mamas
called The Perfect Little Book). A thoughtful essay appears every month
to chat about the news and good books to go with it, and what a great
holiday gift idea is the Monthly Book Club, for which you send P&P the
name and interests of a book-reading friend (or your own book-loving
self), and the staff will handpick and ship a new title to that person
every month (billing you, of course). Great links here to reading group
guides and local favorites like the Congressional News Service. Fully
searchable; subscribe to email newsletter.
ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY - http://www.elliottbaybook.com
That great Northwest woodsy interior of this exposed brick-and-cedar
Pioneer Square (Seattle) bookstore brings hearty inspiration to a
website loaded with diverse and often surprising book suggestions. This
is a bookstore that's papered its bookshelves with handwritten staff
suggestions, so it's no surprise the website should offer photos of
smiling and scowling staff members who recommend titles ranging from
books you've always wanted to read but have forgotten to books you've
never heard of and will thank your lucky stars when you finally read
them. A click on the children's book page with its winged alligator and
inviting castle makes you want to cross that moat into the Children's
Room forever. Don't miss the Booknotes section - wonderfully chewy
essays about politics, poetry, feminism, short stories, science fiction
and the best resource for books of all time - those engaged and
articulate customers who walk in the door. Searchable.
HARVARD BOOKSTORE - http://www.harvard.com/
This privately owned independent bookstore - not connected to Harvard
University and not in any way operated, god knows, by Barnes & Noble
(B&N runs the Harvard Coop) - offers wonderfully inventive book
suggestions linked to politics, the news and the world of academe. Each
week, for example, the site reprints an eye-opening article from the
Chronicle of Higher Education that's bracketed by o a list of books that
are thrillingly relevant to the subject. Titles from the store's
spirited Friday Forum discussions with authors of scholarly books
constitute an invaluable resource, as do business books from the store's
Competitive Advantage Breakfast series. The idea that a website can
scoop up the books most featured and talked about at the bookstore and
offer them with as much enthusiasm to Internet readers as
person-to-person talks between staff and customers would have seemed
unreachable only a year or so ago. But it's just one of the many
opportunities available to cyberbrowsers who won't want to miss the new
"Remainders Sneak Peek," either. Searchable.
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL - http://www.msbooks.com/
Any bookstore site that lists "Public/Sex" as a Featured Section surely
calls to the adventurous cyberreader for a further look-see, and sure
enough, not only does this savvy Santa Monica store boldly list books
few booksellers have featured up front elsewhere, it also leads us to
the excellent guerilla artist adopted by the store, Robbie Conal (sample
posters shown for sale here), as well as essays demanding the most
opinionated of customer response, and details about the latest invasion
in the area of chain superstores, which, "no matter how honorable their
intentions, may well kill us." With each section of the store converted
into a web page, and a variety of resources popping out all over the
place from "resident experts, e-mail discussions, book reviews and
recommendations," this "social and cultural bookstore" certainly does
offer, as it claims, "books & ideas to change the world." Searchable.
AMAZON BOOKSTORE COOPERATIVE - http://www.amazonfembks.com/
No, it's not *that* Amazon, thank heaven - it's the *better* and *truer*
Amazon, the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America,
founded in 1970 when Jeff Bezos was but a wee boy in his sandbox
preparing plans to rule the beach. AmazonFemBks.com is also the only
independent to have stood up to Amazon (the Seattle company)in a
trademark infringement lawsuit that was settled so favorably for Amazon
(the Minneapolis collective) that the store was able to expand to a new
building. There the glorious sections that are hard to find in general
stores - Feminist Theory, Violence Against Women, Women of Color,
Lesbian Fiction & Culture - are reproduced beautifully on a site that
specializes in "non-racist, non-sexist and multi-cultural books for
children and young adults." Searchable.
SHAMAN DRUM BOOKSHOP - http://www.shamandrum.com/
Any website that pictures a bald-headed boy with a big lizard on his
head surely has an original appeal, and this Ann Arbor store -
specializing in scholarly books in the humanities and literature -
doesn't disappoint. The photo inside draws us into a sophisticated and
warm atmosphere with soft lights and wooden shelves, and the website is
just as alluring. On one page, three people review the new novel by
"Fight Club" author Chuck Palahniuk - two are staff members who love it
and one is the author, who hates it ("What you're getting here is a
stupid story about a stupid little boy...").
Shaman Drum is one of many bookstores to use original material for the
home page that connects us to a BookSense.com model. More about that and
other bookstore websites next time.
------
LETTERS
Dear Holt Uncensored:
I read the article about Barnes & Nobles in the New York Times somewhat
differently than you did in #283. The objection that Len Riggio had was
that the publishers are selling operations like Costco and I suspect
Walmart the most popular books at a bigger discount than they allow B&N.
That they probably sell B&N these same books at a bigger discount than
to small book stores is a different issue that doesn't seem to be such a
problem to B&N.
When B&N does have a major distribution operation it isn't so clear that
their discount should be the same as a bookstore that takes a few copies
as the shipping costs of the publisher would be less. The real
stupidity of this it seems to me is that the publishers destroy their
long-term customers,independents as well as B&N, Borders etc., by
selling the books that would
generate an easy profit for an independent bookstore to operations like
Costco for what can only be short-term substantial sales, but maybe not
as much profit as they would get if the same book were sold through an
independent who paid them more.
I don't think B&N is wrong on this complaint, but I doubt that much will
happen. Auto tire dealers have the same complaint and nothing has
happened. As to the monopoly question - copyrights and patents create
limited-time monopoly power -
while the general economic theory is that monopolies are bad, it is
recognized that limited monopolies are necessary to allow serious
development activities. The problem comes in the abuse of the system by
firms like Disney who got a 3rd extension on "Snow White," even though
there wasn't any conceivable argument that it was necessary to stimulate
new products - I think films are written off in a few years and 50 years
isn't necessary to make investment in films attractive.
The whole law should probably be looked at, but since the powerful
players are all on one side, it would probably come out worse than it is
now.
Mike Sunshine
Holt Uncensored provides this forum for the free and uncensored exchange of
thoughts and ideas from writers of all callings. The opinions expressed
here are not necessarily those of Pat Holt or the Northern California
Independent Booksellers Association.
"Holt Uncensored" is an online column by Pat Holt
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