Pimp My Bookcart

Winners of the 2007 "Pimp My Bookcart" competition have been announced. Librarians everywhere are clearly deeply, if not disturbingly, creative.--David E

Imitating Art

Teacher Michael Chalk was reading a book in a pub in Cairns, in the north of Australia. Odd, you might say, but is it a crime? Bouncers in the bar thought it might be and escorted Chalk out of the bar, citing other patron's concerns about his choice of reading material.

And just what was the dangerous book in question? It was The Unknown Terrorist. In the novel, the protagonist is mistakenly identified as a terrorist, and Kafka-esque non-hilarity ensues. It's fiction. Yeah, fiction.

Details are here.--David E

Right in Our Backyard

One of our favorite books of local history is Uptown Minneapolis. It's a collection of historic photographs of the neighborhood and a fascinating look at the area's past.

You can not only get the book at our store right now, but on November 27, at 6:30pm, you can meet author Thatcher Imboden. He'll be speaking at the Walker Library (2880 Hennepin Avenue S). The event is free. Call 612/630-6650 for details.--David E

Aim High

It's official. Oprah has announced her next book pick, and the world must sit up and take notice. This time around it's Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth. The novel tells the tale of the building of a twelfth-century English cathedral and promises "a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother."

Oh, and get reading, Oprahites. The book weighs in at a healthy 970 pages.--David E

One Way or Another

If you're not yet up to here with remembrances of Norman Mailer, I have two quick reads for you. They're entirely different views of the man. First is Joan Smith's scathing post on the Guardian's blog. She calls him "more grand reactionary than great writer," and that's about the nicest thing she has to say.

Then, read the 2006 interview reposted recently at nerve.com. From his cantankerous opening salvo--"I'm also hard of hearing — particularly when I don't like a question"-- it's a very intresting interview and one that reminds you of Mailer's charm.--David E

Sea Change?

This one may not seem like much, but trust me, booksellers think this is big news. According to the Guardian Picador has announced that starting this spring, they will publish their new titles in both hardcover and paperback editions simultaneously. Until now, industry practice has been to release the paperback months (or in the case of The Da Vinci Code, years) after the hardcover is published. So we in the stores are forever hearing customers say about some big, much-hyped book, "Only in hardcover? I'll wait then."

Many questions remain: Is this a UK-only phenomenon? Will other publishers follow suit? Will hardcovers become luxury items? I'll try to answer the first one in the next few days. Only time will tell about the second.--David E

Sing, Sing a Song

Can't get the theme from The Brady Bunch out of your head? Then you're experiencing one of the more benign forms of what author and neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, calls "musicophilia." His latest book of the same name, recounts the many ways our brains process, use, and even misuse music. Get a taste: NPR has posted two interviews with Sacks and an excerpt from his new book.--David E

For Make Glorious Readings of Borat

What is an author reading by Borat like? To judge from a recent appearance in West Hollywood, it's about as funny and scandalous as you'd expect. According to USA Today, Sasha Baron Cohen didn't break character as he showed off the newly printed jewel of the faux-Khazak publishing industry.

"We now have built the great statue of Melvin Gibsons," he said. "It is over 700 feets tall, and childrens can climb up the staircase inside it and throw potatoes down on Jewtown from its [ummm.... rear--Ed.]." The crowd reportedly loved the performance.

Borat: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is available now for brave readers like you.--David E

Second Chance

Paul Krugman doesn't give compliments lightly, so when he says--as he did today on Minnesota Public Radio--that last night's conversation and Q&A with David Morris, sponsored by Magers and Quinn Booksellers, were "really good," you know he means it. Close to a thousand people attended this fascinating--and free--event. If you weren't one of them, you can hear Professor Krugman on MPR's "Midmorning" show.

And we still have copies of his latest book, The Conscience of a Liberal. If you hurry, you might get one of the signed copies.--David E

Not Quite A Million

This spring I predicted that Random House's terms under which disgruntled purchasers of James Frey's semifictional memoir A Million Little Pieces could claim recompense would be too hard for most people. And sure enough, only 1,729 folks (an estimated 7.2% of those eligible) have jumped through the necessary hoops.

You can read the full story , including details of just how much the lawyers are making off this whole scandal here.--David E

Geek Out... Way Out

Following up on my earlier post about the book Transit Maps of the World: Reuters UK has interviewed the author. He's funny and interesting, but the best part is the mention of several websites for "transport geeks." I love urbanrail.net in particular. It shows maps of transit systems around the world. I'll be wasting a lot of time there, I can tell.--David E

Stream of Consciousness

Douglas Coupland, the Canadian author of Generation X and Microserfs, is releasing a series of videos on YouTube to promote his latest novel The Gum Thief. The video, like the book, is a series of random thoughts of an office superstore employee. Using signage customized with parts of the text and animations of paperclips and staples, the video is part promotion, part meditation.



Visit YouTube to find the other video segments.--David E

Don't Miss It

Please join us for an evening with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. He will be in town to discuss his new book The Conscience of a Liberal. You won't want to miss this opportunity to hear one of the country's most interesting and influential thinkers.

Professor Krugman will be interviewed by David Morris, Vice President of The Institute for Local Self-Reliance. A reception and book signing will follow.

This event is free and open to the public. Note also that unlike most M&Q events, this reading will be at Temple Israel, 2324 Emerson Avenue S, in Minneapolis.

Book with a Beer Chaser

There's still time to get ready for next week's installment of our lubricated reading group Books & Bars. Join us Tuesday night (the 13th) at Bryant Lake Bowl (map) for conversation and a beverage with some very interesting folks. Doors open at 6:00pm for socializing; discussion begins in earnest at 7:00pm.

November's book is The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Through the lens of four meals from four different sources--"industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves"--Pollan explores why we eat what we eat.

Books & Bars is not your typical book club. We provide an atmosphere for lively discussion of interesting authors, good food and drinks. You're welcome to come even if you haven't read the book.

Short and Sweet

One of the more entertaining daily email newsletters I get is the Very Short List. It's not quite a list, being only a single item a day. Recent items have included a link to a Japanese commercial in which Keifer Sutherland spoofs his 24 character and a neo-gypsy cover of "Born to Be Wild."

Today's item heaps praise on the second volume of The Paris Review Interviews. "[Y]ou'll find a pearl of wisdom on practically every page (Faulkner: "All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection"); if you can't wait, just skip to the interview with Stephen King at the end."

Another thing I love about VSL is their Venn diagrams, placing each item in its proper sociological context. Below is the one for The Paris Review Interviews.--David E

Going Underground

The book I most covet in the store right now has to be Transit Maps of the World. It's a beautiful tome, with maps--both historic and contemporary--of all the world's metropolitan rail transit systems. Want to know how to get to the airport in Kuala Lumpur? Where to change lines in Bilbao? This is your book. It also includes histories of the world's various metros and summaries of up-and-coming systems from Belo Horizonte to Wuhan.

Boingboing.net's own Cory Doctorow swooned for this one, too, saying "This is sheer public transit/map porn, and I'm in love." Ditto.--David E

JW Beecroft Closing

The owners of J.W. Beecroft Books & Coffee in Superior, Wisconsin, have told Publishers Weekly that they'll be closing at the end of the year. Books will go on sale at half-price starting November 5. The bookstore is the only one in Superior and was a great site for book readings and other events for the area. We are sorry to see them go.--David E

Hand to God--Part 2

The woman ghostwriting Britney Spears' mom's forthcoming book on motherhood talked to the Grand Rapids (MI) Press--not usually a source for book news, I know. “One thing I do want to make clear is that she’s not a stage mom,” said Lorilee Craker.

Oh, and the book is slated for release on Mother's Day, 2008. You can't make this stuff up.--David E

Hand to God

Britney Spears' mom has signed a contract with Christian publisher Thomas Nelson to write a book on parenting. Read the details here.--David E

First and Last Words

Art blog drawger.com is compiling a nice collection of decorative endpapers.--David E

87% There

The venerable Library of Congress can't locate a whopping thirteen percent of its collection. (The number was originally 17%, but a subsequent review found that four percent of the collection was checked out, misshelved, or otherwise unavailable.) With 130 million volumes in the institution, that means that 16.9 million of them are AWOL. Read the details in the Washington Post or go right to the LOC's own Inspector General's report (.pdf).

Don't hold your breath for a turnaround, either. Staff in the libary's CALM division (Collections, Access, Loan and Management Division) is down from 235 employees in 2000 to a current size of 165. Its requested budget of $12 million has been funded at only $6.3 million.--David E

With thanks to the Seattle PostIntelligencer's Book Patrol blog.

To Get Rich Is Glorious

The syndicated radio program "The Engines of Our Ingenuity" (think Mr Wizard in audio format) recently ran a fascinating episode about the Gutenberg Bible. Among the gems about Gutenberg's design (the proportions of the page and the type block both follow the Golden Section) and late medieval reading habits (reading silently to oneself was considered "spooky") is this financial tidbit: It has been estimated that Gutenberg grossed about fifteen million dollars (in today's money) from his 150 bibles. Take that, Harry Potter.--David E

Happy Trails

Penguin has come out with another series of old books made new. The "Great Travels" series includes classic works by authors including Anton Chekov, Olaudah Equiano, Mark Twain, and Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. There's a nice display near our section of travel writing.

Just as nice are the covers. They're pretty little matte designs in jewel tones. Jessica Crispin interviewed the designer.--David E

85% There

As a former CIA employee, Valerie Plame Wilson was required to submit her book Fair Game to the agency for review before publication. They wanted to remove as much as 35% of the material, according to the publisher, but settled on withholding approval of a mere 15%. Simon and Schuster decided to make these excisions plain and have printed the book with the offending passages blacked out in the final version. (Canada's National Post has the full story here.)

Even with the redactions, it seems the book is still quite readable and worthwhile. You can read a review at salon.com .--David E

But Seriously

Like every right-thinking American, I love Stephen Colbert, author of the indispensable guide I Am America (And So Can You!). But I like him even more after having heard him gush on NPR's Fresh Air about his schoolboy giddiness when Tony Bennett came on his show. Does Colbert have the nerves (and the chops) to sing a duet with Bennett? Listen and find out.--David E

Harry Potter and the Deathly Balance Sheet

JK Rowling's final Harry Potter book was a publishing phenomenon, a solid gold gift to booksellers, right? Not really. According to Publishers Weekly, amazon.com discounted Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows so fiercely that they actually lost money on it.

But don't shed any tears for the book behemoth. Even in its rush to undercut the indies and other booksellers, amazon.com managed to make money on what it calls Harry Potter "attachments."--David E

Hope Springs

First, the Bad News: If you're a fan of Ian Rankin's series of Edinburgh police thrillers featuring Inspector John Rebus, you've doubtless already heard that the next novel, Exit Music (no US publication date announced), will be Rebus' last. (Details are here.)

Now, the Good News: At a reading in Toronto, Rankin recently told fans that he's not planning on killing off Rebus, and further that Rebus will likely make a cameo appearance in Rankin's future novels. Rankin has also said that his next series of novels will probably star Siobhan Clarke, who figures prominently in the Rebus novels.

So those of us who were worried about facing a harsh withdrawal period when John Rebus retires next year have heaved a big sigh of relief.--David E

Don't Ask, Don't Spell

JK Rowling outed her character of Dumbledore at a reading in Carnegie Hall a few days ago. Details are here.--David E

Its close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark...

The Encyclopaedia Britannica blog has finished its list of haunted libraries. They actually posted the section covering Minnesota yesterday. And we got only one mention: "St. Cloud State University, James W. Miller Learning Resources Center. A 19th-century burial site was found in 1997 when the Miller Center’s foundation was dug. The figure of a soldier has been seen wandering in the halls."

Just one? I feel cheated. Surely there are more scary spots out there in Vikingland.--David E

Out and About

Bruce White, author of We Are at Home: Pictures of the Ojibwe People will be at Wild River State Park (see info here) on Saturday, October 20, at 4 p.m. White's book is a collection of over 200
You can see some of the photos in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society (here).

Why We Curse

Stephen Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought is a consistently thought-provoking guy. His book, subtitled "Language As a Window into Human Nature," discusses the relationship between what we say and what we think. Are we limited by our language, or is it an infinitely flexible tool for infinitely flexible minds?

You can get a glimpse of Pinker's language and thoughts in an article posted recently at The New Republic. It's a longish essay (excerpted from The Stuff of Thought) dealing with swearing. Be warned: Pinker doesn't whitewash it; he uses the real swears.--David E

The Booker That Wouldn't Die

I really thought I was done writing about the Man Booker Prize. After all, they announced the winners already. But then they announced that all of this year's shortlist titles will be posted online for free download. And they keep pulling me back in.

Read the Times article here; I'll watch for the actual postings and let you know when the books are available.--David E

Talking Guitars

NPR's All Things Considered talks to Eric Clapton today, in conjunction with the recent release of his autobiography, entitled (wait for it) Clapton: The Autobiography. The interview--the first of two--covers Clapton's early influences and includes links to the songs themselves. There's also an excerpt from his book.--David E

Authors on Fresh Air

• First up, yesterday's conversation with Peter Sagal, host of NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! and author of The Book of Vice. There's also an excerpt of the Mr and Mrs Sagal's visit to a swinger's club; don't worry it's all PG-rated and worksafe.
  
  
  
• And later today, Teri Gross will talk to Oliver Sacks about his latest book, Musicophilia. Sacks is a psychologist and the author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, among many others. That interview should be available later today (Wednesday).

Enjoy.--David E

We Have A Winner

Defying the odds (and the oddsmakers), Anne Enright's family drama The Gathering has won the 2007 Man Booker Prize. You can read my brief review of the book here or hear an interview with the author here (.ram).--David E

New Review

The latest New York Review of Books has an article on Gertrude Bell, the British woman who was appointed as the senior political officer in British-run Basra, Iraq, from 1916 to 1926. Bell was an "Arabist," who threw herself headlong into the Middle East, its peoples and its culture. She's even buried in Baghdad (NPR reported on the state of her grave here this summer.)

The article is written by Rory Stewart, author of The Prince of the Marshes, about his year as deputy governer of a province in southern Iraq during the current occupation, and The Places in Between, about his trip on foot across Afghanistan in 2002.--David E

A Great Pumpkin

The Dallas Morning News has posted a story about two men's quest to grow a half-ton pumpkin. It's drawn from the new book Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever, but also discusses the author's own attempt to grow a prize-sized gourd of her own; hers got to 240 pounds.

The article also has links to an audiovisual show about growing the big pumpkin as well as an excerpt of the author reading from her book.--David E

Without Reservations

Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning program today rebroadcast last month's Talking Volumes interview with Sherman Alexie. Alexie is the author most recently of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, as well as the earlier books Flight, Smoke Signals, and The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven, all of which deal with presentday Native American life.

I haven't had a chance to listen to this interview yet, but Alexie is usually quite funny and outspoken.--David E

We're Staying, Thanks

In the middle of last month, Entrepreneur magazine posted an article listing the ten businesses it expects will be extinct in ten years. Used bookstores were on that list, along with crop dusters and the manufacturers of film for cameras. They say the internet will kill used bookstores. We say, Who do you think is selling used books online? Used bookstores, that's who.

Then this week, the local Fox affiliate sent a reporter to talk to owners of these various dinosaur businesses, including our own Denny Magers. Word is he kept his cool, but I can't actually track down the footage. It's not on the TV station's website; it's not on the YouTube. Can anyone help? If you can point me towards the report, I'd love to be able to put it up. Post a comment below, please.--David E

Funny Stuff

Joe Keenan has one this year's Thurber Prize for American Humor. I'll admit I hadn't heard of the Thurber Prize until now, but even so I'm going to take the opportunity to tell you the Joe Keenan's books are smart and light and funny and really worth a read.

We don't have his prize-winning book My Lucky Star on the shelf at the moment, but we have his two earlier (and equally hilarious) novels, Blue Heaven and Putting on the Ritz. All three novels feature the same main characters.--David E

Hot on the Shelves--Part 2

There's a little gem from Minnesota's recent past tucked away in our cookbooks section. We recently got a copy of Serving Time: America's Most Wanted Recipes by Sara Jane Olson.

If that name doesn't ring a bell, you can brush up on your local history here.--David E

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Seattle bookseller Paul Constant has written an article in The Stranger about the social networking site Goodreads. "The website tore through the Seattle bookselling community like an STD. Soon, every bookseller under 40 was a member. "Will you be my Goodreads friend?" we'd whisper to each other among the stacks. It was like MySpace, only better—it was all about books."

M&Q has a myspace page, but as I've said elsewhere in this blog, I just don't get the social networking phenomenon. I'll poke around on Goodreads in the next few days to see if it changes my mind. Is anyone out there a member? Post a comment.--David E

Choose to Reuse

Magers and Quinn is pleased to again participate in Hennepin County's annual Choose to Reuse program. County residents generate almost 7 pounds of waste per person per day. Recycling alone isn't enough; we need to prevent waste. Used books--and you do know we're the biggest used bookstore in the Twin Cities, in addition to all our snazzy new books, right?--are not only economical; they're also environmental.

Stop in the store and pick up the Choose to Reuse booklet with coupons for 80 local retailers who are making it easy to prevent waste. Look for the M&Q coupon and you can even save a little money. Or for more information, Choose to Reuse website.

Now with Eight More Monkeys

Last Christmas, I tried to sell everyone who came in the store a copy of Monkey Portraits, Jill Greenberg's collection of the prettiest monkeys you're gonna see. And it broke my heart when we ran out of books and couldn't get more from the publisher.

Now the paperback edition is out. It's in stock, and what's more, it has been expanded. The new book has eight more monkeys. What are you waiting for? Monkeys!!--David E

Logrolling in Our Time

Somebody in London has hired a very convincing publicist. The proof? The Times, The Financial Times, and The Independent newspapers have all run stories on a purported boom in custom-built, private libraries among the over-moneyed.

Watch the New York Times "Style" section to see if this "trend" crosses the Atlantic.--David E

Halloween Comes Early This Year

The Encyclopaedia Britannica's blog has begun a series of posts listing haunted libraries across the US. Today's posting covers Alabama to the District of Columbia. They're scheduled to get to Minnesota in two weeks, just in time for a bit of pre-Halloween Scooby-Doo hijinks.

My personal favorite haunting so far: "Yorba Linda, Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace. Shortly after Nixon was entombed on the grounds in 1994, a night watchman reported seeing a luminous green mist over the president’s grave."--David E

Taxi!

Like most of you, I've been hearing a lot about Melissa Plaut's book Hack: How I Stopped Worrying About What to Do With My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab lately. Her memoir is getting lots of play (for example, this excerpt/reading at NPR.)

But I hadn't realized that Plaut's book stems from the blog she started when she began driving. Right now, she seems to be focused on the mechanics of her book tour, but the earlier posts go all the way back to her taxicab days. I stumbled across this arresting detail: "I drove 195 miles tonight and my fingernails are, as usual, black with dirt from touching all that grubby money." We'd love to have that problem here in the store. Is New York money just extra dirty?--David E

Weird Wisconsin--Part Two

A while ago, I posted about the Wisconsin bookstore housed in a manure tank converted to be a castle. (Read that here.) There was an exterior picture, but now I'm pleased to be able to show you the inside, too:

Sure, But an Hour Later You Can't Find the Book Again

We spend a lot of time labelling our books, categorizing them, and putting them on the shelves in order. Is it time wasted? It is according to the owner of Shanghai's Dukou bookstore. In an article in today's China Daily, Xiao Gao throws cold water on the whole organization thing: "Unlike most bookstores, books here are not categorized. Instead they are randomly shelved. According to Xiao, there is a bond between the reader and the book, and categorizing the books would jeopardize this relationship."

Beyond that puzzling idea, China Daily's review of four "concept bookstores" in China gives an interesting glimpse of bookselling in the Middle Kingdom. It's worth a read.--David E

Undiscovered

While I don't usually think of the paper as a great source for literary news, USA Today today confounded my expectations and printed both an article on Irene Nemirovsky and an excerpt from her newly-released book Fire in the Blood.

Nemirovsky wrote over twenty books before she was killed in Auschwitz in 1942, but Suite Francaise, two novellas which were found in her papers only recently, is a runaway bestseller today, a favorite of critics and book clubs alike.--David E

Hot on the Shelves

Every year the folks at White Castle solicit recipes from their surviving customers for the "Crave Time Cookoff." Entrants must create a recipe which incorporates ten of the chain's trademark sliders in a new, exciting, and (it is to be hoped) tasty way. The best of these creations are collected in Crave Time Cookbook, and darned if we didn't just get a copy in the store this week.

Recipes include:

• White Castle Souffle,
• Chili con Castle,
• Spinach Bake Castlebread,
• and even White Castle Dim Sum

Flipping through the book, I can't help but notice that Minnesotans seem to be overrepresented in the winners. I don't know if we are more creative than the national average or if we just eat at White Castle more. Discuss.--David E

Joe College

Boingboing.net has posted news of the Harvard Coop's policy of discouraging lingering students from writing down the ISBNs of their textbooks, in the hopes that the youngsters then won't be able to track down other, cheaper copies elsewhere.

The bookstore's website has very clear instructions: "When you receive your class schedule, come into the bookstore. Look through our selection of new and used textbooks. Buy them right then and there and take them with you. Happy studying!" Come in, look, buy--no one said you should comparison shop, kids.

The original article, from Harvard's Crimson newspaper, is here, but I also recommend the boingboing posting. The comments are good.--David E

Armchair Travel

The Kyiv Post has umm... posted an article detailing the city's bookstores.

I particularly want to visit this place: "Antresol, a restaurant/book cafe owned by the same people as Baboon and Kvartira Baboon is one of the coziest. In addition to a medium-priced menu, you’ll find shelves of classical, modern and foreign literature, which you can buy or just read while at the cafe." Then I'm off to Baboon.--David E

Air Fresheners

The radio show Fresh Air has just posted two good author interviews:

• Alan Greenspan talks about his latest book The Age of Turbulence. (Find it here.) Unlike Bloomberg.com, I didn't find him easy or breezy (see yesterday's posting on that, below), but he's very interesting nonetheless. Listen for the discussion of his romance with Ayn Rand in particular.
• Today's show has an interview with Jeffrey Toobin about his book The Nine, a profile of the Supreme Court. Listen to that one here.

--David E

Recommended Recommendations

I just stumbled upon the blog Beyond the Bestseller and was impressed with today's item, a list of suggested books. I'd actually like to read many of them:

• Three Bags Full, in which a flock of sheep solves the murder of their herder,
• Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Danny Danziger, and
• Chasing Kangaroos by Tim Flannery (There's been used copies of his wonderful first book Throwim Way Leg on the shelf for months now. It's a gripping memoir of Flannery's time working as a biologist in New Guinea.)

I'll be watching this blog to see if their future recommendations are as good as September's.--David E

Without Comment

The financial website Bloomberg.com says that The Age of Turbulence, the new book by the famously hard-to-decipher former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, is "an easy, breezy read."--David E