“Relationships first, sales second.”
To further the conversation, here are two things about “community” and bookstores that have influenced my thinking on the subject.
First, above, is video of a talk by the amazing Matthew Stadler. In it, he discusses the future of the brick and mortar bookstore. It’s the source of the title for this post.
The second is a short essay from my local alt-weekly, The Stranger. In it, Books Editor Paul Constant takes all the talk of community building and asks someone to go ahead and put up (or rent out) an actual building:
So here’s what we need: a fairly large bar, nothing fancy, not too expensive. Open almost all the time. Maybe a typewriter here or there for ambience. Ratty books on shelves. Some sort of an area that can easily become a stage. Chairs. Tables. No TV, no Wi-Fi. No nattering blogs or flickering videos to distract from the words you’re writing, speaking, or reading. A jukebox stuffed with Edith Frost, the Magnetic Fields, and the Pogues. That’s about it for the hardware.
Both are on the right track, I think.
Phlarf4President
Rod Smith lives in Washington for President. Anne Boyer for First…President. K. Silem Mohammad for 16th President. Snow got you not going to D.C? Visit
http://abrahamlincolnmagazine.blogspot.com/
where Smith’s You Bête is just out from Mohammad’sº Abraham Lincoln–
[Update: Just got You Bête in the mail. Presidential material. It's snowed in, but look for excerpts later. In the meantime, Smith can run far with his Futurepoem campaign of pro-stupid / Your Country Is Great.]
–which, Issue 6 is also just out. Both, like Mohammad’s CRUSH (“My Money”: if you want to view any of these things let me know/PayPal will keep my money) are $5(!) Issues 1-5 (see below) of Abraham Lincoln are as SOLD OUT as Smith’s just out SOLD OUT Song Cave What’s the Deal.
[Update: Just got the new Song Cave, Peter Gizzi's Pinnochio's Gnosis, in the mail. Perfect. Get it--and You Bête--at the Song Cave reading in D.C. at the capital's best bookstore, Bridge Street Books. So you are snowing going to D.C then? See Bridge Street's other AWP events here.]
“You Bête: twenty-six pages of mind-wrenching, gut-expanding poems from the man many consider the Rod Smith of contemporary poetry.” or/and “Later, awkwarder, stickier, and number-sixier than ever before, the new issue of Abraham Lincoln wants desperately to be held tight to your heaving thoraxes (thoraces?) as you get so excited by the poems it contains that you gnaw the staples out WITH YOUR TEETH and commence slobbering at the moon. Can you afford NOT to throw away your hard-earned shekels on this splendid rag?”
Sandra Simonds for President (Re-elect). Catherine Wagner for President. Marie Buck for President. Ish Klein for President. Lacey Hunter for President. Estee Schwartz for President. David Brazil for President. Sam or Samantha Yams for President. Ton Van ‘t Hof for President. Uyen Hua for President. Lindsey Boldt for President. Brian Ang for President. Micah Freeman for President. Anna Vitale for President. Thomas Lovell Beddoes for President. Adam Katz for President. Nicole Taylor for President.
Mike Young was/has asked What is the best single issue of any literary magazine?
One answer would be/one would answer Abraham Lincoln #1. Issue the first. Spring/Summer 2007. Edited by K. Silem Mohammad and Anne Boyer. A taste of each poem: READ MORE >
NEW STORES: The Paper Cave & Weightless Books
Courtesy of two of the best book producers I know: Zach Dodson (of featherproof books) and Caroline Picard (of Green Lantern Gallery & Press): a new independent online book store, and rumored brick&mortar location in Chicago. All sorts of local favorites are among the first titles presented. This has me really excited; nice to see another outlet for great books gathered, as well as a built in support system for readings and other art.
And next: Weightless Books, an ebook store. Again: lots of great presses, all sorts of prices and formats (all DRM free). Fill up those chips. Say goodbye to money.
Two Things to Make It Rain
It’s warm out.
1. Commenter kirby pointed to this essay by Jim Rossignol about video games and architecture.
2. Bookstore Memory: I went to this bookstore in Appleton, Wisconsin years ago, and noticed a bunch of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion reviews in frames on the walls. A place of honor was reserved for one from Rolling Stone that was on the same page as a Bob Dylan review. I talked to the owner, and found out that she was the mother of JSBX guitarist Judah Bauer. She told me he had been really excited to see his band reviewed so close to Dylan because, even if he wouldn’t admit it to his punk rock/noise rock friends, Dylan was his favorite artist. “All the tapes in his room were labeled Honeymoon Killers and stuff, but they were all actually Dylan records.” She told me that story while I waited for my change—I was buying, I think, Dr. Sax by Jack Kerouac—and I’m 67% certain she was hoping if she dazzled me with rock gossip, I would forget she owed me for the $20 I had given her.
Got a bookstore memory? Comment.
Matthew Simmons—
Learned about this from Matt Bell: Ann Arbor’s Shaman Drum bookstore is closing. In good Matt Bell news, his book How They Were Found will be published by Keyhole Press next Fall. Of course, as all the bookstores will have closed by then, you will have to buy it online.
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