Thursday, December 13, 2007
Give a Gift To Our Economy: Shop Locally Owned This Holiday Season
I wanted to share with you this compelling piece by Stacy Mitchell.
This article is reprinted here with permission from Stacy Mitchell, a researcher with the New Rules Project and author of Big-Box Swindle : The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses.
Whether to patronize a chain or a locally owned business is not top of mind for many holiday shoppers, but it should be. It's a choice that has profound implications for our economy.
If you shop at an independent toy store, such as Be Beep in Annapolis, Maryland, you will likely see products made by Beka, a small toy manufacturer in St. Paul, Minnesota.
A family-owned business, Beka has opted not to sell to chains like Target and Wal-Mart. Doing so, explains co-owner Jamie Kreisman, would require moving production to low-wage factories overseas, which would eliminate what he and his brothers most love about the business: their relationships with their employees and working hands-on with their products.
Beka is healthy, but its future depends entirely on the survival of independent toy stores. Over the last decade, Wal-Mart and Target have aggressively overtaken this sector and now capture 45 percent of U.S. toy sales.
If you buy groceries for your holiday meals at an independent grocer, like Catalano's Market in Fresno, California, you will find lots of food produced by small-scale, local farmers, such as Paul Buxman.
A second-generation grower of peaches, Buxman nearly lost his farm selling to supermarket chains, which demand cutthroat prices and truckloads of perfect-looking, though often flavorless, fruit that only industrial farms can supply.
With bankruptcy looming, Buxman dropped the chains and forged relationships with independents like Catalano's. He works hard to give them the best fruit and they honor this by paying a fair price and accepting the natural ebb and flow of supply.
Today, Buxman's farm is back on track. Catalano's is doing well too, but owner Michael Catalano worries about Fresno approving still more chain supermarkets and recently a Wal-Mart. Since 1998, the top five supermarket chains, led by Wal-Mart, have doubled their market share and now capture nearly half of all grocery spending.
Patronize an independent CD store, like Waterloo Records in Austin, and you not only support a business owned by a music aficionado, but help to ensure opportunities for new artists. Many beloved bands got their start when a few store owners fell in love with their first albums and began recommending them.
That does not happen at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and other mass merchandisers, which now account for more than half of all album sales, but stock only chart-toppers and have no room for unknowns.
Chain retailers have expanded dramatically over the last two decades. Home Depot and Lowe's, barely a blip on the radar screen in 1986, control half of the hardware and building supply market. Barnes & Noble and Borders account for half of bookstore sales. Every sector is now dominated by a couple of chains, and Wal-Mart dominates them all, capturing one of every ten retail dollars we spend.
We assume that the chains represent economic progress, but in fact they take far more out of our economy than they contribute.
As the chains have expanded, tens of thousands of independent retailers have lost their livelihoods and laid off hundreds of thousands of employees. A study by David Neumark at UC-Irvine found that every new Wal-Mart store actually eliminates many more retail jobs than it creates.
The expansion of the chains has triggered a cascade of losses in other economic sectors. Some three million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been eliminated since 1990, in part because the chains have pressured companies, including Black & Decker and Levi's, to slash costs by moving overseas.
The chains also return very little of what their stores take in back to the communities where they operate. A study in Maine by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that only 14 cents of a dollar spent at big-box store remains in the state's economy.
In contrast, the study found that independent retailers spend more than half their revenue locally. They bank at local banks, hire local accountants, advertise in local media, and require many other local services that chains do not. For mid-sized and smaller cities especially, this is a vital source of economic activity and jobs that pay a middle-class income.
In exchange for all the businesses and jobs they destroy, the chains offer us employment in their stores. Wages for most of these jobs are so low that many big-box employees rely on Medicaid, food stamps, and other taxpayer-funded programs to get by.
None of this looks much like progress. In fact, what the big-box model most closely resembles are the old colonial economies of the European superpowers, which were organized, not to improve the lives of the local inhabitants, but to extract their wealth.
This holiday season, we can declare our independence and begin building a more prosperous economy by forgoing the chains and seeking out locally owned businesses.
This article is reprinted here with permission from Stacy Mitchell, a researcher with the New Rules Project and author of Big-Box Swindle : The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses.
Whether to patronize a chain or a locally owned business is not top of mind for many holiday shoppers, but it should be. It's a choice that has profound implications for our economy.
If you shop at an independent toy store, such as Be Beep in Annapolis, Maryland, you will likely see products made by Beka, a small toy manufacturer in St. Paul, Minnesota.
A family-owned business, Beka has opted not to sell to chains like Target and Wal-Mart. Doing so, explains co-owner Jamie Kreisman, would require moving production to low-wage factories overseas, which would eliminate what he and his brothers most love about the business: their relationships with their employees and working hands-on with their products.
Beka is healthy, but its future depends entirely on the survival of independent toy stores. Over the last decade, Wal-Mart and Target have aggressively overtaken this sector and now capture 45 percent of U.S. toy sales.
If you buy groceries for your holiday meals at an independent grocer, like Catalano's Market in Fresno, California, you will find lots of food produced by small-scale, local farmers, such as Paul Buxman.
A second-generation grower of peaches, Buxman nearly lost his farm selling to supermarket chains, which demand cutthroat prices and truckloads of perfect-looking, though often flavorless, fruit that only industrial farms can supply.
With bankruptcy looming, Buxman dropped the chains and forged relationships with independents like Catalano's. He works hard to give them the best fruit and they honor this by paying a fair price and accepting the natural ebb and flow of supply.
Today, Buxman's farm is back on track. Catalano's is doing well too, but owner Michael Catalano worries about Fresno approving still more chain supermarkets and recently a Wal-Mart. Since 1998, the top five supermarket chains, led by Wal-Mart, have doubled their market share and now capture nearly half of all grocery spending.
Patronize an independent CD store, like Waterloo Records in Austin, and you not only support a business owned by a music aficionado, but help to ensure opportunities for new artists. Many beloved bands got their start when a few store owners fell in love with their first albums and began recommending them.
That does not happen at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and other mass merchandisers, which now account for more than half of all album sales, but stock only chart-toppers and have no room for unknowns.
Chain retailers have expanded dramatically over the last two decades. Home Depot and Lowe's, barely a blip on the radar screen in 1986, control half of the hardware and building supply market. Barnes & Noble and Borders account for half of bookstore sales. Every sector is now dominated by a couple of chains, and Wal-Mart dominates them all, capturing one of every ten retail dollars we spend.
We assume that the chains represent economic progress, but in fact they take far more out of our economy than they contribute.
As the chains have expanded, tens of thousands of independent retailers have lost their livelihoods and laid off hundreds of thousands of employees. A study by David Neumark at UC-Irvine found that every new Wal-Mart store actually eliminates many more retail jobs than it creates.
The expansion of the chains has triggered a cascade of losses in other economic sectors. Some three million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been eliminated since 1990, in part because the chains have pressured companies, including Black & Decker and Levi's, to slash costs by moving overseas.
The chains also return very little of what their stores take in back to the communities where they operate. A study in Maine by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that only 14 cents of a dollar spent at big-box store remains in the state's economy.
In contrast, the study found that independent retailers spend more than half their revenue locally. They bank at local banks, hire local accountants, advertise in local media, and require many other local services that chains do not. For mid-sized and smaller cities especially, this is a vital source of economic activity and jobs that pay a middle-class income.
In exchange for all the businesses and jobs they destroy, the chains offer us employment in their stores. Wages for most of these jobs are so low that many big-box employees rely on Medicaid, food stamps, and other taxpayer-funded programs to get by.
None of this looks much like progress. In fact, what the big-box model most closely resembles are the old colonial economies of the European superpowers, which were organized, not to improve the lives of the local inhabitants, but to extract their wealth.
This holiday season, we can declare our independence and begin building a more prosperous economy by forgoing the chains and seeking out locally owned businesses.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Not Quite Free, Day 1 and Counting
It's been a while since Randy has given you an update on his adventureswith A Complaint Free World. I thought you might like to hear my take on his progress.
He thought that it would be easy to stop complaining on day 1 and not complain for 21 consecutive days. Like many things in this world, it has proven to be harder than it looks. Today is the 29th day since he started his challenge and he is on day 1 of the 21 days again.
While our world hasn't been complaint free it certainly has been a lot more pleasant. Randy has a long list of pet peeves that he brings up often. Many of them have become reflex reactions for him. I am very happy to say that his efforts at not complaining have greatly reduced the habitual complaints. And he has been much less angry without the complaints to fuel his anger.
We had been discussing the possiblity of changing our telephone service provider for a couple months and we actually went ahead with it a couple weeks ago. What was described to us as seamless turned out to be more like disastrous. I couldn't believe how calm Randy was as he handled the customer service maze that was required to work out the problems with the new service. (Just in case you were wondering, you are allowed to ask for a problem to be corrected as long as you direct your request to the appropriate person/place.)
Then last week our computer system was attacked by some ruthless hackers. I was amazed that he was not angry aboout the situation. Naturally, he was frustrated by the time and money required to fix the problem but not really angry as he would have been in the past if something like this happened.
Maybe I should give this complaint free stuff a try.
Ann
He thought that it would be easy to stop complaining on day 1 and not complain for 21 consecutive days. Like many things in this world, it has proven to be harder than it looks. Today is the 29th day since he started his challenge and he is on day 1 of the 21 days again.
While our world hasn't been complaint free it certainly has been a lot more pleasant. Randy has a long list of pet peeves that he brings up often. Many of them have become reflex reactions for him. I am very happy to say that his efforts at not complaining have greatly reduced the habitual complaints. And he has been much less angry without the complaints to fuel his anger.
We had been discussing the possiblity of changing our telephone service provider for a couple months and we actually went ahead with it a couple weeks ago. What was described to us as seamless turned out to be more like disastrous. I couldn't believe how calm Randy was as he handled the customer service maze that was required to work out the problems with the new service. (Just in case you were wondering, you are allowed to ask for a problem to be corrected as long as you direct your request to the appropriate person/place.)
Then last week our computer system was attacked by some ruthless hackers. I was amazed that he was not angry aboout the situation. Naturally, he was frustrated by the time and money required to fix the problem but not really angry as he would have been in the past if something like this happened.
Maybe I should give this complaint free stuff a try.
Ann
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Like Attracts Like
"Intellectuals, even more than the rest of us, like to believe that they reach conclusions solely through study and reflection. But like the rest of us, they sometimes choose their opinions to suit their friends rather than the other way around."
from today's New York Times Magazine article on Antony Flew, once a leading atheist, and now the "author" of There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, a new release from HarperOne, the spiritual imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The article is well worth reading, but the pull quote is striking. It reminds me of a previously quoted passage from Will Bowen's A Complaint Free World where he pointed out that we tend to gather ourselves into groups that are more like ourselves than different.
Have a great Sunday.
from today's New York Times Magazine article on Antony Flew, once a leading atheist, and now the "author" of There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, a new release from HarperOne, the spiritual imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The article is well worth reading, but the pull quote is striking. It reminds me of a previously quoted passage from Will Bowen's A Complaint Free World where he pointed out that we tend to gather ourselves into groups that are more like ourselves than different.
Have a great Sunday.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Day 18: A Change of Pace
Nitro High School's English teachers are in a tight spot after assigning a couple of incredible books. The censors have come out swinging. Now the author is swinging back.
Pat Conroy's letter about teachers and censorship
October 24, 2007
A Letter to the Editor of the Charleston Gazette:
I received an urgent e-mail from a high school student named Makenzie Hatfield of Charleston, West Virginia. She informed me of a group of parents who were attempting to suppress the teaching of two of my novels, "The Prince of Tides" and "Beach Music." I heard rumors of this controversy as I was completing my latest filthy, vomit-inducing work. These controversies are so commonplace in my life that I no longer get involved. But my knowledge of mountain lore is strong enough to know the dangers of refusing to help a Hatfield of West Virginia. I also do not mess with McCoys.
I've enjoyed a lifetime love affair with English teachers, just like the ones who are being abused in Charleston, West Virginia, today. My English teachers pushed me to be smart and inquisitive, and they taught me the great books of the world with passion and cunning and love. Like your English teachers, they didn't have any money, either, but they lived in the bright fires of their imaginations, and they taught because they were born to teach the prettiest language in the world.
I have yet to meet an English teacher who assigned a book to damage a kid. They take an unutterable joy in opening up the known world to their students, but they are dishonored and unpraised because of the scandalous paychecks they receive. In my travels around this country, I have discovered that America hates its teachers, and I could not tell you why. Charleston, West Virginia, is showing clear signs of really hurting theirs, and I would be cautious about the word getting out.
In 1961, I entered the classroom of the great Eugene Norris, who set about in a thousand ways to change my life. It was the year I read "Catcher in the Rye," under Gene's careful tutelage, and I adore that book to this very day. Later, a parent complained to the school board, and Gene Norris was called before the board to defend his teaching of this book. He asked me to write an essay describing the book's galvanic effect on me, which I did. But Gene's defense of "Catcher in the Rye" was so brilliant and convincing in its sheer power that it carried the day. I stayed close to Gene Norris till the day he died. I delivered a eulogy at his memorial service and was one of the executors of his will. Few in the world have ever loved English teachers as I have, and I loathe it when they are bullied by know-nothing parents or cowardly school boards.
About the novels your county just censored: "The Prince of Tides" and "Beach Music" are two of my darlings, which I would place before the altar of God and say, "Lord, this is how I found the world you made." They contain scenes of violence, but I was the son of a Marine Corps fighter pilot who killed hundreds of men in Korea, beat my mother and his seven kids whenever he felt like it, and fought in three wars. My youngest brother, Tom, committed suicide by jumping off a fourteen-story building; my French teacher ended her life with a pistol; my aunt was brutally raped in Atlanta; eight of my classmates at The Citadel were killed in Vietnam; and my best friend was killed in a car wreck in Mississippi last summer. Violence has always been a part of my world. I write about it in my books and make no apology to anyone. In "Beach Music," I wrote about the Holocaust and lack the literary powers to make that historical event anything other than grotesque.
People cuss in my books. People cuss in my real life. I cuss, especially at Citadel basketball games. I'm perfectly sure that Steve Shamblin and other teachers prepared their students well for any encounters with violence or profanity in my books just as Gene Norris prepared me for the profane language in "Catcher in the Rye" forty-eight years ago.
The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in "Lonesome Dove" and had nightmares about slavery in "Beloved" and walked the streets of Dublin in "Ulysses" and made up a hundred stories in the Arabian nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in "A Prayer for Owen Meany." I've been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language.
The school board of Charleston, West Virginia, has sullied that gift and shamed themselves and their community. You've now entered the ranks of censors, book-banners, and teacher-haters, and the word will spread. Good teachers will avoid you as though you had cholera. But here is my favorite thing: Because you banned my books, every kid in that county will read them, every single one of them. Because book banners are invariably idiots, they don't know how the world works - but writers and English teachers do.
I salute the English teachers of Charleston, West Virginia, and send my affection to their students. West Virginians, you've just done what history warned you against - you've riled a Hatfield.
Sincerely,
Pat Conroy
I can't add anything to that. So far as the complaint-free project is going, I must start again on my 21 days. We switched phones from AT&T to Insight, and it ain't pretty.
Pat Conroy's letter about teachers and censorship
October 24, 2007
A Letter to the Editor of the Charleston Gazette:
I received an urgent e-mail from a high school student named Makenzie Hatfield of Charleston, West Virginia. She informed me of a group of parents who were attempting to suppress the teaching of two of my novels, "The Prince of Tides" and "Beach Music." I heard rumors of this controversy as I was completing my latest filthy, vomit-inducing work. These controversies are so commonplace in my life that I no longer get involved. But my knowledge of mountain lore is strong enough to know the dangers of refusing to help a Hatfield of West Virginia. I also do not mess with McCoys.
I've enjoyed a lifetime love affair with English teachers, just like the ones who are being abused in Charleston, West Virginia, today. My English teachers pushed me to be smart and inquisitive, and they taught me the great books of the world with passion and cunning and love. Like your English teachers, they didn't have any money, either, but they lived in the bright fires of their imaginations, and they taught because they were born to teach the prettiest language in the world.
I have yet to meet an English teacher who assigned a book to damage a kid. They take an unutterable joy in opening up the known world to their students, but they are dishonored and unpraised because of the scandalous paychecks they receive. In my travels around this country, I have discovered that America hates its teachers, and I could not tell you why. Charleston, West Virginia, is showing clear signs of really hurting theirs, and I would be cautious about the word getting out.
In 1961, I entered the classroom of the great Eugene Norris, who set about in a thousand ways to change my life. It was the year I read "Catcher in the Rye," under Gene's careful tutelage, and I adore that book to this very day. Later, a parent complained to the school board, and Gene Norris was called before the board to defend his teaching of this book. He asked me to write an essay describing the book's galvanic effect on me, which I did. But Gene's defense of "Catcher in the Rye" was so brilliant and convincing in its sheer power that it carried the day. I stayed close to Gene Norris till the day he died. I delivered a eulogy at his memorial service and was one of the executors of his will. Few in the world have ever loved English teachers as I have, and I loathe it when they are bullied by know-nothing parents or cowardly school boards.
About the novels your county just censored: "The Prince of Tides" and "Beach Music" are two of my darlings, which I would place before the altar of God and say, "Lord, this is how I found the world you made." They contain scenes of violence, but I was the son of a Marine Corps fighter pilot who killed hundreds of men in Korea, beat my mother and his seven kids whenever he felt like it, and fought in three wars. My youngest brother, Tom, committed suicide by jumping off a fourteen-story building; my French teacher ended her life with a pistol; my aunt was brutally raped in Atlanta; eight of my classmates at The Citadel were killed in Vietnam; and my best friend was killed in a car wreck in Mississippi last summer. Violence has always been a part of my world. I write about it in my books and make no apology to anyone. In "Beach Music," I wrote about the Holocaust and lack the literary powers to make that historical event anything other than grotesque.
People cuss in my books. People cuss in my real life. I cuss, especially at Citadel basketball games. I'm perfectly sure that Steve Shamblin and other teachers prepared their students well for any encounters with violence or profanity in my books just as Gene Norris prepared me for the profane language in "Catcher in the Rye" forty-eight years ago.
The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in "Lonesome Dove" and had nightmares about slavery in "Beloved" and walked the streets of Dublin in "Ulysses" and made up a hundred stories in the Arabian nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in "A Prayer for Owen Meany." I've been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language.
The school board of Charleston, West Virginia, has sullied that gift and shamed themselves and their community. You've now entered the ranks of censors, book-banners, and teacher-haters, and the word will spread. Good teachers will avoid you as though you had cholera. But here is my favorite thing: Because you banned my books, every kid in that county will read them, every single one of them. Because book banners are invariably idiots, they don't know how the world works - but writers and English teachers do.
I salute the English teachers of Charleston, West Virginia, and send my affection to their students. West Virginians, you've just done what history warned you against - you've riled a Hatfield.
Sincerely,
Pat Conroy
I can't add anything to that. So far as the complaint-free project is going, I must start again on my 21 days. We switched phones from AT&T to Insight, and it ain't pretty.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Day 16: A Complaint Free World
Now get this. I'm trying. Will Bowen's concept of a complaint-free world and the eponymous book that lays out the strategy is, admittedly, ambitious. I came pretty close to completing 2 consecutive days, but I crapped out with an unexcusable computer glitch, followed by a complaint.
Now, in the modern world of bookselling, reliable computer communications is essential. Human error still intervenes to complicate deliveries, but when you computer software won't work as promised, it exacerbates the problem.
(Deb, if things worked the way you want them to, the discount would now be 64% off retail.)
So we begin again. 21 consecutive days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. Thanks, friend, for withholding your juicy gossip. It was really a supportive gesture.
For the record, I did reach 5 straight days and that's my "best" so far. I've been asked to speak to a civic club next week, so I hope to be able to report something better than that when I show up.
It ain't easy "been" complaint free.
Now, in the modern world of bookselling, reliable computer communications is essential. Human error still intervenes to complicate deliveries, but when you computer software won't work as promised, it exacerbates the problem.
(Deb, if things worked the way you want them to, the discount would now be 64% off retail.)
So we begin again. 21 consecutive days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. Thanks, friend, for withholding your juicy gossip. It was really a supportive gesture.
For the record, I did reach 5 straight days and that's my "best" so far. I've been asked to speak to a civic club next week, so I hope to be able to report something better than that when I show up.
It ain't easy "been" complaint free.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Days 12-15: Sorry to be so late!
The big news is that I broke again...Saturday morning, with a purely instinctual complaint. The details don't really matter, but what I did was a purely routine, natural, and all-too-common complaint, made without thought or pretense.
This illustrates the dilemma. If one is a complainer, and I surely am, then complaining comes naturally. Avoiding complaint and the avoiding the ear pollution one inflicts on others around us requires resolve and discipline.
As I write this, I claim two straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. There have been a few close calls, and perhaps others would claim that I did criticize. For the record, any reader who wishes to buy the book "A Complaint Free World" is entitled to claim a 32% discount off the retail price. So far as discounts go, that's it. We reached the maximum discount level under this challenge.
Now, I don't have any financial incentive to stop complaining. I have even less financial incentive to sell the book. But this has never been about money. It's about a book and a concept that I grow ever more convinced is one that needs to be shared.
Please drop by the store, sit down in one of our marvelous puff chairs, and read a chapter of Will Bowen's book. Maybe together we can change the culture.
This illustrates the dilemma. If one is a complainer, and I surely am, then complaining comes naturally. Avoiding complaint and the avoiding the ear pollution one inflicts on others around us requires resolve and discipline.
As I write this, I claim two straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. There have been a few close calls, and perhaps others would claim that I did criticize. For the record, any reader who wishes to buy the book "A Complaint Free World" is entitled to claim a 32% discount off the retail price. So far as discounts go, that's it. We reached the maximum discount level under this challenge.
Now, I don't have any financial incentive to stop complaining. I have even less financial incentive to sell the book. But this has never been about money. It's about a book and a concept that I grow ever more convinced is one that needs to be shared.
Please drop by the store, sit down in one of our marvelous puff chairs, and read a chapter of Will Bowen's book. Maybe together we can change the culture.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Day 11: MmmmMmmmMmmmm!
Wow! You wouldn't believe what a good post I had in this space just seconds ago. That was way back when I was about to report that I had made it one full day in my quest to go 21 straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping, as suggested by Will Bowen's "A Complaint Free World."
The Blogger ate my homework! Sooooooooooooooooo much for that. Startin' all over again. Discount? 16%.
Anyway, here's what I wrote, as best I can remember it.
Ann and I have been eating well, and eating good all summer. We signed up for a CSA last spring and just completed a 25-week subscription. CSA doesn't stand for Confederate States of America, but Community Supported Agriculture. Four (Kentucky) family farms offered the roll-the-dice seasonal bounty of their fields to families willing to pay in advance for almost half a year's worth of fruits and vegetables.
Even with the drought, it was a success for us. Except for the odd banana pepper, and that batch of mustard greens Ann (intentionally, I believe) let go dry, we ate it all, although it was often a stretch for Ann to plan menus on the fly every Wednesday.
We haven't decided yet whether to re-up for next year (they're offering a pre-pre-pay discount for next season) for a number of reasons. We always enjoyed buying from local farmers at the farmers' market downtown, but it was less necessary this year...we often had seven days worth of produce to consume. We'd love to find a Hoosier CSA, too.
So, tonight we had acorn squash and striped squash, fresh spinach, fresh greens salad, and a loaf of French bread. Ann stuffed the squash with Italian sausage, so I'm feeling very international. Up to a few minutes ago, I was writing a minor funny about how close I came to complaining today. Then the computer glitch caused me to COMPLAIN.
Still, here it is (was?). Ann started talking about a dish she once prepared with squash (my stomach was interested but my brain disengaged and went into smartass mode) and bulgar wheat. I responded with "I don't like vulgar wheat. I prefer my wheat refined."
Lame, right? And Ann agreed, completely ignoring my attempt at a joke. I feigned insult. And that was as close as I came to busting out today. I sat down, fired up the ol' laptop, and began my report. When I got about this far, IE bailed and my entire post was deleted.
You know, without computers, I couldn't keep you informed as to my progress. But then, without computers, I would have made it to a second day without complaining!
If you are interested in supporting family farms in Indiana, watch this space. If you're convinced about CSA's and want to sign up for the Kentucky program, visit www.familyfarmproject.com.
Oh, and in books news, the novel authorized by the estate of Margaret Mitchell to follow "Gone With the Wind" releases on Tuesday, November 6. I think I've brought in enough copies (they arrived today) of "Rhett Butler's People," the continuing story of the classic 20th Century take on the 19th Century War of Northern Aggression. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
We're obligated to keep the book under embargo. That means we can't sell it or display it until Nov. 6. But we do have it on our "holding" shelves and store staff are allowed to read it in advance of the on-sale date. Interested?
The Blogger ate my homework! Sooooooooooooooooo much for that. Startin' all over again. Discount? 16%.
Anyway, here's what I wrote, as best I can remember it.
Ann and I have been eating well, and eating good all summer. We signed up for a CSA last spring and just completed a 25-week subscription. CSA doesn't stand for Confederate States of America, but Community Supported Agriculture. Four (Kentucky) family farms offered the roll-the-dice seasonal bounty of their fields to families willing to pay in advance for almost half a year's worth of fruits and vegetables.
Even with the drought, it was a success for us. Except for the odd banana pepper, and that batch of mustard greens Ann (intentionally, I believe) let go dry, we ate it all, although it was often a stretch for Ann to plan menus on the fly every Wednesday.
We haven't decided yet whether to re-up for next year (they're offering a pre-pre-pay discount for next season) for a number of reasons. We always enjoyed buying from local farmers at the farmers' market downtown, but it was less necessary this year...we often had seven days worth of produce to consume. We'd love to find a Hoosier CSA, too.
So, tonight we had acorn squash and striped squash, fresh spinach, fresh greens salad, and a loaf of French bread. Ann stuffed the squash with Italian sausage, so I'm feeling very international. Up to a few minutes ago, I was writing a minor funny about how close I came to complaining today. Then the computer glitch caused me to COMPLAIN.
Still, here it is (was?). Ann started talking about a dish she once prepared with squash (my stomach was interested but my brain disengaged and went into smartass mode) and bulgar wheat. I responded with "I don't like vulgar wheat. I prefer my wheat refined."
Lame, right? And Ann agreed, completely ignoring my attempt at a joke. I feigned insult. And that was as close as I came to busting out today. I sat down, fired up the ol' laptop, and began my report. When I got about this far, IE bailed and my entire post was deleted.
You know, without computers, I couldn't keep you informed as to my progress. But then, without computers, I would have made it to a second day without complaining!
If you are interested in supporting family farms in Indiana, watch this space. If you're convinced about CSA's and want to sign up for the Kentucky program, visit www.familyfarmproject.com.
Oh, and in books news, the novel authorized by the estate of Margaret Mitchell to follow "Gone With the Wind" releases on Tuesday, November 6. I think I've brought in enough copies (they arrived today) of "Rhett Butler's People," the continuing story of the classic 20th Century take on the 19th Century War of Northern Aggression. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
We're obligated to keep the book under embargo. That means we can't sell it or display it until Nov. 6. But we do have it on our "holding" shelves and store staff are allowed to read it in advance of the on-sale date. Interested?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Day 10: Going Postal
Well, so much for that. Agitated already by the Daniels property tax "relief" plan and the concomitant lies being spread by a right-wing anti-tax group that's making New Albany its summer home, I held it together for a couple of hours on Wednesday. Then, a patron called to report a particularly egregious example of government incompetence, and I blew.
It probably wasn't a good day to be engaged in Will Bowen's "A Complaint Free World" challenge.
Thanks to those of you who have lent your support to my attempt to go 21 straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. And I haven't forgotten those of you who don't think I can do it, either.
Enough aggravations ensued Wednesday, including a mayoral forum and a city council meeting, that I probably would have cracked anyway. Under our ground rules, the day is blown, the discount on the book rises to 8%, and per usual, I'm free to complain until midnight. You can always come in to the store and buy the book for 12% off if you think I can make it. Or, you can wait to see if the discount doubles and then doubles again.
So Thursday will, again, be day one.
It probably wasn't a good day to be engaged in Will Bowen's "A Complaint Free World" challenge.
Thanks to those of you who have lent your support to my attempt to go 21 straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. And I haven't forgotten those of you who don't think I can do it, either.
Enough aggravations ensued Wednesday, including a mayoral forum and a city council meeting, that I probably would have cracked anyway. Under our ground rules, the day is blown, the discount on the book rises to 8%, and per usual, I'm free to complain until midnight. You can always come in to the store and buy the book for 12% off if you think I can make it. Or, you can wait to see if the discount doubles and then doubles again.
So Thursday will, again, be day one.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Day 9: Close Calls, but...
...I made it through a fifth day without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. But it wasn't easy.
When the wife comes home at night, I have a habit of "downloading" her on all the new information I've received during the day and all the things that happened at the store. For example, as we left the store on Monday night, I asked her if she had turned on the heat. As we left, I told her I had felt a blast of heat while passing the furnace, but she assured me she had only nudged the thermostat to keep the AC from running.
It turns out that an employee had reversed the settings from cool to heat, so Ann's frugal measure turned into a more costly one, probably much to the delight of Vectren. Ann made a brief stop at the store this morning and was hit with an oven blast of heat at about 80 degrees. Fortunately, she hit the kill switch so that when I arrived it was only a bit toasty.
But that's not a complaint. It's just the type of thing that we talk about and my prior inattention to "ear pollution" would have surely turned that discussion into a gripe. With my newly heightened awareness of the impact of my words, though, I can discuss such things without being such a grump.
Ann remarked that she has been pleasantly surprised at how "calm" I have been over the past several days. I'm hoping she'll contribute a post sometime this week, sharing with us what it's like to watch what we hope is a transformation.
Do you think this "Complaint Free World" concept can spread? Wouldn't it make life in Southern Indiana a lot more pleasant if we all were sensitive to how often we complain?
I honestly believe that the next few days will be the hardest. I promise to shoot straight with you. From everything author Will Bowen tells us in his new book, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to go 21 straight days at this early stage. And I promise to raise the bar, too.
When the wife comes home at night, I have a habit of "downloading" her on all the new information I've received during the day and all the things that happened at the store. For example, as we left the store on Monday night, I asked her if she had turned on the heat. As we left, I told her I had felt a blast of heat while passing the furnace, but she assured me she had only nudged the thermostat to keep the AC from running.
It turns out that an employee had reversed the settings from cool to heat, so Ann's frugal measure turned into a more costly one, probably much to the delight of Vectren. Ann made a brief stop at the store this morning and was hit with an oven blast of heat at about 80 degrees. Fortunately, she hit the kill switch so that when I arrived it was only a bit toasty.
But that's not a complaint. It's just the type of thing that we talk about and my prior inattention to "ear pollution" would have surely turned that discussion into a gripe. With my newly heightened awareness of the impact of my words, though, I can discuss such things without being such a grump.
Ann remarked that she has been pleasantly surprised at how "calm" I have been over the past several days. I'm hoping she'll contribute a post sometime this week, sharing with us what it's like to watch what we hope is a transformation.
Do you think this "Complaint Free World" concept can spread? Wouldn't it make life in Southern Indiana a lot more pleasant if we all were sensitive to how often we complain?
I honestly believe that the next few days will be the hardest. I promise to shoot straight with you. From everything author Will Bowen tells us in his new book, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to go 21 straight days at this early stage. And I promise to raise the bar, too.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Day 8: How am I doing, you ask?
Oh, no complaints. Thank you for asking.
We're now at four consecutive days in our quest to go 21 straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. Does e-mail count?
You will recall this is based on Will Bowen's phenomenal new book, A Complaint Free World, available at Destinations Booksellers, 604 East Spring Street, New Albany, Indiana.
We're now at four consecutive days in our quest to go 21 straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. Does e-mail count?
You will recall this is based on Will Bowen's phenomenal new book, A Complaint Free World, available at Destinations Booksellers, 604 East Spring Street, New Albany, Indiana.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Days 6 and 7: Hanging In There
It has been a busy weekend at the store, but I didn't want to leave you hanging. So far, I'm well on my way to completing a third consecutive day without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping, despite the fact that local business and politics were part of the agenda. Try discussing those topics without breaking the challenge.
That leaves the discount locked in at 4%. Several of you have come in to buy the book and we're down to just one copy. If you want the book right now, we have more on order and the walk-up price is 12% off the retail price of $16.95. Many are holding out for a higher discount, expecting that when the discount doubles, then doubles again, and then doubles again, they'll get a bargain.
But only if I fail to meet the terms of the 21-day challenge. I will report again on Monday evening.
That leaves the discount locked in at 4%. Several of you have come in to buy the book and we're down to just one copy. If you want the book right now, we have more on order and the walk-up price is 12% off the retail price of $16.95. Many are holding out for a higher discount, expecting that when the discount doubles, then doubles again, and then doubles again, they'll get a bargain.
But only if I fail to meet the terms of the 21-day challenge. I will report again on Monday evening.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Day 5: Progress!
In like Flynn! No complaints today. We're locked in at 4% on the running discount, and we proceed to see if we can make it 2 days in a row in our quest for 21 straight days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. Saturday should be easier as I'll be surrounded by people all day. Our usual Saturday morning rush of customers will be followed by two - count 'em - two big events. At 4 we host David Domine and his new Kentucky-cooking cookbook. Then at 7, we'll close for a brief snack (probably dinner at La Rosita) and reopen the store at 8 for an All Hallows Party featuring the book launch for "Friends Forever: A Vampyre Tale." Costumes optional, though expected...for the cookbook appearance, of course.
Will Bowen offers this scripture from the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Philippians: Do everything without complaining.
In "A Complaint Free World," the book that is driving this challenge, Bowen gives this advice: After you have gone the months it takes to become a Complaint Free person, you will find that you will have changed...you will find that your mind no longer produces the deluge of unhappy thoughts you used to live with. Because you are not speaking them, you have no outlet for them, and the complaint factory in your mind closes down. You have shut off the spigot and the well has dried up. By changing your words, you have reshaped the way you think.
There might be something to that.
Will Bowen offers this scripture from the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Philippians: Do everything without complaining.
In "A Complaint Free World," the book that is driving this challenge, Bowen gives this advice: After you have gone the months it takes to become a Complaint Free person, you will find that you will have changed...you will find that your mind no longer produces the deluge of unhappy thoughts you used to live with. Because you are not speaking them, you have no outlet for them, and the complaint factory in your mind closes down. You have shut off the spigot and the well has dried up. By changing your words, you have reshaped the way you think.
There might be something to that.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Day 4: It's "Groundhog Day"
Will Randy see his shadow today? Will his 21-day challenge begin all over again today?
I've taken to calling it provocation, as if such were an excuse for failing the challenge so far. A more passive sort would not even consider the past few days to have been provocative. But this duck can't let water roll off his back.
Let's quote Will Bowen again.
You have a right to get what you deserve. To achieve this, don't talk about or focus on the problem. Focus BEYOND the problem. See it resolved. Talk only about what you desire and only to someone who can provide it. You will shorten your wait time for what you seek and be happier in the process.
"But every great thing in our country began with people complaining...think about Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King!" an e-mail I received stated.
I realized that in one respect I agreed with the woman who sent the e-mail. The first step toward progress is dissatisfaction. But if we stay in dissatisfaction, we never move forward to brighter vistas. And those who complain as a matter of course chart their destination as being the same, unhappy port from which they sailed. Our focus must be on what we want to occur rather than what we do not. Complaining is focusing on what we don't want to occur.
So, what I learned today is that, if recast, neither of my stumbles yesterday would have qualified as complaints if I had restated them as desires for what I had wished to happen instead of as complaints. In fact, in retrospect, the second complaint was, in fact, phrased as an "I wish..."
My lovely and brilliant bride caught the distinction, too. My Wednesday complaint could have easily been turned into an affirming, non-ear-polluting comment.
Hey, maybe I'm starting to get with the program!
As for the daily report, I once again failed to avoid complaining. Made it deep into the day, though. Had a productive, pleasant day that included intricate book production, difficult orders, and even a smidgen of politics.
Then I went home. Streets were flooding, tornado sirens were blaring, the storm sewer grate in front of the house was filled with leaves and pine straw. Still, no complaints from this quarter. I even cleared the grate, looking forward to a nice dinner of spaghetti squash, soon to be followed by Shaker pumpkin pie.
I sat down to watch my favorite TV shows, particularly "30 Rock," with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. The wife and I always catch "ER," too.
Not this Thursday. None of the networks affiliates could countenance the thought that another station might capture a single extra viewer, so we were treated to four hours (and counting) of nonstop hysteria-mongering. The Fox affiliate offered up the ALCS game between Cleveland and Boston, but even that was marred by weather graphics that obscured the game graphics.
Though Ann would differ with me on this, I still didn't quite "complain." I did, however, switch over to KET to watch a documentary on the Broadway musical. But as each musical was presented, just as the definitive piece of music would come up, "AAANKH, AAANKH, AAANKH - The National Weather Service has issued a heavy rain warning. Find a workbench in your basement, hide under it, and stay there all night - AAANKH, AAANKH, AAANKH."
I complained. Tell me you didn't.
For the record, the discount is now 4%. See you tomorrow night.
I've taken to calling it provocation, as if such were an excuse for failing the challenge so far. A more passive sort would not even consider the past few days to have been provocative. But this duck can't let water roll off his back.
Let's quote Will Bowen again.
You have a right to get what you deserve. To achieve this, don't talk about or focus on the problem. Focus BEYOND the problem. See it resolved. Talk only about what you desire and only to someone who can provide it. You will shorten your wait time for what you seek and be happier in the process.
"But every great thing in our country began with people complaining...think about Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King!" an e-mail I received stated.
I realized that in one respect I agreed with the woman who sent the e-mail. The first step toward progress is dissatisfaction. But if we stay in dissatisfaction, we never move forward to brighter vistas. And those who complain as a matter of course chart their destination as being the same, unhappy port from which they sailed. Our focus must be on what we want to occur rather than what we do not. Complaining is focusing on what we don't want to occur.
So, what I learned today is that, if recast, neither of my stumbles yesterday would have qualified as complaints if I had restated them as desires for what I had wished to happen instead of as complaints. In fact, in retrospect, the second complaint was, in fact, phrased as an "I wish..."
My lovely and brilliant bride caught the distinction, too. My Wednesday complaint could have easily been turned into an affirming, non-ear-polluting comment.
Hey, maybe I'm starting to get with the program!
As for the daily report, I once again failed to avoid complaining. Made it deep into the day, though. Had a productive, pleasant day that included intricate book production, difficult orders, and even a smidgen of politics.
Then I went home. Streets were flooding, tornado sirens were blaring, the storm sewer grate in front of the house was filled with leaves and pine straw. Still, no complaints from this quarter. I even cleared the grate, looking forward to a nice dinner of spaghetti squash, soon to be followed by Shaker pumpkin pie.
I sat down to watch my favorite TV shows, particularly "30 Rock," with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. The wife and I always catch "ER," too.
Not this Thursday. None of the networks affiliates could countenance the thought that another station might capture a single extra viewer, so we were treated to four hours (and counting) of nonstop hysteria-mongering. The Fox affiliate offered up the ALCS game between Cleveland and Boston, but even that was marred by weather graphics that obscured the game graphics.
Though Ann would differ with me on this, I still didn't quite "complain." I did, however, switch over to KET to watch a documentary on the Broadway musical. But as each musical was presented, just as the definitive piece of music would come up, "AAANKH, AAANKH, AAANKH - The National Weather Service has issued a heavy rain warning. Find a workbench in your basement, hide under it, and stay there all night - AAANKH, AAANKH, AAANKH."
I complained. Tell me you didn't.
For the record, the discount is now 4%. See you tomorrow night.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Day 3: Otherwise known as Day 1, squared
Wednesday began, as do so many others, at 12 midnight. I had just put down "A Complaint Free World," by Will Bowen. And then I went to sleep. So far, I had made it into the third day of our participatory challenge, knowing that scores, soon to be hundreds, were following my progress in trying to go 21 days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping.
I had failed my readers and myself the day before with a hysterical rant that put an end to more than 24 hours without a complaint. I knew that many were cheering me on and that others were deriving obscene pleasure from my trials.
Our publishing operations were running at full tilt, holiday orders were waiting for attention, and we lost a valued employee and were training a replacement. I planned to pretty much lock myself into the office and churn out some work, thus avoiding any stimuli that might tempt me to complain.
So how tough could it be? The city council was preparing to vote on an insanely flawed plan to draw legislative districts, but it was easy enough to avoid complaining about that. With litigation underway, no unilateral action by the council could have any bearing on the outcome of the lawsuit.
The new hire had proved to be an amazingly quick learner and wouldn't be working this day, anyway. After more than a year, the publishing operations were providing fewer and fewer annoying glitches. What could go wrong?
Ah, grasshopper. I made it to 3 o'clock before complaining. Interestingly, our major supplier made a visit, taking me to lunch at New Albany's finest gustatorium. That same supplier had failed to deliver our shipment today, subjecting all of us to the embarrassment of being unable to deliver promised product. And still, I did not complain. It was an altogether pleasant day with few provocations. I didn't even almost get killed walking to work.
Then my rep gave me some news. It's none of your business, but it involved an old wound, and I complained. Needlessly, but apparently instinctively. The wound has obviously not healed. Later in the evening, while lamenting the demise of another eatery and sharing the quite possibly tremendous news about who might step into the breach at the corner of Bank and Market, I complained again, without intent, but clearly.
For the record, I'm counting each day, not each complaint. So the running tab is two (2) complaint days. Now it gets interesting. Each time I complain, the discount on the book will double. Two more complaints and we reach the over-under number. One patron has locked in the 4.5 complaints discount, demonstrating support for my challenge. At least one other is holding out for the highest discount of 32 percent.
So, we begin again. Day 4 becomes Day 1 to the third power. See you tomorrow night.
I had failed my readers and myself the day before with a hysterical rant that put an end to more than 24 hours without a complaint. I knew that many were cheering me on and that others were deriving obscene pleasure from my trials.
Our publishing operations were running at full tilt, holiday orders were waiting for attention, and we lost a valued employee and were training a replacement. I planned to pretty much lock myself into the office and churn out some work, thus avoiding any stimuli that might tempt me to complain.
So how tough could it be? The city council was preparing to vote on an insanely flawed plan to draw legislative districts, but it was easy enough to avoid complaining about that. With litigation underway, no unilateral action by the council could have any bearing on the outcome of the lawsuit.
The new hire had proved to be an amazingly quick learner and wouldn't be working this day, anyway. After more than a year, the publishing operations were providing fewer and fewer annoying glitches. What could go wrong?
Ah, grasshopper. I made it to 3 o'clock before complaining. Interestingly, our major supplier made a visit, taking me to lunch at New Albany's finest gustatorium. That same supplier had failed to deliver our shipment today, subjecting all of us to the embarrassment of being unable to deliver promised product. And still, I did not complain. It was an altogether pleasant day with few provocations. I didn't even almost get killed walking to work.
Then my rep gave me some news. It's none of your business, but it involved an old wound, and I complained. Needlessly, but apparently instinctively. The wound has obviously not healed. Later in the evening, while lamenting the demise of another eatery and sharing the quite possibly tremendous news about who might step into the breach at the corner of Bank and Market, I complained again, without intent, but clearly.
For the record, I'm counting each day, not each complaint. So the running tab is two (2) complaint days. Now it gets interesting. Each time I complain, the discount on the book will double. Two more complaints and we reach the over-under number. One patron has locked in the 4.5 complaints discount, demonstrating support for my challenge. At least one other is holding out for the highest discount of 32 percent.
So, we begin again. Day 4 becomes Day 1 to the third power. See you tomorrow night.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Day 2: Impediments
Let's quote the author of "A Complaint Free World," Will Bowen.
"I found that I could do very well around some people but not so well around others. Sadly, I realized that my relationships with some people I considered good friends centered on expressing our dissatisfaction with whatever we were talking about. I began to avoid them. I felt guilty at first, but I noticed that my bracelet stayed put. More important, I found myself beginning to feel happier."
Early on Day 1, I received a call from a friend. Quite honestly, a major and usually enjoyable part of our relationship involves complaining, criticizing, and gossiping. Our complaints, criticisms, and gossip are exchanged with good motives and intentions to seek improvement in our community. And while I do not expect to be avoiding old friends and acquaintances, I will admit that I couldn't have picked a worse time to embark on this experiment.
I am keenly interested in how our government serves us. I have definite ideas about how other institutions serve or disserve our community. I'm confident, inquisitive, and persistent. I express my opinions and use facts to persuade others. If one is displeased about something and feels they have something to offer, it's natural to complain or criticize. Doing so does not mean that no solutions are being offered.
But while being "natural" has its benefits, it conflicts with the experiment. How, I ask, do things improve if no one ever expresses dissatisfaction? How do people with similar interests exchange information, rightly believed, without it turning into gossip?
And with an election pending, is it possible to advocate and hope for change without criticizing or complaining?
So, how'd I do on Tuesday?
I didn't make it. Tomorrow becomes Day 1 (again) as I once more try to go 21 days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping.
Suffice it to say that I was severely provoked while subjecting myself to an "unhealthy" environment. My downfall started when a whopping lie was told to a room full of merchants gathered to have a post-mortem on the recent Harvest Homecoming debacle. Still, I held out for more than 30 minutes. But when the current president of Develop New Albany started defending the self-appointed HH gestapo, I blew. And I mean big time.
I haven't been so angry in a quarter century, and as disruptive as my rant was, I at least had the courtesy to remove myself rapidly.
So, off we go. Tomorrow, we try again with Day 1.
Thanks to all who have been supportive and equally sincere thanks to those who a getting their kicks seeing their predictions that I couldn't do it come true.
"I found that I could do very well around some people but not so well around others. Sadly, I realized that my relationships with some people I considered good friends centered on expressing our dissatisfaction with whatever we were talking about. I began to avoid them. I felt guilty at first, but I noticed that my bracelet stayed put. More important, I found myself beginning to feel happier."
Early on Day 1, I received a call from a friend. Quite honestly, a major and usually enjoyable part of our relationship involves complaining, criticizing, and gossiping. Our complaints, criticisms, and gossip are exchanged with good motives and intentions to seek improvement in our community. And while I do not expect to be avoiding old friends and acquaintances, I will admit that I couldn't have picked a worse time to embark on this experiment.
I am keenly interested in how our government serves us. I have definite ideas about how other institutions serve or disserve our community. I'm confident, inquisitive, and persistent. I express my opinions and use facts to persuade others. If one is displeased about something and feels they have something to offer, it's natural to complain or criticize. Doing so does not mean that no solutions are being offered.
But while being "natural" has its benefits, it conflicts with the experiment. How, I ask, do things improve if no one ever expresses dissatisfaction? How do people with similar interests exchange information, rightly believed, without it turning into gossip?
And with an election pending, is it possible to advocate and hope for change without criticizing or complaining?
So, how'd I do on Tuesday?
I didn't make it. Tomorrow becomes Day 1 (again) as I once more try to go 21 days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping.
Suffice it to say that I was severely provoked while subjecting myself to an "unhealthy" environment. My downfall started when a whopping lie was told to a room full of merchants gathered to have a post-mortem on the recent Harvest Homecoming debacle. Still, I held out for more than 30 minutes. But when the current president of Develop New Albany started defending the self-appointed HH gestapo, I blew. And I mean big time.
I haven't been so angry in a quarter century, and as disruptive as my rant was, I at least had the courtesy to remove myself rapidly.
So, off we go. Tomorrow, we try again with Day 1.
Thanks to all who have been supportive and equally sincere thanks to those who a getting their kicks seeing their predictions that I couldn't do it come true.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Day 1: A Complaint-Free Day?
Writing a blog entry that accurately reports what happened during the day could be construed by a strict referee as "complaining." So I'll be extremely careful to give you the full flavor of the day's events, but I won't be "complaining."
I'm invoking the free speech rule and the no-intent rule. In reporting to you, I have no intent to complain.
To be sure, it is the unintentional complaint that will get you every time. Part of the experiment is to monitor how often you inadvertently find yourself in complaint mode. Simply putting a stop to the "vertent" ones ought to be simpler. But if your instinct is to complain, it's hard to know when your resolve will falter.
I had expected to be on guard all day, measuring my responses to every stimulus in order to avoid complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. In fact, much time passed during this first day where I didn't even think about the experiment. To me, that constitutes a dangerous risk. From everything I've read, this is not supposed to be easy. After one week, Will Bowen, the man who started this experiment in the summer of 2006 (and a man who pastors a church) had been unable to get his personal best down to fewer than five complaints a day. At that point, he was averaging 12 complaints a day, and it took him until September of 2006 to successfully complete 21 straight days without complaining.
It seems that ignorance breeds confidence. If you knew how hard it would be to master a new skill, whether it be skiing, yodeling, or stopping the complaining in your life, you might not even try.
It seems that I'm "supposed" to catch myself complaining multiple times each day. Day 1, then, would be measured as an anomaly if I'm doing this thing right.
So, here's the report:
At five this morning, the next door neighbor with the oversize diesel truck fires it up and revs it outside our open window...no complaint.
At nine, while stepping across Silver Street, a car came racing through the intersection without even slowing down at the flashing red light, coming very close to putting an end to the experiment forever...no complaint, although the cars all around me registered their displeasure by leaning on their horns.
At ten, the manager of one of the city's political campaigns asked me "How's business?" I responded, "Slow." I then explained to him the experiment we are conducting and asked him if that sounded like a complaint. "Of course not," he said. "You were just answering a question."
By noon, I had been asked about how satisfied with the subscription fruit and vegetable, community supported agriculture, family farm program we are nearing the end of. I told my interrogator that the Web site was not the program's strong point, in that they often don't update the "menu" of produce each week until it's too late to plan a home menu, but then the questioner was explicity asking me the details of how it works. This questioner is a foodie who knew that this was Day 1, so I asked her to keep me honest by asking "Was that a complaint?" She assured me it wasn't.
By one, I discovered that one of my suppliers had failed to deliver some urgently needed books. For this supplier, this happens often enough that I didn't even consider voicing a complaint.
At 3:30, my newest employee's mom called to inform me that her daughter would be late for her first day at work...again, no complaint.
To be sure, I did have a few close calls where we had to go to the replay for a mandatory review. I scolded myself three times during the day for being fumble-fingered on the keyboard. One rather light-hearted "damn," one whispered "fudge," and one soft-breathed traditional Anglo-Saxon curse word that can be quite offensive when used in anger. But they weren't used in anger and they were directed at my own clumsiness.
And finally, near the end of the day, while sharing the events of the day with my spouse, I told her that conducting training can be harder than it looks, that it can be exhausting. Although she assured me that this did not qualify as a complaint, it doesn't matter, because she had left the building and never even heard me say those words.
I avoided complaining several times where I might normally have done so. Whenever there was a doubt, I asked someone within earshot whether what I said was a complaint or sounded like one and always received a response of "no."
Signing off at 9 p.m.
Tuesday: The Gimmick
Keep those comments coming. Help me make it through Day 2. And if you're in the store or see me on the street, feel free to check on my progress.
I'm invoking the free speech rule and the no-intent rule. In reporting to you, I have no intent to complain.
To be sure, it is the unintentional complaint that will get you every time. Part of the experiment is to monitor how often you inadvertently find yourself in complaint mode. Simply putting a stop to the "vertent" ones ought to be simpler. But if your instinct is to complain, it's hard to know when your resolve will falter.
I had expected to be on guard all day, measuring my responses to every stimulus in order to avoid complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. In fact, much time passed during this first day where I didn't even think about the experiment. To me, that constitutes a dangerous risk. From everything I've read, this is not supposed to be easy. After one week, Will Bowen, the man who started this experiment in the summer of 2006 (and a man who pastors a church) had been unable to get his personal best down to fewer than five complaints a day. At that point, he was averaging 12 complaints a day, and it took him until September of 2006 to successfully complete 21 straight days without complaining.
It seems that ignorance breeds confidence. If you knew how hard it would be to master a new skill, whether it be skiing, yodeling, or stopping the complaining in your life, you might not even try.
It seems that I'm "supposed" to catch myself complaining multiple times each day. Day 1, then, would be measured as an anomaly if I'm doing this thing right.
So, here's the report:
At five this morning, the next door neighbor with the oversize diesel truck fires it up and revs it outside our open window...no complaint.
At nine, while stepping across Silver Street, a car came racing through the intersection without even slowing down at the flashing red light, coming very close to putting an end to the experiment forever...no complaint, although the cars all around me registered their displeasure by leaning on their horns.
At ten, the manager of one of the city's political campaigns asked me "How's business?" I responded, "Slow." I then explained to him the experiment we are conducting and asked him if that sounded like a complaint. "Of course not," he said. "You were just answering a question."
By noon, I had been asked about how satisfied with the subscription fruit and vegetable, community supported agriculture, family farm program we are nearing the end of. I told my interrogator that the Web site was not the program's strong point, in that they often don't update the "menu" of produce each week until it's too late to plan a home menu, but then the questioner was explicity asking me the details of how it works. This questioner is a foodie who knew that this was Day 1, so I asked her to keep me honest by asking "Was that a complaint?" She assured me it wasn't.
By one, I discovered that one of my suppliers had failed to deliver some urgently needed books. For this supplier, this happens often enough that I didn't even consider voicing a complaint.
At 3:30, my newest employee's mom called to inform me that her daughter would be late for her first day at work...again, no complaint.
To be sure, I did have a few close calls where we had to go to the replay for a mandatory review. I scolded myself three times during the day for being fumble-fingered on the keyboard. One rather light-hearted "damn," one whispered "fudge," and one soft-breathed traditional Anglo-Saxon curse word that can be quite offensive when used in anger. But they weren't used in anger and they were directed at my own clumsiness.
And finally, near the end of the day, while sharing the events of the day with my spouse, I told her that conducting training can be harder than it looks, that it can be exhausting. Although she assured me that this did not qualify as a complaint, it doesn't matter, because she had left the building and never even heard me say those words.
I avoided complaining several times where I might normally have done so. Whenever there was a doubt, I asked someone within earshot whether what I said was a complaint or sounded like one and always received a response of "no."
Signing off at 9 p.m.
Tuesday: The Gimmick
Keep those comments coming. Help me make it through Day 2. And if you're in the store or see me on the street, feel free to check on my progress.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Step Right Up, Place Your Bets!
Please join me as I embark on an adventure. I'll be "blogging" daily as I progress through a regimen suggested by the book "A Complaint Free World."
As titles go, that's pretty idealistic, but if you want to test reality, read the subtitle: "How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted: Take the 21-day Challenge."
Those of you who know me well understand that for me to stop complaining is to take away a big part of who I am. As some critics of the book insist (and I find myself agreeing with them as I begin this journey), it might well be immoral to stop complaining.
Nonetheless, starting Monday night, I'm going to begin reading the book (by Will Bower) and putting into practice its thesis. Not knowing all the details of the program, I'll be flying blind at first, but here is what I'm going to do:
Beginning when the alarm goes off Monday, I will refuse to complain. Given that I am seldom alone, I'll be counting on those around me, including our patrons, to keep me honest. If, while in the presence of another person, I issue a complaint of any sort, I will report it here.
Exempted will be any complaints I make while alone, unless I later discover that the program requires me not to do that, either. Also exempt will be reports of complaints I was tempted to make. If I don't tell you where "not complaining" was tough to do (not do?), it won't be interesting now, will it?
To make it interesting, I'm offering a betting pool tied to the price of the book. If and when I break and make my first complaint, I'll offer readers a 1% discount on the book. Upon my second complaint, I'll double that to 2%. Here's where it will begin to get interesting.
Every complaint that follows will see the discount double - to 4%, then 8%, then 16%, and then 32% off the cover price of $16.95. If my number of complaints exceeds that, I will have failed - in my mission and as a businessman, and we'll stop the pool.
If you don't like to gamble, then we're offering a flat 12% discount to blog readers. You can take that discount now. If you think I'm going to fail more than 4 times, you'll pass up the open discount and hold out for the 16% or 32% levels.
The 12% discount is in place for one week (until close of business on Sunday, Oct. 21) or until I make my fourth complaint.
Can I do it? We'll see. I'm told there is a theory that if you can "break" a habit for 21 consecutive days, you can break it forever. I don't know if I believe it, but I do have enough faith in the try itself that I believe it will make me a better person.
See you here on Monday. Think I can make it until then without complaining?
I invite you to post your prediction of the over/under. The 12% wager is an over/under bet of 4.5. If you think I'll wimp out and complain more than 4 times in the next 21 days, then hold out. If you think I can make it, you'd better grab the 12% now.
Please add your comments as we go along. The 21-day countdown starts...NOW!
As titles go, that's pretty idealistic, but if you want to test reality, read the subtitle: "How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted: Take the 21-day Challenge."
Those of you who know me well understand that for me to stop complaining is to take away a big part of who I am. As some critics of the book insist (and I find myself agreeing with them as I begin this journey), it might well be immoral to stop complaining.
Nonetheless, starting Monday night, I'm going to begin reading the book (by Will Bower) and putting into practice its thesis. Not knowing all the details of the program, I'll be flying blind at first, but here is what I'm going to do:
Beginning when the alarm goes off Monday, I will refuse to complain. Given that I am seldom alone, I'll be counting on those around me, including our patrons, to keep me honest. If, while in the presence of another person, I issue a complaint of any sort, I will report it here.
Exempted will be any complaints I make while alone, unless I later discover that the program requires me not to do that, either. Also exempt will be reports of complaints I was tempted to make. If I don't tell you where "not complaining" was tough to do (not do?), it won't be interesting now, will it?
To make it interesting, I'm offering a betting pool tied to the price of the book. If and when I break and make my first complaint, I'll offer readers a 1% discount on the book. Upon my second complaint, I'll double that to 2%. Here's where it will begin to get interesting.
Every complaint that follows will see the discount double - to 4%, then 8%, then 16%, and then 32% off the cover price of $16.95. If my number of complaints exceeds that, I will have failed - in my mission and as a businessman, and we'll stop the pool.
If you don't like to gamble, then we're offering a flat 12% discount to blog readers. You can take that discount now. If you think I'm going to fail more than 4 times, you'll pass up the open discount and hold out for the 16% or 32% levels.
The 12% discount is in place for one week (until close of business on Sunday, Oct. 21) or until I make my fourth complaint.
Can I do it? We'll see. I'm told there is a theory that if you can "break" a habit for 21 consecutive days, you can break it forever. I don't know if I believe it, but I do have enough faith in the try itself that I believe it will make me a better person.
See you here on Monday. Think I can make it until then without complaining?
I invite you to post your prediction of the over/under. The 12% wager is an over/under bet of 4.5. If you think I'll wimp out and complain more than 4 times in the next 21 days, then hold out. If you think I can make it, you'd better grab the 12% now.
Please add your comments as we go along. The 21-day countdown starts...NOW!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
A Comeback?
Got a complaint? Well, this just might be the place you'll want to visit over the next three weeks.
And yes, I have a book I want you to buy. After all, that's how I feed myself, not to mention how I pay for this Internet connection.
Details to follow...
And yes, I have a book I want you to buy. After all, that's how I feed myself, not to mention how I pay for this Internet connection.
Details to follow...
Thursday, September 6, 2007
What Book Are You?
I had promised to try to blog more often, even if it is only a quick hit. In the spirit of traditional blogs that link to interesting sites, check this one out. My fellow booksellers in the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance are having a ball with it. As for myself, I don't see how they have the time to swap e-mails about it.
To find out what book YOU are, take this quiz. If you've read it, write us to tell us why it's a good fit (or not). If you haven't, don't you think you owe it to yourself to read it?
To find out what book YOU are, take this quiz. If you've read it, write us to tell us why it's a good fit (or not). If you haven't, don't you think you owe it to yourself to read it?
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
We Hope to Do This Every Year
Each year, San Jose State University conducts a competition for the Bulwer-Lytton Prize for the most turgid writing submission. The winner submitted this:
Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them "permanently" meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee.
Read more at this Web site.
There, you'll find dozens of atrocious entries. Yours truly earned dishonorable mention in the years preceding my relocation to festive, clean, and just New Albany, Indiana.
Obscure footnote: We won!
Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them "permanently" meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee.
Read more at this Web site.
There, you'll find dozens of atrocious entries. Yours truly earned dishonorable mention in the years preceding my relocation to festive, clean, and just New Albany, Indiana.
Obscure footnote: We won!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Tribune Columnist Tops Harry Potter
The overwhelming cultural phenomenon and international bestseller “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” author J.K. Rowling’s final installment in the wizard school series, sold well, but not well enough to place it at the top of a local bestsellers list, released today.Destinations Booksellers, New Albany’s full-service independent general bookstore for new books, released its Top 25 bestsellers list and Tribune columnist Terry Cummins heads the list with his collection of essays, “How Did Back Then Become Right Now?”
The list covers books sold at the store at 604 E. Spring St. during the twelve months ending July 31.
Local residents who publish with a number of different publishers are well-represented on the list. Cummins’ book, consisting primarily of previously published columns that appeared in The Tribune, is published by New Albany’s Flood Crest Press. The micropublisher placeed seven titles from local authors in the top 15.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” published in the U.S. by Scholastic Press, did take the second spot on the list, followed by “New Albany: Images of America,” a local pictorial history from Arcadia Publishing by local author Gregg Seidl.
A photographic calendar of iconic Southern Indiana scenes, “Southern Indiana 2007 Calendar,” with photos and design by Audra and Chuck Skibo, earned the fourth spot on the list. “New Albany in Vintage Postcards” took the fifth spot on the 2007 list. Written by David C. Barksdale and Robyn D. Sekula, the Arcadia Publishing title is the store’s all-time bestselling book.
The entire top 25 list is available at the store’s Web site, destinationsbooksellers.com.
Besides the Potter title, the top national title on the list is Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,” at number 11.
Other titles by local authors on the list include “Skimming the Cream” by C.R. Reagan, who also writes regularly for The Tribune; “It Comes in the Night” by Calvin Lewis Jr. and Susan L. Wilhite; “The Great Flood of 1937” by Rick Bell; “The Governors of Indiana” by IU Southeast professors Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair; “Sharks Never Sleep” by Sheri L. Wright; and “Veritas de Temporis” by F.E. Adkins.
Also on the list from local authors are: “At the Crest,” a collection of poetry and short stories from local secondary school students; “Lighten Up, Will Ya? I’m Serious” by Joe Bosco; “Phantoms of Old Louisville” by David Domine; “Mommy, is God a Super Hero” by Bev Lozier Jackson; “Jeffersonville: Images of America” by Garry J. Nokes; “The Underground Railroad in Floyd County, Indiana” by Pamela R. Peters; and “The Devil’s Temptation” by Kimberly Logan.
To see the list, go to www.destinationsbooksellers.com and click on the "Features" tab.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Southern Indiana Votes With Its Feet
Those of us dedicated to the revitalization of Downtown know the drill. Sentimental attachment to concepts like smart growth, independent businesses that keep their investments and their profits in the community, businesses who support community instititutions because it is their community, are not always borne out by consumer behavior.
We aren't, however, in business as a public service. We don't concede that we are inconsequential niche businesses catering to a strictly bohemian clientele. We earnestly believe, and today few rational people argue the point, that any community that chooses to hollow itself out like a donut by turning away from a central core (downtown) where money has already been invested is making a foolish, shortsighted choice.
Destinations Booksellers is here to stay.
According to Nielsen Bookscan, traditional bookstores in the Louisville metro region sold some 17,000 copies of the final installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Southern Indiana, by population, represents about one-sixth of the region. We're getting reports that the average Wal-Mart sold 200 copies or so. Assume that Sam's Club, Target, Kroger, Meijer, and perhaps a few more chain retailers matched those sales at each of their SI locations.
Amazon sold about 1/4 of all copies during that first weekend (why? I have no idea!) where 8.2 million copies moved. Non-bookstores sold another 1.5 million.
One would think, then, that as the only independent full-service general bookstore in Southern Indiana, Destinations Booksellers would have sold about 1,000 copies. Price would not have been determinative, as our store had a price lower than any I've heard of. The allure of a party couldn't have been determinative. We are told that our two Harry Potter parties were surpassingly good, and they were free. Finally, those who absolutely had to have the book at midnight found (and this was true across the country at independent booksellers) that distribution involved no long lines. Our guests had all their books within seven minutes.
Destinations Booksellers sold 200 copies of Harry Potter that first weekend. I can only conclude one of two things. The first is that even after three years the residents of Southern Indiana are not aware that New Albany has a bookstore, and a good one. If that's the case, you can do something about that. Tell everyone you know why you rely on us to provide you everything a bookstore can.
The second one is far more troubling. It constitutes a referendum. 57 years without an independent bookseller has ingrained some bad habits and it seems that our neighbors have cast their vote to this question: Is it important for a community to have a full-service independent bookseller? The returns say that so far the answer from most is "No."
Thanks to all of you who have voted yes. I believe the realities will hit home in the near future. Advocacy for urbanized living, rational transportation policies, and other quality-of-life issues will dictate more localism. But most of all, it will be our continued service and improvement on delivery of that service that will ensure that our region will never again be underserved.
Sorry for the dearth of postings lately. This is the busiest time and ol' Harry did nothing to make it easier. I'm going to try to set aside a specific half-hour for posting each day, even if it's a quick hit observation. I'm still reading, gobbling up books at the pace of 2 to 3 a week, and those of you who visit the store haven't suffered. We're still hand-selling and offering recommendations - just not on the Web.
For those of you who subscribe to e-mail notices of new postings, I'm eager to know if you prefer that e-mail to be the complete posting or merely a notification that something new is up. Send an e-mail or post a comment here with your thoughts on that topic, this posting, or any books-related topic.
We aren't, however, in business as a public service. We don't concede that we are inconsequential niche businesses catering to a strictly bohemian clientele. We earnestly believe, and today few rational people argue the point, that any community that chooses to hollow itself out like a donut by turning away from a central core (downtown) where money has already been invested is making a foolish, shortsighted choice.
Destinations Booksellers is here to stay.
According to Nielsen Bookscan, traditional bookstores in the Louisville metro region sold some 17,000 copies of the final installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Southern Indiana, by population, represents about one-sixth of the region. We're getting reports that the average Wal-Mart sold 200 copies or so. Assume that Sam's Club, Target, Kroger, Meijer, and perhaps a few more chain retailers matched those sales at each of their SI locations.
Amazon sold about 1/4 of all copies during that first weekend (why? I have no idea!) where 8.2 million copies moved. Non-bookstores sold another 1.5 million.
One would think, then, that as the only independent full-service general bookstore in Southern Indiana, Destinations Booksellers would have sold about 1,000 copies. Price would not have been determinative, as our store had a price lower than any I've heard of. The allure of a party couldn't have been determinative. We are told that our two Harry Potter parties were surpassingly good, and they were free. Finally, those who absolutely had to have the book at midnight found (and this was true across the country at independent booksellers) that distribution involved no long lines. Our guests had all their books within seven minutes.
Destinations Booksellers sold 200 copies of Harry Potter that first weekend. I can only conclude one of two things. The first is that even after three years the residents of Southern Indiana are not aware that New Albany has a bookstore, and a good one. If that's the case, you can do something about that. Tell everyone you know why you rely on us to provide you everything a bookstore can.
The second one is far more troubling. It constitutes a referendum. 57 years without an independent bookseller has ingrained some bad habits and it seems that our neighbors have cast their vote to this question: Is it important for a community to have a full-service independent bookseller? The returns say that so far the answer from most is "No."
Thanks to all of you who have voted yes. I believe the realities will hit home in the near future. Advocacy for urbanized living, rational transportation policies, and other quality-of-life issues will dictate more localism. But most of all, it will be our continued service and improvement on delivery of that service that will ensure that our region will never again be underserved.
Sorry for the dearth of postings lately. This is the busiest time and ol' Harry did nothing to make it easier. I'm going to try to set aside a specific half-hour for posting each day, even if it's a quick hit observation. I'm still reading, gobbling up books at the pace of 2 to 3 a week, and those of you who visit the store haven't suffered. We're still hand-selling and offering recommendations - just not on the Web.
For those of you who subscribe to e-mail notices of new postings, I'm eager to know if you prefer that e-mail to be the complete posting or merely a notification that something new is up. Send an e-mail or post a comment here with your thoughts on that topic, this posting, or any books-related topic.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
I Like This List!
We're members of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, the regional trade association for independent bricks-and-mortar bookstores. Arguably, SIBA is the strongest of the regional associations and although we are on the fringes of its territory, it is the region we feel closest to.
SIBA just announced the 2007 Book of the Year awards. These will be presented at our annual trade show, this year in Atlanta, Sept. 28-30. FYI, the 2008 show will be in Louisville at the Galt House, and we'll be seeking volunteers to help executive director Wanda Jewell put on the show. As a special treat, at least one other regional association will be meeting concurrently at the Galt House, making next year's show possibly the biggest regional show ever held.
We're prepared to take any of you willing to be trained to serve on our advisory board, so if you're interested in a fall trip to Atlanta to meet the authors and publishers of the year's best books, please give us a call at the store. Each of the award-winners will be on hand for the presentation of the SIBA Book of the Year awards, so that list alone should be enough to encourage you to come with us.
Regional shows are a great opportunity for us to spend time with the authors, including a very special moveable feast where dozens of authors spend ten minutes having lunch with a table full of booksellers. Past shows have featured James Patterson, Tim Dorsey, Jim Webb, Karen Slaughter, Lorraine Dupree, and other top names, but much of the fun is in meeting famous authors BEFORE they become famous. Ann and I obtained the first copy of "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" right out of the box. Even the author, Susanna Clarke, had never seen the book until that moment in Atlanta, and it is one of our treasured books. We'll provide you with the list of authors later as the commitments come in, but I guarantee you'll have a number of memorable encounters and get to see all the great books coming out later this year.
So, here are the winners of the SIBA Book of the Year for 2007*:
Children's book - Alabama Moon by Watt Key (Farrar Straus & Giroux)
Cookbook - I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris (Warner Books)
Poetry - Keep and Give Away by Susan Meyers (Univ. South Carolina Press)
Fiction - Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (Random House)
Nonfiction - Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields (Henry Holt & Co)
I'll let you know that I voted three of those as my picks - the books by Sedaris, Frazier, and Shields - and have previously recommended them on these pages or in our newsletters.
*Each year, hundreds of booksellers across the South vote on their favorite hand-sell books of the year. These are the Southern books they have most enjoyed selling to customers; the ones that they couldn't stop talking about; the ones most often pushed into a customer’s hands with the words “You have got to read this!” The SIBA Book Award was created to recognize great books of Southern origin, as determined by people whose business it is to know great books—the independent booksellers of the South.
Books are nominated in several categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, cooking and children's. For a book to be eligible, it must be set in the South, and it must have been published within the calendar year. In order to promote diversity in the award, no author can win the award in the same category twice. Only SIBA-member booksellers can submit nominations, and only SIBA booksellers can vote on the finalists and winners of the award.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Just a Tease
June will not be a month to miss. In the coming weeks we'll have some exciting news to announce - about events, new books, and a very special piece of news that was confirmed just today. I'll tell you more about these in the coming weeks.
Our Harry Potter 7 plans are coming together and will kick off at 7 p.m on Friday, July 20, at Track Nine and Three-Quarters. Will we find a Horcrux? Will a special spell allow us to experience Hogwarts the way Harry, Hermione, and Ron do?
This weekend we're excited about hosting local author Bev Lozier Jackson, who will introduce her beautiful new children's book Mommy, Is God a Superhere? Bev will be at the store at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 16, to read from and sign her first book. That's the same day our representative to Book Expo America will be coming to town with an armload of goodies. Join us.
And mark your calendar for Thursday, June 28. I can't reveal the details just yet, but what happens that day will be very big for Destinations Booksellers and our patrons.
Finally, if you're just a casual reader of the blog you may have missed the announcement about our e-mail lists. All patrons were unsubscribed from our newsletters and our specialty e-mails as of June 1. If you want to keep up with everything going on in the books world and the store, you need to go to our primary Web site and re-subscribe. With our new program, we have streamlined e-mails for children's interests, new books just in, the blog, and an expanding list of specialty announcements. If you've been missing your news, that's why. Why not click http://www.destinationsbooksellers.com and sign up now?
Our Harry Potter 7 plans are coming together and will kick off at 7 p.m on Friday, July 20, at Track Nine and Three-Quarters. Will we find a Horcrux? Will a special spell allow us to experience Hogwarts the way Harry, Hermione, and Ron do?
This weekend we're excited about hosting local author Bev Lozier Jackson, who will introduce her beautiful new children's book Mommy, Is God a Superhere? Bev will be at the store at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 16, to read from and sign her first book. That's the same day our representative to Book Expo America will be coming to town with an armload of goodies. Join us.
And mark your calendar for Thursday, June 28. I can't reveal the details just yet, but what happens that day will be very big for Destinations Booksellers and our patrons.
Finally, if you're just a casual reader of the blog you may have missed the announcement about our e-mail lists. All patrons were unsubscribed from our newsletters and our specialty e-mails as of June 1. If you want to keep up with everything going on in the books world and the store, you need to go to our primary Web site and re-subscribe. With our new program, we have streamlined e-mails for children's interests, new books just in, the blog, and an expanding list of specialty announcements. If you've been missing your news, that's why. Why not click http://www.destinationsbooksellers.com and sign up now?
Friday, June 8, 2007
A Reader's Delight on Public TV
Those of you closest to Ann and me know our dream of someday helping to bring about something for Southern Indiana along the lines of the U of L Kentucky Author Forum. Kyle Ridout at IU Southeast's Ogle Center has ambitions in that vein, too, and someday we hope to have a regular schedule of top authors here in NA.
Now we just need the endowment that KAF has!
We, and many of you, admire the Kentucky Author Forum programming, whether you enjoy it live or during later broadcasts on public TV.
This Sunday, KET2 will rebroadcast a conversation with the late David Halberstam, with Roger Wilkins serving as the interviewer. They discuss the author's The Children, the five-year chronicle of a group of students who set out to change the world in the early 60s. That's at 10 p.m. on Sunday, June 10.
The following two Sundays will also bring treats. On June 17, the most recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Lawrence Wright will be featured, discussing his book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. He'll be interviewed by CNN's Peter Bergen. And on June 24, Bill McKibben is on tap, discussing one of Ann's favorites, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. As an added treat, Wendell Berry is the interviewer.
Now we just need the endowment that KAF has!
We, and many of you, admire the Kentucky Author Forum programming, whether you enjoy it live or during later broadcasts on public TV.
This Sunday, KET2 will rebroadcast a conversation with the late David Halberstam, with Roger Wilkins serving as the interviewer. They discuss the author's The Children, the five-year chronicle of a group of students who set out to change the world in the early 60s. That's at 10 p.m. on Sunday, June 10.
The following two Sundays will also bring treats. On June 17, the most recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Lawrence Wright will be featured, discussing his book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. He'll be interviewed by CNN's Peter Bergen. And on June 24, Bill McKibben is on tap, discussing one of Ann's favorites, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. As an added treat, Wendell Berry is the interviewer.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Ray Bradbury Disavows Accepted Wisdom
Everybody knows about Fahrenheit 451, right? You know, Ray Bradbury's 1953 classic (also made into a movie) about book-burning, where the "Fire Department" comes out when called to set contraband books on fire?
A couple or three generations now have been indoctrinated about the book as a morality tale warning against government censorship. Well Ol' Ray is here to tell us we were wrong. He once walked out of a seminar at UCLA when the students in the class insisted on telling him what his book was about.
It turns out that Bradbury was writing about the vacuity of television and how it would destroy literature. Don't believe me? Watch Ray say it on video here. He says the culprit isn't the government...it's the people.
By the way, Ray recently declined to attend the presentation of his Pulitzer Prize for Literature, but if you want to read a little, we have Farewell, Summer, his unexpected sequel to Dandelion Wine.
A couple or three generations now have been indoctrinated about the book as a morality tale warning against government censorship. Well Ol' Ray is here to tell us we were wrong. He once walked out of a seminar at UCLA when the students in the class insisted on telling him what his book was about.
It turns out that Bradbury was writing about the vacuity of television and how it would destroy literature. Don't believe me? Watch Ray say it on video here. He says the culprit isn't the government...it's the people.
By the way, Ray recently declined to attend the presentation of his Pulitzer Prize for Literature, but if you want to read a little, we have Farewell, Summer, his unexpected sequel to Dandelion Wine.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Oprah and Literature in the Same Sentence?
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is release day for the 58th book in the Oprah Book Club program and being the good boy that I am I will comply with the embargo requirements laid down in order to get the book before release day.
That said, I have to say that Ms. Winfrey's staff has dramatically ramped up its standards with its last few selections. The current selection is Cormac McCarthy's The Road; no one will deny that McCarthy is an excellent writer and storyteller, and The Road, while typically gruesome, is certainly a book that can capture the imagination of a large cross-section of the 20% of us who admit to reading fiction.
If anything, Oprah's crew has made an even more literary selection for this summer. As is usual, to make the book accessible, the book has been repackaged (slightly) with the "O" sticker on a recognizable quality trade paperback at $15. We'll revise this posting tomorrow morning with a few words about the newest selection...aaand, we're back. Those of you who subscribe to our blog e-mail already know that Ms. O's team selected Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex.
That said, I have to say that Ms. Winfrey's staff has dramatically ramped up its standards with its last few selections. The current selection is Cormac McCarthy's The Road; no one will deny that McCarthy is an excellent writer and storyteller, and The Road, while typically gruesome, is certainly a book that can capture the imagination of a large cross-section of the 20% of us who admit to reading fiction.
If anything, Oprah's crew has made an even more literary selection for this summer. As is usual, to make the book accessible, the book has been repackaged (slightly) with the "O" sticker on a recognizable quality trade paperback at $15. We'll revise this posting tomorrow morning with a few words about the newest selection...aaand, we're back. Those of you who subscribe to our blog e-mail already know that Ms. O's team selected Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex.
The novel captured the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, indicating that it is not a light book, but a rather good book. The next 500,000 sales of it are probably going to be purely on Oprah's recommendation, but this story of three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family is destined to be a classic.
Keeping the Com-Lines Open
I'm sleepy, so I'm going to "cheat" tonight. Instead of writing, I'm reading, and it's reading that, in the end, is designed to make me a better bookseller to you.
Join me in reading Salon magazine's summer reading recommendations. I will tell you this - I'm listening to Dick Estell on NPR's Radio Reader while alternately browsing the Web and reading the first recommended book on Salon's list. I'm halfway through The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber from HarperCollins. It is very, very good...the book Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code) wishes he could write. I just finished reading The Fabric of America, about the way that government and the mapping of boundaries was an essential part of America's frontier expansion. For a history of the U.S. from 1780 to 1850, you'd be hard-pressed to learn more from between the covers of a single book. It synthesizes nuggets from many of my favorite history books over the past few years and provided new insights into the character of the founders.
Read the Salon piece here.
NOTE: Salon is ostensibly a "premium" site. If you have any problems accessing the link, just type in www.salon.com and sit through 15 seconds of advertising to gain a site pass.
Join me in reading Salon magazine's summer reading recommendations. I will tell you this - I'm listening to Dick Estell on NPR's Radio Reader while alternately browsing the Web and reading the first recommended book on Salon's list. I'm halfway through The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber from HarperCollins. It is very, very good...the book Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code) wishes he could write. I just finished reading The Fabric of America, about the way that government and the mapping of boundaries was an essential part of America's frontier expansion. For a history of the U.S. from 1780 to 1850, you'd be hard-pressed to learn more from between the covers of a single book. It synthesizes nuggets from many of my favorite history books over the past few years and provided new insights into the character of the founders.
Read the Salon piece here.
NOTE: Salon is ostensibly a "premium" site. If you have any problems accessing the link, just type in www.salon.com and sit through 15 seconds of advertising to gain a site pass.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Book Focus: Parenting Teens
Tricia Goyer, a minister from Kalispell, Montana, is releasing a book this summer based on what she calls "Life Plotting." It's called My Life, Unscripted, and it may serve you well if you're a parent of a pre-adolescent or teen girl.
From personal experience, Goyer knows the perils of rushing through life without a "script" to work from, and in this book she tries to help parents guide their daughters by "teaching them to have a plan of attack before temptation or hardship come."
Goyer would LOVE to have you write a sample script from your teen years and post it along with information about this book! It could be where you make a good choice ... or a not so good one. Then share brief how God's Word helps you as you script YOUR life!
Feel free to tell your stories, whether you worked from a script or merely "improv-ed" those dramatic, emotional teen years, and we'll pass them on to the author, who will be doing a national "blog tour" this summer.
From personal experience, Goyer knows the perils of rushing through life without a "script" to work from, and in this book she tries to help parents guide their daughters by "teaching them to have a plan of attack before temptation or hardship come."
Goyer would LOVE to have you write a sample script from your teen years and post it along with information about this book! It could be where you make a good choice ... or a not so good one. Then share brief how God's Word helps you as you script YOUR life!
Feel free to tell your stories, whether you worked from a script or merely "improv-ed" those dramatic, emotional teen years, and we'll pass them on to the author, who will be doing a national "blog tour" this summer.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
After Harry, Then What?
It has been a "killer" week, but that's no reason to leave you hanging. Here are some thoughts on what might be the successor to Harry Potter and his pals. By the way, Thursday is your last day to reserve HP and the Deathly Hallows: Year 7 at our special price. The launch party is Friday, July 20, beginning at the store at 9 p.m., with distribution of reserved pre-paid copies at midnight.
POSSIBLE SUCCESSORS
Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series
Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone series (a new one releases tomorrow)
Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series
Joseph Delaney's Last Apprentice books
Suzanne Collins's Underland Chronicles
Janet Lee Carey's Dragon's Keep
The Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Edge Chronicles (now up to eight titles)
Share with us your suggestions of YA fantasy that will do the trick!
POSSIBLE SUCCESSORS
Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series
Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone series (a new one releases tomorrow)
Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series
Joseph Delaney's Last Apprentice books
Suzanne Collins's Underland Chronicles
Janet Lee Carey's Dragon's Keep
The Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Edge Chronicles (now up to eight titles)
Share with us your suggestions of YA fantasy that will do the trick!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Who Will Be First?
Rigidly embargoed until Tuesday, Al Gore's new book, Assault on Reason, is now available. I'll be telling you more about it after I absorb it, but can anyone doubt that Gore has transitioned from run-of-the-mill politician to prophet and high priest of a growing segment of our population?
Here's a mini-review from Talking Points Memo:
Gore even argues that Internet interactivity, just like the back- and-forth at TPM, is reviving something like Revolutionary-era pamphleteering and “committees of correspondence,” strengthening “a meritocracy of ideas” instead of letting conglomerates corner “the marketplace of ideas” by beaming one-way shock imagery at us through our TVs.
Fear almost always trumps reason, Gore explains, and television does it hundreds of times a day to Americans who watch TV for the national average of four and a half hours. Print, at least, makes you think by engaging a different lobe of the brain to interpret its otherwise meaningless symbols. He praises the Internet for restoring reading and writing to millions, if sometimes too instantly and anarchically to make them think as well as they would while sitting down with a good, serious book like his.
Here's a mini-review from Talking Points Memo:
Gore even argues that Internet interactivity, just like the back- and-forth at TPM, is reviving something like Revolutionary-era pamphleteering and “committees of correspondence,” strengthening “a meritocracy of ideas” instead of letting conglomerates corner “the marketplace of ideas” by beaming one-way shock imagery at us through our TVs.
Fear almost always trumps reason, Gore explains, and television does it hundreds of times a day to Americans who watch TV for the national average of four and a half hours. Print, at least, makes you think by engaging a different lobe of the brain to interpret its otherwise meaningless symbols. He praises the Internet for restoring reading and writing to millions, if sometimes too instantly and anarchically to make them think as well as they would while sitting down with a good, serious book like his.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
New Book by Author of The Kite Runner
I've been promising Randy for almost 2 weeks that I would post something about A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and since it came out yesterday I figured I better get busy.
Many of you are already familiar with my reading habits and you are aware that if a book is wildly popular I have probably not read it. Why is that? One reason is that our patrons will usually find out about those books some other way and I am trying to read some of the great books that don't get so much attention so that I can tell you about books you won't hear about anywhere else.
This leads to my confession that I had not read Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner until it was selected as the book for the May meeting of our dining book club. Being in a book club is a great way to catch up on books that you may have missed.
I am glad that I finally got around to reading The Kite Runner. I enjoyed it so much that when I finished it I immediately began reading the advance reader copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns that we had received from the publisher. If you enjoyed Hosseini's first book you won't want to miss this one.
While not a sequel, the author again sets his novel in his native Afghanistan. This story follows the lives of Miriam and Laila, two women from different backgrounds, who are brought together by a shared struggle to survive the volatile events of the last 30 years in a culture where women have few choices and little power over their own lives.
You may have heard the author on NPR this morning, if not, here is a link to the NPR Web site.
Thanks for reading.
Ann
Monday, May 21, 2007
Everybody's Got One
We've often been asked about "best" books lists. Every reader has one, and we're no exceptions. Here is one reader survey of the best books of 2006 - most of which we've sold or are currently selling.
Believer Book Awards from Beleiver Magazine.
Believer Book Awards from Beleiver Magazine.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Books on the Air, Plus a Great Review
I can't always stay up to date with the blog, but that's no reason you shouldn't be able to see what's good. Herewith, a review link...
Eight years have passed between the release of Nathan Englander's widely acclaimed debut collection of stories, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and his first novel, The Ministry of Special Cases. As with any highly anticipated event, the burning question about the novel is, was it worth the wait? The answer is a qualified yes—this accomplished if imperfect work of literary fiction is beautifully written, hard to put down and packs a very subtle, lingering emotional wallop...read more.
If you listened to Bob Edwards this weekend you'll have heard Frank DeFord talk about his new novel, The Entitled. I've read it and I loved it. Bob also talked with actor Bruce Dern (Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have). We have that book, too, in our memoir/biography section.
Eight years have passed between the release of Nathan Englander's widely acclaimed debut collection of stories, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and his first novel, The Ministry of Special Cases. As with any highly anticipated event, the burning question about the novel is, was it worth the wait? The answer is a qualified yes—this accomplished if imperfect work of literary fiction is beautifully written, hard to put down and packs a very subtle, lingering emotional wallop...read more.
If you listened to Bob Edwards this weekend you'll have heard Frank DeFord talk about his new novel, The Entitled. I've read it and I loved it. Bob also talked with actor Bruce Dern (Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have). We have that book, too, in our memoir/biography section.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Blooker Prize: Any Local Contenders?
LONDON - A former U.S. machine gunner’s irreverent memoir about his year fighting in Iraq has won the second annual prize for the best book based on a blog.
“My War: Killing Time in Iraq,” by Colby Buzzell was to receive the $10,000 Blooker prize on Monday, beating out 110 entries from 15 countries...more
“My War: Killing Time in Iraq,” by Colby Buzzell was to receive the $10,000 Blooker prize on Monday, beating out 110 entries from 15 countries...more
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Carnegie Center Garners Prestigious Prize
Outstanding news and congratulations to our friends at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, New Albany's chrysalis-like center for culture. If you haven't been by there lately, pick a day and I'll pay your admission fee! ;)
The Carnegie Center is pleased to announce it is the recipient of a 2007 MUSE Bronze Award in the Teaching and Outreach category. A MUSE award recognizes achievement in museum media, and is conferred by the Media and Technology Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums. Winning entries were expected to demonstrate outstanding achievement in content quality, interface design, functionality, production quality, visual appeal and the user’s experience.
The Carnegie Center’s award was given for its newest permanent exhibit, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad in the Indiana and Kentucky Borderland” which was designed by Solid Light, Inc. of Louisville, KY. It is a unique interactive learning experience, which enhances awareness of the deep political and ideological divisions experienced throughout the Ohio River Valley as a result of slavery. Focusing on local citizens – barbers, ferrymen, ministers, freed people – who risked their lives, welfare and freedom to help runaways, the exhibit illustrates individual acts of resistance in undermining the institution of slavery.
In commenting on the project, the judges noted it is “a beautiful and moving presentation that heightens understanding of a portion of the Underground Railroad. The DVD is very engaging and full of deep, rich content, offering viewers a slightly different perspective to gain new understanding of the complexity of the issue. The technology was user-friendly and enabled the delivery of a powerful narrative. The production quality was very high using photographs, historical documents, drawings, voiceover, and reenactments in an impressive and aesthetically pleasing manner.”
The MUSE Awards competition received nearly 200 applications from a wide variety of museums in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Nick Honeysett, Chair of AAM’s Media & Technology Committee said, “The quality and diversity of entries has been exceptional. The ingenuity and creativity of the people who conceptualize and build these projects never ceases to amaze me.”
Carnegie Center Director Sally Newkirk was on hand to receive the award at the 2007 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 13. She said, “ It is an honor and privilege to accept the award on behalf of all who were involved throughout the development of our exhibit. Competitors for this award represent a Who’s Who in the museum field, and the Carnegie Center has earned its rightful place on this international platform.”
She noted the outstanding financial support from Caesars Foundation of Floyd County, the Carnegie Center for Art & History, Inc., the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library, the U.S. Dept. of Interior National Park Service, Dr. Curt & Pam Peters, Cinergy Foundation, Paul V. Ogle Foundation, James & Phyllis Robinson, National City, Tri Kappa, Nu Chapter, Vectren Foundation, Aebersold Charitable Trust, and numerous individual contributors. She also expressed gratitude to the members of the Advisory Committee for their vision, professional expertise and wise counsel to ensure sensitivity and historical integrity in the telling of this important story.
A regional art gallery and local history museum, the Carnegie Center for Art & History is a department of the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library. It is located at 201 E. Spring Street in downtown New Albany and open Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5:30. Admission is free. Visit the website at www.carnegiecenter.org.
What's the "books hook," you ask? Pam Peters' The Underground Railroad in Floyd County, Indiana was a critical research tool in developing the multi-media exhibit. Pam's book continues to sell well and is a requirement for any Indiana history bookshelf. It recently went to a second printing.
The Carnegie Center is pleased to announce it is the recipient of a 2007 MUSE Bronze Award in the Teaching and Outreach category. A MUSE award recognizes achievement in museum media, and is conferred by the Media and Technology Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums. Winning entries were expected to demonstrate outstanding achievement in content quality, interface design, functionality, production quality, visual appeal and the user’s experience.
The Carnegie Center’s award was given for its newest permanent exhibit, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad in the Indiana and Kentucky Borderland” which was designed by Solid Light, Inc. of Louisville, KY. It is a unique interactive learning experience, which enhances awareness of the deep political and ideological divisions experienced throughout the Ohio River Valley as a result of slavery. Focusing on local citizens – barbers, ferrymen, ministers, freed people – who risked their lives, welfare and freedom to help runaways, the exhibit illustrates individual acts of resistance in undermining the institution of slavery.
In commenting on the project, the judges noted it is “a beautiful and moving presentation that heightens understanding of a portion of the Underground Railroad. The DVD is very engaging and full of deep, rich content, offering viewers a slightly different perspective to gain new understanding of the complexity of the issue. The technology was user-friendly and enabled the delivery of a powerful narrative. The production quality was very high using photographs, historical documents, drawings, voiceover, and reenactments in an impressive and aesthetically pleasing manner.”
The MUSE Awards competition received nearly 200 applications from a wide variety of museums in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Nick Honeysett, Chair of AAM’s Media & Technology Committee said, “The quality and diversity of entries has been exceptional. The ingenuity and creativity of the people who conceptualize and build these projects never ceases to amaze me.”
Carnegie Center Director Sally Newkirk was on hand to receive the award at the 2007 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 13. She said, “ It is an honor and privilege to accept the award on behalf of all who were involved throughout the development of our exhibit. Competitors for this award represent a Who’s Who in the museum field, and the Carnegie Center has earned its rightful place on this international platform.”
She noted the outstanding financial support from Caesars Foundation of Floyd County, the Carnegie Center for Art & History, Inc., the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library, the U.S. Dept. of Interior National Park Service, Dr. Curt & Pam Peters, Cinergy Foundation, Paul V. Ogle Foundation, James & Phyllis Robinson, National City, Tri Kappa, Nu Chapter, Vectren Foundation, Aebersold Charitable Trust, and numerous individual contributors. She also expressed gratitude to the members of the Advisory Committee for their vision, professional expertise and wise counsel to ensure sensitivity and historical integrity in the telling of this important story.
A regional art gallery and local history museum, the Carnegie Center for Art & History is a department of the New Albany/Floyd County Public Library. It is located at 201 E. Spring Street in downtown New Albany and open Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5:30. Admission is free. Visit the website at www.carnegiecenter.org.
What's the "books hook," you ask? Pam Peters' The Underground Railroad in Floyd County, Indiana was a critical research tool in developing the multi-media exhibit. Pam's book continues to sell well and is a requirement for any Indiana history bookshelf. It recently went to a second printing.
Act Locally
You've always gotten a special feeling, a little retail buzz, when you shop at independent, locally owned businesses like, say, Destinations Booksellers. Right?
Well, it wasn't just the hand-picked stock, knowledgeable staff, and welcoming atmosphere. There are cold, hard numbers to back up the buzz.
Locally owned bookstores support the economic health and well-being of a region. The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study revealed that independent bookstores contributed $54 million a year back to the San Francisco area, but chain stores and Internet booksellers contributed $8 million a year back. That's almost seven times as much!
Internet sales do not generate sales tax or jobs for the community. And chain stores don't spend money on services in the community. They retain everything from signs to C.P.A.'s on a national level.
The study also pointed out the difference created by just a 10% shift in customer spending from chain and Internet book retailers to locally owned bookstores. In the San Francisco area, the economy would gain $3.7 million a year from taxes and wages and such, and the shift would create 25 new bookselling jobs.The study, (http://www.civiceconomics.com/SF/) released last week, was commissioned by the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance along with support from the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Association. Civic Economics, the research company, conducted the survey over two years.
Well, it wasn't just the hand-picked stock, knowledgeable staff, and welcoming atmosphere. There are cold, hard numbers to back up the buzz.
Locally owned bookstores support the economic health and well-being of a region. The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study revealed that independent bookstores contributed $54 million a year back to the San Francisco area, but chain stores and Internet booksellers contributed $8 million a year back. That's almost seven times as much!
Internet sales do not generate sales tax or jobs for the community. And chain stores don't spend money on services in the community. They retain everything from signs to C.P.A.'s on a national level.
The study also pointed out the difference created by just a 10% shift in customer spending from chain and Internet book retailers to locally owned bookstores. In the San Francisco area, the economy would gain $3.7 million a year from taxes and wages and such, and the shift would create 25 new bookselling jobs.The study, (http://www.civiceconomics.com/SF/) released last week, was commissioned by the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance along with support from the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Association. Civic Economics, the research company, conducted the survey over two years.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
What is Literature?
edify - To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement.
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.
It is not entertainment. Yes, it may entertain, but to my mind, to be literature, it must edify. It must instruct and clarify. Perhaps it puts into words something that we already knew on a subconscious level. Perhaps it opens a corner of our minds that we were unaware of. And perhaps it introduces an idea, a concept we never considered before.
Narrative fiction can elucidate equally as well as any piece of history, biography, or other nonfiction. After some initial resistance, I succumbed to the allure of Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons, a novel that addresses elements of my own heritage and, at least halfway through the book, concerns in part the Cherokee Removal (you know that as "The Trail of Tears").
My own ancestry includes both Cherokee heritage (a great, great-grandmother) as well as descent from the soldiers tasked to escort the mountain-dwelling nation to Andrew Jackson's proposed refuge west of the Mississippi. My mother's sister wrote a novel about that, in fact, and although by appearance I am clearly Scots-Irish, my mother's clan is clearly discernible as descended from Native American blood.
The protagonist of Frazier's followup to Cold Mountain is also Scots-Irish, but adopted into a Cherokee clan. In Tennessee, and in North Carolina, which once included the Great Valley of Tanasi, Cherokee heritage is today generally claimed with some pride, much as the rest of America now, rightly or wrongly, claims descent from emigrants from the Emerald Isle.
A few days ago I shared with Ann a passage in the current book that was as dense as the prose of Melville, the first great American novelist. But that quickly passed. Thirteen Moons is engrossing, and evidence that it is entertaining and still edifying comes in this passage that speaks volumes: What I wanted to do was slap him down with a bit of wit and words. Grammar and vocabulary as a weapon. But what kind of world would it be if we all took every opportunity presented to us to assault the weak?
May I encourage you to consider that this book, novel and Novel as it is, would be entertaining literature?
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.
It is not entertainment. Yes, it may entertain, but to my mind, to be literature, it must edify. It must instruct and clarify. Perhaps it puts into words something that we already knew on a subconscious level. Perhaps it opens a corner of our minds that we were unaware of. And perhaps it introduces an idea, a concept we never considered before.
Narrative fiction can elucidate equally as well as any piece of history, biography, or other nonfiction. After some initial resistance, I succumbed to the allure of Charles Frazier's Thirteen Moons, a novel that addresses elements of my own heritage and, at least halfway through the book, concerns in part the Cherokee Removal (you know that as "The Trail of Tears").
My own ancestry includes both Cherokee heritage (a great, great-grandmother) as well as descent from the soldiers tasked to escort the mountain-dwelling nation to Andrew Jackson's proposed refuge west of the Mississippi. My mother's sister wrote a novel about that, in fact, and although by appearance I am clearly Scots-Irish, my mother's clan is clearly discernible as descended from Native American blood.
The protagonist of Frazier's followup to Cold Mountain is also Scots-Irish, but adopted into a Cherokee clan. In Tennessee, and in North Carolina, which once included the Great Valley of Tanasi, Cherokee heritage is today generally claimed with some pride, much as the rest of America now, rightly or wrongly, claims descent from emigrants from the Emerald Isle.
A few days ago I shared with Ann a passage in the current book that was as dense as the prose of Melville, the first great American novelist. But that quickly passed. Thirteen Moons is engrossing, and evidence that it is entertaining and still edifying comes in this passage that speaks volumes: What I wanted to do was slap him down with a bit of wit and words. Grammar and vocabulary as a weapon. But what kind of world would it be if we all took every opportunity presented to us to assault the weak?
May I encourage you to consider that this book, novel and Novel as it is, would be entertaining literature?
Thursday, May 10, 2007
A Diversion From Normal
My apologies for the leanness of our books postings lately. Frankly, the stuff we have up now is among the best I can suggest. I do have a couple of notables you need to be aware of, one new, and one so in demand since December that I have only been able to bring in 4 copies since Dec. 9. I'll say more later.
Since I no longer post original commentary on any other blogs, I beg your indulgence today as I pay tribute to a true New Albany downtown pioneer and champion of revitalization.
My friend Rick Carmickle died Thursday. Of the hundreds of people I've met in Southern Indiana over the past 3 years, Rick was among my closest friends. He kick-started the downtown merchants association. He offered himself for public service in elected office. But most of all, he believed in New Albany and was damned if he was going to let anybody see it die.
Carmickle's Photography was the epitome of a service business with integrity. Rick bristled, of course, if anyone challenged his integrity, but he always made sure his clients were happy. Along with his wife Karen, Rick fought the good fight to build a business, knowing that his faith in a resurgent NA downtown would someday be rewarded.
Selfless to a fault, Rick could not abide insincerity and though he was no shrinking violet when it came to calling a pile of manure horseshit, no one will tell you he didn't have faith in his hometown.
Rick was distinct from many of my friends. His acceptance was unalloyed. There was no artifice in him. You always knew how Rick felt about things. I was fortunate to spend a few moments with his wife on Wednesday, and though I felt a frisson when reminded that he was scheduled for surgery (sinuses) today, I was poleaxed when another friend called tonight with the news of Rick's passing.
My friend joined with me and another local businessman recently to help the NA-FC Public Library preserve an important piece of local documentary history. Access to local history will be enhanced by his efforts (offered up at no charge) and his generosity will allow for the preservation of an important document while making it available for researchers.
If you didn't know Rick, your experience on this earth is impoverished. I consider myself blessed to have called him my friend. Our love goes out to Karen and all of those who cherished Rick during the brief time he shared with us.
Since I no longer post original commentary on any other blogs, I beg your indulgence today as I pay tribute to a true New Albany downtown pioneer and champion of revitalization.
My friend Rick Carmickle died Thursday. Of the hundreds of people I've met in Southern Indiana over the past 3 years, Rick was among my closest friends. He kick-started the downtown merchants association. He offered himself for public service in elected office. But most of all, he believed in New Albany and was damned if he was going to let anybody see it die.
Carmickle's Photography was the epitome of a service business with integrity. Rick bristled, of course, if anyone challenged his integrity, but he always made sure his clients were happy. Along with his wife Karen, Rick fought the good fight to build a business, knowing that his faith in a resurgent NA downtown would someday be rewarded.
Selfless to a fault, Rick could not abide insincerity and though he was no shrinking violet when it came to calling a pile of manure horseshit, no one will tell you he didn't have faith in his hometown.
Rick was distinct from many of my friends. His acceptance was unalloyed. There was no artifice in him. You always knew how Rick felt about things. I was fortunate to spend a few moments with his wife on Wednesday, and though I felt a frisson when reminded that he was scheduled for surgery (sinuses) today, I was poleaxed when another friend called tonight with the news of Rick's passing.
My friend joined with me and another local businessman recently to help the NA-FC Public Library preserve an important piece of local documentary history. Access to local history will be enhanced by his efforts (offered up at no charge) and his generosity will allow for the preservation of an important document while making it available for researchers.
If you didn't know Rick, your experience on this earth is impoverished. I consider myself blessed to have called him my friend. Our love goes out to Karen and all of those who cherished Rick during the brief time he shared with us.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Lincoln Lives
A loyal reader just alerted me to good news regarding "Young Abe Lincoln," the outdoor musical near Santa Claus, Ind. that is fondly mentioned in Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America. You can read our review here, and read (for a limited time) how the Indiana legislature has restored funding for the drama here.
More patrons are enjoying this book every day.
More patrons are enjoying this book every day.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Kids' Thursday: The Edge Chronicles
Millions of dollars are spent in the promotion of books and yet hundreds of great books come out each year that barely penetrate your consciousness. Topical nonfiction pervades the news, and an occasional fiction will become a water cooler subject, but kids books have it tougher. As much as the adult world coalesces around single books, often for inexplicable reasons that have little to do with quality, in the world of children's books the concentration is intense.If, as someone said, books are a conspiracy of smart people, it's even more important that we teach our children to explore the world of books. A homogenized reading list based on what everyone else is reading can stunt their growth.
Whatever the merits of a certain boy about to graduate from a school for wizards, there is a lot more out there. Last year (and this year) I was privileged to read to Scott Burch's 5th Grade class a Mt. Tabor Elementary School during their annual read-in. Parents and community leaders come in to read their favorites to the children in an all-day celebration of reading and story-telling. Finding myself in the room with judges, school board members, an ex-congressman, and the U of L Cardinal doesn't make me a community leader, but I was proud to be there.
Last year I introduced Mr. Burch's class to The Edge Chronicles. From Beyond the Deep Woods (Book 1) to The Winter Knights, the eighth and latest in the series, we together discovered a fantasy series and an imaginary world that, by consensus, surpassess Harry and his pals, and even Lemony Snicket. Truly, this is a gem of a series, stocked and ready for summer reading. And it really has no top end. A really bright 3rd-grader might be able to read it, 5th grade is probably the target demographic, and teens and adults won't begin to be bored.
Rather than try to tell the story of this mysterious world, I invite you to visit the Web site for The Edge Chronicles, the world created by Brits Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell for David Fickling Books and Random House. Enjoy
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
My Favorite New Word? Locavore!
Barbara Kingsolver, as a novelist, is an acquired taste. But as a writer of nonfiction, she is practically without peer. When Ann and I, no particular fans of the author of The Poisonwood Bible and many other bestselling fiction books, first heard about the year and the book she had planned, we were intrigued. Fortunate enough to be able to read the book a few months ago, we grew excited, even trying to book Kingsolver for a visit to New Albany.
Alas, the visit won't be happening any time soon, but the book released on Tuesday, and we've stocked up on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. If you thought Omnivore's Dilemma or Twinkie, Deconstructed gave you insight into the food we eat, your mouth will water at this chronicle of a year living off the land. The Kingsolvers (her husband Steven L. Hopp, and her daughter Camille Kingsolver are coauthors) make "a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet."
The family swore off "the industrial-food pipeline," exchanging it for a one-year spiritual and journalistic vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, or by themselves at their newly purchased farm in the Shenandoah Valley, or do without. With great humor, they regale us with stories of turkey sex, overzealous zucchini, and an admirable food culture that nourishes community.
As much as possible, Ann and I are trying to modify our diets to support sustainable, diversified local farms. The infrastructure isn't in place yet, and we will NOT be moving to a farm, but we're dedicated to doing all we can to see to it that our food comes from somewhere we can visit. It's good for us and it's a boon to the environment and our local society.
We invite you to enjoy this roadmap. It's no dry recital. It's not a preachment to guilt you into eating better. It is an honest portrayal of one family's investigation of what our future will require.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, et al
ISBN 9780060852550 HarperCollins (Hardcover) 363 pp. $26.95
Bonus Recipe:
Cucumber Yogurt Soup
8 small-medium cucumbers, peeled and chopped
3 cups water
3 cups plain yogurt
2 tablespoons dill
1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice (optional)
1 cup nasturtium leaves and petals (optional)
Combine ingredients in food processor until smooth, chill before serving. Garnish with nasturtium flowers.
Alas, the visit won't be happening any time soon, but the book released on Tuesday, and we've stocked up on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. If you thought Omnivore's Dilemma or Twinkie, Deconstructed gave you insight into the food we eat, your mouth will water at this chronicle of a year living off the land. The Kingsolvers (her husband Steven L. Hopp, and her daughter Camille Kingsolver are coauthors) make "a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet."
The family swore off "the industrial-food pipeline," exchanging it for a one-year spiritual and journalistic vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, or by themselves at their newly purchased farm in the Shenandoah Valley, or do without. With great humor, they regale us with stories of turkey sex, overzealous zucchini, and an admirable food culture that nourishes community.
As much as possible, Ann and I are trying to modify our diets to support sustainable, diversified local farms. The infrastructure isn't in place yet, and we will NOT be moving to a farm, but we're dedicated to doing all we can to see to it that our food comes from somewhere we can visit. It's good for us and it's a boon to the environment and our local society.We invite you to enjoy this roadmap. It's no dry recital. It's not a preachment to guilt you into eating better. It is an honest portrayal of one family's investigation of what our future will require.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, et al
ISBN 9780060852550 HarperCollins (Hardcover) 363 pp. $26.95
Bonus Recipe:
Cucumber Yogurt Soup
8 small-medium cucumbers, peeled and chopped
3 cups water
3 cups plain yogurt
2 tablespoons dill
1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice (optional)
1 cup nasturtium leaves and petals (optional)
Combine ingredients in food processor until smooth, chill before serving. Garnish with nasturtium flowers.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Blessed By the Best
I never do this, but last week I used the phrase "the best book in the store." I take very seriously my recommendations to you, whether on this blog or while handselling in the store. We expect to be here for at least another two decades and if my recommendations become suspect for any reason, it won't be good -- for you or for our bottom line.
When a book I believe will be incredibly hot also draws a rave from me or Ann, it's a blessing for us all. With Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day, not to mention graduation on the horizon, many more patrons will be coming to us for recommendations. Particularly for Fathers' Day, we're loaded with can't miss titles. But I digress.
Last week I promoted (in-store) without reservation Andrew Ferguson's Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America, from Atlantic Monthly Press. I am far from a Lincoln buff. Where I come from, we're much more realistic in our appreciation of what he accomplished in keeping the Union together no matter what measures it took. But here in Indiana, it's a given that Ole Abe was the best president there ever was or ever will be.
Ferguson went through a childhood fervor for the Railsplitter, but as time passed, Lincolniana became, for him, passe. With great affection, but no small amount of humor, he rekindled that passion in researching this book. I can say that of all the new releases, this is the best book in the store. Lincoln is adored and scorned and every year brings out a new debate about the man and his importance to our modern world. But this book captures our Abesession in a way no history could.
From memorabilia collectors (first-degree items include reliquary-like artifacts like hair, with rumors of teeth and bone) to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans (who are better-armed than most when they argue that most of Lincoln's actions were extra-constitutional), the Weekly Standard editor captures the unique fascination we have with the 16th president.
How many of you ever attended the outdoor musical drama Young Abe Lincoln at Santa Claus, Ind.? Ferguson attended what appears to have been the final performance just a few months ago, revisiting the town after having joined a national convention of Lincoln (and Mary Todd) impersonators.
That's in the latter half of the book, when the author grabs up his family, including two teenagers, and follows the Lincoln Heritage Trail from Illinois to Kentucky, backtracking through Lincoln's life to end the book at the legendary birthplace of Honest Abe. Did you know that the LHT is 960 miles long, that each of the three states (Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky) have exactly 320 miles of highway devoted to Lincoln? Of course, the Indiana sites include, for some reason, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and with the Lincoln Bicentennial fast approaching the trail is only intermittently marked. Vandals and thieves have stolen most of the once-ubiquitous markers. By the way, Car & Driver magazine calls Ind. 62 on the trail one of the Best Driving Roads in America, ending at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Dale.
The book is manageable in small chunks, but I guarantee you'll finish it in a week. It's that good.
So, all last week I'm touting the book as the best book in the store, with several patrons taking it solely on my recommendation. I wasn't ready to blog about it, because it was scheduled for publication in June, so when it arrived unexpectedly, I reordered and fished out my notes for the planned June posting.
Why is that a problem? Because we have TWO best books in the store beginning today. Tomorrow I'll tell you more about the other, Barbara Kingsolver's nonfiction masterpiece, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life, from HarperCollins.
Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America by Andrew FergusonISBN 9780871139672 Atlantic Monthly Press (Hardcover) 288 pp. $24
When a book I believe will be incredibly hot also draws a rave from me or Ann, it's a blessing for us all. With Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day, not to mention graduation on the horizon, many more patrons will be coming to us for recommendations. Particularly for Fathers' Day, we're loaded with can't miss titles. But I digress.
Last week I promoted (in-store) without reservation Andrew Ferguson's Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America, from Atlantic Monthly Press. I am far from a Lincoln buff. Where I come from, we're much more realistic in our appreciation of what he accomplished in keeping the Union together no matter what measures it took. But here in Indiana, it's a given that Ole Abe was the best president there ever was or ever will be.
Ferguson went through a childhood fervor for the Railsplitter, but as time passed, Lincolniana became, for him, passe. With great affection, but no small amount of humor, he rekindled that passion in researching this book. I can say that of all the new releases, this is the best book in the store. Lincoln is adored and scorned and every year brings out a new debate about the man and his importance to our modern world. But this book captures our Abesession in a way no history could.
From memorabilia collectors (first-degree items include reliquary-like artifacts like hair, with rumors of teeth and bone) to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans (who are better-armed than most when they argue that most of Lincoln's actions were extra-constitutional), the Weekly Standard editor captures the unique fascination we have with the 16th president.
How many of you ever attended the outdoor musical drama Young Abe Lincoln at Santa Claus, Ind.? Ferguson attended what appears to have been the final performance just a few months ago, revisiting the town after having joined a national convention of Lincoln (and Mary Todd) impersonators.
That's in the latter half of the book, when the author grabs up his family, including two teenagers, and follows the Lincoln Heritage Trail from Illinois to Kentucky, backtracking through Lincoln's life to end the book at the legendary birthplace of Honest Abe. Did you know that the LHT is 960 miles long, that each of the three states (Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky) have exactly 320 miles of highway devoted to Lincoln? Of course, the Indiana sites include, for some reason, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and with the Lincoln Bicentennial fast approaching the trail is only intermittently marked. Vandals and thieves have stolen most of the once-ubiquitous markers. By the way, Car & Driver magazine calls Ind. 62 on the trail one of the Best Driving Roads in America, ending at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Dale.
The book is manageable in small chunks, but I guarantee you'll finish it in a week. It's that good.
So, all last week I'm touting the book as the best book in the store, with several patrons taking it solely on my recommendation. I wasn't ready to blog about it, because it was scheduled for publication in June, so when it arrived unexpectedly, I reordered and fished out my notes for the planned June posting.
Why is that a problem? Because we have TWO best books in the store beginning today. Tomorrow I'll tell you more about the other, Barbara Kingsolver's nonfiction masterpiece, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life, from HarperCollins.
Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America by Andrew FergusonISBN 9780871139672 Atlantic Monthly Press (Hardcover) 288 pp. $24
Friday, April 27, 2007
So Much To Be Said...Agree, or Not?
I spent a couple of days hunting down a cogent summary of this deplorable trend, but here you go, for a weekend read. From Art Winslow on the blog site "The Huffington Post."
In the new book burning we don't burn books, we burn discussion of them instead. I am referring to the ongoing collapse of book review sections at American newspapers, which has accelerated in recent months, an intellectual brownout in progress that is beginning to look like a rolling blackout instead... read the rest of this post and please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below
In the new book burning we don't burn books, we burn discussion of them instead. I am referring to the ongoing collapse of book review sections at American newspapers, which has accelerated in recent months, an intellectual brownout in progress that is beginning to look like a rolling blackout instead... read the rest of this post and please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Warriors Phenomenon Keeps Building
Today is a banner day for author Erin Hunter as she launches the third six-book series in her incredibly successful Warriors series. Today is the release date for The Sight, book one in her Power of Three series.
Actually, Erin Hunter is the pen name of two English writers, Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry, and if you have a child anywhere between the ages of 8 and 18, they have surely read one or more of the previous 12 books. Around here, it's one of those series that we have a standing order for each new release. We try to keep all of the titles on hand, too, so that as children reach a certain age they can begin the adventure at the beginning.
Those of you who pre-ordered will have already been called about the new book, but you may be unaware that HarperCollins Children's Books has extended the brand even further into manga...that's the Asian-influenced graphic novel style with all original stories, and book one of a planned three-book series also comes out today: The Lost Warrior.
If you're still puzzled about the whole Warriors phenomenon, just ask the child in your life, or read the annotation below:
There will be three, kin of your kin . . .
The wild cats have flourished in their new home on the banks of the lake for several seasons, and the Clans are growing strong and healthy with new kits. The time has come for three kits of ThunderClan to become apprentices.
Hollypaw, Jaypaw, and Lionpaw spring from a strong legacy: children of Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, two of the noblest ThunderClan warriors, and grandchildren of the great leader Firestar himself. All three young cats possess unusual power and talent and seem certain to provide strength to the Clan for the next generation.
But there are dark secrets around the three, and a mysterious prophecy hints at trouble to come. An undercurrent of rage is rising against those who are not Clanborn, and the warrior code is in danger of being washed away by a river of blood. All the young cats' strength will be needed if the Clans are to survive.
. . . who hold the power of the stars in their paws.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
From the "Internets"
I can't always devote the time to entertaining original content here, but that's no reason you shouldn't get new content on a (near) daily basis. Saturdays are an office work day for me, thanks to Ann, but we both listen avidly to Michael Feldman's What Do You Know? on WFPL 89.3 FM, the NPR station.
Not the least of the reasons for listening is Feldman's attention to writers and writing. Today's guest was the coauthor of Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, David Shipley and Will Schwalbe.
Check out Feldman's blog at http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/author/mfeldman
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