The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein, has risen to the No. 3 spot on the latest Indie Bestseller list. Those of you paying close attention will have witnessed the correspondence between New Albany Books Daily and the author, including Garth's self-deprecating comment about his standing vis-a-vis "brand-name" authors.
Well, just for comparison, Salman Rushdie sits at No. 4. Stephenie Meyer is at No. 2. Pretty good company, if you ask me.
Plaudits to our staff and to you, our patrons, who have played a small part in elevating Enzo to such rarefied air near the summit of the coveted Indie Bestseller fiction list.
We're almost sold out again and trying to build our order for the coming season. It would be a big help to know how many of you intend to give the book as a gift this Christmas. Send us an e-mail at ops@destinationsbooksellers.com and let us know what you thought about the book. With your permission, we'll post some of the comments, with or without identifying you.
Word of mouth is more important to a book's success than bookseller recommendations, so tell your friends, too.
Showing posts with label art of racing in the rain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art of racing in the rain. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The Art of Racing in the Rain
The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel
By Garth Stein
2008 HarperCollins Publishers
Hardcover, Luxe PB, and unabridged audiobook, HC 9780061537936, $23.95
The takeaway from this, my favorite book of the season, is to remember: Somewhere the Zebra is Dancing.
This book is deeply philosophical, wryly funny, and frighteningly poignant. But most of all, it’s a great read, and one you’ll want to share with everyone you know.
As I told the readers of my books blog, I really want you to meet my new friend Enzo.
For my readers, I was very careful to keep them in the dark about who Enzo was until they, too, could fall in love with him. For Enzo is an incredibly likable fellow. His philosophy is somewhat simple, but certain and profound.
We meet Enzo near the end of his life. He’s waiting desperately for his lifelong companion, Denny Swift, to return home. Why must he wait? Well, Enzo is a dog. But not just any dog.
Enzo is a dog with a human soul. He’s convinced of it, and you will be too, for Enzo has the insight and empathy, the compassion and love that we all would desire in a life partner.
As Enzo tells the story of his life and the lives of the family he’s raised by, he shares with us the wisdom he has acquired. As Denny’s companion, he’s learned, for example, that there’s more to racing than going fast. That that which you manifest is before you.
He has also learned a key truth from the excessive amounts of TV he has watched, including countless documentaries. A documentary on the dogs of Mongolia changes Enzo’s life. It seems that when a Mongolian dog reaches the end of his life, his owner whispers into his ear the hope that he will return as a man. Once Enzo accepts the concept of reincarnation, he knows he has been put on this earth to prepare.
Yes, it’s frustrating for Enzo to be unable to open doors (no opposable thumbs) or communicate in English (his tongue is just too floppy to form the syllables). But knowing his destiny, Enzo can’t wait to become human.
Stein says he was inspired to tell this story from Enzo’s point of view after hearing Billy Collins at a reading in Seattle. Collins’ poem, The Revenant, begins, "I am the dog you put to sleep...come back to tell you one simple thing: I never liked you—not one bit."
Stein, a former documentary filmmaker from Seattle, wrote two previous novels - How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets and Raven Stole the Moon, and a play, Brother Jones.
By Garth Stein
2008 HarperCollins Publishers
Hardcover, Luxe PB, and unabridged audiobook, HC 9780061537936, $23.95
The takeaway from this, my favorite book of the season, is to remember: Somewhere the Zebra is Dancing.
This book is deeply philosophical, wryly funny, and frighteningly poignant. But most of all, it’s a great read, and one you’ll want to share with everyone you know.
As I told the readers of my books blog, I really want you to meet my new friend Enzo.
For my readers, I was very careful to keep them in the dark about who Enzo was until they, too, could fall in love with him. For Enzo is an incredibly likable fellow. His philosophy is somewhat simple, but certain and profound.
We meet Enzo near the end of his life. He’s waiting desperately for his lifelong companion, Denny Swift, to return home. Why must he wait? Well, Enzo is a dog. But not just any dog.
Enzo is a dog with a human soul. He’s convinced of it, and you will be too, for Enzo has the insight and empathy, the compassion and love that we all would desire in a life partner.
As Enzo tells the story of his life and the lives of the family he’s raised by, he shares with us the wisdom he has acquired. As Denny’s companion, he’s learned, for example, that there’s more to racing than going fast. That that which you manifest is before you.
He has also learned a key truth from the excessive amounts of TV he has watched, including countless documentaries. A documentary on the dogs of Mongolia changes Enzo’s life. It seems that when a Mongolian dog reaches the end of his life, his owner whispers into his ear the hope that he will return as a man. Once Enzo accepts the concept of reincarnation, he knows he has been put on this earth to prepare.
Yes, it’s frustrating for Enzo to be unable to open doors (no opposable thumbs) or communicate in English (his tongue is just too floppy to form the syllables). But knowing his destiny, Enzo can’t wait to become human.
Stein says he was inspired to tell this story from Enzo’s point of view after hearing Billy Collins at a reading in Seattle. Collins’ poem, The Revenant, begins, "I am the dog you put to sleep...come back to tell you one simple thing: I never liked you—not one bit."
Stein, a former documentary filmmaker from Seattle, wrote two previous novels - How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets and Raven Stole the Moon, and a play, Brother Jones.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Dear Garth,
Oh, I *have* to know what you think! Please post when you finish it! G.S.
That's what "roadgarth" had to say to an earlier posting.
It happens rarely, but I've found that the most astute and reader-centric authors tend to be eager for feedback. These perspicacious wordsmiths make use of the technologies to find out what the world might be saying about them and their works.
So for all of you, and most of all for you, Garth, I make apologies for my failure to live up to my renewed commitment to give you regular and daily blog postings.
When last I left you, I had just completed my third consecutive posting about my new friend Enzo.
Indeed, somewhere the zebra is dancing.
I was late in coming to an appreciation for Garth Stein and his masterful The Art of Racing in the Rain. I'll admit that. If I haven't related the story before, I'll do so now.
While I was aware of the book (mostly as a title from a usually reliable publisher, granted), I hadn't taken it up. We were privileged to receive an advance copy of the book at the Winter Institute (III) of the American Booksellers Association, which this year was held in Louisville at the Marriott. Ann and Mark (our senior bookseller) attended the Friday sessions while I kept the store open and I made it over at the end of the day on Friday.
Ann, I later learned, got to meet Mr. Stein on Saturday during the author appearances. Oblivious to the writer or the book that day (I was concentrating on other authors, including Warren Adler, penman of Funny Boys), I recall Ann being lured by what appeared to be "dog treats" and thus obtaining, as funnyman Steve Martin used to affirm, "a close, personal encounter" with Herr Stein.
[The "dog treat" was, in fact, cookies made for human consumption. As none of us in the Destinations Booksellers' family had a dog at that time, it was an aspirational endeavor. That wishful thinking has been ratified since. We added the lovable "Chloe" to our "family" in the last few weeks.]
As I recall it, it was a Tuesday night and I was nearing the end of a nonfiction title. Spying the attractive cover of The Art of Racing in the Rain, I warned my bride that if she did not take it up before I finished that book, I was going to "take" it. Considering that we seldom read the same book, that was a preemptive threat. Before 11:30 that evening, I picked it up, and 100 pages later I was enthusiastically planning my e-mail to Kerri Sikorski, telesales rep non pareil in the Scranton office of HarperCollins, to enter a massive order for the book.
By Friday morning, before I reached the store (I'm known to walk the 1.7 mile route with my head in a book), I had finished the book and was already worried about running out of my initial distributor order.
In fact, we did run out before the end of that day, which explains why I did not fulfill my commitment to continue my teaser campaign to you, dear readers.
I am happy to report to you the early returns. I cannot recommend this book more highly. I have been embarrassed by the thanks our patrons have expressed for my recommendation of this book. To be sure, I have been effusive in my praise while handselling this book, utilizing my rare "guarantee" that you will adore the book. No one has asked for their money back. I even sent the book to a temporarily invalid friend at a 99.999% discount, knowing full well that when she recovered, she'd gladly remit the appropriate payment.
But what I haven't done yet for blog readers (or the recipients of our well-received e-mail newsletter) is tell you specifically about the book.
Mr. Stein has expertly captured what we believe, rightly or wrongly, are the actual thought processes of "man's best friend." My friend Enzo, I will now confess, is an ultimately perceptive canine. Enzo, who we meet near the end of his life, relates the story of his life and the life of the family that becomes his in Racing.
Do not doubt that you will be captivated before you have finished the first three chapters. Despite clear portents of coming tragedy, you will find your funnybone stimulated for the first half of the book. But it's not, in any way, a whimsical fantasy. At no point did I find myself unwilling to believe that Enzo was anything but sincere and true.
Garth Stein has conveyed the emotional and intellectual life of this dog in a way that is so natural and plausible that I (and other readers) never doubted its sincerity. He captures the naivete we expect from our canine companions - that guileless faith we exploit and revere - and the ratiocination that we project onto our pets. If my intuition is true, Enzo thinks the way my dog Chipper did.
Stein reveals a philosophical side I had never suspected, but one that I found myself captivated by. I can only hope that our dogs understand us as well as the narrator of Racing in the Rain does.
I promised a "reveal," and here it is. Denny, Enzo's human companion, is a uniquely talented road racer. We do not learn whether he carried the talent to excel in championship racing, but we do discover that when it comes to controlling and propelling a high-performance vehicle in less-than-perfect race conditions [read: rain], he has few peers.
Events conspire (partly) to thwart Denny's professional ambitions, but the principles he imparts to his Enzo become a lesson to us all.
You may believe you don't care to read a "dog" story. You may believe that a story about a race car driver won't interest you. Forget it. Fuhgeddaboudit! I know of no one who will regret reading this book.
I'm not prepared to say that Stein's book will be read 100 years from now. But I will say that if you read only one piece of fiction in 2008, you couldn't do better than to read this one.
And when you do, you'll want to pass it on [SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: Hold on to your copy. Tell your friends to buy their own - or buy it for them].
As I write this, we've again sold out of the "Luxe" larger print editions and we still await the audio version. But I will repeat my contention that before the end of the summer The Art of Racing in the Rain will be hailed as THE book of the season.
We have ample stock of the primary hardcover edition. Let me encourage you to pick it up now and get the jump on the rest of America. I assure you that you'll be proud to have discovered it long before it becomes THE gift book of the year. Go ahead and pick up two copies, because I know you'll want to give this book as a gift at Christmas time.
FYI: I will again be giving my book recommendations on WFPL-FM, 89.3, during State of Affairs' Summer Reading Program, hosted by Julie Kredens. Producer Robin Fisher has extended an invitation to Destinations Booksellers to give our recommendations on-air on Tuesday, June 17, at 11 a.m. and then for later rebroadcast.
Can you guess which book will be my No. 1?
P.S. The bestseller lists haven't yet caught on to this one. But I predict that when we usher in the New Year, Enzo will be haunting the lists. For the measuring period ending last weekend, in Lousville, Stein's book ranked in a three-way tie for 39th.
On this week's New York Times fiction bestseller list (a week later), TAoRitR is 14th. As Mom used to say, "hide and watch." Ms. Hamilton and Mr. Patterson won't be there in 10 weeks, but Mr. Stein will be. Or so I say.
That's what "roadgarth" had to say to an earlier posting.
It happens rarely, but I've found that the most astute and reader-centric authors tend to be eager for feedback. These perspicacious wordsmiths make use of the technologies to find out what the world might be saying about them and their works.
So for all of you, and most of all for you, Garth, I make apologies for my failure to live up to my renewed commitment to give you regular and daily blog postings.
When last I left you, I had just completed my third consecutive posting about my new friend Enzo.
Indeed, somewhere the zebra is dancing.
I was late in coming to an appreciation for Garth Stein and his masterful The Art of Racing in the Rain. I'll admit that. If I haven't related the story before, I'll do so now.
While I was aware of the book (mostly as a title from a usually reliable publisher, granted), I hadn't taken it up. We were privileged to receive an advance copy of the book at the Winter Institute (III) of the American Booksellers Association, which this year was held in Louisville at the Marriott. Ann and Mark (our senior bookseller) attended the Friday sessions while I kept the store open and I made it over at the end of the day on Friday.
Ann, I later learned, got to meet Mr. Stein on Saturday during the author appearances. Oblivious to the writer or the book that day (I was concentrating on other authors, including Warren Adler, penman of Funny Boys), I recall Ann being lured by what appeared to be "dog treats" and thus obtaining, as funnyman Steve Martin used to affirm, "a close, personal encounter" with Herr Stein.
[The "dog treat" was, in fact, cookies made for human consumption. As none of us in the Destinations Booksellers' family had a dog at that time, it was an aspirational endeavor. That wishful thinking has been ratified since. We added the lovable "Chloe" to our "family" in the last few weeks.]
As I recall it, it was a Tuesday night and I was nearing the end of a nonfiction title. Spying the attractive cover of The Art of Racing in the Rain, I warned my bride that if she did not take it up before I finished that book, I was going to "take" it. Considering that we seldom read the same book, that was a preemptive threat. Before 11:30 that evening, I picked it up, and 100 pages later I was enthusiastically planning my e-mail to Kerri Sikorski, telesales rep non pareil in the Scranton office of HarperCollins, to enter a massive order for the book.
By Friday morning, before I reached the store (I'm known to walk the 1.7 mile route with my head in a book), I had finished the book and was already worried about running out of my initial distributor order.
In fact, we did run out before the end of that day, which explains why I did not fulfill my commitment to continue my teaser campaign to you, dear readers.
I am happy to report to you the early returns. I cannot recommend this book more highly. I have been embarrassed by the thanks our patrons have expressed for my recommendation of this book. To be sure, I have been effusive in my praise while handselling this book, utilizing my rare "guarantee" that you will adore the book. No one has asked for their money back. I even sent the book to a temporarily invalid friend at a 99.999% discount, knowing full well that when she recovered, she'd gladly remit the appropriate payment.
But what I haven't done yet for blog readers (or the recipients of our well-received e-mail newsletter) is tell you specifically about the book.
Mr. Stein has expertly captured what we believe, rightly or wrongly, are the actual thought processes of "man's best friend." My friend Enzo, I will now confess, is an ultimately perceptive canine. Enzo, who we meet near the end of his life, relates the story of his life and the life of the family that becomes his in Racing.
Do not doubt that you will be captivated before you have finished the first three chapters. Despite clear portents of coming tragedy, you will find your funnybone stimulated for the first half of the book. But it's not, in any way, a whimsical fantasy. At no point did I find myself unwilling to believe that Enzo was anything but sincere and true.
Garth Stein has conveyed the emotional and intellectual life of this dog in a way that is so natural and plausible that I (and other readers) never doubted its sincerity. He captures the naivete we expect from our canine companions - that guileless faith we exploit and revere - and the ratiocination that we project onto our pets. If my intuition is true, Enzo thinks the way my dog Chipper did.
Stein reveals a philosophical side I had never suspected, but one that I found myself captivated by. I can only hope that our dogs understand us as well as the narrator of Racing in the Rain does.
I promised a "reveal," and here it is. Denny, Enzo's human companion, is a uniquely talented road racer. We do not learn whether he carried the talent to excel in championship racing, but we do discover that when it comes to controlling and propelling a high-performance vehicle in less-than-perfect race conditions [read: rain], he has few peers.
Events conspire (partly) to thwart Denny's professional ambitions, but the principles he imparts to his Enzo become a lesson to us all.
You may believe you don't care to read a "dog" story. You may believe that a story about a race car driver won't interest you. Forget it. Fuhgeddaboudit! I know of no one who will regret reading this book.
I'm not prepared to say that Stein's book will be read 100 years from now. But I will say that if you read only one piece of fiction in 2008, you couldn't do better than to read this one.
And when you do, you'll want to pass it on [SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: Hold on to your copy. Tell your friends to buy their own - or buy it for them].
As I write this, we've again sold out of the "Luxe" larger print editions and we still await the audio version. But I will repeat my contention that before the end of the summer The Art of Racing in the Rain will be hailed as THE book of the season.
We have ample stock of the primary hardcover edition. Let me encourage you to pick it up now and get the jump on the rest of America. I assure you that you'll be proud to have discovered it long before it becomes THE gift book of the year. Go ahead and pick up two copies, because I know you'll want to give this book as a gift at Christmas time.
FYI: I will again be giving my book recommendations on WFPL-FM, 89.3, during State of Affairs' Summer Reading Program, hosted by Julie Kredens. Producer Robin Fisher has extended an invitation to Destinations Booksellers to give our recommendations on-air on Tuesday, June 17, at 11 a.m. and then for later rebroadcast.
Can you guess which book will be my No. 1?
P.S. The bestseller lists haven't yet caught on to this one. But I predict that when we usher in the New Year, Enzo will be haunting the lists. For the measuring period ending last weekend, in Lousville, Stein's book ranked in a three-way tie for 39th.
On this week's New York Times fiction bestseller list (a week later), TAoRitR is 14th. As Mom used to say, "hide and watch." Ms. Hamilton and Mr. Patterson won't be there in 10 weeks, but Mr. Stein will be. Or so I say.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
That Which You Manifest is Before You
You might want to read my previous posts, Meet my new friend Enzo (2) and Somewhere the zebra is dancing (1), before proceeding.
As previously stated, we believe The Art of Racing in the Rain is going to be incredibly popular. I'm having a hard time imagining anyone who won't be entertained by this one. It's neither low-brow nor high-brow, and yet it's accessible in a widely popular way and deeply philosophical, even spiritual.
The people who will love this book can't be pigeonholed because everyone is going to love it. Now, there will be people who, like me, just hate it when the whole world is saying "you have to read this book." That's a dead-certain prescription that will have me refusing to read it. But for those who will give just page one a chance (although I recommend reading the first three chapters in the store - it will take 5-10 minutes, tops), they will be richly rewarded.
I've read no reviews as of yet, but word of mouth will sell this book. It's what we call a "hand sell" independent favorite. The best books are usually the ones recommended by your bookseller. Those are the books that don't open at the top of the lists (James Patterson, etc.), but then those books hardly sell at all in independent bookstores, where the standards of our patrons are higher.
This is also one of those books that probably won't be in paperback for a loooong time because it will continue to sell and sell and sell in hardcover. It will be just the right book for Fathers' Day and it will still be growing when Christmas rolls around. It's actually a tad shorter than most hardcovers, too, so even those who complain about how difficult it is to read hardcovers (an excuse, sez I) will be able to handle it. At 324 pages, it should be easy to finish in about a week, no matter how busy you are. And once you finish it, you'll be recommending it to your friends and family. I hope you'll refer them here.
This is probably a good time to tell you about our new Web initiatives. Alert visitors to http://www.destinationsbooksellers.com/ will have learned about this already, but we've added massive research-and-buy capabilities. Any hour of the day you can log on and find millions of books, CDs, and DVDs, pay with a credit card, and have them sent directly to your home.
But for most of you, we have an even better way to go. Go ahead and research the items you want. Then e-mail us to see if we can't save you money (no discounts on the Web site). We can usually have your books in a day or two, and depending on your current rewards level, you'll get your regular discount. And if you want to send the book to a friend, we can have the book drop-shipped directly to them. We'll pay shipping on hardcovers by media mail --- or you can pay the shipping for expedited delivery.
I honestly think you'll want to send this book to others, so why not just have it shipped? We even have gift-wrapping available on those books shipped from warehouse to "your" house.
LATE BULLETIN: Over the weekend I'll tell you more about The Art of Racing in the Rain, including why that's the title. We sold all but one copy from Friday's shipment. First come (or e-mail), first served for the holiday weekend, but we will reserve copies for delivery next week.
As previously stated, we believe The Art of Racing in the Rain is going to be incredibly popular. I'm having a hard time imagining anyone who won't be entertained by this one. It's neither low-brow nor high-brow, and yet it's accessible in a widely popular way and deeply philosophical, even spiritual.
The people who will love this book can't be pigeonholed because everyone is going to love it. Now, there will be people who, like me, just hate it when the whole world is saying "you have to read this book." That's a dead-certain prescription that will have me refusing to read it. But for those who will give just page one a chance (although I recommend reading the first three chapters in the store - it will take 5-10 minutes, tops), they will be richly rewarded.
I've read no reviews as of yet, but word of mouth will sell this book. It's what we call a "hand sell" independent favorite. The best books are usually the ones recommended by your bookseller. Those are the books that don't open at the top of the lists (James Patterson, etc.), but then those books hardly sell at all in independent bookstores, where the standards of our patrons are higher.
This is also one of those books that probably won't be in paperback for a loooong time because it will continue to sell and sell and sell in hardcover. It will be just the right book for Fathers' Day and it will still be growing when Christmas rolls around. It's actually a tad shorter than most hardcovers, too, so even those who complain about how difficult it is to read hardcovers (an excuse, sez I) will be able to handle it. At 324 pages, it should be easy to finish in about a week, no matter how busy you are. And once you finish it, you'll be recommending it to your friends and family. I hope you'll refer them here.
This is probably a good time to tell you about our new Web initiatives. Alert visitors to http://www.destinationsbooksellers.com/ will have learned about this already, but we've added massive research-and-buy capabilities. Any hour of the day you can log on and find millions of books, CDs, and DVDs, pay with a credit card, and have them sent directly to your home.
But for most of you, we have an even better way to go. Go ahead and research the items you want. Then e-mail us to see if we can't save you money (no discounts on the Web site). We can usually have your books in a day or two, and depending on your current rewards level, you'll get your regular discount. And if you want to send the book to a friend, we can have the book drop-shipped directly to them. We'll pay shipping on hardcovers by media mail --- or you can pay the shipping for expedited delivery.
I honestly think you'll want to send this book to others, so why not just have it shipped? We even have gift-wrapping available on those books shipped from warehouse to "your" house.
LATE BULLETIN: Over the weekend I'll tell you more about The Art of Racing in the Rain, including why that's the title. We sold all but one copy from Friday's shipment. First come (or e-mail), first served for the holiday weekend, but we will reserve copies for delivery next week.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Somewhere the Zebra is Dancing
I write this on Wednesday, May 21. With the holiday approaching (do you know that the uberpatriotic South , even to this day, treats Memorial Day as some kind of false holiday? That's a leftover from the Civil War, or the War of Northern Aggression as it's still called in some environs.
But my point is that the Memorial Day holiday means it will be that much more difficult to keep our stock levels up over the weekend. A couple of customers could clean us out on that hot new book you were waiting to read until your next day off.
Wednesday night/Thursday morning is always crunch time at the store. Thursday is the last day we can restock or promise next-day delivery. After 11 a.m., anything that's not in stock can't possibly be delivered before Monday. And a holiday means the delay is to Tuesday. If you want John McCain's Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them or The Host, Stephenie Meyer's venture out of the young adult world where she has been the most popular author of the year to cater to the not-so-young adult market, you might be out of luck if just one person decides now is the time to pick it up.
That's not so bad on a Tuesday, when we can promise it the next day because we will have restocked. And trust me, it is necessary for a local, independent bookstore to carefully manage its inventory - or go broke! So both of those books are down to one copy. If you want it on Saturday, but I sell it on Friday, I can't possibly get another copy until Tuesday.
So?
Well, the problem then becomes that you aren't served. You then start to think "they probably won't have it," and a downward spiral begins. You decide to go elsewhere. I decide that I can't take a risk on a new title because, after all, I only sold one copy of that title last season.
That's the dilemma Ann and I face with the store. We can't "stock up" on a title because we believe in it. We can love it to death, but if our customers divide their purchases among a half-dozen stores, or if the raw number of customers who shop here, or if "our" customers just can't get down to actually browse and see and touch and read the books we pick, then the balloting is over. Local bookstore: Yes or No?
I sometimes tell the story (and reveal what a geek I am) about the old game SimCity. In SimCity you are given a set amount of money with which to build a city. If you build it right, not too fast and not too slow, if you hedge against disaster while investing for a greater future, you can win the game. Such simulations involve taxing and spending and zoning and transforming. And they require a clear vision of what you want your city to become.
So I will ask the listener, if you were building a city from scratch, what would you put in it? Roads. A post office. A church, and then more churches. A school, and then more schools. A university. A swimming pool. A park. Maybe a stadium. Certainly a library.
For your populace, what stores would you build or what businesses would you recruit? A hospital, a drugstore, a gas station, a florist, a jeweler, several groceries. A bookstore. Maybe even a brewery.
You are playing SimCity, if only in an indirect way. By your decisions and choices, you are creating the town you want. If you think your city should have, say, an ethnic restaurant of a certain type (or quality), then maybe you ought to eat there. Certainly you can't personally provide enough business to keep it going. But if you only eat there infrequently, aren't you really saying "I don't think we need, I don't want this restaurant?"
It's a push me-pull you equation. Your patronage allows a store to thrive instead of merely surviving. Your choice to shop locally may permit a business to survive rather than fail. And as more of your neighbors join you in making informed decisions about what kind of city you want, the thriving store might expand. It might offer more frequent programs to enrich your life. It might be able to carry more of what you want, or take risks on new products and services that you could only dream of having available locally.
Ann and I recognize fully that it is not your responsibility to enrich us. It is ours to enrich you. And we continue to try to do just that. We can't be and do everything, but we want to do everything we can to provide you with what you need and want.
By shopping locally first, you tell local businesses you want them in town. It's the most important vote you cast. A thriving business attracts more thriving businesses, and the city benefits from a richer, fuller life. The costs of living in a thriving city are, arguably, less than of living in a moribund one.
So, beginning in June, we're going to invest even more into this business and see whether your vote is yes or no. We don't believe you want us to go away - you just don't know what you're missing.
We're increasing the payroll. We're investing in more stock. And we're going to actively market to you, to expose you to fantastic books you've been missing. This blog (and I've promised it before and failed) will be the kind of place you'll want to visit frequently because it will be filled with something new every day. It might just be a rumination. It might just be a tip. It might be a review or an unsubtle "You've got to see this!"
The phrase that is the title of this post, I believe, will be, by the end of the year, a part of American culture. It's stated by the narrator of the book I'm reading now. I started it late last night and though I've worked a full day today, I'm a third of the way through it. I put in a rush order today with HarperCollins for a major amount of stock, including audiobooks and larger print editions, what Harper calls Luxe.
This book will be, as I predicted today, as big a seller as any sleeper I can remember. Bigger than Marley and Me. Bigger than Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Bigger, maybe, than Tuesdays With Morrie.
At the end of this day, we have one copy of the book. By the weekend we will have another half-dozen copies. By next week we'll have plenty for everybody. But even today, while handselling the book, I asked a patron to leave it on the shelf unless they promised to read it this weekend. I can sell it to you, who will, and sell it to him, who won't, next week.
Remember this blog post. Somewhere the zebra is dancing. That which you manifest is before you. Give me my thumbs, you f---ing monkeys! The field is fertile - beware. I embrace the fertility.
Tomorrow, I'll offer you more. For now, I'm going to finish my reading.
But my point is that the Memorial Day holiday means it will be that much more difficult to keep our stock levels up over the weekend. A couple of customers could clean us out on that hot new book you were waiting to read until your next day off.
Wednesday night/Thursday morning is always crunch time at the store. Thursday is the last day we can restock or promise next-day delivery. After 11 a.m., anything that's not in stock can't possibly be delivered before Monday. And a holiday means the delay is to Tuesday. If you want John McCain's Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them or The Host, Stephenie Meyer's venture out of the young adult world where she has been the most popular author of the year to cater to the not-so-young adult market, you might be out of luck if just one person decides now is the time to pick it up.
That's not so bad on a Tuesday, when we can promise it the next day because we will have restocked. And trust me, it is necessary for a local, independent bookstore to carefully manage its inventory - or go broke! So both of those books are down to one copy. If you want it on Saturday, but I sell it on Friday, I can't possibly get another copy until Tuesday.
So?
Well, the problem then becomes that you aren't served. You then start to think "they probably won't have it," and a downward spiral begins. You decide to go elsewhere. I decide that I can't take a risk on a new title because, after all, I only sold one copy of that title last season.
That's the dilemma Ann and I face with the store. We can't "stock up" on a title because we believe in it. We can love it to death, but if our customers divide their purchases among a half-dozen stores, or if the raw number of customers who shop here, or if "our" customers just can't get down to actually browse and see and touch and read the books we pick, then the balloting is over. Local bookstore: Yes or No?
I sometimes tell the story (and reveal what a geek I am) about the old game SimCity. In SimCity you are given a set amount of money with which to build a city. If you build it right, not too fast and not too slow, if you hedge against disaster while investing for a greater future, you can win the game. Such simulations involve taxing and spending and zoning and transforming. And they require a clear vision of what you want your city to become.
So I will ask the listener, if you were building a city from scratch, what would you put in it? Roads. A post office. A church, and then more churches. A school, and then more schools. A university. A swimming pool. A park. Maybe a stadium. Certainly a library.
For your populace, what stores would you build or what businesses would you recruit? A hospital, a drugstore, a gas station, a florist, a jeweler, several groceries. A bookstore. Maybe even a brewery.
You are playing SimCity, if only in an indirect way. By your decisions and choices, you are creating the town you want. If you think your city should have, say, an ethnic restaurant of a certain type (or quality), then maybe you ought to eat there. Certainly you can't personally provide enough business to keep it going. But if you only eat there infrequently, aren't you really saying "I don't think we need, I don't want this restaurant?"
It's a push me-pull you equation. Your patronage allows a store to thrive instead of merely surviving. Your choice to shop locally may permit a business to survive rather than fail. And as more of your neighbors join you in making informed decisions about what kind of city you want, the thriving store might expand. It might offer more frequent programs to enrich your life. It might be able to carry more of what you want, or take risks on new products and services that you could only dream of having available locally.
Ann and I recognize fully that it is not your responsibility to enrich us. It is ours to enrich you. And we continue to try to do just that. We can't be and do everything, but we want to do everything we can to provide you with what you need and want.
By shopping locally first, you tell local businesses you want them in town. It's the most important vote you cast. A thriving business attracts more thriving businesses, and the city benefits from a richer, fuller life. The costs of living in a thriving city are, arguably, less than of living in a moribund one.
So, beginning in June, we're going to invest even more into this business and see whether your vote is yes or no. We don't believe you want us to go away - you just don't know what you're missing.
We're increasing the payroll. We're investing in more stock. And we're going to actively market to you, to expose you to fantastic books you've been missing. This blog (and I've promised it before and failed) will be the kind of place you'll want to visit frequently because it will be filled with something new every day. It might just be a rumination. It might just be a tip. It might be a review or an unsubtle "You've got to see this!"
The phrase that is the title of this post, I believe, will be, by the end of the year, a part of American culture. It's stated by the narrator of the book I'm reading now. I started it late last night and though I've worked a full day today, I'm a third of the way through it. I put in a rush order today with HarperCollins for a major amount of stock, including audiobooks and larger print editions, what Harper calls Luxe.
This book will be, as I predicted today, as big a seller as any sleeper I can remember. Bigger than Marley and Me. Bigger than Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Bigger, maybe, than Tuesdays With Morrie.
At the end of this day, we have one copy of the book. By the weekend we will have another half-dozen copies. By next week we'll have plenty for everybody. But even today, while handselling the book, I asked a patron to leave it on the shelf unless they promised to read it this weekend. I can sell it to you, who will, and sell it to him, who won't, next week.
Remember this blog post. Somewhere the zebra is dancing. That which you manifest is before you. Give me my thumbs, you f---ing monkeys! The field is fertile - beware. I embrace the fertility.
Tomorrow, I'll offer you more. For now, I'm going to finish my reading.
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