[contextly_auto_sidebar id="F72Akus0FnI1F8UXy7215APyWoohS6MQ"] IT's been both gratifying and frustrating to have my book launch at the LA Central Library fill up so quickly. (Tickets went in a single day.) Now Los Angeles audiences have another chance to see me discuss the subjects I dig into on this blog and in my upcoming book -- at Skylight Books. And I'm glad to say that Janet Fitch, the … [Read more...]
Culture Crash the Book Goes to Washington
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="mf4rE6xWgZDul2vj7Ls64RZGrkkXbufG"] THE august D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose will host an event for my book a few days after publication, on Saturday evening, January 17. This is a great bookstore with a smart staff and a great hand-picked selection; it's exactly the kind of place I write about in the book, and the kind of place that tends to disappear in the … [Read more...]
Don’t Forget Indies First and Small Business Saturday
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="7mL6F2lbAkJJdYtci9RNPwVHLSs7mqPA"] TODAY, of course, is the start of holiday-shopping season -- which sounds like a euphemism for something -- so I want to remind me readers how important it is to frequent independent, brick-and-mortar shops when you go looking for books and music especially. This year sees both the Indies First campaign -- which urges support of … [Read more...]
Are Books an “Essential Good”?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Gv49ZAYAnsBBRrMS1uvMyG3p21i1lrA2"] IN France, bookstores and literary culture thrive, in part because of laws privileging books and protecting their producers and disseminators. A recent discussion in the New York Times Book Review asked if we need a similar system here. The provocative critic Daniel Mendelsohn starts by talking about cultural differences between … [Read more...]
One Publisher Takes on Amazon
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="TUHr64z55mkmhkosqXugONtslgtzjq1a"] IT'S hard to know what an author or publisher should do when faced with Amazon's dominance of the market: It's hard to withdraw from a distributor who handles so large a portion of book (especially e-book) sales. But just as several small record labels have pulled their music from Spotify and other streaming services, the … [Read more...]