UK-based on-line bookseller The Book Depository is a good resource for finding publications that are either out of print or not widely available in the US.
Check out the “Watch People Shop” feature. Tracing tabs on a world map as they ping-pong between recent sales in real time in entrancing. Someone in California just bought African Animal Stickers. Then someone in South Africa bought The Last Snake Man. Someone in Canada bought The Stars, and someone in Australia bought Bright Star a few minutes later. It’s like six degrees of book separation.
In major cities worldwide during the pre-burst bubble, many independent, street-level retail businesses were priced out of the cool neighborhoods they helped establish. Corporate conglomerates selling luxury goods drove commercial rent into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Many of these shops are simply environmental installations-as-advertising. While Nike, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and others of their ilk still drive many rental markets, it’s shifted a bit here in NYC, where desirable shopping districts such as Soho and Nolita are full of empty storefronts.
Continue reading: “Pop-up Shops Take Manhattan”
Bookselling has held an uncharacteristically prominent place in Seattle newspapers and Web sites of late. Elliott Bay Book Company, the flagship retailer in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, is moving to the Pike and Pine corridor on Capitol Hill. Bailey/Coy Books, the longtime Broadway bookseller, has closed its doors. Everyone agrees that bookselling in Seattle is changing. But there’s plenty of disagreement about what the change means.
Here’s a roundup of relevant stories. This collection represents but a small fraction of the ink spilled and pixels lit about the changes afoot for bookselling in Seattle.
Continue reading: “Seattle Bookselling News Roundup”
