Generally Horrible Questions: Jeremy Ellis

Jeremy at the Tadao Ando-designed museum in Ft. Worth.
The man appreciates art and design.

Jeremy Ellis is the new(ish) manager at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Texas.  He started the job in August, but has been working in bookstores off and on for most of his career.  We decided that the best form of hazing is to submit him to our list of questions.  Welcome to the neighborhood, Jeremy!

Generally Horrible Questions: Jeremy Ellis

1. How did you get into the bookselling business?
It was completely accidental. I was 22, out-of-work, and there was a bookstore at a mall I liked. I thought I would do it for awhile and then, eventually, find my calling. Since that job, I've only had brief interruptions from independent bookstore jobs. [Just when I thought I was out....they pull me back in?  Watch out for horse heads in your sheets, there, Jeremy.]

Brazos Bookstore

2. What's the best experience you've had working at the bookstore?
It's hard to pick just one experience. But I guess I could choose one per gig. As a bookseller at Taylor's Books in Dallas, meeting Anne Perry the day after seeing the Peter Jackson film 'Heavenly Creatures' which details the true story of Anne's early life as a killer. As a bookseller at Trudy's Fireside Books, author and illustrator David Small handselling me Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks. As the event guy at BookPeople, hosting David Sedaris during his Me Talk Pretty One Day tour. As Marketing Director at BookPeople, my proudest moment was when the original 'This is My Favorite Book' was picked up by independent bookstores nationwide as the model holiday catalog. At Legacy Books and A Real Bookstore in Dallas, developing their websites. And now, at Brazos, my best days are those where I get to really talk to customers and help them find the book they didn't know they urgently needed. 

3. What book(s) changed your life?

I've read plays for years and years and they really have had the most visceral impact on my life. Both parts of Tony Kushner's Angels in America radically changed the ways in which I thought about myself and America. I think Arcadiaby Tom Stoppard is one of the most perfect pieces of literature of the 20th century. I return to the short plays of Samuel Beckett time and time again for their optimistic outlook. [Gianna's scared of thespians....]

4. What are you currently reading?
I just finished Canada by Richard Ford. It is one of the best novels I've ever read. Also just finished Jeanette Winterson's memoir, Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?. It is a remarkable book. I'm very excited to get into Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter Scott, but top of the stack, demanding immediate attention is What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander. [Damn straight. We will expect a book report about the Nathan Englander book next week.]

This one should
be on everyone's
reading list right now.

5. What's your #1 pick for reading groups?

Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre. I'm not usually allowed to lead reading groups.

6. Would you rather....David Mitchell, David Foster Wallace, David Sedaris
First, David Sedaris, because he makes me laugh.
Second, David Mitchell, because he makes me dream.
Third, David Foster Waller, because he makes me hurt.

[Fourth, David Arquette, because he makes you gag?]

7. What's the biggest lie ever told by a sales rep?
Nicholas Sparks was a passing trend.

8. What's your second favorite bookstore?
BookPeople

9. Gianna or Liz?

I love them equally for different reasons. I will never specify what these reasons are, lest Liz sick Zorro on me. [REALLY?  Why must we keep repeating this?  The correct answer is ALWAYS Liz.  Always.  Because Liz is the one who posts the stuff on the blog and she says so.]

10. The most depressing book you've ever read?

Jeremy (right) and his brother in
front of Brazos.

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb was a downer, but I really enjoyed it. This was Oprah's second book club choice. I read it reluctantly, but ended up really loving it.

11. I've never read ____________.  And I'm so ashamed.

Any of the Harry Potter books. I'm not that ashamed.

12. Celebrity Memoir (Death is not an option): Snooki, Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, Kardashian Konfidential.

Justin Bieber. On the day he begins his public meltdown, I'll be able to pull factoids about his life out and say I saw it coming all along. And that hair... (Of course, I'm mesmerized by Snooki's mustache as well.)

13. Dumbest question ever asked by a customer?
Q: I see your fiction section. Where do you keep your non-fiction books?
A: Everywhere that isn't our fiction section.

14. I wanted to be a ___________ when I grew up.
A Broadway musical theatre star. Get a glass or two of wine in me, and I can't stop singing show tunes.

15. ________________ is my favorite book ever.
Too hard... Different eras of my life have had different favorites. During my late teens and early twenties it was Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. But then I met him, and he was kind of a jerk to me, and my youthful angst was receding. Anymore, I don't really have a single title that is my Number One. I love books for their individual ambitions and successes. [Are you just scared to say Twilight?  It's okay.  We'll eventually forgive you.]

Generally Horrible Questions: Scott Montgomery

MysteryPeople's Scott Montgomery

Our first bookseller profile for 2012 is the mystery guru and driving force behind MysteryPeople, the store-within-a-store at Austin's BookPeople.  Scott reads lots and lots of mysteries, the tougher the better.  (Secretly we think he loves The Cat Who series, but he won't cop to it.)  Let's ask him a bunch of questions and see if we can make the tough guy cry.

Generally Horrible Questions: Scott Montgomery

1.  How did you get into the bookselling business?
I was in LA's The Mystery Book Store so often I got mistaken for an employee. [That's funny--Liz is regularly mistaken for a Random House employee.]

2.  Favorite mystery/thriller of all time?

James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss. [...Yeah, we're not touching this one.]

3.  Three desert island books? 
Lonesome Dove, True Detective by Max Allan Collins, and HW Brands' great Theodore Roosevelt biography TR. All good, long books.

4.  What are you currently reading? 

I'm juggling four books--an involving thriller called The Dispatcher, James Carlos Blakes' engaging look at Missouri border guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson, The Wildwood Boys, The Professionals which is living up to its hype, and Elmore Leonard's Raylan.

5.  What is your favorite part of your job?

Money for nothing and your chicks for free...oh wait, that was Dire Straits cover band days. The friendships with the authors and customers. [Gianna claims to see Scott chatting up the ladies all the time.  They MAY be talking about books....]

6.  What books changed your life? 

Swag by Elmore Leonard, The Day The Cowboys Quitby Elmer Kelton, Reed Farrel Coleman's Walking The Perfect Square. [So...no Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb?]

7.  What is your second favorite bookstore? 

Murder By The Book in Houston. Like any good niche bookstore they're out there to promote the genre and not just sell stuff.

Scott with author
Reed Farrel Coleman

8.  What did you want to be when you grew up?

A veterinarian.  [Great! Someone can start administering Zorro's medications!]

9.  I have never read ______________ and I'm so ashamed.

Jackie Collins.

10. The most important question on the list: Liz or Gianna?

Liz. It's that warm, open personality. [The correct answer is always Liz.]

11. Choose one: Craig LaMorte (Gianna’s nephew), Craig Johnson, Craig T. Nelson, Craigslist, Daniel Craig,  Craig Biggio or you know what the hell….Larry Craig?

Author Craig Johnson

Selling Craig Johnson's books pays my rent, so I'll so with him. That said, I'm a big fan of James Bond and Coach. [What, no love for Mr. Wide Stance?]

12. Which mystery series should we all be reading? 

Reed Farrel Coleman's Moe Prager series. I always suggest the first book, Walking The Perfect Square, when people say the genre can't be literary. It suppresses my instinct to yell or punch. 

13. Last good non-mystery book you’ve read?

HW Brands' American Dreams;  great look at the US from the atomic bomb to Obama.

14. Coolest author you’ve ever met? 

You two broads are trying to get me into trouble since many of my friends are authors. Outside of the writers I normally hang out with, George Pelecanos. He's the definition. The man writes, walks, and talks cool. [Scott is the only person who can call us 'broads' and not risk injury.]

15. If you could be any detective in any novel, who would it be? Please don’t say Stephanie Plum….

Since the best detective writers have haunted or wounded heroes, I'd be Richard Prather's Shell Scott. He was oddly good looking with a white buzz cut and piece of his ear cut, drove a cool car, always had a great quip, never seemed to want for cash, and slept with at least two great looking babes in under 180 pages. Don't know if I'd want to be him when the was naked on top of the hot air balloon. [There's a mental image that'll linger.....] 

Here's Scott recommending blog pal Taylor Stevens' newest book and upcoming MysteryPeople at BookPeople event.

Keep Austin Noir.

Quick Questions: More Holiday Books

Yesterday's post was so popular (and because we received some responses after we published last night), we've slapped together a follow-up entry.  Same two questions: 1. What was the best book you received as a gift this holiday season? and 2. What was the best book you gave/sold?  Here are the responses.

Caren Creech Berlanga – B&N Community Relations Manager & cat hoarder

Sorry...just now getting to this. For kids, If You Give a Dog a Donut, The Son of Neptune, and Janitors(Tyler Whitesides). For teens...Vanish...the new book by Sophie Jordan...also Through Her Eyes...a ghost story set in the panhandle. For adults...the Mike Leach book Swing Your Sword for sports fans. And David Liss, Joe McKinney and Rhiannon Frater...any of their books for fiction fans.

Tracy Kaempfe  - Hastings Entertainment buyer and one of the only people in Amarillo who still speaks to Gianna

I am back to reading the classics, or, more accurately the banned classics. Currently, I am reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and then will move on to Lolita by Nabakov, neither of which I was allowed to read in high school.

Brucette Beitz -- B&N Bookseller who can’t seem to retire

The ONLY book I received this year as a gift was, My Last Supper: The Next Course and it is a second after My Last Supper. 50 chefs tell what they would eat, who they would eat it with and who would cook it! I LOVE IT!!!!

Tiffany's cat Wombat

Hand sold more vegan cookbooks than I can count!

Tiffany Gale – Bookseller at BookPeople

Got: Wolf: The lives of Jack London by James L. Haley- Recently read The Call of the Wild and White Fang and absolutely loved both of them so I'm excited to read this biography.

Gave: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali- I've given this book so many times. It's an incredible story, told by an incredible woman.

And here's my cat: Wombat

Julie Bach -  BookPeople Publicist and one of our favorite people

Julie

The best books I gave this season were to my mom. The Art of Fielding and a signed copy of A Visit From the Goon Squad. She cried. Apparently she'd gone to her bookstore in Fargo, ND, half a dozen times debating whether or not to spend the money on a copy of Goon Squad and talked herself out of it every time (money's tight). Art of Fielding deals with baseball, and it's in hardcover, so it was a big hit.

The best book I got this season wasn't quite a gift. Well, it was a gift I gave myself - a reader of A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer Dubois. It isn't out until March. This was the perfect book to take on the plane. It's big and made me look smart. But also, it's a great story. I was quickly and totally immersed in the world of Cold War Russia and the plight of one chess player to be World Champion, and the simultaneous story of a young woman dealing with her diagnosis of Huntington's Disease (and not dealing with it gracefully, either). Judging by her author photo, Dubois looks to be young, so I was skeptical when I picked it up because I don't believe anyone younger than I am can do anything very well unless her name is Tea Obreht, but man can this girl tell a story. Swept me right up. I can't wait to start handselling it.

What did I handsell the most - well, the Steve Jobs bio was probably in my hand more often than any other book, but....Okay, I didn't handsell this book the most, but I did handsell one copy of Gene Wilder's My French Whore to someone. Timeless Christmas classic, indeed. Probably hand sold The Tiger's Wife more than anything else.

Carla Buckley

Carla Buckley – Author of Things That Keep Us Here (which Gianna loved) and Invisible due out 2012

This year, I gave my husband Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and sure enough, he can't turn the pages fast enough. I think it's a brilliant book, but really--that's like saying the Earth is round. I gave my older daughter Still Alice and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, because she's an aspiring writer and I wanted her to see how any career path a writer chooses can shape and influence their work in marvelous ways. I gave, at her request, my younger daughter the Hunger Games trilogy because she had borrowed the copies she'd read and she wanted her own set to keep.

Dr. Who and James

This year, my husband gave me The Paris Wife because I'd done an event with Paula McLain last year and he knew I was eager to read her latest release. I LOVED IT. My sister gave me Before I Fall Asleep, and I gave myself The Drop because no holiday is complete without a solid thriller at hand. I think it's Connelly's best.

James Parker -- Hastings graphic novels buyer and unabashed geek

Best I got: (Graphic Novel) Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil (one of my favorite indie graphic novel series). Best I gave: American Gods By Neil Gaiman (I have read this book at least 10 times. So good!)

Pat's cat Fred

Pam Kaufman -- Random House Telephone Sales Rep and Regular Words With Friends Loser (to Liz)

Hey watch who you call a loser, missy.  [Heh.] This is really sad, but I didn’t receive any books for the holiday, however I gave one of my favorite books to my mom.  And that book is Chinaberry Sidewalks on CD.  I thought my mom would really like this because she grew up in the South and I thought she would love Rodney Crowell’s story, which is full of humor and a great sense of place.  The bonus in the CD is that he reads it himself. 

Stacey

Stacey Carlini -- Random House Telephone Sales Rep and Words With Friends Loser (to Liz)

1) Sadly, I received no books this holiday season. I think after helping me move my entire book collection this summer, my friends and family firmly believe I own enough books!

2) I gave my ex-husband a copy of Monica Bellucci, a lovely Rizzoli book filled with 150 (scantily clad) photos of his all-time favorite actress. I think he wept.

Anne Holman -- Bookselling Goddess at The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah

The best book I received is The Pruning Book by Lee Reich because a girl's got to know how to get rid of the dead wood. [...We don't think this statement is a euphemism for anything, but one never knows.]

The best book I read/sold was I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen because it is nothing short of brilliant. 

Quick Questions: Holiday Giving

We asked some of our pals in the book business two questions--1. What is the best book you received as a gift this holiday season? and 2. What is the best book you gave/sold?  Here are some of the answers.

Seth Ransom Osborn– musician, BookPeople bookseller, pal of Vanny (pictured)  

Gave: Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey.

Seth's pal Vanny

Received - I got a pretty ok picture book of Big Bend but that's it. I bought myself a copy of The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor. It's real pretty.

Alison Kothe Nihlean – Mother of two and BookPeople bookseller

Books I gave as presents this christmas:

Bossypants on cd

Chris

Plenty by Ottolenghi

I Want My Hat Back by Klassen

Books I loved to hand sell:

The Tiger's Wife

Cutting For Stone

Home Field

Homesick Texan Cookbook

Chris Hoyt -- BookPeople receiving guy and proud Texan

The only book I was gifted this year was a Jack Chick tract from a well dressed hobo squatting near the Walgreen's Redbox. It was the perfect gift.

Elaine in the snow.

As for gifts given, I've lost count of how many copies of Dobie's Tales of Old Time Texas I've given to people. Strangers often stop me on the street asking how is it that I have come to embody all that is rugged and handsome and utterly Texas. To this I reply Dobie. 

Elaine “Lainey” Rathgeber – Sales representative for Southern Territory Associates and tennis nut

One of the best books I gave (because the recipient was so happy to get it) was The Art of Fielding and one of the best books I received was Rules of Civility.

Charley's pal Ophelia

Charley Carroll – Barnes & Noble Bookseller, community relations manager and generally cool person

You probably already know my book of the year...Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I handsold his first, The Name of the Wind, dozens of times and gifted it to my brother. Sadly, I did not receive any books as gifts.

Elizabeth Jordan – BookPeople book buyer and woman after Gianna’s heart

Best received: A signed first printing of The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. (It's the best not only because it was the only one I got).

Elizabeth...and a firearm.

Best given: The Complete Pogo Strips Volume 1 by Walt Kelly. My 80 year-old grandmother is obsessed with Pogo - quotes it all the time. She's not reading much anymore so it was great to see her so excited about a book again.

                         


John Kwiatkowski, Anne Kimbol and Matt Keogh from Murder by the Book in Houston 

Apparently, our friends and family don't seem to love any of us. None of us got books as gifts this year.

Anne’s book that she gave/and hand sold the most was Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James.

John, who loves Celine Dion

The book Matt --gave was The Friends of Eddie Coyle be George Higgins.

I (John) gave my nieces and nephews a big box of some of my favorite YA books for Christmas. Here's what was in it: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, Spellwright by Blake Charlton, Heist Society by Ally Carter, The Oracles of Delphi Keep and The Curse of the Deadman's Forest by Victoria Laurie, Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz, and Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Michele Sulka -- Liz's Random House rep partner for Colorado

Best received: A Storm of Swords, otherwise known as Book # 3 in George Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, because I have gone completely batshit crazy for these books. Can you say batshit on your blog? [We've certainly said worse.  You go with your batshit self!] I flew through book #2 and made it known that if book 3 wasn’t immediately at the ready when I needed it, there might be violence. People have described the series as The Lord of the Rings but with lots of sex, and that’s pretty accurate, but I like to think of it as The Sopranos with swords. And dragons. And lots of sex.

I gave a copy of Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl to my best friend’s daughter, who is 11 and reads constantly. We’re not sure where she got it because neither of her parents are great readers but she devours books and she’s in love with Jerry. She called to thank me and was so excited that it was one of the best moments of the whole holiday season for me.

Jeremy Ellis – Store Manager, Brazos Bookstore

Jeremy

Danielle wins the prize for giving me the best books this year. First, a beautiful edition of James and the Giant Peach in French, because we like to imagine we can read/comprehend the French. And second, an amazing craft edition of Rimbaud's A Season in Hell, in French and English, translation by Nick Sarno. 

I gave lots of copies of Schott's Quintessential Miscellany (at least 6) because they're endlessly fascinating and everyone can find something neat inside. The book I enjoyed handselling most was We Need a Horse by Sheila Heti, painted by Clare Rojas from McSweeney's Press. It's not for everyone, but for those who connect with the fable, it is the among the most remarkable illustrated books they have ever read.

Danielle Dubois Dimond – Bookseller and buyer at Brazos Bookstore

Danielle

BEST BOOK I RECEIVED THIS HOLIDAY - The best book(s) I received this year were first editions of three volumes of Anais Nin's Diaries.  I don't believe the whole set is still in print, so my husband did a little local used-book sleuthing for me.  I love reading authors' diaries because, as a writer myself, I'm really interested in what's going on behind the scenes with an artist's creative process.  Nin's diaries are kind of the holy grail because not only are they beautifully written, exhaustive, and subtly psychedelic, but they're naughty as hell, too.  High-brow wank material is clearly where it's at.

BOOK I HANDSOLD THE MOST - Definitely The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - we actually sold so many copies of that one that the Knopf editors sent me a signed copy!  I read this one immediately because the super-savvy book club I run at Brazos wanted to check the new Man Booker winner out as soon as this year's prize was announced.  It blew me away.  Barnes is a serious and intellectually rigorous writer who still manages to keep the pages turning.  His ruminative exploration of memory, responsibility, and age stood out from the crowd immediately as a "grown up" book - something we don't see a whole lot of these days, to be frank.  I certainly didn't sell the book to anyone looking for light and fluffy reading, but then again Brazos isn't known for light and fluffy!  The fact that book is so short seemed to help me sell it as well; shorter books tend to make better gifts, and even those customers who were apprehensive about reading something "serious" felt that they could weather it for 130 pages.  Almost everyone I've spoke to who's read the book has read it twice through.  A definite Brazos favorite.

Toni and Pat Conroy

Toni Hetzel -- Liz's Random House rep partner for Texas and Mississippi

I didn’t get any books for the holidays. I think people are reluctant to give them to me because I work in the industry. However, I set aside a copy of The Sense of an Ending to read during my break and loved it. A wonderful present to myself!

I, in the guise of Santa, gave my kids books for Christmas this year and the one they’ve loved the most is the National Geographic Ultimate Weird But True. 

Nicole Magistro -- Owner of The Bookworm of Edwards in Edwards, Colorado

Are you kidding? Bookstore owners never receive books for Christmas. It's a travesty!

My favorite book sold was Peter Sis's Conference of the Birds. A work of art, and a book that can't be duplicated on a digital reader. Just feel that paper quality!

Kester Smith -- BookPeople bookseller

Kester, Harry, and Rachel

I didn't get one book this holiday. I don't get books MOST holidays.

One of the (very few) downsides of being a bookseller in the know is that people don't think to buy me books or are intimidated by the idea of buying me books. They think of ME as the guy who gets THEM books (which I am). Best book I gave? Pulphead. To more than one person. Best book I hand-sold? Same. To around 25 or so customers.

Not that you asked, but my best sale was The Red Book by Carl Jung. A customer came to my register and saw it sitting behind me (where we keep the $200 books) and asked, "Hey, is that The Red Book?" When I responded in the affirmative, he said, "I've heard it's cool." My response was then, "It is. You should buy it." And he did.

Lisa Newman --bookseller and blog princess, Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi

1. Sadly, nobody gave me a book.

2. I think the best book I sold was 1Q84.

Maggie

Maggie Lowery Stevenson -- bookseller, Lemuria Books

Since I started working at Lemuria no one gives me books anymore so I have to give them to myself.  This year I gave myself the Delta Magazine Cookbook.

I sold many books over the holidays, but probably the ones I sold the most copies of were The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jusi Adler Olsen, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie, and Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.  I also I am very proud that I was able to sell 7 copies of Crafting with Cat Hair by Kaori Tsutaya! [...No comment.]

Joe's son

Joe Hickman -- Bookseller, events guy, manager type, Lemuria Books, self-described "bad ass"

1.  You know no one even gave me a book. I think it's like giving a florest flowers - people are afraid to. Except I know other booksellers get books so maybe it's me - maybe I'm an ass. Actually, I didn't get too many gifts so....

2. 1Q84 

Clint Carroll -- BookPeople bookseller

I didn't get any books for Christmas, but I bought myself a copy of The Collected Plays Of Tennessee Williams, and I love it. I gave only one book this year and it was Home Field, published by UT Press!

Nolan Fellows -- BookPeople bookseller and talented artist

Nolan

I didn't get any books for Christmas, which isn't much of a surprise. My tastes are quite picky when it comes to books, movies, records, etc.

The book I love to tell people about and would give when I need to is How Soon is Never by Marc Spitz. It's a really great, quick read perfect for anyone who has ever loved music or a band way too much.

Gianna -- Book Land Adventurer, most willing to dispose of Liz's body in a remote location

Books I gave this year - I gave the photography book Timeless Mexico to my brother Chris, the Stephen King novel 11/22/1963 to my brother Ron. I gave my father the latest John Grisham  (The Litigators)and the ESPN book Those Guys Have all the Fun. I also gave my mother the latest Stephanie Plum book - she loves the series - and I bought my girlfriend a Running Press book called Upcycling...which she asked for...I think it's a crafty book which scares me.

I received two excellent books. One from Lizzy and one from the old lady. Liz gave me a signed first edition of the Diane Keaton memoir Then Again. I haven't read it as I don't want to mess it up. Hoping someone else will give me a unsigned 3rd edition so I can actually read it. My girlfriend gave me a truly cool book published by Lonely Planet called The Cities Book. I think she wants me to be smarter. To her I say good luck.

Liz and Gianna...awkwardly.

I also gave signed copies of Molly Shannon's children's book Tilly the Trickster to my best friend Lulu (who is a real choo choo charlie), and to my little friend Eleanor who is a class act.

I gave myself It Chooses You by Miranda July and an Art of Fielding UK first edition. I also gave myself a hangover on Jan 1st. My first in years.

Liz -- Book Land Adventurer, Gianna's foil

Despite repeated hints, no one gave me the $200 art book on my list.  I could be a little bitter.  I did receive some non-Random House books (I don't ask for RH books since I read them for work), including Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jabar and Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta.

I gave quite a few books this year, including Gianna's signed Diane Keaton memoir.  I managed to part with a signed first printing of Interpreter of Maladies; I considered keeping it for myself.  I also gave copies of In the Garden of Beasts, The Destiny of the Republic, and The Sisters Brothers...and about 10 other books.  I mostly give books because I mostly want books in return.

The Local Crusade

Kurt Vonnegut display at BookPeople in Austin.

Allow me (Liz) to start with a disclaimer.  Normally we steer clear of politically charged topics in this space because our passions are generally literary or humorous...or possibly perverse.  We're booksellers at heart, and as such we are also mercenaries.  While we mostly talk about the books we love, both Gianna and I believe that the more important issue is that people are reading, period, and we'll pretty much sell you anything in print.  Even if it's Twilight. (We didn't have to sell Twilight, mercifully.  Not that there's anything wrong with a vampire romance set in high school, or, like, a 200 year-old preying on a high school girl.... but you should totally buy Twilight. I'm Team Jacob!  (I don't really know what that means.)) A literate culture is a thinking culture, and a thinking culture...is more likely to get the joke.  I wondered how many people caught the Of Mice and Men reference in the Saturday Night Live skit last week, for example.  The following entry, however, is influenced by my personal bookselling history and political beliefs, and I do not claim to speak for Gianna, other contributors to this blog (should there be any), or the companies for whom we work.

I'm pretty sure that I see either a tweet or Facebook status update every single day that espouses the foodie movement.  Eat local ingredients, shop at farmers' markets, zucchini tastes better than a Snickers bar, etc.  I am a failing foodie, mostly because I have the palate of a seven year-old.  I watch Top Chef because I like to watch passionate and talented people throw down with the competition...and I like it when CJ's broccolini (I don't know what that is, by the way, or if I even spelled it correctly) comes out of the cooking device looking like cat hackings.  It's the same reason I love figure skating--nothing's better than Sasha Cohen going splat at the Olympics.  The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!  Excellent.

Where was I?

Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado.

Foodies. Right.  I don't understand how it is that everyone seems to agree at least philosophically that eating fresh ingredients and consciously shopping from local carrot pluckers is the ethically correct action...and then they don't pay attention to where they buy their other goods.  Just like the rampant and repetitive postings about the importance of local food, I see at least one article a week declaring that books are a dead medium and that all bookstores will fail.  And I'm going to state it, particularly as we head into the holiday season and  national retailers fall over backwards trying to undercut one another: price matters, but source matters more.

Again, I realize that I'm personally invested in buying books from local bookstores because a large part of my job is selling books to these stores.  My job is directly connected to the success of Random House titles at these stores, many of which we feature on this blog (and we'll continue to do so).  The people who work in these stores are my friends.  I want to make sure they keep their jobs.  I also want to see that my community--I identify as both an Austinite and Houstonian, having lived in Austin while working at BookPeople and currently residing in Houston with my Random House job--thrives and doesn't look like every other place in the world of sprawl.  I believe that my money should by-and-large support locally owned businesses and the people who toil in them everyday.  I believe in paying taxes.  Taxes pay teachers and teachers teach reading and readers buy books and book buyers keep me employed.  Hakuna Matata and Circle of Life, etc etc etc.  It matters.  It matters when you buy a toy at a large retailer because you've been told it's cheaper in massive advertising campaigns, and then you decry how manufacturing jobs have been shipped to China.  Who shipped them there?  That retailer, by demanding that manufacturers devalue their goods to the point that sweat shop labor is the only way to produce those toys.  The choices we make as consumers are the differences between failing and thriving, locally, nationally, and globally, as a country.

Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi

The state of Texas, where I reside and whose governor currently claims success for a balanced budget, is bankrupt.  Social services are non-existent, and to maintain the campaign facade of economic frugality, thousands of teachers are now unemployed or face future unemployment.  It'll be interesting to see what happens when all the nursing homes close too and suddenly the people so vehemently opposed to the "liberal" (and I would argue that "liberal" means humanitarian) agenda are forced to wipe granny's butt themselves.  It ruins the aura of McMansion living, you know?  Tax dollars pay for teachers, and they subsidize health care facilities, and they guarantee a quality of life which I think generally everyone supports.  At the same time, in Texas, there is a political battle raging over the issue of collecting online sales taxes.  I admit that I regularly shop online; it's easier to find clothing for my six foot frame and size eleven feet.  I do try to shop from local businesses with an online presence, however, and keep my tax dollars close to home...and not shirk my responsibility of paying those taxes. That's money that pays for the teachers producing future readers who support bookstores who keep me employed so that I can buy stuff from stores, and so on.  It's important. Cheaper is not the only factor in consumer awareness.

The book industry currently is a maelstrom of change.

E-readers became the hot gadget a couple of years ago, instantly changing the ways that publishers and booksellers think about bookselling, and certainly changing the ways that readers think about books.  E-books, by their very nature, are an online market.

At the same time, price wars for physical books among national retailers over the last couple of years have trained consumers that books aren't worth $25 but a fraction of that.  In order to gain a customer following, they've regularly and deliberately sold books for a loss.  Books ARE worth the prices charged.  There are writers, editors, publishers, designers, printers, marketers, sales departments, human resources, warehouse workers, customer service representatives, and booksellers, etc, that all have to earn their livings from that $25.  General retailers that sell a wide variety of products make up the difference in their losses by selling consumers toasters at a higher price; bookstores generally don't have that option.  In order to stay in business, they need to charge what the book's worth, and keeping bookstores open is important because...?  Remember the circle of life stuff earlier?  Money stays in the economy, and we all keep our jobs and granny stays in the nursing home and junior doesn't end up as some illiterate beast-child.

Judith, Tom, and Pippin the dog, at
Octavia Books in New Orleans.

On top of the economic value of local bookstores, though, there is also the social currency.  These are the taste-makers, the local farmers markets of the book world.  They--along with librarians, and some other big mouths in the blog world, and once upon a time Oprah--help consumers find those magical stories that inform our lives.  At some point, a bookseller read Of Mice and Men, recommended it to customers and teachers who began to teach it in schools, where it became a cultural reference point, and last week that bookseller's work appeared in a Saturday Night Live sketch.  Books provide joy, adventure, knowledge, and shape everyday conversations.  They are art pieces for which their creators slaved for sometimes decades (well...not James Patterson, perhaps).  They are important.  And the booksellers largely are the key to finding those diamonds among the thousands of books out there.  You read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo because your friends read the book, and they read it because booksellers all over the country were saying to their customers, "Check out this book.  I really think you'll like it."

So let's go back to the e-book issue.  Amazon has the Kindle, Barnes and Noble has the Nook, Apple has the iPad, Sony has the Sony Reader, and there are a dozen other reading devices out there.  The e-book world has opened for the other readers, and consumers have the freedom to choose where to spend their e-book dollars.  Most e-readers will support books purchased from Barnes & Noble, but also from Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, or BookPeople in Austin, or Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, or Tattered Cover in Denver.  In other words, e-book customers with devices (other than Kindles; Amazon is proprietary) have the ability to continue to support local businesses.

The prices?  In the book world, publishers became concerned enough about the devaluing of e-books by retailers that they established what's known as the Agency Model.  What it means for consumers is that publishers establish the value of an e-book.  When The Blind Assassin e-book is on sale for $5.99 on Amazon, it is also on sale for the same price at BN and Apple and Google E-Books, the e-book provider for the local bookstores who provide an e-book service through their websites.  You as a consumer aren't shopping for cheaper, so you can select where your dollar has the greatest impact to you, your friends, your community.

Some books, like Sondheim's
lyrics collection, don't work
as well in the digital format.

I'm often asked if I read e-books, and if I prefer a format.  I would argue that I read books, and in a variety of formats.  I read hardcovers, I read trade paperbacks (the size most of most of those book group picks), I occasionally read a mass market (the grocery store size), and I read e-books.  I read many manuscripts for work, and it's more cost efficient and environmentally conscious for Random House to post digital manuscripts rather than Xerox thousands of pages for reps across the country.  I also buy e-books occasionally.  And I buy them from a local bookstore.

Several weeks ago I took up my Chuck Palahniuk reading challenge and, for the first time in about four years, I read paper books exclusively.  I delighted in the tactile joy of reading books in this format.  I will always be a book collector; in my mind, my books are a scrapbook of my life, and even if I read an e-book manuscript, I want to own the physical reminder of that book to mark that period in my life.  I want the authors I admire to sign those books, like signing a painting.  I buy my books from local bookstores, though, and I also buy my e-books from local bookstores.  I owe it to my friends and colleagues and my community.

Google provides e-book services
for local bookstores, and for
most e-reading devices.

The book business is notoriously tough, and yes, some bookstores--most notably Borders--have closed.  Ten years ago, bookstores were considered successful if they could make a 2% profit for the year.  Now most stores just pray to stay flat.  The stores that have great customer service and unique personalities, though, are foundations for their communities and some of them are thriving.  I would point back to the food industry.  Think about all the "only x percent of restaurants survive the first year" stats, but also think about the foodie culture that makes restaurants tourist destinations across the country and chefs into celebrities.  Bookstores should be vacation destinations too, and booksellers should be celebrities.  Once upon a time, Oprah could mention a book she loved and millions of people who trusted her taste scrambled to buy her picks.  We have local bookseller celebrities all over the country, and I'd argue that they are far more in tune with the books out there, the gems that enrich our lives--they know you and your towns and they are Oprah on steroids (and often with more tattoos).

As the holiday season approaches, I humbly plead that you consider the greater implications of every dollar you spend.  Give books as gifts, whatever the format, but choose wisely.  The content may be the same, but the book's value varies dramatically.  Become bookies.