Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Book Buying But Were Afraid to Ask

These last few weeks we’ve had representatives from nearly every publishing house up here in the mezzanine letting our head buyer, Arsen, know about their latest and greatest for the upcoming summer season. This made me realize that those of you not immersed in the business end of the book industry may not know how the book buying process works. I certainly never actively thought about it before I started working here – subconsciously deciding, I suppose, that every book ever published just sort of magically shows up on the shelves from efforts put forth by the book fairy. This is definitely (obviously) not the case.

Here’s a rough outline of how a book gets from a publisher’s catalogue to the shelves of your local independent bookstore:

1) The bookstore is inundated with Advanced Readers Copies (ARCs). Publishers send these to us, hoping one or both (especially both) of two things will happen:
a. The head buyer will read the book, love it, and buy 10+ copies of it for the store
b. Booksellers will read it, get excited about the book, and be able to talk about it with customers as soon as it comes out.
2) Publishing companies send the bookstores their catalogues. Recently, this has been done largely online to save paper and lower the costs of printing and shipping the physical catalogues to every bookstore.
3) Representatives from the publishing companies talk to the head buyer about what books they are excited about. Sometimes the Rep comes to the store, sometimes they simply call.
4) The buyer pairs down the catalogue using some combination of Rep picks and the store’s previous sales into the order they would like to place for that season. This process can be likened to “filling out your NCAA March Madness bracket,” says Arsen, “…you kind of know who the favorite teams are but not necessarily which ones are going to win.”
5) From there, the rep places the order with their publishing house and the books show up at our door on their publication date (hopefully).

I sat down with Arsen – which wasn’t too out of the ordinary considering his desk is across from mine – and asked him about some books to watch out for from this round of orders. He has a closet piled high with ARCs (pictured above, burying him alive) which he dug into and handed me a stack of books that grabbed his attention as he rifled through the piles. Here’s what he found:

Beautiful Ruins: A Novel by Jess Walter
This is “a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel” about an Italian man who goes searching for his long-lost love, an American starlet he saw fifty years prior.

Arsen: “This is his latest breakout novel. The last few were ‘breakout novels’, too, so we’ll see.”

A Natural Woman by Carole King
Carole King, famed songwriter of half of every song written in the 1970s, has a memoir coming out! She interviewed friends and family and with this memoir, she reflects on her life to the best of her recollection.

When I asked for a blurb about this one, he just started singing “You make me feel…” as uninhibited and out of tune as I’ve ever heard.

The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
The back of the book says “From the most celebrated heir to Darwin comes a groundbreaking book on evolution, the summa work of Edward O. Wilson’s legendary career.” Pretty big words to live up to, if you ask me. Wilson combines religion, philosophy, and science to create his own revolutionary theory on evolution.

Arsen: “Apparently there is going to be a lot of controversy when this comes out. He’s going to be challenging some of the basic tenants of evolutionary theory. ‘He believes group selection, not kin selection, is the primary driving force of human evolution.’ [reading from the back of the book] ‘Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature…’ The publisher is gleefully anticipating a big controversy.”

The Spinoza Problem by Irvin D. Yalom
The Spinoza Problem juxtaposes the lives of two historical figures – Baruch Spinoza and Alfred Rosenberg –in an exploration of philosophy and intellectualism.

Arsen: “This is something to do with Nazis and Spinoza. Other than that, I’m not really sure what this book is about. It’s supposed to be huge though.”

Making Babies by Ann Enright
Novelist Ann Enright writes about her experiences as a working, first-time mother. The expression on the kid’s face on the cover of this book is amazing.

Arsen: “Ann Enright won the Booker prize for The Gathering. Her latest novel, The Forgotten Waltz, I read and it was about breaking up a marriage with a kid so the topic of her new nonfiction book is interesting. I also think this could be the best parenting book since Operating Instructions.”

Arcadia by Lauren Groff
The front and back covers of this ARC appear, to me, to be reversed – I’m pretty sure it’s on purpose. This is about a man growing up in a commune in New York in the 1960s. Laina, a native New Yorker, loved this one. Ask her about it next time you're here.

Arsen: “I haven’t read this yet but what I like is that they didn’t design the cover to reflect The Monsters of Templeton – which is something they often do with authors; they have one hit book and design the next to remind you of that first book’s cover.” [Chris Cleave’s books come to mind] “I just think the theme will really appeal to Boulderites.”

He also handed me Mind-Blowing Sex: A Woman’s Guide by Diana Cage.
I think what this book is about is apparent in the title. This is the wild card in the stack, for sure. It’s by Seal Press though, the same company who published local Oysters and Chocolate bloggers Samantha Sade and Jordan LaRousse’s Nice Girls Naughty Sex.

Arsen: “I just think it’s a good idea.”

The two books Arsen is most excited about are Canada by Richard Ford and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson.

Of Canada, Arsen says: “This is a fantastic book about a boy whose ‘normal’ parents turn out to be bank robbers and he has to flee to Saskatchewan. I really loved this book. Ford's descriptions were great and it was just an amazing book. It’s not for people looking for a fast-paced thriller though. I saw him and said hello at Winter Institute this year and he just had this beatific aura about him. My friend suggested it may have been radiation poisoning, but whatever it was, he was glowing.”

And for Why Be Happy…? : “I had the pleasure of having dinner with her and she recited the first three pages of this book and it took a bit of time before we realized she was reciting rather than just carrying on the dinner discussion. It’s just written so conversationally.”



So. That’s what’s going on up here in the mezzanine for those of you who have accidentally stumbled up the stairs looking for the Buddhism or Nutrition sections. And those are the books to look out for this summer! We welcome questions and comments. What are you looking forward to? (whether it's on this list or not)

Ruminations on the Reading Resolution

Every year for the past ten years my New Years Resolutions have remained the same: take more pictures, gain 10 lbs (yes, you read that correctly), and be nicer to other people. The first resolution generally fails in part due to residual film hoarding compulsions of my youth – before these fancy schmancy digital cameras were invented. The second fails due to my ridiculously high metabolism and not having a comfort drive-thru food. The third is relative so I can’t comment on its definitive success or failure – I know I *try* (sometimes) but I also know that it’s an ongoing process.

This year, there’s been a lot of buzz around the bookstore and publishing communities about the Reading Resolution. I’m not certain whether this concept is revolutionary to this year or if I simply missed it in years past. I love this idea conceptually, but wonder if it wouldn’t yield the same results for me as annual resolutions one and three…While reading is something that I obviously enjoy doing and discussing, what would be a realistic way for me to take that passion and incorporate it into a reasonable goal? Let’s look at some variations on reading resolutions others have set:

• Reading a Classic

There are numerous books that fall into this category, that have somehow escaped my reading scope even though everybody else read it in high school or college and every book ever written references it. I’m concerned that this goal will make me stagnant in my reading endeavors. As possibly the most extreme example of this, my friend Becky has been trying to read Ulysses for the last three years. She makes headway for about 20 pages and then another book catches her eye. Then she finishes that one, decides to go back to Ulysses (which is her goal!) and makes slow, slow progress reading an average of a page per day for three weeks or not reading anything because she doesn’t feel like reading Joyce. I do not want this to happen to me. What I miss about school are the discussions in class, not the homework and falling behind on things I *should* be doing.

All that said, I do need to read the following: Emma, Jane Eyre, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Moby Dick, Madame Bovary, Ulysses (yes, it’s there, I’m gonna do it…some day), Infinite Jest, The Corrections, Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, Lord of the Flies, Lolita, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter (at least the first one); anything by Kerouac, Thompson, and Kesey, and so many others. One of the curses of working in a bookstore is that your “To Read” list seems to grow by two with every one read, and then that number triples while you’re shelving.

•Reading More

There are two ways one can read “More”.

-The first: reading faster. I have always been a slow reader. I love reading and I’m pretty good at it and with words in general, I just take my time with it. I read at approximately the same speed as I would if I were reading aloud—my own book-on-tape narrating in my head every time I crack the cover. While I often do say that I wish I read faster so I could read more, I’m not sure that this is 100% true. Whenever someone suggests learning how to speed read, a small part of my stomach twitches because I’m doubtful that I’d get the same enjoyment reading truly good description if I didn’t let it sink in; I wouldn’t experience things along with the character.

-The second: devoting more time to reading. This is a noble goal. For me, and I’m sure for many others, sadly, more difficult than I’m willing to admit. I leave work late-ish, get home in time to eat dinner (not always in time to help make it) and then there’s about an hour or two that I have free time before I get sleepy around 10pm. Sometimes I spend this time reading – put pjs on early, get into bed around 8:30 and read until I pass out. Those nights are nice. Sometimes I spend that time playing scrabble or watching a documentary with my fiancé, and rarely I venture out into the “real world” and socialize with other people. Then there are nights where grocery shopping and laundry need to happen – both of which take up a chunk of that free time. I mostly read on the bus, when I’m home alone, in a waiting room, and on the rare occasion I find myself taking time off from work to visit parents/grandma, in an airport and on planes. In my case, devoting more time to reading would largely mean playing hooky – great for me and reading, less great for my boss.

• Turning it into math: Reading for X amount every Y period of time

This is a step-by-step variation on the “Reading More” goal for people who enjoy rules and mini-goals. It would instantly set me up for failure. It also harkens back to my “homework” comment and would be less encouraging for me to “reach my full reading potential” because I’ll either be concentrating on the clock or the page numbers and thus draw my focus from the book.

• Reading Differently

By “differently” I mean branching out of your reading comfort zones. I’m primarily a literary fiction reader who dabbles in psychology/sociology and history books when I feel like I haven’t learned anything for a while. For me, this would largely mean reading Science Fiction, Fantasy, Spirituality, and Science books. I like this goal, but would I measure it? Would I have to read one “other” book for every literary fiction book I read? Or would I set a goal for a number of “other” books I read in a year? This also has the possibility of rendering me a stagnant reader, as the Classics section explains.

• Writing

Writing and reading are strongly related. I am currently in the middle of Pam Houston’s book Contents May Have Shifted (out in February!) and, as any good book will, it’s making me miss my college writing classes a lot. Reading like a writer and writing like a reader both add perspectives to each other that can change the reading/writing experience remarkably. Writing is definitely something I haven't done enough of in recent years.

In general, resolutions are great. They help to renew your energy about accomplishing a task that has been neglected for some reason or another, and can add valuable assets to your everyday life (such as exercising, and cutting back on vices like cigarettes, coffee, and junk food) …at least for a little while. A lot of New Years Resolutions articles focus heavily on how temporal the year-long goal is and how that spark fades after a few months (or weeks or days). Instead, the articles suggest making lifelong resolutions and goals that are not confined to a year – which is how I’m rationalizing writing a New Years blog post more than half way through January.

As with everything, resolutions work differently for different people. Some folks need structure to improve their lives in noticeable ways, while others are satiated knowing that they’re working toward an eventual life improvement strategy.

As for me and my reading resolution, I seem to be the latter and so I’m keeping it very open ended. I’m going to strive to be more mindful in making my reading choices. When choosing what to read, I’ll both read more books outside my standard picks and throw in a few classics when they suit my mood. I’ll also write when inspiration strikes me and read when I can and I feel like it – either by finding time or making time. Essentially, I’m going to keep on doing what I’m already doing, but “better”. I resolve to keep reading pleasurable, and I'll read “more” in that I'll try to have more time to myself, to enjoy it.

What about you? Do you have a reading resolution, or other New Years Resolution (I’m also still retaining the three annual resolutions as well as hoping to go on a vacation somewhere other than my parents’ house) you’d like to share – thus making it public and adding incentive/pressure for your success?

-christine

Guest Blogger Katie Shattered by a New Favorite

Wow! I’m a little bit speechless right now. I knew Shatter Me was going to be good but I had no idea I would love it as much as I did. I can already tell that this is going to be one of my top books of 2011.

Juliette has been locked up for 264 days. She has been in isolation for that whole time. When Adam is thrown into her cell one day she’s not sure if she should be happy that she has company or terrified of what she might do to him. You see, Juliette can kill with a single touch. And now someone else knows about her gift and they want to make a deal with her. Will Juliette choose to become a monster and use her gift for power or will she fight back for a chance at freedom and the boy she has always loved?

Shatter Me is a new kind of dystopian novel. Sure the world is the same as a lot of others; bleak and hopeless, but that is where the similarities end. Tahereh Mafi really made dystopian her own. I don’t feel like I can compare it to another book because it was just so unique from the characters to Juelitte’s crazy ability. The first thing that came to mind when reading about Juliette’s ability though was X-Men. I loved it!

I also want to mention the romance in this book. I normally wouldn’t dedicate a whole paragraph to the romance but I have to. Adam and Juliette were so good together. Adam was so sweet and caring but also strong and protective. It was so hot! Juliette was not weak by any means but it was so refreshing to read about a guy who is not afraid to show how he feels and stand up for the girl he cares about.

My absolute favorite thing about Shatter Me was the writing. I really wanted to pull some favorite quotes but I would end up sharing the whole book. I honestly cannot pick a favorite passage because they are all so beautifully written. I actually found myself tearing up many times at the way Tahereh Mafi described how Juliette was feeling. I have never felt more connected to a character.

Overall, Shatter Me is a new favorite of mine that I recommend to everyone. I could gush about this book for days! Go check it out!

"The Oracle of Stamboul" - More than a fairy tale for readers of every age

And now, a blog from Kyle Mares, Bookseller Extraordinaire:

As a bookseller, I recently had a long conversation in the children’s department with a retired teacher who was interested in writing historical fiction for readers of every age. She asked for my favorite examples of such novels, and beyond a few rudimentary classics I couldn’t name any published within the last five or so years. Everything seems to be dystopian futures or time travel, with little effort spent examining the authentic past.

If Michael David Lukas noted the dearth of such novels, he surely would have felt assured that his debut novel, The Oracle of Stamboul, would fill that lack. It certainly reads unlike anything you’ve read lately: blending historical facts with a kind of magical, heightened realism, Lukas recreates the lands of the Ottoman Empire of the late 19th century and focuses eventually on Stamboul (known today as Istanbul). A young girl chafing under her stepmother’s oppression and craving both freedom and further knowledge follows her father to Stamboul, where circumstances and vague prophecy mark her as the titular oracle whose knowledge and foresight will change the very course of history. Soon she has a larger choice to make: fulfill her destiny and serve the sultan or avoid her destiny and find that elusive freedom.

Being sensitive to descriptions of place, I was always entertained and often astonished at the depth of detail Lukas weaves into his narrative. Entire pages had to be read and immediately reread to fully absorb the richness manifested in the text, and Lukas is to be commended for finding so many varied ways of describing the kind of intricate décor and architecture found in the homes, businesses, and palaces of Stamboul. Melding historical fiction with a keen sense of visual aesthetics is how Lukas conjures up this very different time and place, and the beauty of his prose makes the reader an enthusiastic traveler back to 1885. Just as fascinating is the ongoing question of the prophecy regarding 8-year-old Eleonora Cohen. Is Eleonora an exceptionally bright young girl or a prophesized shaper of destiny? And what exactly does it mean to be the oracle?

Calling The Oracle of Stamboul a kind of fairy tale seems too simple, as its complexity and lushness combine with the magical elements in a way that moves beyond most fairy tales. I think it’s more appropriate to say that this novel has many facets that blend together as an evocative historical epic that imagines a fantastical possibility of magic in the destiny of the Ottoman Empire. Genre-busting as it sounds, The Oracle of Stamboul is highly recommended to any reader who loves the pleasure of well-written prose and the adventure of a faraway, long-ago world captured as lovingly as possible.

Get in the Halloween Spirit with "Ashes"

In the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to write a blog about Ilsa Bick's new YA horror novel Ashes. Liesl, who buys our children's and teen titles, has been going on about it for a month, so naturally I'm intrigued. Then, at our event with Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone) a few weeks ago, I met Katie, the wonderful reviewer behind Katie's Book Blog, and she told me how much she wanted to read Ashes, too. I've been wanting to partner more with local bloggers for some time, and this struck me as the perfect opportunity to feature a Guest Blogger. To my delight, Katie also thought this was a great idea, and has written an awesome review for a creepy book for us to feature this week. So, without further ado, I give you a Guest Blog, straight from Katie's Book Blog!:

Ashes is a dark and gritty tale of a world gone mad. Ilsa Bick does not shy away from anything and while at times it seems overwhelming, in the end it all adds up to one fabulous book.

Ashes packs a punch from the very beginning. It is full of action, suspense, and tons of terrifying revelations about what happens when there aren’t enough resources for everyone. It is full of death, destruction, and quite a few gory surprises. The scariest thing about Ashes is how realistic it is. It really makes you think that this could happen sometime in the very near future.

Every character, even the ones with the smallest roles, is three-dimensional and wonderfully well-rounded. Alex, the main character, is full of spunk, fight, and quite a few snarky comments. Ellie, one of the first characters we meet after Alex, is a breath of fresh air in the gloomy atmosphere of post-EMP United States. Even through the toughest times she lightens the moods and brings out Alex’s sweeter side. Tom is my favorite character because I think everyone can relate to him in some way. He is very real and steady. No matter what, I think everyone can find someone to relate to in Ashes.

Overall, Ashes is one of the most gripping stories that I have read in a long time. This trilogy is one to watch out for. It holds a lot of potential. If the following books are anything like this one, Ilsa Bick can expect to have a lot of engrossed fans. While it may be a little too gory and intense for some younger readers, I think older YA readers will really appreciate it.

Thanks, Katie! Here's to the start of a beautiful friendship.
Check out http://www.katiesbookblog.com/ for other great reviews of YA novels.

We the BBS Staff love "We the Animals"

One of the things I love about our staff here at BBS is our eclectic taste in books. Some of us are poetry nerds, others love sci-fi and fantasy, some are hard-core literary fiction fans. We've even got readers of romance, zombie novels, and the occasional zombie romance novel. With so many varied readers on staff, I always pay attention when I discover that half the staff are reading same book. A few years back, that book was The Hunger Games. Last year, it was Room. Now, it seems like everyone around here is reading We the Animals, a new novel from Justin Torres.

I asked around for some comments on the book from our booksellers, and here's what they said:

Justin Torres writes in images, emotions, and fragments of childhood disguised as prose. His manner is effortless yet heavy. His scenes are equal parts lovely and painful. And his stories hold a truth that sinks into your stomach and buries itself there. We the Animals is a beautiful, heart-wrenching recollection of hopeless poverty and youthful exuberance that can only be described as brilliant.
--Mari

We the Animals is a lyrical and captivating account of man's childhood, liberally seasoned with desperate nostalgia and universal appeal with a hint of urban tragedy. Torres delivers some of the most beautiful and heartfelt prose to grace a book cover in years. If you are looking for the next great American novella, this is it.
--Larry

A thought-provoking portrayal of the dysfunctional family, We the Animals by Justin Torres will pull you in with the poetry of its language and hold you in a world that is as uncomfortable as it is beautiful. It's the kind of novel we all should read and has left me questioning my own understandings of love, support, and family.
--Susan

The shock of Justin Torres' poetic novella about three young boys growing up in an impoverished family isn't the beatings, the abandonment, or the drunkenness, but the moments of tender love. It's the unbreakable bond between brothers that shines through the day-to-day horror of belonging to two people who became parents at fourteen. It's the stolen caress after the father's battering violence. It's the magnificent flow of Torres' language as he renders each painful scene in riveting detail. Finally, it's the sensitivity of a young boy living in home that has done everything to deaden tender feelings. This book is important as a testament of how love can endure in even the most impossible situations. Torres has captured the emotional heart of a wrung-out family in this jewel of a novella.
--Arsen

With deliberate style and delicate poetics, Torres invests a trio of young brothers with a worldliness steeling them against outside forces promising harm, yet leaving them ill-prepared against corruption from within. Sketching a complicated family trapped by heritage and class, Torres provides glimpses of the primal kind of love that binds them together and promises ultimate tragedy when it all falls apart.
--Kyle

Though it is marketed and sold as "fiction", Torres' story feels more like truth than the world outside the pages. In an observant and poetic voice, it is a telling of the classic story of three sons, narrated by the youngest. It's a book about brotherhood, coming of age, and the inevitable realization that our parents are people too. Lit by love and shadowed by pain, it is the true story of the human condition.

--Nicole

I think I know which book is next on my "to read" list...

What We're Reading

So I'm sitting at my desk, thinking about what to pick up this weekend (it's supposed to be pretty cold, so I plan on snuggling up indoors with a book and either apple cider or hot chocolate). I decided to use the best resources I have at my disposal -- coworkers. So I called around the store and asked booksellers, "What are you reading?"

Here's what they told me:

Patrick -- Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt
What he likes about it - "I love the writing. It's probably the funniest book I've read in a couple of months. It's a satire of something I didn't think could be satirized: sexual harassment."
Brief Plot Synopsis - A man finds success in a creative solution to sexual harassment in the workplace.

Christian -- Sabbath's Theatre by Philip Roth
What he likes about it - "I love it. I like that [Roth] can take such difficult and scandalous subject matter and still keep literary and artistic integrity while writing about it."
Brief Plot Synopsis- "A guy named Sabbath who is a puppeteer on trial for obscenity. He's a disgusting, dirty old man, but he brings up a lot of philosophical questions about society."

Ashanti -- The Stand by Stephen King
What she likes about it - "It's awesome. It's a really realistic rendition of an apocalyptic kind of end-of-the-world scenario and there's some really interesting magical realism among the survivors. King always has such realistic characters, it's probably his best quality as a writer."
Brief Plot Synopsis - "Despite bans on German warfare, a government experiment of a superflu gets spread among the populous and wipes out 99% of the human race."

Nicole (our newbie!)-- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
What she likes about it - "I really like the idea that the story is shaped around these pictures."
Brief Plot Synopsis - "A young boy discovers something strange about his grandfather's past."

Jorden -- Hark a Vagrant by Kate Beaton and Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant
What she likes about them - [HV] "It's hilarious. It's both history and good social commentary" DHWJ - "It's really sad but also funny, and just really sobering, I guess."
Brief Plot Synopses - "HV is Kate Beaton's second collection of comics and DHWJ is about how America is poor and keeps screwing themselves by voting Republican."

Ria -- Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
What she likes about it - [Ria had some difficulty putting her feelings for Elizabeth Bishops poems into sentences that would do them literary justice] "They're beautiful and...they're just awesome. They're awesome and amazing and wonderful and she's incredible."
Brief summary of the poems as a whole - "They're mildly humorous and honest without being overly confessional."

Stephanie -- Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor (who will be here on Monday!)
What she likes about it - "There's a good lead character. It's intriguing, and leaves you with a bit of a cliffhanger. I don't like that I have to wait for the next one though."
Brief Plot Synopsis - "Mysterious teen artist in Prague leads a secret second life and discovers who she really is."

Tracy -- The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins and David McKean
What she likes about it - "The whole reason I picked it up was because of David McKean. He did The Sandman and his art is just really awesome. I love him. So far, the science is described in a way that is helpful for people like me who don't have science-y backgrounds."
Brief Plot Synopsis - "It's about evolution. Which, I know the basics of it, but the way they're describing some of the concepts are really interesting and different."

Arsen -- Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston and When She Woke by Hilary Jordan
What he likes about them - [CMHS] "The writing's good and she's telling her story in a very interesting, unique way." [WSW] "It’s kind of creepy. It makes me want to make sure that Rick Perry doesn’t get to be president. "
Brief Plot Synopsis - "Futuristic tale where a woman wakes up dyed red because she has been convicted of the murder of her unborn child."

Laina -- All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen
What she likes about it - "I picked it up because it’s written by someone I went to college with. It’s a little bit along the lines of Alana – it’s a twin story (though not for middle readers!) it’s gender-bending, it’s doing this ‘what is the right path for you despite social convention,’ thing, it’s science, it’s invention, and I’m finding it’s really different to read books by people you know.”
Brief Plot Synopsis - "It's a new Victorian steampunk novel. A scientifically-inclined girl goes to exclusive all boys educational institution without anyone knowing who she really is."

...and so that's what folks around the store. What are you reading?