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Borders Plans to Encourage Book Club Gatherings

Borders Tiny Store

The Chicago Tribune reports that Borders has a new plan to get readers into its bookstores. Borders plans to encourage readers to hold book group gatherings inside its stores. The Tribune says Borders wants its bookstores to become more of a gathering place.

Signs and posters telling shoppers to bring their book group to the store have gone out from corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., to Borders' 507 outposts, including 18 stores in the Chicago area, said Mary Davis, spokesman for the chain. Borders' Chicago flagship on North Michigan Avenue, which is slated to close next year, already has hosted a few private book clubs in its third-floor event space.

"We're encouraging stores to reach out to the public to say, �We're here,'" Davis said. "It's a way to drive traffic to the stores."

It sounds like a good plan. Many Borders stores now have cafes serving Seattle's Best coffee and plenty of chairs and tables for people to hang out. We saw some some ladies playing gin rummy at a Borders store the other day. Borders would be wise to also welcome writers' groups.

Posted on March 17, 2010
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Books Now Outnumber Games in the iTunes App Store

iTunes App Data

Apple's iTunes App store is a growing source for content. People download a wide variety of apps from navigation tools to shopping aids, but they also buy games and books on iTunes. Mobclix reports that the number of book apps on iTunes now outnumbers the number of games. You can see the latest chart here, which shows there are nearly 27,000 book apps on iTunes.

Penguin's digital publisher, Jeremy Ettinghausen, told the Guardian that most of the books listed on iTunes are free downloads. Ettinghausen also says "it's very easy to produce books for the iPhone" which helps explain why books outnumber games on iTunes.

Apple is hoping that when the iPad goes on sale on April 3rd more people will start buying books from iTunes.com. You can read more about how the iPad can be used as an ebook reader here.

Image: Mobclix

Posted on March 10, 2010
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How To Make It As A Songwriter
Mary Dawson's new book, How to Get Somewhere in the Music Business from Nowhere with Nothing, gives you the inside scoop on how to make it in the music business as a songwriter. Mary teaches you all you need to know to make your songwriting dreams a reality. Click here to learn more.

B&N To Test Book Bundles That Include Ebook and Printed Book

Publishers Weekly is reporting that Barnes & Noble is considering a plan to bundle print books and ebooks. The digital and print book bundles will launch in about 60 to 90 days. The plan was announced by Barnes & Noble.com president William Lynch at the AAP annual meeting.

Publishers Weekly also reports that William Lynch predicts there will be less bookstores in the future but they won't completely go away.

While he predicted there will be fewer bookstores in the future, he said bookstores will never go away, agreeing with "interviewer" David Young of Hachette Book Group that bookstores are where bestsellers are made, particularly for books that are put in the front of the store.

The bookstores that remain will have to find ways to keep customer foot traffic high if they want to continue to be the place where "bestsellers are made."

Posted on March 9, 2010
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Geoffrey Fletcher Wins Best Adapted Screenplay

Geoffrey Fletcher Oscar

Geoffrey Fletcher stands next to his Oscar backstage during the 82nd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre. Geoffrey Fletcher won Best Adapted Screenplay for his adpation of the novel Push by Sapphire. He is the first African American screenwriter to win an Academy Award. Fletcher beat out favorites Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner who wrote the script for Up in the Air. Fletcher is also an adjunct professor of film at Columbia University and NYU.

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire was nominated in six categories and won two Oscars. The second Oscar went to actress Mo'Nique, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as an abusive mother.

You can find more coverage of the Oscars, including fashion coverage, on our sister site ShoppingBlog.com's Oscar section.

Photo: Todd Wawrychuk/ � A.M.P.A.S.

Posted on March 8, 2010
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Why People Hate Dave Eggers

The Awl wants to know why so many people hate Dave Eggers. Maria Bustillos did a Google search for the most hated authors and what she found was surprising. While there were only two results for "I Hate Jonathan Franzen" (which is amazing, considering how annoying he is), there are 3888 results for "I Hate Dave Eggers."

Part of the hate accruing to Dave Eggers is undoubtedly due to crab-bucket syndrome, which is when there are a lot of rivals, e.g., writers who are struggling after success in the form of TED prizes and screenplay commissions, and then one of them actually succeeds, and the rest of his fellow-strivers and former comrades attempt to yank him back down again. In the case of Eggers this is commonly depicted as not just envy, but more like a sense that the litterati just ought to have a better representative. Better, somehow, in some way, than this seemingly self-promoting impresario.

As well, a great divide opened between youngs and olds on the issue of Eggers when Where the Wild Things Are finally emerged. Us olds don't just detest twee, childish sentimentality. We would douse it in kerosene and throw a match on it, if we could.

So who else inspires true hatred on the Internet? Well, there's Elizabeth Wurtzel (89 results of online hatred) and David Sedaris, who clocks in at 774.

Posted on March 5, 2010
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