The blog associated with Ptak's online science bookstore is an absolutely fascinating, frequently-updated tour through historical, social, and scientific miscellany extracted from unusual books in the collection of the author, John Ptak. [more inside]
posted by Rumple on Jun 23, 2009 - 5 comments

Tired of dealing with Amazon and the chains? New in town and wondering where all the best bookstores are? Traveling and looking for a bookstore on your visit? Try the new Publishers Marketplace Bookstore Maps mashup. There you can find all stores in an area, or just the kind you're looking for—e.g. just B&Ns in Pittsburgh or just indies and specialty stores in San Francisco. Notice a store is missing? Tell them so they can add their store to the map. Future plans include adding granularity to the specialty store category so that you can sort by type, such as Mystery, Science Fiction, Used, or Gay & Lesbian.
posted by Toekneesan on Sep 4, 2008 - 24 comments

Librarians as Enemies of Books
via the delightfully uptight Steve Mauer at BookMine.
posted by carsonb on Jun 7, 2007 - 66 comments

The Bookseller's Story, Ending Much Too Soon. Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post writes about Mohammed Hayawi, "a bald bear of a man," who ran the Renaissance Bookstore on "Baghdad's storied Mutanabi Street." Back in 2005, Phillip Robertson wrote a Salon article about Al Mutanabbi Street, "Baghdad's legendary literary cafe, the Shabandar, " and Hajji Qais Anni's stationery store: "Hajji Qais had been on Al Mutanabbi street for 10 years and the vendors all knew him... He wore a beard and was also known as a devout Sunni who had no problem hiring Shia workers or spending time with Christian colleagues." Both Hayawi and Hajji Qais were killed by bombs, the cafe has been gutted, and the street that "embodied a generation-old saying: Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, Baghdad reads" is no longer its old self. "When the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, it was said that the Tigris River ran red one day, black another. The red came from the blood of nameless victims, massacred by ferocious horsemen. The black came from the ink of countless books from libraries and universities. Last Monday, the bomb on Mutanabi Street detonated at 11:40 a.m. The pavement was smeared with blood. Fires that ensued sent up columns of dark smoke, fed by the plethora of paper." Two views of a part of Baghdad that doesn't make the news much.
posted by languagehat on Mar 13, 2007 - 42 comments

Sudden capricious friendship with secondhand books -- a lovely little tribute to quiet expansive pleasures by Virginia Woolf. Where do used books find you? [via the ever-marvelous wood s lot]
posted by digaman on Mar 30, 2006 - 33 comments

The Ministry of Reshelving
This week, we launched the Ministry of Reshelving project. My partners in crime as founding members of the ministry: George, Kiyash, and Monica. This weekend we relocated 19 copies of George Orwell's 1984 in four different bookstores in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Berkeley. It was high stealth adventure. You are invited to join our efforts.
Sounds like mischievous fun. Which books would you reshelve?
posted by nofundy on Aug 18, 2005 - 118 comments

Shortly after learning of the closing of Avenue Victor Hugo Books in Boston, a fire destroys Spartacus books in my former haunt Vancouver. Although obviously not related, the demise of these two institutions is sad, though Spartacus is trying to carry on through a series of fundraisers this summer. Good photos of AVH and Twelve Reasons for the death of small and independent bookstores.
posted by grimley on Apr 27, 2004 - 35 comments

Looking for that rare science fiction first edition? The Barry R. Levin Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature store just might have the volume you seek.
posted by starscream on Nov 24, 2003 - 2 comments

Must people who work in book shops have an English Literature degree? "At Foyles, the book-lover's bookshop, I approach the counter with a copy of James Joyce's Ulysses. "I bought this book the other day," I say, "and I want my money back. It's full of typing errors and there's no punctuation." But who dumbed down first, the readership or the book trade? Also, I notice Books etc isn't included, perhaps because the clerks in that chain have to write little reviews of all the books they read, which are then put on the edges of the shelves ...
posted by feelinglistless on May 7, 2002 - 39 comments

Beyond Amazon. The latest Holt Uncensored is a review of online book stores from various regions of the U.S., including Boulder Bookstore, with its "invaluable subsites," YogaSight.com and BuddhaSight.com, Square Books where "You'll feel almost set down in the hot and leafy Courthouse Square of Oxford, Mississippi," Amazon Bookstore Cooperative ("not *that* Amazon [but] the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America" (in Minneapolis) - and a dozen more. Do you have a favorite that was left out?
posted by ferris on Dec 2, 2001 - 6 comments

Chain bookstores are the book lover's best friend. A compelling and detailed argument that the national bookstores are the best thing to happen to authors, publishers and readers in the last 20 years. Shamelessly lifted from Jorn.
posted by NortonDC on Jun 25, 2001 - 45 comments

Barnes And Noble steps up for sloppy seconds. After Amazon elected not to renew their agreement with Yahoo, Barnes and Noble replaced the online bookseller as Yahoo's premier advertiser for books. It is uncertain as to whether or not Yahoo and BN have had the grueling discussion regarding the number of partners they've each shared in the past, but it looks like an optimistic relationship regardless.
posted by Hankins on Sep 20, 2000 - 4 comments