“While pressure from Amazon forced Borders out of business in 2011, indie bookstores staged an unexpected comeback. Between 2009 and 2015, the ABA reported a 35% growth in the number of independent booksellers, from 1,651 stores to 2,227.” Professor Ryan Raffaelli read this surprising statistic and decided to study what exactly independent bookstores were doing in order to reinvent themselves and thrive. He found it has to do with indies embracing the three Cs; community, curation and convening. The full report will be released in 2018 but you can glimpse a preview here. Three cheers for indies!
Indies Thriving in the Age of Amazon
Book Club Guilt
"denial. A defense mechanism predicated on your inability to accept the painful reality that you are supposed to be reading the selected novel that you literally tried to bury." At The Toast, Zane Shetler writes a glossary of book club defense mechanisms. Pair with: Our essay on spying on your book club friends.
No Slight Thing
Recommended Reading: This bizarre little story by Diane Williams as recommended by Deb Olin Unferth at Electric Literature. The story can be found in Williams' recently published collection of stories Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine.
Free That Verse
From the Beat poet to the particularly heroic couplet, here's a handy illustration of poetic justice from Grant Snider over at The New York Times.
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The F-Bomb on the Silver Screen
Wikipedia Find of the Week: A list of films that most frequently use the word "fuck."
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Edan Lepucki to Help Judge the Tournament of Books
Our own Edan Lepucki will be among the judges for the 2013 Tournament of Books. Yeah here come the rooster, yeah / Which book's gonna win?
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