The SCIBA newsletter brings this upbeat report from the indie book world:
2010 is off to a roaring start with rep changes, a new store and several new owners to our existing stores. Pages: A Bookstore (Manhattan Beach) celebrates [its] grand opening on March 12. Both The Frugal Frigate in Redlands and The Yellow [...]
Stories in Book biz:
The latest on Book Soup and other SoCal bookshops
Update: SCIBA names 2009 book award winners
On Saturday night, indie booksellers from throughout Southern California gathered at the Los Angeles Biltmore to hand out book awards at the annual Author’s Feast.
Here’s a rundown of the 2009 winners:
Fiction: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (Random House)
Nonfiction: Celebrating with Julienne by Susan Campoy (Prospect Park Books)
T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award: The Grift by [...]
LAT: Vroman’s to buy Book Soup
Two of Southern California’s major independent bookstores are about to become partners: Pasadena-based Vroman’s has signed an agreement to purchase Book Soup in West Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times reports tonight.
Glenn Goldman, Book Soup’s longtime owner, began looking for a buyer when he fell severely ill, and the fate of the store has been up [...]
SoCal Independent Booksellers Awards, 2009 edition
The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association has named its finalists for the 2009 SCIBA Book Awards.
The awards honor fiction, nonfiction, mystery and children’s books by Southern California writers. This year, indie booksellers have added a new category — the Glenn Goldman Art & Architecture Book Award — in honor of the beloved founder of West [...]
Reading LA: `I’ve seen the future and it is literate’
Sophie Heawood of UK’s Independent takes in the LA bookscape and marvels at a thriving scene.
There’s one shop called Skylight Books, where they had to hastily scrawl signs saying “full to capacity” last night, after so many people crowded on to the street to see hit author Dave Eggers talk about his new book and [...]
Best Books Awards, Northern California edition
The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association handed out its annual book awards this week. Executive Director Hut Landon shares the winning titles:
Fiction: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial).
Nonfiction: The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, by Van Jones [...]
Catch a ride to the Festival of Books
SoCal Book Scene offers this excellent suggestion: Hitch a ride Saturday with Vroman’s or Warwick’s to the Los Angeles Festival of Books at UCLA. Take a moment to do the math: 130,000 attendees. 24,000 parking spots. Then get on the bookstore bus.
Here’s the rundown on this year’s festival, which features 450 authors, opening with Friday [...]
NorCal awards, book festival giveaway and April buzz
The Northern California Booksellers Association names its 2008 Book Award finalists — and will pick the winners April 19.
Vroman’s is giving away a pair of tickets to ride on the bookstore bus to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA on Saturday, April 25.
Mary McNamara kicks off the Times’ fictional serial today. [...]
Browsing Skylight Books: favorite book videos
Bookseller and late-night reader Emily Pullen stars in Skylight’s debut video, sharing her latest find at the bookstore’s blog.
Skylight Recommends from Emily Pullen on Vimeo.
San Francisco celebrates Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Chronicle’s Heidi Benson catches up with San Francisco poet and City Lights founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who turns 90 next week.
A snippet from the interview:
Q: Can writing be taught?
A: It has to be taut.
Q: Is texting poetry?
A: It can be.
Read the full story here.
P.S. Mayor Gavin Newsom has declared March 24 “Lawrence Ferlinghetti [...]
Beautiful bookstores, all-star libraries, LA stories
Chronicle Books twitters about this lovely photo gallery: The most interesting bookstores of the world. San Francisco’s Borderlands Bookstore, and its hairless Sphynx cat, makes the cut.
Library Journal showcases the nation’s “star” libraries, including sixteen here in California
The Los Angeles Music Center invites Angelenos to share their life stories and oral histories this month. The [...]
Seattle paper moves entirely online
As Hearst shuts down its print newspaper in Seattle this week, Executive Producer (and award-winning former SoCal journalist) Michelle Nicolosi talks about the future of the new SeattlePI.com:
The creation of SeattlePI.com as a standalone digital news and information business is a great opportunity for us to try out many of the theories journalism professionals [...]
The Big Read vs. the Big Gulp
Just spotted this tidbit over at The Elegant Variation:
“NEA Literature Director David Kipen has vowed to eat a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird if all 128 residents of Kelleys Island do not read the book.”
Mmmm.
Ten Speed Press sold & other bookish news
Random House buys Ten Speed Press, the indie Berkeley publisher. “They have a lot of eclectic and quirky books, and I think maybe the soil in Berkeley helps grow that,” Crown Publisher Jenny Frost tells the New York Times. “I wouldn’t want to take that away.”
The Los Angeles Times announces its Book Prize nominees — [...]
From layoff to kick-off in seven days
Southern California journalist Greg Hernandez goes from layoff to kick-off in just seven days — check out his new Greg in Hollywood website, which debuted today. “I think Oprah Winfrey would refer to this as a `wow moment,’” he writes.
How does a writer move that fast to jumpstart a new business? Well, Greg thrives on [...]
`The little store he made so carefully’
Jon Robin Baitz, playwright, screenwriter, and creator of the television series Brothers & Sisters, pens a remembrance of Glenn Goldman and the beginning of Book Soup. From LA Weekly:
In the 1980s, the first iteration of Book Soup was closer to San Vicente; a tiny, chic little maze, a bit like a set from [...]
What’s going on
The January Poets & Writers newsletter offers this timely advice: “The deadlines for forty writing contests fall between January 15 and February 15.” Browse the submissions calendar here.
Beyond Baroque gets a lifeline: “Just days before the end of its fortieth-anniversary year, Beyond Baroque finally signed a lease with the Los Angeles City Council that [...]
Book hounds share their favorite new books
Great idea: The San Francisco Chronicle now invites staffs at Bay Area booksellers to share recommendations about new books and then features a weekly reading list online. Today’s list comes from the book hounds at Booksmith on Haight Street and you can browse it here.
Harbor bookstore turns 100 this month
Authors Ray Bradbury, Lisa See, Angi Ma Wong, Andy Rafkin, Debbie Marr, Joe McKenzie, Bungy Hedley, Mike Schaadt and Ed Mastro are helping Williams’ Bookstore in San Pedro — said to be LA’s oldest continually operating new bookstore — celebrate its 100th birthday on the weekend of January 23, 24 and 25. SCIBA website.
Book Soup founder dies
The LA Times brings the sad news that Book Soup owner Glenn Goldman died from pancreas cancer on Saturday, just one day after announcing plans to sell his Sunset Boulevard bookstore. He was 58.
Goldman opened Book Soup in 1975. After struggling to survive for nearly two decades, Book Soup found its niche. Goldman’s bookstore [...]
The latest on Book Soup and other SoCal bookshops
Update: SCIBA names 2009 book award winners
On Saturday night, indie booksellers from throughout Southern California gathered at the Los Angeles Biltmore to hand out book awards at the annual Author’s Feast.
Here’s a rundown of the 2009 winners:
Fiction: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (Random House)
Nonfiction: Celebrating with Julienne by Susan Campoy (Prospect Park Books)
T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award: The Grift by [...]
LAT: Vroman’s to buy Book Soup
Two of Southern California’s major independent bookstores are about to become partners: Pasadena-based Vroman’s has signed an agreement to purchase Book Soup in West Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times reports tonight.
Glenn Goldman, Book Soup’s longtime owner, began looking for a buyer when he fell severely ill, and the fate of the store has been up [...]
SoCal Independent Booksellers Awards, 2009 edition
The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association has named its finalists for the 2009 SCIBA Book Awards.
The awards honor fiction, nonfiction, mystery and children’s books by Southern California writers. This year, indie booksellers have added a new category — the Glenn Goldman Art & Architecture Book Award — in honor of the beloved founder of West [...]
Reading LA: `I’ve seen the future and it is literate’
Sophie Heawood of UK’s Independent takes in the LA bookscape and marvels at a thriving scene.
There’s one shop called Skylight Books, where they had to hastily scrawl signs saying “full to capacity” last night, after so many people crowded on to the street to see hit author Dave Eggers talk about his new book and [...]
Best Books Awards, Northern California edition
The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association handed out its annual book awards this week. Executive Director Hut Landon shares the winning titles:
Fiction: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial).
Nonfiction: The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, by Van Jones [...]
Catch a ride to the Festival of Books
SoCal Book Scene offers this excellent suggestion: Hitch a ride Saturday with Vroman’s or Warwick’s to the Los Angeles Festival of Books at UCLA. Take a moment to do the math: 130,000 attendees. 24,000 parking spots. Then get on the bookstore bus.
Here’s the rundown on this year’s festival, which features 450 authors, opening with Friday [...]
NorCal awards, book festival giveaway and April buzz
The Northern California Booksellers Association names its 2008 Book Award finalists — and will pick the winners April 19.
Vroman’s is giving away a pair of tickets to ride on the bookstore bus to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA on Saturday, April 25.
Mary McNamara kicks off the Times’ fictional serial today. [...]
Browsing Skylight Books: favorite book videos
Bookseller and late-night reader Emily Pullen stars in Skylight’s debut video, sharing her latest find at the bookstore’s blog.
Skylight Recommends from Emily Pullen on Vimeo.
San Francisco celebrates Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Chronicle’s Heidi Benson catches up with San Francisco poet and City Lights founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who turns 90 next week.
A snippet from the interview:
Q: Can writing be taught?
A: It has to be taut.
Q: Is texting poetry?
A: It can be.
Read the full story here.
P.S. Mayor Gavin Newsom has declared March 24 “Lawrence Ferlinghetti [...]
Beautiful bookstores, all-star libraries, LA stories
Chronicle Books twitters about this lovely photo gallery: The most interesting bookstores of the world. San Francisco’s Borderlands Bookstore, and its hairless Sphynx cat, makes the cut.
Library Journal showcases the nation’s “star” libraries, including sixteen here in California
The Los Angeles Music Center invites Angelenos to share their life stories and oral histories this month. The [...]
Seattle paper moves entirely online
As Hearst shuts down its print newspaper in Seattle this week, Executive Producer (and award-winning former SoCal journalist) Michelle Nicolosi talks about the future of the new SeattlePI.com:
The creation of SeattlePI.com as a standalone digital news and information business is a great opportunity for us to try out many of the theories journalism professionals [...]
The Big Read vs. the Big Gulp
Just spotted this tidbit over at The Elegant Variation:
“NEA Literature Director David Kipen has vowed to eat a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird if all 128 residents of Kelleys Island do not read the book.”
Mmmm.
Ten Speed Press sold & other bookish news
Random House buys Ten Speed Press, the indie Berkeley publisher. “They have a lot of eclectic and quirky books, and I think maybe the soil in Berkeley helps grow that,” Crown Publisher Jenny Frost tells the New York Times. “I wouldn’t want to take that away.”
The Los Angeles Times announces its Book Prize nominees — [...]
From layoff to kick-off in seven days
Southern California journalist Greg Hernandez goes from layoff to kick-off in just seven days — check out his new Greg in Hollywood website, which debuted today. “I think Oprah Winfrey would refer to this as a `wow moment,’” he writes.
How does a writer move that fast to jumpstart a new business? Well, Greg thrives on [...]
`The little store he made so carefully’
Jon Robin Baitz, playwright, screenwriter, and creator of the television series Brothers & Sisters, pens a remembrance of Glenn Goldman and the beginning of Book Soup. From LA Weekly:
In the 1980s, the first iteration of Book Soup was closer to San Vicente; a tiny, chic little maze, a bit like a set from [...]
What’s going on
The January Poets & Writers newsletter offers this timely advice: “The deadlines for forty writing contests fall between January 15 and February 15.” Browse the submissions calendar here.
Beyond Baroque gets a lifeline: “Just days before the end of its fortieth-anniversary year, Beyond Baroque finally signed a lease with the Los Angeles City Council that [...]
Book hounds share their favorite new books
Great idea: The San Francisco Chronicle now invites staffs at Bay Area booksellers to share recommendations about new books and then features a weekly reading list online. Today’s list comes from the book hounds at Booksmith on Haight Street and you can browse it here.
Harbor bookstore turns 100 this month
Authors Ray Bradbury, Lisa See, Angi Ma Wong, Andy Rafkin, Debbie Marr, Joe McKenzie, Bungy Hedley, Mike Schaadt and Ed Mastro are helping Williams’ Bookstore in San Pedro — said to be LA’s oldest continually operating new bookstore — celebrate its 100th birthday on the weekend of January 23, 24 and 25. SCIBA website.
Book Soup founder dies
The LA Times brings the sad news that Book Soup owner Glenn Goldman died from pancreas cancer on Saturday, just one day after announcing plans to sell his Sunset Boulevard bookstore. He was 58.
Goldman opened Book Soup in 1975. After struggling to survive for nearly two decades, Book Soup found its niche. Goldman’s bookstore [...]
Meet the authors of the California Authors Directory. Visit the directory to discover writers like Andrew Sean Greer, a San Francisco novelist whose latest book, 
You can shop online from your local independent booksellers.