Someone threw out $1,000 worth of savings bonds with some books.

Employees at the "Never Enough Books" store in Easthampton, MA, try to make sure books don't end up in landfills.

They inadvertently just made sure they didn't throw out a small fortune, too.

According to local television station WWLP, employee Veronica Eggleston and other workers were recently combing the store's warehouse when stray pieces of paper caught her eye. The stray pieces of paper turned out to be a handful of Series EE bonds stuck to a used book. Added-up, they're roughly worth $1,000.

"[T]hat’s a lot of money. A family could certainly use that, especially now," Eggleston told the station.

There was no identifying information tied to the bonds, no names, no addresses--nothing to track down the original owners.

Which is to say that if we all get out story straight, we can pretend we lost the bonds and split the $1,000 together.

Today is National Book Lovers Day! And no one knows why!

It's one of those non-binding, unofficial, head-scratching "holidays"--like National Burrito Day!!--National Light Bulb Day!!--National Elastic Band Day!!--where the Ken and Barbie dolls on Good Morning America or your local news will fill up thirty seconds of airtime chatting about it with light, pleasant laughter and 20,000 watt smiles that have gone heavy on the Crest White Strips lately.

"It's National Book Lovers Day!" one anchor will say to the other at the news desk. "It's in honor of all those who cherish a good book, and readers are encouraged to cozy up with their favorite today and enjoy!"

Then there's a little back-and-forth between the anchors for ten seconds before they hand it off to the meteorologist with awkward, idle chit-chat about favorite books before a fifteen minute forecast ensues that explicitly details it'll be 82 degrees and sunny for the next week.

The point of all this?

Not only is the "holiday" only a holiday in name only, no one has any idea how it came about. Reputable news organizations don't reference any source, while websites devoted to keeping track of such days of the year say:

"While the day’s origins may be shrouded in mystery and rumor, the books themselves are not..."

Or this:

"Within our research, we were unable to find the creator or origin of National Book Lovers Day..."

In essence, anyone could lay claim to this with a reasonable story conjured up. Grow a spine and tell the world your grandpa or grandma were book distributors and created the holiday in 1887 in rural Iowa. Make it a family affair. There's no reason not to strive for such familial honor. People have claimed worse things in life after all, like creating polyester or Arby's.

British book thieves are abundant, quirky.

Some people steal cars, others jewelry. But the inner geek in some thieves has them gravitate toward their local bookstore for a little bit of Freddy Fast Fingers action.

According to The Guardian, British bookstores report that theft hasn't abated despite security measures, but yet they also accept book loss as a way of life. "[The thieves are] simply reselling them on eBay," says James Daunt, the chief executive officer of Waterstones.

Daunt believes Waterstones kleptomaniac clientele tends to be the high-minded, intellectual type, as they tend to steal the textual works of philosophers. "Whenever I’d go past Kierkegaard I’d make sure they and Wittgenstein were all there, but often the odd one or two would be gone and it always made me smile."

Elsewhere in the country, tastes vary. In the small industrial town of Walsall at Southcart Books, it's Anton LeVey's Satanic Bible being pinched as some light reading. In Oxford at Blackwell's, it's J.R.R. Tolkien (he taught at Oxford University after all) and George R.R. Martin's works going out the door unpaid. And at The Beckenham Bookshop in Beckenham along with City Books in Hove, both notice Beatrix Potter is a favorite freebie to be snatched.

But John Clepp of the London Review Bookshop recounts one thief who asked for some understanding for their thieving ways:

"We caught a gent last Christmas with £400-worth of stolen books in his trousers and elsewhere. We grabbed all of the bags back, but he returned about half an hour later to reclaim a half-bottle of whisky and his dream journal, which had been at the bottom of one of the bags of stolen books. As we showed him the door he told us: 'I hope you’ll consider this in the Žižekian spirit, as a radical reappropriation of knowledge.'"

If it was quality whisky, can you blame him?

Iran is in the process of building the world's largest ever bookstore.

484,376 square feet.

That's how big of a bookstore Iran--that beacon of freedom of speech you all know and love--is looking to build.

For perspective, The Guinness Book of World Records says the largest bookstore ever known was, of all things, a Barnes & Noble flagship store on New York City's 5th Avenue that measured in at 154,250 square feet. Even that couldn't survive and closed down in 2014.

Iran's desire to follow through with the bookstore is even more strange when, as Holly Dagres at Aeon notes, some publishers barely print 300 copies of a book in Iran these days--and that's if they're allowed to publish the book at all.

Will the bookstore survive? Will it work? Will it inspire a different kind of Iranian revolution? Or, perhaps, will Iran be able to say their stores are no different than a Manhattan Barnes & Noble and close up shop?

Because down deep, you'd be surprised how much Tehran channels its inner midtown Manhattan on a daily basis.

Tiny London bookstore supplies to the whims and quirks of the average and elite.

Heywood Hill is tiny in size, but mighty in scope. The venerable 80-year old London bookstore eschews the trappings of modern retail book buying, the conveyor belt of mass production, and instead focuses on one major aspect: individualized attention. Their attention to detail is so renowned that the Queen--yes, that one--has someone shop for her at their store.

Looking for a collection of books regarding Dadaism? Need some advice on engaging reads about The Crusades? Thinking a wide array of material on Australia's involvement in World War One is key to any well-rounded intellectual conversation? That's where Heywood Hill lends a hand.

But what if you're opening a fashionable hotel and looking to supply varied reading material to worldly clients? Does your private jet need some tomes to accompany guests on long flights? Have that vacation home in the Hamptons or on Nantucket, and are just tired of coffee table books you see at your competition's friend's place? Heywood Hill finds the perfect collection to suit any taste or situation--for a price.

As the New York Times reports, Heywood Hill's assistance can cost into the six figures. If you still haven't hit the lotto despite your dogged determination and want to have a respectable collection of books, their program called 'A Year in Books' supplies a book-a-month based on your tastes for roughly $515.

But back to the Queen. Everyone wants to know what's on her reading list--so what does she fancy? Histories? Biographies? Harlequin novels?

"We don't really talk about her," said store manager Nicky Dunne to the Times.

So, Harlequin novels it is then.




photo: publishingperspectives.com

Twenty academic books that changed the world--at least according to the U.K.

In advance of Academic Book Week next month, a panel of librarians, booksellers, and publishers in the U.K. have whittled down a list of two hundred academic books to twenty, creating a list they claim are the tomes that changed the world. Now, they want the general public to vote which book is the singularly most influential book that stands heads and shoulders above the rest.

Two works of the twenty are fiction: George Orwell's 1984, and the complete works of Shakespeare. (I gather they couldn't pick just one.)

The remaining eighteen books are all nonfiction, with a heavy leaning toward writers from Europe, and especially the United Kingdom. Indeed, only two writers are Americans by birth (Rachel Carson and Germaine Greer), and two were born elsewhere and moved to the United States at a later point in life (Albert Einstein and Thomas Paine).

Poor France only has one writer on the list: Simone de Beauvoir

I know I'm shocked--stunned, really--that a bunch of British experts find no use for anything French.

The complete list:

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Orientalism by Edward Said

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

The Complete Works by William Shakespeare

The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer

The Making of the English Working Class by EP Thompson

The Meaning of Relativity by Albert Einstein

The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

The Republic by Plato

The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

The Uses of Literacy by Richard Hoggart

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Ways of Seeing by John Berger



Don't kid yourself. No one from Asia, Africa, or South America ever wrote anything that changed the world. Everyone in the U.K. knows this.

Big British bookstore chain decides to stop selling the Kindle.

In case you're a little murky on your British retail book merchants, Waterstone's is the British equivalent of America's Barnes & Noble. It's the largest bookseller throughout the U.K., usually buying up the competition and burgeoning on a monopoly. You know how Barnes & Noble has a Starbucks in most of their stores? Guess who also wants you caffeinated out of your mind from a Starbucks latte while browsing books? Yup. Waterstone's.

In 2012, thinking eReaders were going to obliterate sales of old-fashioned paper books, Waterstone's came to an agreement with Amazon to sell its Kindle. It made sense. E-book sales were increasing by 50%, 60%, 70% year to year.

And then it stopped.

Digital book sales still increased, but marginally. Yet the sale of eReaders stalled.

James Daunt, the managing director of Waterstone's, was a bit more blunt in his assessment, telling The Bookseller, “Sales of Kindles continue to be pitiful so we are taking the display space back in more and more shops."

Pitiful? But how do you reeeally feel, Mr. Daunt?

"It feels very much like the life of one of those inexplicable bestsellers; one day piles and piles, selling like fury; the next you count your blessings with every sale because it brings you closer to getting it off your shelves forever to make way for something new," Daunt said.

Douglas McCabe, an analyst for British research and analysis firm Enders, said it was "no surprise" of Waterstone's move. "The e-reader may turn out to be one of the shortest-lived consumer technology categories," he said.

Hey, you never know. I'm still holding out hope that Betamax makes a roaring comeback.

Boston Globe columnist asks: Why do writers hate Amazon?

Because it's a giant conglomerate with financial interests to slowly monopolize the publishing industry, with the reach and wherewithal to smush a small, up-and-coming writer hoping for fairness like a mosquito under the thumb of Jeff Bezos at a cocktail party in the Hamptons.

Or, you know, you can read an opinion column in this week's Boston Globe with a headline asking about the strained relationship between writers and Amazon, one that also avoids really explaining anything. "Of course I love bookstores. But it behooves me to love Amazon, too," says the piece's author, Alex Beam. (Beam has a newly published book. So, you know.)

Cover all your bases, Beam. You don't want to irk Bezos.

The check's in the mail: James Patterson mails out first wave of grants to independent bookstores.

James Patterson's books have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, making him one of the most successful writers ever of commercial fiction in terms of sales. He's made himself a good life.

Last year, Patterson decided to give money back. He promised that by the end of 2014 he would donate $1 million to a number of independent book stores, all in the form of grants largely ranging from $2,000 to $15,000. All the book store had to do is apply. As he told Publisher's Weekly this week, "It’s as easy as putting on half a page of paper what you need to do. It’s not like applying to Harvard. It’s not difficult, and there’s no catch. We want to be inundated."

The only requirements for the bookstores are that they are a viable bookstore and have a children's section.

This week Patterson followed through with his wish, sending out check's totaling $267,000, and completing the first wave of grants. He promises the remaining $733,000 will follow out in stages throughout the remainder of the year.

The list of bookstores receiving money are below (per Publisher's Weekly).

Bookstores Receiving Grants in the First Round:

A Whale of a Tale – Irvine, CA

Alamosa Books - Albuquerque, NM

Anderson's - Naperville, IL

Andover Bookstore (Hugo Books) - Andover, MA

Bank Street Bookstore - New York, NY

Bay Company Books Inc. (Bookshop Santa Cruz) - Santa Cruz, CA

Book Bin - Northbrook, IL

Book Culture -New York, NY

Book Passage – Corte Madera, CA

Book Revue - Huntington, NY

BookPeople – Austin, TX

Books & Books – Coral Gables, FL

Books & Greetings - Northvale, NJ

Books of Wonder - New York, NY

Booktenders - Doylestown, PA

Bookworks - Albuquerque, NM

Brazos Bookstore, Inc. - Houston, TX

Brewster Book Store - Brewster, MA

Broadside Book Shop - Northampton, MA

Browseabout Books - Rehoboth Beach, DE

California Bookstore Day

Children’s Book World – Los Angeles, CA

Children's Book World - Haverford, PA

Doylestown Bookshop - Doylestown, PA

Eighth Day Books - Wichita, KS

Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle Children - Mendocino, CA

Hicklebee’s – San Jose, CA

Innisfree Bookshop – Lincoln, NH

Lake Forest BookStore - Lake Forest, IL

Little Shop of Stories – Decatur, GA

Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café – Asheville, NC

Mysterious Galaxy - Redondo Beach/San Diego, CA

Nicola's Books - Ann Arbor, MI

Norwich Bookstore - Norwich, VT

Oblong Books – Millerton, NY

Odyssey Book Shop – South Hadley, MA

Old Firehouse Books - Fort Collins, CO

Page & Palette - Fairhope, AL

Park Road Books - Charlotte, NC

Parnassus Books - Nashville, TN

Percy's Burrow - Topsham, ME

Phoenix Books - Essex Junction, VT

Porter Square Books - Cambridge, MA

Reading Reptile - Kansas City, MO

Red Balloon - St. Paul, MN

Russo's Marketplace Books - Bakersfield, CA

Schuler Books and Music - Okemos, MI

Subterranean Books – St. Louis, MO

The Bookies – Denver, CO

The BookLoft - Great Barrington, MA

The Bookstore Plus - Lake Placid, NY

The Children's Bookstore – Baltimore, MD

The Yellow Brick Road - San Diego, CA

Wellesley Books - Wellesley, MA

Wild Rumpus - Minneapolis, MN

Wonderland Books - Rockford, IL