The Indignity of the Remainder Table

I'm not a big fan of bookstores.

Let me clarify: I'm not a big fan of big chain bookstores.* Small bookshops, especially those with live cats (we have two indie shops with feline "employees" in Lawrence), are great. Used bookstores are heaven. I've blogged about them before.

One staple of the big chain store is the remainder table.

How depressing.

Last week, as part of spring break, we spent a short stint in Kansas City. I took the boys to a bookstore (plenty to look at and they were pumped). I picked up a $2 book on a remainder table and read the bio of the author. Her short fiction credits included The New Yorker, Zoetrope...big names. The cover even heralded "New York Times Bestselling Author".

On a remainder table. For $2.

Depressing...

I dream of a world with no remainder tables. An unexpected bonus of the e-book, I suppose.

*I do feel bad for all those folks who lost their jobs with Borders.*

**But I have a friend, a rabid book lover, who thumbs his nose at the other big chain bookstore in Lawrence but he loves Borders. Really? I can't really understand.

Hello, Goodbye

Thanks to everyone who read, commented, and/or rated "Soul Marbles". I appreciated all of it: the good, the bad, the ugly, and in between. Every Day Fiction is a perfect example of the power of online markets. The story garnered 20+ comments and 40+ ratings--you and I know there were many more readers. So, thanks.

Hello to Barry Napier's Masks of Our Fathers, which should be available for purchase on Kindle soon (it's already listed on Amazon). I read Masks in beta, and it's a great ride. Day Terrors, including my short story "Sea of Green, Sea of Gold", is also up for purchase in dead-tree format.

Finally, I must say goodbye to our local Borders store. As part of the bankrupcy, Borders will close 200 stores, including the Lawrence branch. Sorry I didn't buy more books...well...not really. We have a great, thriving indie store, The Raven, just down the street. If I'm going to support a brick and mortar, it'll be the indies.

Have a lovely Thursday. And no, we didn't win yesterday. We took second of ten.

Blood Lite II on the Shelves

Hey look, they shelved it under "Armstrong" because her name is first on the cover. Gotta love bookstores, eh?

Owen was at the store with me and asked about the "red stuff" on the cover...I'm glad he didn't pay much attention to the other Kelly Armstrong books (I'm not ready for that talk with my seven-year-old).

Libraries vs. Bookstores & Honorable Insight

Because I needed something to do while sick this weekend, I broke down the honorable mentions from 2008's Best Horror as selected by Ellen Datlow. My copy of the book should be somewhere between Delaware and my house (according to Amazon), but the full list of honorable mentions is available here.

If anyone is curious like I am, you can download the list of all markets receiving 5 or more mentions in PDF here. I listed everything periodical as a "magazine" (even though some consider themselves quarterly anthologies), anything available online as "online", and multi-author collections..."anthologies". These numbers don't reflect stories actually reprinted in the anthology. Black Static was the big winner with 20 mentions. Gives one some idea of the markets receiving notice.

On Sunday afternoon, after watching the Cheifs lose (again...but hey, overtime baby), I took a trip to the library. Lovely thing, libraries. I picked up a few books to read (great display of horror/dark fiction for the Halloween season), and even placed a hold on a book not yet on the shelf (a scholarly work about monster mythology).

Then I went to the book store (Borders, in this case). Blah.

The library always fills me with hope and wonder...so many books...so quiet.

The books store? So many stacks of Glenn Beck books (ugh. How did he get away with posing in a pseudo-nazi uniform anyway?)...so few books I actually wanted to find. Can I help you? the employee asked. Yes--show me the door.

I've expressed my love of used book stores before (more like the library, really). I feel much the same way about independents, but it will be some time before you find me in a "big box" chain again.