Book Sense

Tolkien Banners Still Available

The two-page downloadable PDF file of Book Sense 76 shelf-talkers available at www.bookweb.org/read/2833 now includes shelf-talkers for seven of the top ten titles on the November/December Book Sense 76(http://news.bookweb.org/read/1918). The PDF file also includes a blank shelf-talker (see right) that booksellers can use for their own quotes or for quotes clipped straight from the Book Sense 76.

In September, Stacey's Bookstore in San Francisco celebrated its 80th anniversary with a day-long party replete with a string quartet, a huge cake, and an active popcorn machine, and throughout the month the store's front window featured a rotating exhibition of vintage photographs and memorabilia. Sydney Hannan, a staff member at Stacey's since 1979, joked that the customers had their priorities straight because they came in and immediately asked for cake.

Based on the four weeks of sales ending November 2, 2003, as reported by hundreds of independent booksellers across the U.S.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Independent bookstores are renowned for their uniqueness, and independent booksellers for their knowledge and love of books. And, aside from the local independent bookstore itself, nowhere are these traits more apparent than in the Book Sense Bestseller List. Compiled from data gathered from hundreds of independent bookstores with Book Sense, the Book Sense Bestseller List is both timely and distinctive, consistently providing consumers with knowledgeable handsells not often found on other bestseller lists until weeks or months later, if at all.

As part of its commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy this November, The History Channel has distributed a special JFK informational kit to 17,000 public and college libraries around the country. Featured in the kit is the Book Sense 76 JFK Top Ten list along with a JFK counter easel display with bookmarks promoting the channel's special JFK Week programming airing on November 14, 16 - 22 at 8:00 p.m.

"My family owned a newspaper, The Westerly Sun, so I grew up around bookish, writingish people," said Katie Utter of Other Tiger Bookstore in Westerly, Rhode Island, about her motivation to open the now two-month-old bookstore. That would also explain why her brother Robert Utter signed on. Robert's wife Constance Kilgore completes the new bookselling triumvirate.

Based on the four weeks of sales ending October 26, 2003, as reported by hundreds of independent booksellers across the U.S.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

It's almost a given that anyone who achieves distinction as a writer will have started reading at an early age, encouraged by a sympathetic adult.

Such was the case with Edward P. Jones, whose highly praised first novel, The Known World (Amistad/HarperCollins), a September/October Book Sense 76 pick, has been nominated for this year's National Book Award.

With the Book Sense Gift Card Program in full swing, and the holiday season just around the corner, booksellers participating in, or planning to join, the program should note these important announcements regarding the availability of swipes, barcode readers, and receipt printers through ABA, as well as the approach of important deadlines.

The full November/December Book Sense 76 with booksellers' quotes is now online at news.bookweb.org/read/1918. Fliers will be mailed to bookstores to arrive during the first week of November.