Around Indies

Off the Beaten Path Opens Second Location

Off the Beaten Path has opened a second location in Steam Boat Springs, Colorado. According to Steamboat Today, the new bookshop is in the Sheraton Steamboat Resort, on “a well-traveled path at the base of Steamboat Ski Area.”

“It’s a big experiment,” Off the Beaten Path owner Ron Krall told Steamboat Today. “And it’s a gutsy, courageous thing to do at this time. For us, our relationship with the Sheraton is a very mutually beneficial one. We’re providing something that the Sheraton didn’t have to offer, and they’re doing the same for us.”

Inventory at the new store will be chosen to appeal to people on vacation, so there will a good selection of mysteries and thrillers as well as children’s activities, Krall told the newspaper.

To encourage resort vacationers to venture downtown to Off the Beaten Path’s main store, which offers books, a coffee shop, and an arts event venue, purchases at the mountain bookstore come with a coupon for a free latte at the downtown location.

Book Vault Launches Traveling Book Club

The Book Vault in Oskaloosa, Iowa, launched a Traveling Book Club this fall that works like any book club, according to the Des Moines Register, except “members in this book club then travel to locations that were in the book.”

The idea for the club originated with Valerie Van Kooten, a college history teacher, who “has long thought it insufficient to simply read a book,” the paper said. She pitched the idea to Nancy Simpson-Brice, who helped develop the Book Vault event program that includes “zumba dance, yoga, ‘diva nights’ and cooking-with-books events.”

After gathering to discuss their first selections, Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America by Fergus M. Bordewich and Escape on the Pearl by Mary Kay Ricks, the club’s 25 members traveled to southeast Iowa to visit some of the area’s many Underground Railroad locations including private homes and a Quaker museum.

“The group was made up mostly of ages 40 - 60, but there were people in their 80s and teenagers, too,” said the Register. “The cost was $169.” Future trips to Tennessee and Washington are planned and will focus on both nonfiction (Civil War sites) and fiction (the Twilight series).

St. Mark’s Bookshop in Partnership With OR Books

New York’s St. Mark’s Bookshop has joined OR Books, a year-old publishing company, in a venture that will enable St. Mark’s customers to buy select e-books (as well as printed books) on OR’s list from the bookstore’s website.

“It’s a way for us to continue and expand our close connection with dedicated customers, even in the age of e-reading,” said Bob Contant, the store’s longtime owner, in a press release. “We can now supply customers with books in any format they prefer – paperback, hardcover, or electronic. And to our knowledge, this marks the first time that any publisher has teamed up with an independent store to sell electronic books.”

OR Book’s co-publisher John Oakes said that he looked forward to expanding the program to other stores. “We see no reason why Google Editions should have all the fun,” he added. “This approach will benefit the store, the publisher, and any independent-minded reader with Internet access.”

The site can be previewed at stmarksbookshop.com/or-books.

Malaprop’s Featured on UNC-TV

Asheville, North Carolina’s Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café is featured in a podcast by UNCTV.org. “North Carolina Weekend” visited the store, which it described as “the heart beat of Asheville” and “a home away from home” for its many loyal customers.

The show shines its spotlight on Malaprop’s many special events, unique selection of books and other items, great gifts, coffee, and a staff that prides itself on customer service.

For authors, it’s “a warm comforting place,” where “they treat you like a star even if you’re not one.”

BookCourt’s Emma Straub Rocks

Emma Straub, a bookseller at Brooklyn’s BookCourt and the author of the debut short story collection Other People We Married (FiveChapters Books, February 2011), shares her thoughts on the store’s best events and most entertaining authors, books that rocked her world and changed her life, and more in this week’s Algonquin Books Blog feature “Booksellers Rock.”

On why she’s a bookseller, Straub said, “Because I would be doing it anyway, and it’s nicer to get paid for it. I’m a very chatty girl, and it’s fun to talk to people about books all day. This will not come as a surprise to anyone reading this.”