Remembering the ghosts of Arthur Conan Doyle, in the Times Literary Supplement (via Light Reading)
Over at LitKicks, Levi asks whether the political ideologies of Tanenhaus are expressed through the selection of books that are selected for the NYTBR.
Chelsea – the literary journal published since 1958 – appears to be folding, since it says on the submission page of their website: “With the double issue 82/83, November 2007, Chelsea terminates its own publication.” A real shame.
Joshua Henkin, of Matrimony fame, is blogging Russian Novels over at The Elegant Variation. No, not about Russian Novels, just long, like tomes, fast as a court scribe, millions of posts an hour.
This really, really pisses me off (via Syntax of Things). Well, Borders, if you insist on barraging me with even more television advertisements (as if I don’t already get them at the bank, megastores, even at the bloody gas station), then fine, I really won’t frequent your store. The last paragraph of the article is extremely telling:
Mr. Jones said Borders customers tend to be “highly educated, more affluent” and spend an average of an hour in the store, making them catnip to many advertisers. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to reach people,” Mr. Jones said. “Newspapers are not as effective as they used to be. Television is not as easily reachable as it used to be. This becomes an attractive option.”
Attractive option for whom? Certainly not for any of your customers, who obviously are coming to a bookstore because they want to READ, or at least to browse BOOKS, not to be pestered by some nagging television voice blaring out advertisements. And who wants to be treated as a highly desirable demographic/revenue source? (Or as catnip?) Mr. Jones, I suggest you try to blink away the dollars signs superimposed on your pupils because you’ve lost sight of your customers. This alienates your core customer base just as efficiently as newspapers did by slashing book review sections.
