Pictured above is just one of many Borders already closed. Our Flowood store is still open for business. The closing date is still to be determined.

We have all heard the news . . . Borders is going out of business.  We at Lemuria have been keeping up with this story and in fact have been publishing this Bookstore Keys series since January. Read up on this series here.

When the news broke on Monday that it was actually happening I had very mixed feelings about it.  My first reaction was, “Hell, yes!” finally one of the big bad monsters that I have constantly been worried about has had its head cut off! Lemuria has survived  the Borders Beast!!!  My job has survived the Borders Beast!  My second reaction was to empathize with the employees of this company.  Now I admit that I don’t consider all big box store employees booksellers but I can recognize the concern one feels about not knowing if your job is going to be around for long.  That is a fear that independent bookstore owners and employees have been dealing with for years.

Last night I was watching the WAPT 10:00 news and they ran a story about the Borders at Dogwood closing.  When they ran teasers that said, “local bookstore chain closing,” well, that made me sit up and really take notice: Borders . . . local?  I grabbed my computer and checked out WAPT’s facebook page and noticed that they had posted a story about the closing and as I read through the comments there were no mentions of Lemuria.  So I posted a comment myself:

Why have none of y’all mentioned Lemuria Bookstore that is a locally owned Mississippi business? Ok so you can get a discount on some titles that the big chains carry but your money doesn’t stay in your community. Before you decide that you have to drive all the way to B&N go to Lemuria and see what they have to offer you. At least check out the website lemuriabooks.com so you can see all the authors that are coming. Lemuria has been a member of this community for 36 years and not one of you has mentioned them. I wonder why that is?

I have noticed now that a Boo Walker did mention us and I really appreciate it. Oh and my point about the ‘discount’…compare prices on some of the books you buy and you will notice that not all of the books are discounted.  Then as the news story came on WAPT really punched me in the gut. Check out this video.

Borders Closing in Flowood – Video – WAPT Jackson

If you live in North Jackson and heard a blood curdling scream that was ME! I couldn’t believe what I just saw. WAPT just basically ran an advertisement for Barnes and Noble in their report.  They even went so far as showing a map that gave directions from Borders front door to Barnes and Noble’s front door! (FYI…it is 8.2 miles from Borders to Lemuria..I clocked it today.)

I just couldn’t believe that a local TV station had just basically put a big cabash on any future customers that Lemuria, a local business, could gain from the Borders closing.  Oh and by the way, we do have  The Light in the Forest in stock. No, it is not on our website but we only have our First Editions/Collectible/Author Event book inventory on the website.  WAPT did not bother to call or come by to check their facts before running with the story.

Lemuria has been a member of this community for 36 years.  Your friends, neighbors, husbands, wives and children all work here, shop here and just have a really good time here.

We have come to your children’s schools: McWillie, St. Andrews, Madison Station, Chastain, Jackson Academy, Jackson Prep, First Presbyterian Day School, St. Richards, St. Anthony’s, to name a few. And we have brought children’s authors Alex Beard, John Stevens, M.T. Anderson and Becca Fitzpatrick to try to help them appreciate and love reading as much as we do.

Where was Borders? Barnes and Noble? Books-A-Million?  As a matter of fact, think about who is paying into the state tax revenue system then next time you hit a pot-hole. Lemuria is…not Amazon!

Metro Jackson…Lemuria is your local bookstore come on by and talk books with us… let us know how we can serve you!

WE ARE HERE!!! WE ARE HERE!!! WE ARE HERE!!!!

Best-selling children's author Kate DiCamillo reads from her latest The Magician's Elephant.

Kate had a big crowd in OZ, our children's room.

Lemuria has supported the Jackson Public School System, United Way & the Jackson/Hinds Library System in collecting books for Pages of Promise/One Jackson Many Readers.

John Bemelmans Marciano carries on the legacy begun by his grandfather, Ludwig Bemelmans, author and illustrator of the Madeline books, with stunning watercolor artwork and playful, energetic storytelling.

Ok Jackson…I always hear someone say that there is never anything going on well here is something!!!  This Saturday, July 16 at  F. Jones Corner on historic Farish Street  is Beer and Bones: “The Duece”- a Backyard Grilling Competition, Art and Music Festival.

I have a special place in my heart for this particular event for many reasons:

1.  I’m a supporter of downtown Jackson revitalization.

2. My good friend, Justin Gann/Party Like a Professional is putting this wingding on.

3. I love live music and my husband is playing in one of the bands.

4. I love art.

5. I love food.

6. I am selling tickets up here at Lemuria.

This is what I suggest you do.  Come by Lemuria and pick up an advanced ticket for $15.00 (they are $20.00 at the gate) and then you will have a little extra “beer money”.  The Beer and Bones Grilling Competition will start off about noon.  The four person grilling teams will follow the Memphis in May cooking guidelines  and compete in ribs, chicken and burgers categories.  These teams are really going to have to step it up with the judging panel including many of Jackson’s top chefs, tv personalities and city officials but with names like The Drive-by Smokers, The Bull Moose Smokers (2010 overall champions), FatBacks, Natural Born Grillaz, I think they are up to the task!!  Oh and don’t forget that you all get to sample all that good cookin’!

While you are waiting for all the food to be prepared you can also take a look at the booths of talented Mississippi artists that will be set up.  Last year, I helped my friend Teresa with her booth and we had a great time talking to the other artists and to all the folks at the festival.  There will be an eclectic group here this year, Billy Moore Folk Art, Hoggy Bottom Creations, and Kynd South Art, just to name a few so I know that you will find something that you just can’t live without!

You are going to bring a chair because after you have seen the art, tasted the food, stopped off at the Cat Head, Lazy Mag and Raise your Pints booths you are going to want to have a seat and relax and listen to all the great music that is happening through out the day and night.  There are four bands and over 12 hours of music and the line up is great!

Otis Lotus 3:00-5:45

M.O.S.S. 6:00-8:45 (the cute guy playing the sax is my husband Steve)

Kudzu Kings 9:00-11:45

The Legendary House Rockers 12:00-4:00 (yes the am)

With this much music there really isn’t any excuse for anyone to miss this even if you do have to work on Saturday!!

I will expect to see all of you there!!  Come on downtown and support Jackson and all of your friends that have been working hard to plan this great event.

Customers have been asking us (with increasing frequency) what we think about the new e-readers. Our typical response is that while devices like the Nook, Kindle, or iBook have their place, in most cases we prefer having a real, physical bookshelf and the experience of reading a physical book. We believe that there’s room in the industry for both reading experiences – e-readers are likely to increase in popularity, and may replace certain segments of the traditional book market (textbooks, mass-market mysteries and thrillers, and other books with a defined audience and rapid publishing schedule), but there will remain a customer for whom the book is not merely a text-delivery device, but also an art object, something to be enjoyed for what it is, not what it does.

I think I’ve been willing to be a little generous about the e-reader threat because, when it comes down to it, I think they are kind of cool. It’s an interesting product, with huge potential. E-readers can do a lot of things that books can’t; I’m just not convinced that e-readers can do everything that a book can.

When I saw the following Amazon ads, however, I had to wonder if we’re not being too polite. The ad campaign is entitled, “Friends.”

Do you feel like your loyalty to physical books can be summed up in the act of dog-earing pages? Doesn’t that feel like a bit of a straw-man? There are lots of great things about books: the dust-jacket design, the sturdy feel of the boards, the creaminess of the paper, the font selected to fit the author’s voice, the arrangement of spines on your shelf, that moment when you stand in front of your bookshelves and scan the titles, searching for the right book or simply admiring them all. I’ve never dog-eared a page in my life*, and I’m a bit insulted that Amazon believes that dog-eared pages encapsulate the very best of my book experience.

*I know plenty of readers do, in fact, dog-ear their pages, and that is their (and your) right. But I remember feeling slightly guilty about highlighting and underlining even in my school textbooks, and I find no compelling reason to deface or damage my own books now. There’s a reason we put a bookmark in each book you take home.

Books in sixty seconds is an amazing thing. I can’t argue with that.

But there are plenty of things that I find amazing, and yet, still limited and greatly flawed. McDonald’s is an amazing restaurant and business model. Almost anywhere in the world, you can find the affordable, familiar, and convenient Big Mac. But I don’t believe that just because McDonald’s is amazing at what it does, that it means it is also superior to other restaurants or that it can replace all other eating experiences. If anything, the oversaturation of fast food has produced a desire to return to some kind of pre-McDonald’s meal: farmer’s markets, homegrown vegetables, locally-owned restaurants, food made not to maximize profit but to be enjoyed as food, to be shared as an experience.

The ad also glosses over some important questions. How did the girl (and guy) find out about the new book? From friends? From advertisements? Is it an author with whom they are already familiar? Good books will always be spread by word of mouth, but does the proliferation of e-books help or harm the reader’s ability to find the book that wasn’t marked from birth for the bestseller’s list?

Five years down the road, will the Kindle remind you of the time you met the author? Can you flip it open and re-read a note the author wrote for you? Can it record the author’s signature? Can you give away a much-loved book to a friend? Does handing over your Kindle for a moment mean the same thing as lending (or borrowing) a book from a friend?

The girl invites the guy to come with her to the bookstore; is the trip such a chore that he (and she) should be relieved to avoid it? I understand plenty of people find their lives too busy and wish for more time at home, but which column does the bookstore experience fall into: stressful hassle or pleasurable leisure? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a customer say, “I could spend all day here [in the bookstore.]” I have never heard a customer say, “I can’t wait to get out of here.”

Is it time for us to take the gloves off? Should we still be willing to share the playground? A playground, I might add, that still feels like it belongs to us, market share be damned, still feels like it belongs to booksellers, because it was built and nurtured and tended by booksellers. I don’t think I’m exaggerating here; books and stories would still exist without booksellers, but not in the same way. I don’t know for certain that it would be much worse without booksellers; perhaps it may even have been better, in some way. But it certainly would have been different, and the influence of booksellers on the market gives us some sense of ownership.

No, the gloves stay on. Not because Amazon’s marketing campaign is right (it isn’t), and not because we’re taking the high road (which would not be a bad thing to do, but it’s not the reason the gloves stay on). The gloves stay on because pitting books against e-readers, as if they are adversaries, hurts everyone. Amazon might be willing to sacrifice the rest of the book industry to boost the growth of the Kindle, but it’s a short-sighted strategy.

So I’ll refrain from taking potshots at the Kindle and the Nook. Our aim isn’t to disparage Amazon or Barnes and Noble; doing so doesn’t develop loyal relationships with our customers. It’s not our job to make you hate them; it’s our job to make you love us.

Borders as it stands today:

Borders has 200 stores for sale out of its remaining 402 stores. Gores, a distressed investor group, is in talks to buy these 200 stores but nothing is firm.

Borders has still not come up with a reorganization plan and has now received approval for a 120-day extension.

Borders still owes the largest publishers about $182 million. In April alone, Borders lost $132 million.

As book people hit the show floor at BEA, Borders talk abounded. Though nobody is comfortable or necessarily happy about what is happening to Borders, it does provide a window of opportunity for independent bookstores to take advantage of these changes. Being smaller, indies are more equipped to make these changes faster.

JOHN: The Borders talk reflected the opinion that their time is running out–too much loss in the face of too many favors that have not panned out. Perhaps their nurturing of bought time is nearing the end and their doors will close. I believe this industry drain, if stopped, will redefine the value of the independent bookstore in the bookselling system. Perhaps independent bookstores strengthen their bookselling skills as publishers and the reading public realize the value of their service.

JOE: Yup, everyone up in NY seemed to think that Borders would be gone soon. Now they seem to have found some folks to bid on parcels of the company. What this really means for the industry is unclear. Borders may still be completely liquidated or it may morph into more of a Books-a-Million model or department store model. No one in NY even cared to guess, but I agree with John, hopefully all of this will mean less competition for Lemuria, which will mean a greater market share and greater appreciation from the publishers for the skills, knowledge, and abilities of the the indie bookstores.

While in New York we bumped into Charles Frazier and feel almost certain that he’ll be coming to Lemuria this fall for his new book. Why? Because Frazier, and the industry as a whole, attribute the initial success of Cold Mountain to the work, excitement, and ability of the indies to find the needle in the haystack of this industry. We did it before and we’ll do it again. There will always be needles in this haystack.

Above right: Charles Frazier and Karl Marlantes meet for the first time at BEA 2011.

Lemuria’s Bookstore Keys Series on the Changing Book Industry

Where will e-book sales level out? (June 2) Indie Bookstores Buying from Amazon? (June 1) BEA Roundup (May 19) Lemuria’s Headed for NYC (May17) Barnes & Noble Bankrupt? (April 28) Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titantic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)

Trying to understand statistics and commentary on current e-book sales is no easy task. While in New York, John and Joe were immersed in “yak about the Big E.”

JOHN: E-books, e-reading, and e-gizmos. Does the reading future lie solely in the device? No answers here from me. The yak about the “E” was constant, especially early on. “Where will e-book sales level out?” seemed to be the big question. My guess, for whatever it’s worth, is 50/50.

My personal conclusion is how can the reader give up the magical quality time spent reading a physical book. It’s simply just too plain good. An afternoon off, reading on your porch, couch, by the beach, in a park or anywhere can’t be replaced. The young gal next to me on the plane home was reading something on a tablet. I was reading an advanced readers copy of Karl Marlantes’ What It Feels Like to Go to War, his new nonfiction book coming out in October. I thought for no amount of money would I swap places in this present situation. She looked bored and buying time and I felt hypnotized by the magic of reading a great book with a scotch, being transported into my own frame of mind.

JOE: It’s true that there was a lot of talk about e-books in NYC but I can’t say we heard anything new. No one knows where it’s going to pan out and everyone wants it to pan out soon. My guess is more like 65/35 – 35% being the e-books.

I did hear that on the first day of BEA that Dominique Raccah, founder of Sourcebooks, predicted that the industry would, in five years, be 50% of what it is now. To me that kind of prediction is pretty much “the sky is falling” kind of stuff. Sourcebooks will definitely sell more e-books than most publishers because they produce the sorts of books that people read on e-books, i.e., romance and popular fiction, but there are other parts of the industry that just won’t change that much.

There are just some things about traditional reading that are too good to go away. For example, I’m not going to read to my kids at night on a kindle or i-pad, I really can’t imagine that I would want to read anything with footnotes or maps on an e-reader, and I’m on the computer so much during the day that when I read at home at night I for sure don’t want to read on something that can have any kind of hardware failure or can crash and cause me to lose my place or not be able to continue my reading.

I did see the same person reading on her i-pad on the plane and she eventually got tired of the i-pad reading experience and switched to playing crossword puzzles. Meanwhile the two ladies I sat between were reading paperback books – on my left an Elizabeth Spencer short story and on the right The Help. As our plane descended we talked about our books and the “Jackson, MS” connections with Kathryn Stockett’s book and family – Stockett Stables, the Jitney, Belhaven, etc. That kind of thing never would have happened if we had all been reading on our e-readers. I’m glad we weren’t.

Above Photo: Pictured are members of a Boston book club. Most members decided to go with the physical copy of The Help. Taken from this article on The Christian Science Monitor website.

Lemuria’s Bookstore Keys Series on the Changing Book Industry

Indie Bookstores Buying from Amazon? (June 1) BEA Roundup (May 19) Lemuria’s Headed for NYC (May17) Barnes & Noble Bankrupt? (April 28) Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titantic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)

Many booksellers, bookstore owners, publisher reps, editors and agents landed back at their desks this week a little disheveled, excited, confused, optimistic and pessimistic all at the same time. We were so glad to have John and Joe back at the store this week. As they decompress everything they observed last week, they’re gradually sharing some of their thoughts on the book industry based on their New York impressions.

Above right: A bunch of book nerds hit the show floor.

John told me that contemplating the 2011 book expo is like contemplating a Zen Kōan. Essential to a Kōan is a paradox, a question or statement is beyond reason. Instead, the only way to deal with the Kōan is through intuition, a leap to another level of comprehension. Indeed.

Last week, while thousands of book industry professionals came together in New York, Amazon announced, with obvious calculation on timing, its plans to become a major book publisher. Here are Joe and John’s reactions, observations and questions.

JOHN: Amazon hires Larry Kirshbaum to establish and direct the “Big A” to be a major publishing competitor, to compete with Random House, Simon & Schuster, etc.

The buzz on one side was that Amazon has bit off more than they can chew. On the other side was “oh boy, look who we have to compete with now.”

Above: Larry Kirshbaum spent 10 years as CEO and Chairman of the Time-Warner Book Group. He says: “Publishers to some extent are beating back the waves here. They haven’t accepted that digital content is going to be a major factor.”

I presume this means the “Big A” bucks will be bidding for top notch authors to live in the “Big A” House. Do the traditional houses have the money to compete in bidding wars with Amazon? Can the advertising advantage of Amazon lure the cash cow authors away from the traditional big houses? Can Amazon manage the publishing headaches and still make cash dealing with the extensive array of dilemmas traditional publishing deals with? Personally, I was surprised by Amazon’s move but it will be great fun to watch for answers as we tune into the publishing game show network.

JOE: This news broke just as we got to New York. It was such new news that I don’t think people had any idea what to think. At first everyone was saying that Kirshbaum is “such a nice guy”–I guess so, wouldn’t know. Then, after a day or so, we started to hear the scoffers: “He didn’t do such a great job at Time Warner”–I wouldn’t really know about that either. I do know that Time Warner isn’t really even around anymore.

My question is whether or not Lemuria will be buying books from Amazon as a publisher. And I guess we’ll wait and see if they offer wholesale terms to bookstores. If they do, I don’t think we’ll be able to avoid stocking their books. I imagine they’ll want us to do that, but if they don’t, it will be a pretty big message about what they think about the future of the indies– i.e., do they or don’t they think the indies have a future?

I do know they’ve already signed their first author–Barry Eisler–an author whose books sell moderately at Lemuria. There have been some funny lines floating around the publishing world like “He’ll be running through the industry trade show begging traditional publishers to publish his books in just a few years time.” Again, we’ll see.

Above right: Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. When he’s not writing best-selling thriller novels, Eisler blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law.

Lemuria’s Bookstore Keys Series on the Changing Book Industry

BEA Roundup (May 19) Lemuria’s Headed for NYC (May17) Barnes & Noble Bankrupt? (April 28) Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titantic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)

If you have not heard about our book club, come join us this coming Thursday, June 2 at noon at our dot.com building. We always meet the first Thursday of the month to discuss our latest selection.

This Thursday, June 2, we will be discussing Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. Set in New York during the 1970s, an unexpected cross section of New Yorkers are drawn together as they witness the greatest artistic crime of the century. Not only did this novel win the Man Booker award, it has also been greatly loved by Lemuria readers.

.

.

.

For Thursday, July 7, we will be discussing a Man Booker nominee from last year: The Long Song by Andrea Levy. Set in Jamaica during the slave revolt of 1832, this novel follows the life of a slave named July. Being candid, shocking and brutally honest about slavery in Jamaica and the prejudice against skin color among the blacks themselves, The Long Song captures the interest of the reader immediately and ends with the hope of a sequel.

.

.

Our last pick for the summer is Parrot and Olivier by Peter Carey. Parrot and Oliver, servant and master, embark on a journey from Europe to the United States in the late 1700s. Winner & nominee of numerous awards, Peter Carey is said to be at his best, his most tender and true with this his latest novel.

We would love to have some new members join our expanding eclectic group composed of men and women of all ages. Bring a sandwich and come join us at noon for an invigorating discussion of current great literature.

Call me at Lemuria’s number 601 366-7619 or email me at nan@lemuriabooks.com for more information about our fun book club, “Atlantis.”  -Nan

I managed to get a few words with John and Joe from New York. Booksellers are going crazy about so many books! I pictured four here to whet your appetite for the fall. Yes, the fall! But it will be here before you know it.

Hillary Jordon is the author of Mudbound which was well-received critically and by our Lemuria readers. When She Woke is described as a futuristic novel with a Scarlet Letter theme. A powerful book with a knockout cover.

.

Ann Patchett? I know many of you have waited for this one!

Also look for Midnight Rising on John Brown’s Raid this fall. I can say that I will read anything by Tony Horwitz. He is one of the most engaging and well-respected journalists today. I loved his last book A Voyage Long and Strange.

The Language of Flowers is a debut novel with two unusual themes: adoption and the language of flowers.

I think the book expo has already wrapped up. John and Joe are off on their yearly tour of New York bookstores, the Strand being the first one on their list.

The rare book room at The Strand

Yummy books!

Kathryn will be signing at Lemuria on Wednesday, May 25th at 5:00.

Note: If you buy one book at the signing on Wednesday, you can get one old book signed. No more than one old book may be brought to the signing on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer for the movie coming to theaters in August.