Okay, Austinites, you know where Book People is, I’m sure.
Random display at Book People.
Many cities in the U.S. are suffering under the onslaught of corporate bookstores, but we have an abundance of awesome independents in Austin, which is one reason I feel so lucky to live here. Book People, of course, is the behemoth of Austin independents, and that’s where I’ll be reading tonight at 7PM. There will also be readings at smaller independents with more explicit political missions. Austin also has one of the few remaining feminist bookstores in the country, called Book Woman, and I’ll be reading there in May. There’s also a reading at Monkey Wrench in May, another store I like to poke around in to find books of leftist importance that are harder to find anywhere else.
I’ll probably read a couple of short passages and then open the floor up to a Q&A, of which I encourage people to join. We had a lively one at Bluestockings, where all sorts of interesting points and tangents were raised.
Roger Gathman of the Austin-American Statesman interviewed me in preparation for this reading, and you can read that interview here. Ft. Worth Weekly also has a write-up.
20 Responses to “Book People tonight!”
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Glad the FWeekly gave you some ink. There really are a lot of smart people in that town, I swearz.
I got no problems with the big corporate book store; at least they usually have the political magazines I want, as opposed to indie places where all they offer is Adbusters and Badly Photocopied Political Zine Full of Awful “Wake Up America!” Essays Monthly.
Of course, I’m no where close to being savy enough to know where all the cool people indie book stores are, so am I missing something by not going to indie stores?
You aren’t missing anything in the political magazine area, Jonathan, but you are missing out on independently published fiction and nonfiction from small presses, which the corporate bookstores rarely carry and then only by request. Sure you can have a hundred copies of whatever Oprah is reading or is on the NYT bestseller list but if your tastes range further afield than that, you’re mostly out of luck.
As someone gearing up for his own book release, I’m interested to hear all about how these signings are going. Good luck, Amanda!
You are indeed lucky to have a clutch of independents Amanda. The daughter of our town’s last indie bookshop which closed about five years ago, now makes her living selling second hand books at fleamarkets.
I guess it proves that books are in the blood.
Amazon and other online bookstores are fine but for me there is nothing to equal spending an hour browsing a well stocked bookseller’s and picking out something not on recommendation or publisher’s hype but on sheer gut feeling.
Last time I was in a good bookshop I was drawn to a novel called Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I had not heard of the book or its author but was swayed by the fact it was translated by the daughter of Robert (I Claudius) Graves. I’ve always liked Graves and there isn’t a week goes by when I don’t refer to The White Goddess for something. So I felt safe.
The book turned out to be absolutely wonderful.
An Austinite wants to know whether you will be signing, thanks! I went to the KGB one, sorry I missed a lively discussion at Bluestockings.
independent bookstores sticking around always excites me. Where I live (Berkeley) we had a Barnes and Noble actually close, and it was right across the street from a lovely independent! Quite the reversal. Of course, it was a particularly crappy B&N and the city of Berkeley discourages chain stores in general like no other, but it was still exciting for me.
I will be signing if you’d like! Though i may beg you for inscription ideas. I’m terrible even at signing birthday cards.
Berkeley without Cody’s is, however, hardly Berkeley, in the opinion of this native (and unfortunately ex-) Berkeleyan.
independent bookstores sticking around always excites me. Where I live (Berkeley) we had a Barnes and Noble actually close, and it was right across the street from a lovely independent! Quite the reversal. Of course, it was a particularly crappy B&N and the city of Berkeley discourages chain stores in general like no other, but it was still exciting for me.
From what I understand chain stores actually are not that large of a threat to the indie book stores because they are not truly in competition with each other; indie book stores tends to grab the hipster market share while B&N tends to grab the Oprah Mom market, or occasional readers like me who just wants to pop in, grab a Flannery O’Connor book and leave without too much chit-chat or eye contact. The type of mom and pop stores that generally are most vulnerable to being closed down are more likely to be those ratty used book stores featuring row after disorganized row of Romance novels.
It isn’t a hard and fast rule, and it better applies to music stores (notice how all of the Sam Goody stores started to close down shortly after the time when all of America came to the conclusion that they have never, ever, ever had a positive experience in the store?) but I’ve noticed the trend happening with book stores too.
AMANDA MARCOTTE IS A RACIST.
REMOVE THE FOREST FROM YOUR EYES BEFORE POINTING OUT THE SPECK IN OTHERS
“Lloyd Webber”, are you sure you’re absolutely - verified by Jesus - free of specks, forests, and every other flaw?
According to the same book, only God can judge other people.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Matthew 7:1, King James Version
So you should probably shut your mouth and not make judgments about other people, or Hell’s gaping maw awaits…
He’s upset about this thread;
http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/04/24/late-night-pandagon-because-if-i-wrote-about-this-during-the-day-id-be-correctly-fired-edition/
JH, oooo, SNAP!
I play the dozens with the best of them.
I am not so impressed with BookPeople anymore, after I applied for a job there in 2006 when I returned to Austin from the UK. Their starting pay at that time was $6.50 per hour! Not acceptable for a self-righteous, community-respected business that, I would suspect, employs mostly English Lit degree holders. I had three years’ bookselling experience (one of it as a branch events manager), and a master’s degree, and didn’t get a call. Perhaps I was too “overqualified” for them. Funny how you can be overqualified for retail and admin positions, but never overqualified for unemployment.
Any other book signing dates in Texas?
Upper right hand corner lists two.
Book People is nice, but it does not even begin to compare to Prairie Lights in Iowa City, or the used bookstores on State Street in Madison. Considering Austin’s claims to culture and its being home to the flagship UT campus, it’s a bit of a disappointment, and tiny and giving far too much of its limited shelf space to not-books.
Now Austin’s Whole Foods across the street, that’s impressive. I know its the WF mothership, but still.
Stella:
You’re not impressed with Book People anymore because you didn’t get a job that would pay you 6.50 an hour, a rate you found unaceptable to begin with?
I worked there from 1998-2001, I wasn’t an English Lit major, and I had no prior bookselling experience. They hire people that play well with others. They hire people that are willing to work for little pay because they love to be surround by like minded folks that love BOOKS.
Sorry you didn’t get the job.
ps - What makes the store self-righteous?
Damn. I’m going to be somewhere else on the 14th.
June dates?!?