New Albany Reads
Web logs earned a place in the popular culture in 2004, undoubtedly spurred by the fact it was a presidential election year. Cyberjournalism sites have become regular stops for travelers along the information highway as more and more folks become cyber-literate. One major broadcast entity named bloggers as People of the Year.
But I would posit that another phenomenon is having a greater impact on the culture while still remaining off the radar of the mainstream media. That phenomenon is semi-communal reading.
That's right. The book club, reading group, literature society...whatever you want to call it, communal reading has captured the imaginations of people across the social spectrum.
As we planned our store, we knew that a good, strong local bookstore would be an important resource for book discussion groups. We knew that we could build our business best by helping these groups find just the right books and study guides.
What we didn't know was just how widespread the idea had become in New Albany. Every time we turned around, someone else was telling us of their interest in becoming part of a reading group, or dropping a comment about what their discussion group was reading.
It turns out we had the right idea when we were building our inventories last fall. We put a lot of investment into quality trade paperbacks, the typical choice for groups. As we crafted the inventory mix, we gambled that once people became aware there was a new bookstore in SE Indiana they would look to us to provide products and services to their groups.
We have a wide selection of popular discussion group books and we'll be able to offer them some tremendous values this and next weekend. Some of these books from 2004 sold at a list price of as much as $18.95. We've kept them in the back of the store in anticipation of this special week for book groups.
Group members can come in on each of the next two Sundays to choose from our wide selection and can achieve big savings for their groups. Ann will be here to help you select from new releases, too, whether your group reads genre fiction, nonfiction, or a more eclectic mix.
We'll negotiate special pricing Sundays on current releases for official group selections when pre-ordered together on a book-by-book basis and try to find the best way to serve your group with additional resources. In some cases, we can even talk with the publisher to have an author call or write your group to discuss the book.
For those of you without book clubs, or who want to add members to a smaller group, we'll have sign-up lists and other resources available, including the ability to reserve times for your group to use the store as a meeting place.
And finally, we'll be forming "sponsored" book discussion groups where Ann or I make the picks, offering you the chance to drop in and out of a group as time permits.
P.S. We're going to be personally recruiting individuals to join us in a yearlong reading program we're calling the Serge Storms Historical Research & Debating Society. Starting in February, we'll have two groups reading in separate tracks, tackling the works of Tim Dorsey. $60 buys you an autographed copy of Tim's latest, "Torpedo Juice," in hardcover, plus all six of his previous Serge Storms novels. We'll meet monthly and create an online discussion group, too, for those who just can't commit to both reading and attending. If you're interested, contact me at the store.
But I would posit that another phenomenon is having a greater impact on the culture while still remaining off the radar of the mainstream media. That phenomenon is semi-communal reading.
That's right. The book club, reading group, literature society...whatever you want to call it, communal reading has captured the imaginations of people across the social spectrum.
As we planned our store, we knew that a good, strong local bookstore would be an important resource for book discussion groups. We knew that we could build our business best by helping these groups find just the right books and study guides.
What we didn't know was just how widespread the idea had become in New Albany. Every time we turned around, someone else was telling us of their interest in becoming part of a reading group, or dropping a comment about what their discussion group was reading.
It turns out we had the right idea when we were building our inventories last fall. We put a lot of investment into quality trade paperbacks, the typical choice for groups. As we crafted the inventory mix, we gambled that once people became aware there was a new bookstore in SE Indiana they would look to us to provide products and services to their groups.
We have a wide selection of popular discussion group books and we'll be able to offer them some tremendous values this and next weekend. Some of these books from 2004 sold at a list price of as much as $18.95. We've kept them in the back of the store in anticipation of this special week for book groups.
Group members can come in on each of the next two Sundays to choose from our wide selection and can achieve big savings for their groups. Ann will be here to help you select from new releases, too, whether your group reads genre fiction, nonfiction, or a more eclectic mix.
We'll negotiate special pricing Sundays on current releases for official group selections when pre-ordered together on a book-by-book basis and try to find the best way to serve your group with additional resources. In some cases, we can even talk with the publisher to have an author call or write your group to discuss the book.
For those of you without book clubs, or who want to add members to a smaller group, we'll have sign-up lists and other resources available, including the ability to reserve times for your group to use the store as a meeting place.
And finally, we'll be forming "sponsored" book discussion groups where Ann or I make the picks, offering you the chance to drop in and out of a group as time permits.
P.S. We're going to be personally recruiting individuals to join us in a yearlong reading program we're calling the Serge Storms Historical Research & Debating Society. Starting in February, we'll have two groups reading in separate tracks, tackling the works of Tim Dorsey. $60 buys you an autographed copy of Tim's latest, "Torpedo Juice," in hardcover, plus all six of his previous Serge Storms novels. We'll meet monthly and create an online discussion group, too, for those who just can't commit to both reading and attending. If you're interested, contact me at the store.
posted by All4Word at 3:27 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks much for your suggestions on Saturday and tracking down the errant copy of Mr. Mitchell's C/A. We are going to read Cubano Be Cubano Bop for the time being, which I already have a copy of. Question, how else can you advertise the book club thng other than web based? Would it not be a marketing coup to try and say, hey Southern Indiana we are reading this particular book and having discussions at the store, just to get a lot of folks on board and interested? Once again thanks for being here for all of us....ehp
That's precisely the kind of feedback we're looking for here on the Web log. The most encouraging surprise for us has been the degree to which our patrons feel comfortable giving us suggestions.
I'd like to get permission from the clubs who use us as a resource to post their reading lists and comments. The idea of a "SE Indiana is reading..." project is a great one, and I would propose we start with Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" (January) or Richard Florida's "The Flight of the Creative Class" (February)
We've got four fiction titles that we think will create strong discussion interest: Cassandra King's "The Same Sweet Girls" (Now); Jennifer Haigh's "Baker Towers" (on sale tomorrow); Tim Dorsey's "Torpedo Juice" (February 8); and Rebecca Wells' "Ya-Yas in Bloom," coming at the end of March.
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