Posts filed under 'Writerly News'
Nancy Davis Kho
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Nancy Davis Kho recalled her summer visit to western Massachusetts, where she was impressed by the buy local movement. Back home, she has sought to adapt a “buying local for the holidays” credo this year that includes bookstores: “Sure, every book I could ever want is available on Amazon.com. The site’s ‘Recommended for You’ technology is great and, for out-of-prints and rare books, I am appreciative of its scope and efficiency. But I’ve never logged on to Amazon in order to sit 3 feet away from a favorite author during a reading, nor does Amazon offer my kids cookies and a couch to sit on while they browse. Those things only happen at my neighborhood bookstore and, because I have a choice, that’s where I’d like my book-buying dollars to go.”
Add comment December 4, 2008
Give the People What They Want
Being an eminent domain attorney who represents property owners by day and a book seller by night, I was intrigued by a recent story about a new Barnes & Nobles in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the home of Rutgers. I love bookstores and Barnes & Noble is a great big bookstore so my hats off to them. The problem is that the city of New Brunswick threatened to use its power of eminent domain to “clear out” an independent bookstore to make room for the Barnes & Noble. The motivation was undoubtedly higher projected tax revenues from the re-developed site and the big box store. In theory the power of eminent domain reflects the will of the people, which begs the question, is this the will of the people? Goodbye independents and hello big box bookstores? Maybe in New Jersey, but I hope not here in the Sunshine state. By the way, this could not happen under Florida law, and Urban Think isn’t going anywhere. So stop by the store, by a book and show us the will of the people. Read the world but be local. Happy reading. - Bruce
Here’s the article:
Notes: B&N College Enters Rutgers; New Bookstores
Barnes & Noble College will be an anchor tenant in a major mixed-use development that Rutgers University is building in New Brunswick, N.J., where its main campus is, according to the Star-Ledger. B&N becomes Rutgers’s bookseller on Monday, replacing Follett. The Gateway project includes a 44,000-sq.-ft. bookstore that replaces the current 19,000-sq.-ft. store at Ferren Mall and is expected to be completed in two years.
Rutgers president Richard McCormick sounded as though he had attended a prospective booksellers seminar recently, telling the paper, “I have a very ambitious view of our new bookstore. [It] will be a campus center, a gathering place for Rutgers faculty, students and staff and the larger community. There will be readings by authors hopping off the train from New York and Philadelphia. . . . It’s going to be the kind of bookstore that Rutgers needs and deserves.”
New Jersey Books, a private bookstore, had challenged the city’s attempt to seize its property for the development through eminent domain but has since come to an agreement whereby the store is being relocated.
Add comment September 28, 2008
Poetry Month
Here’s a treat from Billy Collins, a national poet laureate who has read at Urban Think, Billy reading animated versions of his poems: “Man in Space” and “Forgetfulness.”
Add comment April 11, 2008
Florida Wriers Association Hosts Author BILL BELLEVILLE
From Darlyn Finch’s Sunscribblers eMail Newsletter:
Bill Belleville is an award winning author and documentary filmmaker who specializes in nature and conservation issues. He will be the featured speaker at the Feb. 6 meeting of the Orlando Area Writers Group (Florida Writers Association) at the University Club in Winter Park. Bill will discuss the universal appeal of the “story”, and how it allows movement between print, radio and television.
Bill has published four non-fiction books, contributed to nine anthologies, more than one thousand national magazine articles, and has co-produced and scripted six TV documentaries. He has served as a writer on Discovery Channel expeditions to Cuba, the Galapagos, and the Dominican Republic. Most recently, he authored a program for NPR’s “Living on Earth” and produced and scripted a PBS documentary on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and the St. Johns River that will be released nationally in early 2008.
His most recent book “Losing it All to Sprawl” was named one of the best books of 2006 by the Library Journal. Author Carl Hiassen said: “Bill Belleville writes gorgeously and straight from the heart. This is a compelling and insightful book and it’s impossible to read it without feeling sadness, outrage and awe.” More info: www.BillBelleville.com.
The Feb 6, Wed. event,is from 6:30 to 8:30 pm and is free and open to the public. The Univeristy Club is at 841 Park Avenue N, on the NW corner of Park and Webster. For additional information, visit the group blog at:
www.fwa-Orlando.org or contact Stephen Evans, group leader: ImYourEditor@hotmail.com or tel. 407.898.4299.
Add comment January 21, 2008
