(alternate title; the books are weak?)
I know I’m about … oh, 9 months late posting this, but better late than never. Enjoy the awesome folks at Vroman’s acting out a bookselling-themed version of Baldwin’s epic speech from Glengarry Glenn Ross.
The scene starts at about the 1:55 mark, and I will be quoting it all day.
Flip It! from Patrick Brown on Vimeo.
Tags: bookselling, glengarry glenn ross, vroman's
This week on my Hop Press column over at RateBeer.com, I take a bit of time to talk about BADD - Beer Attention Deficit Disorder.
BADD isn’t anything you’ll find on the DSM-IV, although most beer geeks are probably already familiar with it. It is a problem I’ve struggled with more and more as I’ve moved into the world of beer enthusiasts. If you aren’t yet aware of BADD, it is essentially an aversion to drinking a beer – especially a beer you’re familiar with – for too long. Symptoms include an overwhelming thirst for the unknown and untasted, a wanderlust to get new brews, and, distressingly, a lack of interest in familiar brews.
You can read about my weekend battle with BADD on the Hop Press.
Book and a Beer is a new regular feature here at Brews + Books - a chance for authors, brewers and bloggers to tell you a little bit about their favorite books and beers.
Mike Schneider (aka The Michael Schneider, aka Schneider Mike) is the man behind Belching Monkey, one of my favorite craft beer blogs. Mike combines his love of good beer and indie rock into an awesome, entertaining and regularly updated video blog. The social media ace that he is, you can connect with Mike on Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed, and find his content on Tumblr and Flickr. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: belching monkey, book-and-a-beer, goodnight moon, great lakes brewing, mike schneider
I am happy to report that Maine can knock one more set of brews off their “can’t get that here” list.
A few days ago, Beer Advocate user cleeze posted that “after bugging all the distributors [in Maine] to pick ST up, we finally found someone.” Without any other information about who he heard this from or who was distributing the beer, I was almost ready to write this off as just another rumor - more wishful thinking from us (admittedly, already spoiled) Maine beer geeks. This morning I was able to get in touch with Paul Martin, president of NYDrinks - which handles all U.S. sales for Southern Tier- and he rocketed the rumor from unconfirmed to confirmed. Mr. Martin indeed confirmed that Southern Tier will be distributed here in Maine by Central Distributors of Lewiston as soon as this April.
Tags: Beer, Maine, Southern Tier
Subscribe by RSS
Subscribe by Email
Bookseller or Book Provider?
Although I wasn’t able to make it out to California this year, the plugged-in booksellers at the conference have been making it very easy to follow the events of Wi5. In addition to the handouts for the sessions posted on the ABA’s site, Shelf Awareness has been providing great coverage of the event, and attendees have been blogging about the conference and tweeting out using the #Wi5 hashtag.
One of the main things I see coming out the conference (along with chatter about e-books, excitement about upcoming titles and continued worries about the economy) is a definite split between old attitudes and new attitudes about bookselling. The newer attitudes about how to succeed as an independent store by selling using a store website and social media, connecting with the local community, hosting events and finding alternative business models give me plenty of hope that the small local bookstore will survive well into the future. Unfortunately, there are more than a few stores - even stores that are connected enough to be tweeting about Wi5 - that are trying to address a 21st century customer with a 20th century model.
There are stores that simply want to be book providers, and these stores are going to die. There are stores that want to sell books, and these stores are going to thrive. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: bookselling, bookstores