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Thursday Staff Meeting – The USPS Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You


This was one of the issues that I worked on while I was a congressional staffer, so I will affirm what the author says – the United States Postal Service is not broke.

So if Amazon starts opening brick and mortar stores, do I still hate them? Answer: not so much, provided they pack the store full of books.

The Oxford University Press in India.

The probably with Davos is that they just don’t get it.

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Monday Morning Staff Meeting – Inkwood Books


Just some old articles about the coolest bookstore in the Tampa Bay area.

Last year, Inkwood Books celebrated its twentieth anniversary.

And it was cool.

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Weekend Reading – Reading Is Good For You


Earn more money by reading fiction!

Libraries prove that Darwin was right.

Books will survive, just like vinyl records (I know that sales of vinyl have jumped over the last couple of years, but I’m not sure that’s really very reassuring – will books be sold at exactly one quirky store in half of all cities with at least one million and more than two universities and also at ridiculous prices at Urban Outfitters, but with a selection of no more than twenty-five books?).

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Tuesday Morning Staff Meeting – Book Publishing In The Modern World. Also, Happy Valentine’s Day.


Wish my local paper published something like this.

You just don’t read a Seth Abramson review for the bad reviews.

The hierarchy of book publishing.

Believe it or not, growth in the digital book market is slowing.

E-book growth is ‘incremental not exponential.’

Taming the beast in Florida (just kidding – these are Republicans we’re talking about! they’ll cave to whichever multinational makes the biggest contribution; but wouldn’t it be cool if they did something about the Amazon loophole and did it for the right reasons?).

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Weekend Reading – iPads & Other Books


The iPad moving into iTextbooks (note: they don’t really call them ‘iTextbooks’ or at least I hope they don’t because that’s just too darn much).

Set aside the iPad and watch this little video about real books. Actually, I guess you could watch it on your iPad, if you wanted.

Lionel Trilling matters because he “stood for the principle that society and politics cannot be understood without the literary imagination.”

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Thursday Morning Staff Meeting – The Typosphere


An old fashioned business machines business in Pasadena, California. Also buys, sells, and repairs typewriters.

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Tuesday Morning Staff Meeting – Is That My Tidal Basin?


We have a tidal basin in DC, but I can’t figure out if this published here or not.

Conservatives don’t really trust ‘the people.’ The rich know better.

Vaclav Havel never stopped being an artist-intellectual.

Amazon is still coming for your children but publishers are hoping that Barnes & Noble will protect our children from Jeff Bezos.

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Thursday Morning Staff Meeting – The Avant Garde


Just a reminder as to why we need independent bookstores, in case you forgot.

This reviewer found himself an excuse to compare the competition between the French and American avant-gardes.

God bless Kenneth Goldsmith for reading his conceptual, avant-garde, experimental (or whatever else you want to call it) to the Obamas.

I’ve never heard of this guy before, but I trust The Nation and so will say that we should all start reading him, also because he sounds interesting.

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Tuesday Morning Staff Meeting – Beware Of Poets And Online Retailers


Amazon is the new Wal-Mart.

I’ve really got to read that new Nietzsche book (but definitely don’t buy it from Amazon).

I still don’t recommend the lifestyle, no matter how good their poetry.

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Monday Morning Staff Meeting – Luther Was An Early Adopter


Martin Luther, zealot, reformer, revolutionary… blogger?

The e-book is never finished.

What is neo-chartalism? Funny you should ask…

Play ‘Greek Mythology Punishments’ for fun and edification (but not for the graphics).