Here's a link to a great Slate article about how Book Owners Have Smarter Kids.  I don't think it's an elitist message, considering we have books at SecondRun for as cheap as a dollar, and Library Sales regularly clear books out for 25 cents.  The point is, if you have books in the house, kids will read them.  Or maybe osmosis is in play?

Hmmm, if book owners have smarter kids, what do Bookstore owners have?

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We've got too many books over at SecondRun, our used bookstore.  This weekend, May 22nd and 23rd, all used books are buy two get one free (the cheapest one is free).  That means our already reasonable prices ($7 for hardcovers, $5 for paperbacks) just got unreasonably cheap.

We also have boxes and boxes of dollar books, which means you could line up an entire summer of reading for about ten or fifteen bucks.  Go to it!

 SecondRun Bookstore is located at 7 Commercial Alley in downtown Portsmouth.  Phone number is 603-431-2480. 

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Funny how people are.  Known for books that can make people pass out from nausea, Chuck Palahniuk in person is a gracious, sweet guy who really connected with the crowd at our event last Tuesday.  He spent two to three minutes with each person who was getting a book signed, asking them questions and posing for pictures.

Interesting, too, was the number of emails we got the next day thanking us for a great event.  More than we've ever received.  Keep in mind that this crowd was considerable younger, more tattooed, and more pierced than our usual book reading crowd.  It just goes to show that courtesy isn't dead, and that you can't judge a boo... well, you know.  I can't say it.

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Just made a display table today for Mother's Day.  No, you haven't missed it yet-- it's Sunday, May 9th.  I'm always torn when making displays like this.  It seems that customers want to see lots of books about Mom, but I really want to cover the table with interesting and bizarre choices.  We like to promote titles that the mainstream may have missed, and personally I hate to think of books being specifically "for women" or "for men", but we also want people to get the book they are happy with.

As a result, we've got a pretty eclectic display including books about women and novels about women, as well as books about beer, punk rock, and Buddhism.  So whatever your mom's taste, we've got the book for her.

Do not forget your Mother!!

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You would think in these dark winter months that I would have extra free time.  You'd be wrong though!  Sometimes I think the entire staff is in one of hamster wheels just running and running and running to stand still.  One of the ways we strive to be competitive is to offer interesting events with fantastic authors.  I'm proud to say that we are breaking new ground in that area every day.

We have been able to bring, through relentless hard work, authors to our little town that normally only appear in big cities.  Combined with all the great readers and writers that live right here in Portsmouth these events help make the Seacoast a virtual hotbed of literary excitement.  The Palahniuk event that we just announced is a real coup; his schedule includes only eight cities, and the other seven all have a population of over 1 million people.

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Don't be offended if you see me washing my hands after waiting on you this holiday season.  There's some serious stuff going around out there, and I can't afford to get sick.

 

This has been a tough year.  As always, December is our most important month.  Last year we got clobbered by the ice storm and a whole lot of snow.  This year it looks like the flu might be our nemesis.  So I'm taking lots of Vitamin C and encouraging staff members to take care of themselves.  And you too!

If you can't make it into the store due to sickness, or any other reason (like a broken bridge!), don't forget that when you buy books here on our website, the shipping is on us.  Just click on the button on the lower right of your screen that says "Buy Books Online".

If you aren't quarantined, we'd love to see you for holiday shopping.  We love to make recommendations, and we gift wrap for free.  We also like it when you bring us cookies.

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One more reason, besides her awesome books, to adore Ms. Kingsolver is this quote:

“Obviously, authors don’t own our physical books, just the words inside, so we have no control over how they’re sold,” Ms. Kingsolver said. “But we can ask our readers to consider how much they value their local bookstores. If this price war is another way of using volume discounts to put independent booksellers out of business, then every thoughtful reader is going to lose in the long run.”

She said this because her new book, The Lacuna, is being offered online at $10 as part of an ongoing price war between Amazon and Walmart.  We like her outlook, and we look forward to hosting her at The Music Hall on the very day her book comes out, Nov. 3rd.  The show is sold out, but you can still reserve a signed first edition, even if you aren't lucky enough to be at the show.  Just shoot us an email and we'll hold one aside for you. 

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Hey, there's a boy in a balloon lost in media land! There's a new memoir from a Alaskan media-hound and possible presidential candidate, and there's a price war between Amazon.com and Walmart.com over books.  

That's right, books! I didn't think books got enough attention (or market share) for people to fight over these days. Hopefully it wont last long, but right now both of these behemoths are selling the biggest releases of the fall at a loss just to spite one another. It's ridiculous. Am I worried? Not really (I find the weather a much more frightening prospect when it comes to killing Christmas sales).

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Okay, here's where I offend somebody, but people who obsess over rare books make me crazy.  At SecondRun, our used bookstore, we sell paperbacks for $5 and hardcovers for $7-- good reading copies.  People turning in books are always upset that we don't want to pay them extra for rare first editions, but that's a very specialized industry that has mostly gone online.  We have the used bookstore because we want people to read more books, not to sell artifacts.

That said, I do love to have signed copies of books by my favorite authors.  First Printings if possible.  Its a little dweebish, but it's my way own little way of honoring them.  I have As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem, and I have The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, and I have Anagrams by Lorrie Moore.  And yes, I have a signed first printing of The DaVinci Code which I did not sell even when prices got quite high.

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I just lived through three days with no glasses!  I dropeed them in Lake Pawtuckaway while cavorting with little kids.  What a headache-- both literally and figuratively.  I can see well enough to get around the house and do basic tasks, but my eyes were tired and red and everything was blurry;  reading was definitely out.   What's summer without reading?!  The whole incident made me recognize how lucky we are to be able to read and appreciate life through the written word.  When I got my new glasses yesterday I was so happy I wanted to throw a baby up in the air! read more