Books I've read this year.

In the order in which I've read them:

HUNTER'S MOON, Randy W. White.

ROUGH COUNTRY, John Sandford.

CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL, Glen David Gold.

TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN, James Lee Burke.

3 DAYS TO NEVER, Tim Powers.

RAIN GODS, James Lee Burke.

INVERSIONS, Iain Banks.

ENGINE CITY, Ken McLeod.

WINTER STUDY, Nevada Barr.

FLASHBACK, Nevada Barr.

HIDDEN EMPIRE, Kevin Anderson.

LITTLE, TINY TEETH, Aaron Elkins.

THE DEVIL'S EYE, Jack McDevitt.

EIFELHEIM, Micheal Flynn.

NIGHT OF THUNDER, Stephen Hunter.

FOREST OF STARS, Kevin Anderson.

THE DEFECTOR, Danial Silva.

LOST CITY OF Z, David Grann.

47th SAMURAI, Stephen Hunter.

TUXEDO PARK, Jennet Conant.

THE NIGHT GARDENER, George Pellicanos.

BLIND FAITH, Walter Mosely.

KILN PEOPLE, David Brin.

MOONFALL, Jack McDevitt.

ANCIENT SHORES, Jack McDevitt.

RED LIGHTNING, John Varley.

HARD AS NAILS, Dan Simmons.

PIRATE FREEDOM, Gene Wolfe.

BORDERLINE, Nevada Barr.

UNDER THE DOME, Stephen King.

CAESAR, Adrian Goldsworthy.

COLD DISH, Craig Johnson.

CITY OF THIEVES, David Benioff.


By my count.

15 mystery/thrillers.

12 S.F./Fantasy

1 horror.

3 non-fiction.

2 literary - ish.

I do like my Genre. I try to read a non-fiction about every ten books or so, and I try to read a mainstream ficiton/literary-ish every ten books or so. As far as I'm concerned though, authors like George Pellecanos, James Lee Burke, Ian Banks, and Gene Wolfe are as good or better than most 'mainstreams' I try.

Bobcats.

Couple of middle aged guys from New Jersey came in, and they follow Bob Dylan all around.

"I hear he's real up and down in his shows, depending on his mood."

"That's what makes it interesting. He changes the music every concert."

I asked them if they had ever met him, and they said, "We'd have a better chance of seeing Obama. Heavy, heavy security."

And yet, he wanders around, incognito.

Anyway, I asked them if they had a name for themselves, like Deadheads. Dylan Heads?

"Well, someone tried to get BobCats started, but we hated it...."

Keeping the pace.

The cooler weather makes me want to turn off my brain and dive into a book.

I was at Linda's store the other day, and I noticed a big biography: CAESAR: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy, and I thought, "That's the ticket. Go live in Ancient Rome for a few days."

It's weird how I carefully assemble a pile of books I read by authors I like, and then just randomly grab a book that comes into the store to read instead.

**********

I honestly don't understand people who don't read. For one thing, they're missing the fun.
For another, there is so much knowledge to be gained. I'm not just talking about non-fiction, either. Fiction gives you access to other people's lives, too.

In the Caesar book, the first third is devoted to his early, political life. The author makes a point that Caesar would often take on causes that he would end up losing. But he became identified with those causes, which helped him win elections. (One thing he was careful not to do, was lose an election -- but he would constantly support issues that would end up losing in the end.)

In other words, his identification with certain causes was what counted, not whether the legislation ever was adopted. They were almost never adopted because the Roman Senate wouldn't allow any significant legislation to be passed, because of envy and fear and greed and sloth. So Caesar would fight the good fight, win or lose, become identified with those good causes, win or lose, and win elections.

Not reaching for anything profound here, just remembering what I read over the last couple of days and what I gleaned from the surface.

Meanwhile, I think Caesar may be headed for a bad end....

**********

I'm at exactly 32 books read at the 32 week mark; so I'm keeping pace with my one a week goal. The book before Caesar was Stephen King's Under the Dome, so that ought to count for, like, 3 books.

Dan Parsons up for Inkwell Awards.

Local artist Dan Parsons is nominated for a couple of INKWELL AWARDS for his work on Star Wars Legacy, and Star Wars Clone Wars.

If you'd like to help him win, log onto www.inkwellawards.com and vote for him.

Wiki: "The Inkwell Award, sometimes shortened to the Inkwells, is a trophy given in the field of inking in American comic books. The awards were partially named after the Yahoo group whose members include many in the inking community..."

Yeah, no problem, buy a house.

The plethora of real estate blogs in Bend is understandable. So is the usual "Things are looking up" tone. I don't begrudge them their slant; they're in an uncomfortable position of trying to earn a living in a historic downturn.

Still, sometimes they just go a little too far. There was an unfortunate example yesterday by the local blog, with the headline: "Home Prices Rising."

Which was a pretty unfortunate juxtaposition to the news from the national media:


"Bend had the largest year-to-year drop in housing prices among U.S. metro areas for the second consecutive quarter, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Between the second quarter of 2009 and the same period this year, housing prices depreciated 18.59 percent in the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Deschutes County. That was the worst of all 303 MSAs the agency measured nationally."


Admittedly, the blog was referring to national prices -- but even there, it might have behooved the blog to mention the following national news:


"Sales of previously owned homes took a record plunge in July to their slowest pace in 15 years, underlining the housing market's struggle to find its footing without government aid." Reuters.


Sadly, I think this kind of misleading slant actually works, on a person to person basis. I get people in the store all the time that are thinking of buying a house in Bend. I don't try to talk them out of it -- but I do generally mention that they might try looking for a deal. But what's clear is that most of them AREN'T EVEN AWARE of Bend's 303 status in price depreciation.

Most of them seem to think we're just like everywhere else in the country, and when I use the phrase "Bubble within a bubble" they just nod their head and say, "Yeah, it's really bad where we come from, too."

My own brother-in-law bought into the market last year, after asking my advice. (I told him to wait, or to buy an actual house rather than a condo.) For my own sake I'm glad he did: I want my extended family to visit Bend as much as possible. But he wanted to buy and that's what he did.

Pretty amazing, considering these are some of the biggest investments that people make in their lifetimes. And it still comes down to "I want to live HERE and I want to live here NOW!"

Curious what you guys think.

I don't have any real outrage over the economic conditions in Bend right now. More a curiosity about what others think. Once I realized that Summer wasn't going to produce the big profits I was hoping for, I kind of relaxed. It's relatively easy to break even, if that's my goal.

It forced me to look at my personal and business accounts a little closer, and it reminded me that -- well, we're in good shape. Better shape than I ever thought we'd be. So quit my grousing.

Cascades Bank. What seems noticeable about that is that there seems like a whole lot of information manipulation going on there. Revising, delaying, spinning and obscuring. I was going to post the other day about how I thought there would be legal ramifications down the road, and I should have posted it, because this morning there is a item about them being sued by the Idaho bank customers ... I'm betting there is more of that coming, assuming they avoid FDIC's bear hug.

Unemployment in Central Oregon. Up a little, down a little. In reality, we're pretty much where we've been over the last couple of years and where we're likely to be for another couple of years.

The Cycle. Well, I think some of us nailed it pretty good when it started. Without all the smoke and mirrors, the truth is it's going to take a long time for Central Oregon to get back to economic health. My old rule of thumb; when you've forgotten to keep looking for a recovery, and have gotten on with your life, that's when recovery will happen. That takes a loooooonnnnng time.

Houses. I can't help but think of all the people I told 3 years ago...........2 years ago.............last year -- "Hey, wait six months or a year, and the houses will be even cheaper!" I think that's still true.

Affordable Housing. Doe's anyone else think a more efficient use of that money would be to help people into EXISTING homes rather than building new ones? 900k for NEW housing? Crazy.

Tourism numbers. O.K. I'm confused. Just yesterday, they were saying they were up. Today, they're saying they are down, except for a 0.9 percent tick in Bend metro. area. Again, lots of spin. Besides, while it may be just my store, I just don't think the tourists are spending as much. Nationally, motels and restaurants are doing horribly. But Bend's different, right?

You've Got Mail, Sh#thead, part 2.

There is along profile in "New York Magazine" of the travails of Barnes and Noble and it's founder, Tom Hanks....err, I mean, Len Riggio.

Combined with a profile I read in the last few years of Micheal Powell, of Powell's Bookstore in Portland, I come away with an overall sense on the part of these two guys of....dismay, almost bitterness, because their life's work is changing beyond all recognition.

In Powell's case, he seemed to be grousing about how his lead in online selling was disappearing. There is nothing worse than being one of the firsts in a new trend, only to have others come along later who take all your ideas and run with them.

In Riggio's case, it seems like he is both protective of his book empire, while at the same time he seems to realize he himself is stabbing it in the back with his Nook. Meanwhile -- How dare others come along and try to buy HIS company!

Get used to it, Buster.

I lost these illusions long ago. I sold the hell of sportscards for about 6 years, but that didn't stop others from coming along and completely taking it away. (Lot of good it did them.) I watched comics self-destruct, Marvel go bankrupt, the number of comic shops shrink from 12k to 3k within a couple of years. I saw Magic become big, then small, then big again and slowly becoming small again. I watched pogs come and go within 6 months. Beanie Babies, Pokemon.

Lately I've seen both Manga and Anime become all but unworkable because of widespread piracy.

Such will be the fate of all content.

I don't think books are going to disappear. In fact, I think if Tom Hanks, (with the help of his chirpy little wife, Meg) were to rededicate himself to physical books, he could pull it off.

But you can tell he's fading -- falling away, jumping into a world where he's not only not the trailblazer, but rather late to the game. And he's doing it for the soul-crushing reason of 'business', not because he's terribly interested himself.

There's a reason I keep referring to the big boxes as dinosaurs. Because they are inevitably doomed. Probably sometime in next few decades.

I don't think any of the above products are going to disappear -- just the way they are sold. And small guys can sell small amounts. Dinosaurs need lots and lots of fuel to move their giant bodies around.

I'm going to try not to be standing underneath any of them as they topple over.

Ordering books.

So, over the weekend, I ordered over 600 books. I figure another 400 or so, and I'll have the inventory I want for the new bookshelves. (I still want to order the very best S.F. and Mystery mass paperback books I can come up with.)

Meanwhile, I'm thinking -- "WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS!!!"

"Hush," I answer. "I know what I'm doing. " (yes, I'm talking to myself, you gonna make something of it?)

These are good books, and they deserve shelf space. Which I don't have.

So why am I doing it?

1.) I can afford to do it within my cash flow budget. That is, I'm not borrowing money. What it means, I suppose, is that the overall margin in the store has reached a level that it is above replacement costs. I can replace all the good evergreens I need, and still have money left over for new or offbeat stuff.

2.) It forces me to be creative in my displays. I'm always amazed by the solutions that present themselves when I'm forced to come up with them.

3.) It refreshes the inventory, creates variety. It makes me move stuff around, which is something I should do on a regular basis. It creates unexpected matches and combo's.

4.) It makes me choose product to retire. I often leave semi-dead material in the store in the hopes it will sell, telling myself that it's 100% profit if I do. But there comes a time...

5.) I like doing it, which is no small thing. I need to be active to keep an interest in my store. I can't just sit there everyday without making changes. I get all charged up for a few months while it's happening, and I think that translates into sales.

The choice of books for my store is definitely idiosyncratic and offbeat. I do have a bunch of classics and just plain great books. But nestled around them are my own choices, or books that look interesting. I still don't pay much attention to the bestseller lists. I've got to get on that.

Anyone with a creative pulse might find something interesting. (I'll say nothing about the 95% of the foot traffic that walk on by despite the books in the window -- or the 80% of the people who walk in the door and see all the books and have no reaction, and certainly don't buy anything. Really, I won't say anything....)

I like the selection I have, and I just have to hope there are enough people who have similar tastes and interests. How else am I going to choose?

The obvious answer is, Bestseller Lists. But I got to be honest with you -- I look at the top bestsellers and I see....can I say it?....dreck. Mostly dreck.

Now, I'm not saying everyone has to like exactly what I like. Or that every book on the bestseller list is dreck. Or that I'm above selling dreck if it sells.

But, more often than not, it's both dreck and it doesn't sell in my store. It's a "bestseller" because it is carpet bombing the mass market bookstores, because Amazon will ship it to you free and at half price, because Costco has three foot stacks of them on their feeding troughs.

Add to that my 'Meh...' reaction to most dreck, and the 'bestsellers' are dogs. I only order bestsellers that I like, or look intriguing, because at least I'll have a chance of selling them.


I'm going to need a few hundred more mass market paperbacks, minimum. The S.F. and Fantasy will be relatively easy, because I am so steeped in the genre. All I probably need to do is order all the big author's works, Heinlein, Clarke, Asimove, etc. and all the well known series -- Dune, Robert Jordan, etc. And my favorites.

Mysteries, I'm going to just look at the lists of books I've read over the last five or ten years, and get a good sampling of all my favorite authors. I tend to read hard-boiled detective and thrillers more than parlor-room mysteries, but I've read enough of the latter to fill in mostly. A little research for some more.

Paranormal romance is what I paid most attention to on our bookstore visits, writing down as many authors as I could. This will be a bit of an exploration.



Back to the 1000 books I'm ordering. Doesn't sound like so much, does it?

I hear my wife say that all the time, "We get over 200 books a day at our store," she says. The reaction of the customers is always Meh. Doesn't sound like so much, until you measure it.

But it was 15 pages of printed readouts. I know from my wife's store, that 200 books take up about 15 feet of linear space, spine out. Since my bookshelves can hold about 15 linear feet, on average, one thousand books will fill 5 bookcases. Like I said, I'm trying to reserve about 3 or the eight bookcases for better display of the books I already have.

I do seem to have an innate sense of space that makes me order 'just enough' product to fill the available space.

And -- well, think about the average price of a books, and tell me 1000 books isn't that much.

Dis And Dat.

Young girl under 18 came in, and she was covered in tattoo's. I wanted to ask: where are you going to put the tattoo you want when you're 25 or 30?

Can a 16 year old girl really make an informed decision to cover herself with tattoo's she'll have to live with the rest of her life? What if her tastes change? It's not like getting a different hairdo.

**********

If it's true that we have more tourists this summer than last, and I have no reason to disbelieve it, they aren't spending as much money in my store. I kind of wish I was still doing customer counts, but it's a bit of a hassle and what does it really prove? Well.........in hindsight, it would prove whether I'm getting more customers or less in the door.

After bragging about how strong my comic sales were, this month they took a huge dive. If I'm going to have any product take a dive, in some ways I'd choose comics, because they may still be picked up later by regulars. The subscription shelves are filling up, which is both a a danger and a possible future boost.

Anyway, after starting strong, this month has tailed off, and it's now looking like it will be down about the same percent as last month. Which has got me looking at the Fall numbers and adjusting my budget to the same level.

**********

Spent most of yesterday online ordering books. I love doing this.

About midway through the process, it occurred to me that I was doing the very thing that I'm hoping my own customers WON'T do, the difference being I was ordering 500 books instead or one or two and that I have no choice.

If there was a warehouse I could go to instead, I'd do that. But -- like I said -- I have no choice.

**********

My only vice in ordering stuff for the store is getting art books. They're expensive, and I don't have room to display them, but I simply can't resist them. It's not something most comic stores do; or most bookstores, for that matter.

I love having them, so I see them as MY collection, more or less, which I will sell you if you want, but meanwhile I still own them.

If I ever do have a website, these would probably be the books I could highlight that there is a decent chance no one else has.

**********

Mini-makeover

I'm busily planning a mini-makeover.

It's been a couple of years since my last one, and that's about as far as I can go without going stir crazy. It's better than the every six months I changed things in my first decade, and yearly changes in my second decade. And it's one hell of a lot better than opening a second store or moving or expanding. It will have to satisfy my itch. Heh.

I used to plunge right in. Now I sit back and plan and cogitate and scheme, and buy this and buy that, and then rethink it again. I measure once, twice, three times. (Where, oh where do all the tape-measures scamper off to? Are they playing with my screwdrivers and hammers in the land of lost tools? Next to the land of lost socks, and lost pens?)

The tape measure is crucial, because once I make my plans I find that every element of it is off by one half of an inch. The Rule of Half Inch. It is impossible to move a fixture if it is one half inch too big. Arrggghhh!

Right now, I'm thinking I can fit in about 8 full bookcases. This may seem impossible, but there are ways -- If I'm completely ruthless.

For instance, I have a computer nook -- that has no computer. I've got some boxes of papers there and lots and lots of wires, but, really, it's wasted space. My "other" computer is a laptop nowadays, and I have a couple of storage rooms I can put the extra stuff into.

One bookcase.

Secondly, I have a Cabinet of Curious but Useless Toys. (Austin Powers, anyone?) I can take that out and put two half sized bookcases. I also have a wall of 'good girl' Japanese toys which I love the look of, but which never sell. Time to consolidate.

Second Bookcase.

It's time to consolidate my packs of cards again. I've sold down enough that I'm mostly there, anyway. I'm probably going to bust up one of the extremely heavy card racks, because they are a total bitch to move, and I'm ready to burn that bridge. I'll still have a dedicated space to sports cards and non-sports cards, so that's O.K.

Time to retire a few lines of toys. Shove them in boxes and let my ancestors have them.

Third and Fourth bookcase.

I've been preparing for a long time to take two of the green bookcases I currently use for manga, and use them for mass market paperbacks. The whole back wall will be manga and anime, so I'm not really stinting there.

Fifth and Sixth bookcases.

I'm going to take the two poster racks, that hold 20 posters and replace it with a single rack that holds 48 posters that is actually 8" thinner. Take up another few feet of toy wall space, and put in another bookcase.

Seventh bookcase.

I'm going to move the green mass paperback shelves forward, and move the t-shirt rack, the toy spin racks to the back. Move the half priced graphic novels to the back of the other side of the store where I have the back-issues, and put a bookcase facing forward.

Eighth bookcase.

If everything works the way it's supposed to, it will actually make the store look more streamlined and less cluttered. Which is weird, because it's an overall addition, more or less three steps forward, and two steps back.

Everything would be much easier if I could still get the 24" white laminate shelves instead of the 28" white shelves. That extra four inches plays hell with the space.

I'm going to wait until the summer is officially over, before I make the physical changes.

Meanwhile I'm ordering product. I'm going to try very hard not to fill every inch of the new shelves with new books, but instead use about half that space to better display the books I already have.

Still, I have some ordering to do, and I've decided to take a couple grand of my Christmas profits and spend them this fall.

I'm still not satisfied with my method of finding books. So far, it's completely haphazard. Someone mentions Lolita, and I think, Oh, Yeah, I should have that, and I order it. Someone else mentions Kafka, and I get a selection of Kafka, And so on.

I'm going to tiptoe into the newer newer books. Some of the best-sellers, or the newest books by favorite authors. I'm still pretty leery of carrying new hardcovers, and would prefer to order the trade-paperback versions of the same books -- but all the press is about the new books, not the change in format six months or a year later. So I've got to figure that out.

At least I've gotten that far. I think my distributor actually sends a catalog of new trade-paperbacks, and I need to keep that around.

At the end of the process, I'm going to look much more like a bookstore -- even if I'm not a full bookstore. In fact, I'm going to have to find ways to downplay that, without discouraging sales.

For one thing, I'll be mostly fiction. With a heavy element of genre fiction. I will have literature, but it will be classics and or cult books, mostly, not necessarily best-sellers. It'll be interesting to see how everything works.

It looks right now like three of the shelves will be a mix of mainstream graphic novels and art books -- which will fit in with regular books. Two of the cases will be mass paperback, one mystery and the other S.F. One case will be 'paranormal' romance. One case will be for "new" arrivals. Really only have to buy the mass market paperbacks to fill in, the rest will spread out the material I already have.

It's a bit of gamble, but I'm replacing elements that really aren't performing, so either it will be a wash or an improvement.

If nothing else, it will be fun.

Someday this store will make a profit....

By profit, I mean, over and above what I pay myself in income.

Ironically, the drop in sales over the last four months, has freed me up to spend money.

I'll try to explain.

If I'm expecting a ten percent increase in sales, then I can mirror that increase with a ten percent drop in orders, for an overall increase in gross profit of twenty percent.

I'm not completely sure why this is -- I suspect it's has to do with a broader range of material selling. For instance, if it's really busy, there is a good chance that maybe 30% of sales are of material I see no need to replace. The other 70% might be evergreens, which I always want to keep in stock and must reorder.

Whereas, if it's slow, maybe only 20% of sales are material I won't reorder. A significant 10% difference, in that it takes several more turns of in-stock items to make the same profit as a sell it and forget it item.

It's the same reasoning I use to spend more money on product in the 'off' seasons than I do during Summer and Christmas.

Anyway, once I see a 10% drop in sales, then my reaction is go ahead and spend the 10% extra on product that I had hoped to save.

This runs counter-intuitive to some extent. The impulse is to think: "Oh, you customers are going to spend less money? O.K. then, I'm going to spend less money, too."

Part of this seems rational -- save money, don't risk it; part of this is emotional -- oh, yeah. Well two can play at that game!

But I think it's a mistake. Either you have faith in your business, or you don't. By faith, I mean, once you've identified product that has a track record, it's a mistake to make false savings by cutting into the budget. Unless, like I said above, sales are so good that you can afford to let a few lines get run down a bit because something else will sell instead.

Believe me, I'd much rather spend money than not. That's half the fun of running a store -- buying cool stuff, getting it in and processing it, pricing it, displaying it and seeing what sells.

The profit part? At this point in my career, all that profit is going toward a 'far' future; retirement and beyond. I don't get any warm fuzzies from socking it away. Prudently, I know I need to get on the stick with that; but you know what? This is a historic slowdown, and maybe all I can realistically expect to do is probably stay out of debt, pay my bills, and break even.

One other thing; I think too many stores make the mistake of cutting on inventory because of a slowdown in sales. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy; a vicious downward spiral. As I said, I think you need to refocus your faith on your core product and make sure you have it in stock.

So I'm relaxing and enjoying the summer -- pretty much back to normal. Someday this store will make a profit....

What happens when....

...your longterm plans run into future change?

I've spent many a year developing a product line, only to find when it finally got 'hot' that it went in an entirely unexpected direction. I always likened it to climbing a mountain through 5 feet of snow, and tramping down a path, only the find the latecomers skipping up the path behind me and reaching the summit first.

In fact, after the first three or four times that happened, I decided I wouldn't try to be the trailblazer anymore, because it almost never profited. An opportunistic claim jumper does so much better. Let the other guy dig the tunnels, I'll wait until he strike gold, and stake my claim right next to him.

That may be a bit of an involved analogy to what I'm going to say about Amazon, but there it is.

I've been wondering for years about Amazon's overall strategy of grow, grow, grow. Not so much focused on 'profits', but more interested in becoming the overwhelmingly biggest baddest gorilla in the jungle.

Trouble is, new technology is coming along laying down superhighways into the jungle and shrinking Amazon's habitat. They may end up being the biggest gorilla in an outmoded model.

If you stay in business long enough, you get to watch entire industries fall apart in creative destruction. Downtown Bend was a ghost town for my first decade of business -- because of the building of the Mountain View Mall and the Bend River Mall.

Ironically, they're all gone and we're still here.

I think the Barnes and Noble and Borders and Best Buys and Linen's and Things are Dinosaurs. I'll be long retired before all this comes to pass, but the big chainstores are on shaky ground, right now. Small and nimble boutiques which offer a specialized and unique shopping experience may end up being the survivors after all.

Because the internet can provide content so much easier -- if biggest is best, then the internet is the biggest of all.

So two things are happening: everything which has content that can be downloaded online is in big trouble. Books, comics, movies, music, etc. etc.

But unique boutiques still have a niche, albeit a small one, in which to survive and even thrive.

Meanwhile, product providers also face the biggest baddest competitor of all, that being the internet, so the big box stores are going to shrink in significance. If I can get everything at Bed, Bath and Beyond online, and get it cheaper, than B.B.B. doesn't look so big.

Whereas, I can go down to Kitchen Complements downtown, and chat with the owner and more likely find something that wasn't overwhelmingly mass produced.

It's going to take a long time for all this to happen, and by then the whole shopping experience could've shifted again.

I'm just saying it's a dangerous thing to have too long a timespan for one's plans these days. So Amazon is ready to start profiting? (I believe they only turned their first profits a few years ago, and I'm not so sure their profits will ever justify the gigantic edifice they built.

The Retro Store.

Welcome to the Retro Bookstore.

**When the Apocalypse comes, everything here will still work!

**Batteries not included. Electricity not needed.

**Big Brother can't find us.

**You want beeping lights? You want electronic squiggles? You want synthesizer sounds? Go somewhere else.

**Ask me a question about my product. Go ahead. I may actually know the answer, because you know, like, this is my bookstore and I love books and I selected the books in here.

**No, sir. We only have one. Which means you'll be the only one to have it.

**That does not compute. No really, it doesn't compute.

**The only sound you'll hear is nature.

**You want me to look it up to see if I have it in stock? Let's see. I could sit down, turn on my computer, go to the proper site, type in the information, and wait for it to give me an answer.

Or....I can walk ten paces and look. I think I can walk ten paces. Yeah, I can do that.

**Yes, sir. I have read that book.

**So you think the author's name starts with an H, and he writes about Florida? Would that be Carl Hiaasen? Yes, ma'am. You're welcome.

**You know those nerve endings on your fingers? Doesn't that feel good to caress paper, and turn the page, and fold over the page when you're done reading?

**Suitable for bathtubs.

**"Hey, Uncle Dunc. I see you read Game of Thrones...did you like it? "

"Loved it. See that book next to it, The Stand by Stephen King, that's great too."

**Suitable for beaches. Just drop your backpack anywhere, over on those rocks. Got sand in it? Just brush it off.

**"I could swear I bought 1984 and Animal House the other day. Oh, there it is. On my shelf."

**State of the Art.

**Never needs updating.

**"What do you mean I spent 250.00 on an e-reader and there's a new one out that does more for half that price?!"

**Never needs rebooting.

**Same words today...same words yesterday...same words tomorrow.

**Suitable for river rafting. Oh, dear, we dunked it. Soggy, but readable.

**Wait, no. It's falling apart. Oh, well. It cost me 4.00 (or 7.99 or 15.00 or 25.00)

**What is that smell? Smells like burning plastic.

**No danger of electrocution.

**What is that smell? Love it. Reminds me of a library.

**"Wait a minute. Didn't he write something different on page 45? Let's see. Yeah, he got the name wrong...."

**You want to borrow it? Go ahead, take it away.

**Wow. Neat cover. Never heard of it. I think I'll give it a try.


Any others? I came up with these in about an hour, and I figure there's a lot more to say.

E-Books? We have no stinkin' e-books.

O.K. I have to admit I don't quite understand the movement afoot for independent booksellers to sell e-books. I mean, I thought Barnes and Noble was nuts to cut into their own sales, but at least it could be seen as a transitional move.

Selling e-books in indy bookstores? I don't understand the reasoning there.

I think we should double down on our bookishness. We have books. They're paper. Come buy our books. You know, books that can't be changed by the publisher or seller and are eternally secure. Books that you can put on your shelf when you're done. (Yep, I bagged that trophy.) You can only read one book at a time, whether it's paper or e-. They have a nice bookish smell, a nice bookish texture, a nice sense of heft and place and time.

I think it's a case of fighting THEIR GAME, and THEY are going to be bigger and badder and better at it.

I have a saying in my store; You can't have the customers you can't have.

We should be playing up the bookstore experience. The browsing aspect, the conversational aspect, the display aspect, the "Local" aspect, and so on. Play to our strengths, not our weaknesses.

It's one of those cases when -- when I hear an expert explain the reasoning behind something, and it makes NO sense and it just doesn't compute and it seems to be all jargon and code words -- it will be a disaster. The equivalent of watching Time/Warner talk about synergy with AOL, and all I heard was nonsense babble. It's clear they really haven't thought it out.

My bet? There will always be room for real bookstores. And it will be the real bookstores that survive, not bookstores that put on an phony electronic veneer.

First rule of blogging...

First rule of blogging. You do not hint at something you're not willing to talk about.

This has happened a couple of times, and it seems to spark a guessing game. I suppose it falls into the category of wanting what you can't have.

A big fat tease.

So, I won't being doing that anymore.....

......

Except.....just this one last time.

(I immediately break the rule.) There have been three or four instances lately where I've had to muzzle myself. Once, about the conduct of a competitive business, once a very snarky post about the "Best of Bend", and third, yesterday, about another blog in town. I even feel a little bad about talking about CACB, since I don't have all the facts.

What they have in common is that I would be attacking -- well, not attacking, but mocking or being negative about real local folk. And that isn't fair, and it isn't nice, and it isn't who I want my better self to be.

I'm willing to discuss ANYTHING in principle, but not if it gets personal.

So from now on, I won't even hint about such things.

So don't ask.

Counter programming.

I've been working my way through the backlog of Shelf Awareness, which I think is the industry voice of bookstores, right now. I read the current entry, then two or three of the past entries each day, and I've worked my way back to July 22.

Anyway, one thing becomes very noticeable. You get entry after entry of, "Look! Bookstores who are succeeding! Look! More bookstores who are succeeding!"

Followed, almost inevitably, by a couple entries of, "Sadly, Beloved Independent Bookstore of Podunck, U.S.A. is Closing...."

Vroom, vroom....SCREECH!......VROOM, VROOM....Screech....!

**********

Linda and I went to see Scott Pilgrim. It was lots of fun, though like I said I think it trends a little younger than me. I'm familiar with lots of the anime/manga and especially 'comic' elements, not so much with the video game elements.

Essentially, it was a twenty something romance with Bollywood tendencies. Instead of breaking into musical numbers, it goes into elaborate 'kung fu fighting'. Has a kind of innocence that is refreshing.

Graphically, it successfully uses comic book graphics in ways that other movies have flirted with, but not quite pulled off.

After seeing it, I'm not sure what kind of buzz it will get.

**********

Had three really poor days in a row, losing about 1000.00 off the average. Not sure why that happened...

Nevertheless, I've held back ordering as long as I could, so I'm making orders this week.

**********

There is another blog in town where the woman seems to have exactly the opposite sensibilities, political views, and life style as me. It makes me grind my teeth.

I force myself to read it every day, because it's so revealing of life choices that are a complete mystery to me. Like getting to know her without having to actually get to know her.

It's good for me.

*********

More Scott Pilgrim.

When I say flop, I'm not talking about the quality of the movie. I just think the generation that would like this movie hasn't show a propensity for mega-supported movies. Same generation I see in my store that I have a hard time getting them interested in anything.

I think I need to give up this forlorn hope that any movie can have a significant effect on comics as a whole.

Thing is, it DID happen once, in 1989, with the first Batman movie. It made comics 'cool' for a few years, but it all ended badly in 1995 with the comic bust, so maybe that wasn't the right approach after all.

Comics probably need to stand on their own, and develop their own audience, without expecting crossover from other media.

Such as it is.

True Blood was truly gnarly last night.

True Blood won't Jump the Shark, it will kill and eat it.

**********

Watchmen -- flop.

Kick Ass -- a flop.

Scott Pilgrim -- flop.

On the same weekends, excremental pieces of crap like Transformers 2 and Expendables are big hits.

I give up. Real comics are never going to get out of the ghetto, are they? Batman and Spider-man? These are icons more than actual comics to most people.

**********

Re.Google and Net Neutrality.

Big surprise. All corporations become evil.

"It's my nature," said the Scorpion.

**********

Had a super slow weekend. Bring back the events!

Just kidding. Just kidding.

Anyway, my inclination is to order just the Evergreens for the next few weeks -- and save up for a giant order in mid-Sept. that would carry us through to Christmas. This would give me a chance to make the changeover to the bookshelves in the "off" season, around Sept. 10 or so.

**********

Another one of the industry Bulletin Boards I belong to is falling apart through internal conflict.

They tend to break up into ever smaller and less useful pieces. A couple have spun off "Professional" sites dedicated to "members" and are more exclusive.

Funny. I've changed my mind about exclusivity. When these retail organizations first opened up to other professionals (wholesalers, publishers, writers, etc.) I was sort of against it.

Despite this diversity, group think eventually set in, making the opinions and judgments of the contributors more bullying and less valuable.

I suspect, from who quickly abandoned the more open sites to join the 'exclusive' sites, that this problem is probably even worse over there.

Too bad. Small groups rarely hold together in long run.

**********

Manifest Destiny.

The biggest problem I've been dealing with at my store for the last five or ten years, isn't money. It isn't overhead, or profit margins. It isn't the amount of work, or the inventory.

It's space.

I don't have enough of it.

I like the mix of product I have now, all of which contribute to a steady flow of business, all of which have a variety of profit margins which average out at the margin I need.

But I simply can't do a great job at displaying any of them, because of lack of display space.

I've gotten very good at using every available inch. I've learned to consolidate and compact the product. But, really, for a few years now, I haven't been able to do much.

I still have a couple of product lines I can consolidate, and I plan to put in about 6 more bookcases. I'm going to try to use about half of the bookshelves to better display would I already have, and the other half of the bookshelves for new paperbacks.

After that? Well, I've thought I reached the max-out point before, but give me a while and I'll figure something else out.

In some ways, being constrained has probably been a good thing. It's made me make choices about what product should be highlighted, and which product can be retired. It's made me put the 'best' stuff I have in the little space I have.

Still....I constantly daydream about having a space 2 or 3 or even 5 times bigger than I currently have.

Five times bigger? Yes. And I could easily fill it. I'd have to invest in some fixtures, but that's O.K. I also have enough fixtures in storage to take up much of the extra space.

I also think I could make it work financially. Rent would obviously have to be less per foot than I am currently paying, but for larger spots, that's common. I'd just try to make enough to pay for the extra rent.

I have the financial resources to both pay for it, and to take on some risk.

So why don't I?

First of all, I've been in the same location for over 27 years. Moving would almost be like starting over. The figure I hear and which I believe, is that I'd lose 30% of my customers, maybe more because of the longevity of my location.

Move from downtown? After finally seeing the rewards of waiting for it to come back? Leaving a space that has foot traffic to kill for?

Still -- I think it would be interesting and fun to create my 'perfect' store. I know I could do it.

In the old days, my main goal was to push sales. To fill my store with great inventory and sell the hell out of it. Later, I learned that I need to pay some attention to profit margins as well. (Duh.)

But there are two extra elements that I never used to pay any attention to.

Workload and Endgame.

It always seems easy in the planning, but I know how stressful and how much work it is to expand or move. I have a nice workload right now. I'm earning a profit. Why should I take on a new job? A space triple or quadruple the space I have now would probably need more workers. I'd have to get better at inventory management.

Secondly, I'm nearing the end of my career. Sometime in the next decade, probably. So would I have time to recoup the investment?

I suppose it's all a moot point, since I have several years left in my lease. It would be difficult, but probably not impossible to make arrangements. And I wouldn't leave for just any old space. I have one perfect spot in mind, but it's occupied. The second spot is available, but I suspect the rent would be out of reach.

Still, I can dream, can't I?

Can't Spin the Garbage.

"From a peak of 186,572 tons of garbage in 2006, the landfill's intake fell by 8 percent in 2007, then by 18 percent in 2008 and again by 18 percent in 2009." Bulletin, 8/14/10.

I'm skeptical of some of the local economic statistics. There are just too many ways to spin them.

But garbage? Who's going to bother? So a 44% drop in three years? That sounds about right.

**********

Linda had one of her credit cards go up over 20% interest, and when she called them, they told her she had agreed to some sort of 'deal' that she didn't remember. She paid off the card in full and told them she wouldn't be using it anymore.

Scumbags.

**********

Summer business finally started looking normal about the 20th of July, a full month after the usual mid-June takeoff.

I'm going to take one final potshot at the 'Those Wonderful Downtown Promotions" and point out that sales have been roughly one third better since they ended. I challenge anyone to look at the foot traffic downtown on non-event days and tell me we're lacking in notoriety.

Let retail stores be retail stores.

*********

Despite the overall average being better, I have these little lulls that seem to happen just as I'm thinking of making reorders, and they give me pause. And then enough time passes, that I think I can wait. Then business gets better and I'm thinking of making reorders, and there there is this little lull....

I've mentioned before, I prefer to let summer take care of itself. I prefer making the bulk of my reorders in the off season, where they seem to do the most good. Keeping the powder dry, so to speak.

But doing it this way always seems to bring about spot shortages. I've been out of the main Settlers of Catan, for instance, for about two weeks which I swore I wouldn't let happen. I tell myself, I have the new Settlers of Catan American edition, instead.

**********

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, by Tim Burton, is one of my favorite books, and I've sold a lot of copies over the years. Yesterday, I found it on a liquidation list at an extremely low price.

I ordered 25 copies.

Last time this happened, was There's a Hair in my Dirt, by Gary Larsen (Of Far Side fame), and I dared to order 10 copies -- and kicked myself ever since for not ordering way more.

I hope I won't kick myself for ordering "only" 25 copies....

**********

How rude.

"Jeld-Wen to end Tradition Sponsorship." KTVZ.

Wow. Nice timing. You'd have thought they could have at least waited until this year's event was over. Sort of unseemly-like....Wonder why they did that?

"Enjoy your meal, BECAUSE IT'S THE LAST ONE YOU'LL EVER HAVE!!!"

"Enjoy the party, BECAUSE IT'S THE LAST ONE I'LL EVER HOST!!!"

**********

A new book coming out, Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics.

As I said in my twitter, I imagine the first two lines are, "First you hire a guy name Jack Kirby. Then you hire a guy named Steve Ditko."

**********

Whenever I haven't seen someone for a few years, they always remark, "You've lost weight!'

Well, no.

I just leave a very heavy impression.

**********

It's hell when both of your competitors seem to be genuinely nice people. How can I be snarky about them if they're going to be that way? I like both Tina at Camalli Books and Hayley at Between the Covers.

So? Well, that just hasn't been all that true over the years. Most times, my competitors haven't even been friendly. Just one of those things.

**********

I seem to be very unlucky with local reviews of comic related movies. Watchmen, Kick Ass, and now Scott Pilgrim have gotten very strong rating at Rotten Tomatoes -- a large majority of reviewers liked them.

But not the reviewers in the local paper. What's with that?

**********

Friday the 13th. Luck for the Irish, my Dad always said, especially since I was born on the 13th and everyone in a while falls on a Friday. (Not this year, just saying....)