Comments on: How Books Can Save Us http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/2010/03/02/how-books-can-save-us/ Editing angles to improve your writing by Barbara McNichol, nonfiction book editor with offices in Colorado and Arizona Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:25:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: meg http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/2010/03/02/how-books-can-save-us/comment-page-1/#comment-25 meg Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:43:33 +0000 http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/?p=7#comment-25 I agree that chains aren't evil but personally I'm a little uncomfortable with only a handful of companies deciding what to offer the public. There are some quality books that they simply decide not to carry for one reason or another and in effect they're guiding and limiting the public's exposure to literature. Fact is most people don't bother hunting down good titles. They just choose from what's most readily available. I know exactly what you mean about owning a book. I use the library for movies, not books. Of course I take it a little far; I literally have over 100 unread books sitting on my shelves waiting for me. I just can't help myself, if I see something really intriguing I have to take it home with me. Great article. I agree that chains aren’t evil but personally I’m a little uncomfortable with only a handful of companies deciding what to offer the public. There are some quality books that they simply decide not to carry for one reason or another and in effect they’re guiding and limiting the public’s exposure to literature. Fact is most people don’t bother hunting down good titles. They just choose from what’s most readily available.
I know exactly what you mean about owning a book. I use the library for movies, not books. Of course I take it a little far; I literally have over 100 unread books sitting on my shelves waiting for me. I just can’t help myself, if I see something really intriguing I have to take it home with me. Great article.

]]> By: Bookstore People · Literary Links http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/2010/03/02/how-books-can-save-us/comment-page-1/#comment-23 Bookstore People · Literary Links Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:06:25 +0000 http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/?p=7#comment-23 [...] this ode to the bookstore by Mark Sanborn, especially the shout out to Tattered Cover. Bookstores serve another, more subtle [...] [...] this ode to the bookstore by Mark Sanborn, especially the shout out to Tattered Cover. Bookstores serve another, more subtle [...]

]]> By: Jen@theevolvinghomemaker.com http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/2010/03/02/how-books-can-save-us/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Jen@theevolvinghomemaker.com Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:12:55 +0000 http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/?p=7#comment-4 Wow. Thank you for the uplifting and positive side to reading the non-bestsellers. I have been following an agents blog for some time that reiterates often that publishing is a business and if they can't guarantee they will sell a lot of books, they don't want to take the risk. It is a shame and has often got me wondering if there is any hope. But to me, you nailed it. I too peruse my local bookstore for hours. I read very few bestsellers. If I stuck to that list I never would have found my favorite, Terry Tempest Williams. It is a shame, I was thinking this morning after reading the other blog, that I hope book publishing is not going the way of the Super Target or Walmart, lets print only that which sells in big quantities. The freshness of voices would be lost. Found your blog through Tattered Cover's Facebook page....have had Crossing to Safety on my bookshelf for a few years, found for a dollar at a library sale, and had yet to pull it down! I will dust it off and give it a go! Jen Wow. Thank you for the uplifting and positive side to reading the non-bestsellers. I have been following an agents blog for some time that reiterates often that publishing is a business and if they can’t guarantee they will sell a lot of books, they don’t want to take the risk. It is a shame and has often got me wondering if there is any hope. But to me, you nailed it. I too peruse my local bookstore for hours. I read very few bestsellers. If I stuck to that list I never would have found my favorite, Terry Tempest Williams. It is a shame, I was thinking this morning after reading the other blog, that I hope book publishing is not going the way of the Super Target or Walmart, lets print only that which sells in big quantities. The freshness of voices would be lost.

Found your blog through Tattered Cover’s Facebook page….have had Crossing to Safety on my bookshelf for a few years, found for a dollar at a library sale, and had yet to pull it down! I will dust it off and give it a go!

Jen

]]> By: Lucy Pollard-Gott http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/2010/03/02/how-books-can-save-us/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Lucy Pollard-Gott Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:30:32 +0000 http://nonfictionbookeditor.com/?p=7#comment-3 Best discussion I've read about the benefits to be derived from browsing in a bookstore. In an evolutionary sense, we are hunter-gatherers by nature, and we learn almost as much from the desultory hunt through bookshelves, be they physical or online, as we might from actual random consumption. We are also living in an age of tremendous, sometimes bewildering, choice, as some astute authors have noted. Hence the lightly organized chaos of book tables in a shop is both irresistible for its promise of variety and soothing for the parameters it gives to one's bibliophilic wandering. Sanborn's piece makes me feel a lot better about all the time (not wasted!) I spend in bookstores. Best discussion I’ve read about the benefits to be derived from browsing in a bookstore. In an evolutionary sense, we are hunter-gatherers by nature, and we learn almost as much from the desultory hunt through bookshelves, be they physical or online, as we might from actual random consumption. We are also living in an age of tremendous, sometimes bewildering, choice, as some astute authors have noted. Hence the lightly organized chaos of book tables in a shop is both irresistible for its promise of variety and soothing for the parameters it gives to one’s bibliophilic wandering. Sanborn’s piece makes me feel a lot better about all the time (not wasted!) I spend in bookstores.

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