Bookninja is Worth Reading Today

George on Bookninja offers up one of his (but maybe 'G' is a 'her'*) . . well, George woman (hee, hee; like the real author of the Greek classic The Odyssey*) . . well in any case, George offered up one of his/her less cryptic remarks today Publishers Weekly article on bookstore sales for 2006. Not an encouraging spin on the sales summaries as Christmas and Hanukkah approach:



Bad year
For being a bookstore.

I have a great live recording of an Oasis number where at the end, the two main coke-heads get into a tiff on stage about the drummer and keyboardist doing a bit of jazz improv. The text goes something like this, Noel: “Oi, oi, oi. Cut that fooking jazz nonsense out…. Seriously, I hate that fooking shit.” Then Liam chimes in with a fed-up “Awright, this will be our last song. We’d play more, but it’s been a bit of a topsy fooking year.” There’s a pause before Noel says matter-of-factly, “Same as the last one.”

That’s how I see this kind of article.

Posted by George (at Bookninja)

Well Bookninja, without a subscription , readers do not have access to the entire PW article; the lead paragraph says that figures are for pre-November sales in 2006; the figure is less than a 2% drop and the holiday sales are not projected.

Here is one reader's comment on the PW site that non-subscribers are allowed to read:

Submitted by: yan liu
12/14/2006 6:38:20 AM PT
Location: china
Occupation: editor

look at the datas (sic) of online bookstores. i believe they are happy with their sales numbers. Also, more and more people are getting used to reading online... the publishing business is in the biggest transition.

Despite CPE's reservations regarding the bookstore sales figures, you should take time to browse over to Bookninja for several other, very important, articles:

Giant Black history collection in danger


* See the Bookninja post "Here’s to swimmin, with Trojan women - More on Homer’s possible Homerella status."

Cy (host of CPE) commented recently on an altogether unrelated post on Bookninja.