About Bookstores

While grown men playing a child's game threaten to strike again, a group of children showed a Massachusetts community what baseball's really all about -- fun.

Spicy Old Favorites, Tasty New Treats (and Glimpses of Crazy Uncles in the Parlor)

Over the past decade or so, in the Lake Washington area of Washington state, 12 independent bookstores have closed their doors. However, it's not all doom and gloom. In the lakefront city of Kirkland, there's one independent bookstore that is not only thriving, but growing: Parkplace Books. Currently, the bookstore is expanding from 4,000 square feet to 7,000.

Larry Abramoff credits his "mid-life crisis" as a catalyst for some new directions at his bookstore. After founding Tatnuck Bookseller & Sons in Worcester, Massachusetts, 27 years ago and expanding to five locations (including the main store, which houses a full-service restaurant and publishing company), Abramoff was ready to do some event retooling.

A major Southeast independent bookstore has changed ownership. Perry Tanner, former corporate vice president of marketing for Scientific-Atlanta, has purchased the Atlanta-based Chapter 11 Bookstore from co-founders Barbara Kaufman and Dale Glenn. Terms of the agreement, which was signed on July 31, were not disclosed.

Grand opening celebration at the Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem.

In Honk the Moose -- the classic 1935 tale of Boys Tease Moose, Moose Scares Boys, and Boys Save Moose -- Mary Koski, president of Trellis Publishers and a children's book author, found a long out-of-print book that she believed would appeal to children in the 21st century. A prized spot for Honk the Moose on the Winter 2001/2002 Children's Book Sense 76 resulted in dramatic sales increases, along with second and third printings.

Downtown Howell, Michigan, is about to have something new to sing about. Opening officially on September 15 is a 3,000-square-foot general bookstore named Aria Booksellers, complete with a Patagonian conure, a tropical American parrot whose name is Mozart.

Book Soup, a general-interest bookstore in West Hollywood, California, will soon open a second store in Orange County. Book Soup has earned a staunch following and strong reputation in its 27 years on the Sunset Strip, for its strengths in art, cinema, and music books, and literary fiction. The second Book Soup will be located in South Coast Plaza, the locally legendary retail mall that's a shopping Mecca for upscale consumers.

Independent booksellers in Austin and Chicago are protesting the fact that developers could receive multi-million dollar incentives from their respective cities to facilitate retail developments that have signed tenant agreements with national chain Borders Books & Music. The booksellers contend that using financial incentives for developments that solicit national chains is unfair to local retailers.