Can Small Town America Support Bookstores? An Owner’s Tale

The commonly accepted narrative about bookstores is that they’re doomed. People simply won’t go to bricks-and-mortar spaces to buy hardbacks and softcovers when they can pull up a web browser, click or tap a couple of times, and boom! Either an e-book is on their screen or that supposedly archaic bundle of paper is on its way.

But while certain undeniable facts—the closing of Borders and the rise of Amazon as the alpha dog in the bookselling industry among them—prove this impression to be true-ish, there are other signs that cast doubt on it. Some of these are factual and some anecdotal. In the case of the latter, Half Price Books is always jam packed when I go into one of the four Kansas City locations to buy more books I probably don’t need. Also, I recently read The Atlantic’s feature on Ann Patchett, who is not only bankrolling a bookstore in Nashville but also got a spot on the Colbert Report because of it. (I’m not jealous, honest. OK, yeah I am.) Third, I have spoken in four independent bookstores in the past few months and at all but one of my other events (libraries, community groups, etc.) indies provided the books.

The most recent of my bookstore talks was at Well Read in Fulton, Missouri, a two-story brick building on the very parade route that Winston Churchill took hours before he introduced the world to the terms “iron curtain” (he didn’t invent but popularized it) and “special relationship” in March 1946. Until last year, the store was somewhat disorganized, did little to no marketing and didn’t offer a space for reading or book events. All that has changed since Brian and Danielle Warren took over. I grabbed a few minutes with Brian to talk about book curating, the joy of sifting through boxes of old history books, and why two young, intelligent people took over a used bookshop in a small Midwestern town. 

What is your background?

Danielle and I met in San Francisco and were both in the technology business for many years. She’s from Jefferson City [Missouri] and we moved back in May 2012 to change our lifestyle.

How did you find out about the bookstore opportunity?

The Fulton Sun ran a clever story in July last year, in which the first line read, “Kathryn Wade is selling a cat for $25,000.” My wife loves cats, so that got her hooked right away. We were looking to start or take over a business and as we both love books, it just seemed perfect.

Keep reading at Boston University's The Historical Society blog

The College Writing Problem: Stop the Presses for Journalism and English Majors

In the course of the Atlantic’s recent series, The Writing Revolution, contributors have explored how to inspire struggling students, discussed the need to go beyond curriculum requirements, and delved into the disparity between how American society treats its high school athletes and their star student classmates.

Each of these pieces has merit, and yet as I read them, I was inspired to move beyond what works and what doesn’t for K-12 writing instruction and jump ahead to the problems of writing in higher education.

In his fine essay, Arthur Applebee writes that in 2011, 40 to 41 percent of public school students at grades 8 and 12 were assigned less than a page of writing homework per week, and that 80 percent of these assignments didn’t involve composition.

You may think and hope that this dearth of practical writing is overcome once students pack their bags for college and that our higher education institutions have challenging syllabi that prepare able students to write the next great American novel, become the new David McCullough, or, heck, just eke out a living as a poet or freelance journalist. But, in many cases, such an assumption is ill founded.

The composition courses required at liberal arts colleges (typically Comp 1 and Comp 2) are usually a joke, covering the basics of grammar and style that previous generations mastered in high school or before. If you don’t know a verb from an adverb by the time you’re 18, what hope is there for you? Indeed, enterprising students can and should do all they can to avoid such rudimentary instruction—and the cost of six useless credit hours—by taking a CLEP test that exempts them from Comp course requirements.

The picture is little brighter when it comes to those brave and creative souls who choose an English or journalism degree. The typical limitation of the former is a lack of practical exercises that allow students to critically evaluate a text in a way that sharpens analytical skills applicable outside academia. The length and scope of such essays have been steadily reduced, to the point where a two-page, double-spaced exercise in brevity is the norm. There’s nothing wrong with being succinct, but such an assignment is a cakewalk for most able undergraduates. Many won’t excel unless they’re pushed, and a few hundred words now and again just isn’t going to cut it.

There are many challenges for journalism degree programs, but these can be distilled into two main points. First, the newspaper game has changed so much with the closing of many dailies and weekly publications, the staff cuts at others and the rise of online-only pubs like The Huffington Post, which rely ever more on unpaid contributors from its vast blogging network.

The same is true of magazines: while there are an increasing number of specialty publications and overall reading stats are up (if you believe the claims in the 2010—2011 Power of Print campaign run by the Big Five of Time Inc., Hearst, Advance Publications' Condé Nast, Wenner Media, and Meredith), many more have folded and many of the surviving titles are run by skeleton crews. Still more titles have become online-only ventures that require Web 3.0-ready writing—complete with tags, optimized search terms and such—elements all too often ignored by behind-the-times journalism programs.

Click here to read the rest of the post at the blog of Boston University's Historical Society

The Things I Use Daily

Nicole, my good lady wife, recently cleared out bags of junk from our house, and we took a full carload of bags and boxes to the local Savers thrift store (see: "charity shop" for you UK readers).

As I was unloading all the excess we've collected in the past eight years, I started thinking about the things that survived the purge. What are the most useful items I own? Here's the list, in no particular order:

Bodum Stovetop Espresso Maker

You can't beat the crema of an coffee shop espresso, but this little gizmo comes close, without the costly repairs and high cost of fancy automated machines. The genius of this is its simplicity - the heat forces water up through the espresso grounds and into the serving chamber. Once the metal is cool, it takes two minutes to clean out (note - do NOT use soap), and is good to go again. Other great tasting coffee making methods? The French press and old-school pour-over method.

Watch


Matthew Battles at The Atlantic wrote a great piece about the decline of the wristwatch recently, but for me, the curmudgeon who STILL doesn't own a cell phone, my watch is essential. Nicole tells me I have no concept of time and I invariably underestimate how long just about any task will take - with the notable exception of writing. I am Captain Lateness, I admit, but at least wearing my old, scratched steel chronograph gives me a slight chance of being within 10 minutes of my appointment times. And its still the best fashion accessory (unless you're into pocket squares or bowties).

Free Weights


I don't have any idea why gyms insist on dropping thousands of dollars on the latest machines - particularly the thigh strengthener thing that MUST have been invented by medieval torturers. The fact is, free weights work stabilizing muscles better, enable you to perform an almost unlimited array of exercises and burn more calories because you're supporting the entire load. Add in dip bars and a pullup bar, and you've got the perfect strength training setup. With this kit, the right trainer - such as my good friend Mr. Cory Maxwell - could get your heart rate off the charts in just a few minutes.

Concept2 Rowing Machine


I'd been looking for a cheap, lightly used Concept2 for five years when I finally came across one three summers ago. Why did it take so long? Because the machines have a very high resale value and most people who buy one realize it's the best way to work every muscle in your body this side of cross-country skiing, so don't want to give up their machine. Now, if you see a C2 at a gym it's typically underused (just like free weights) because it's hard work - at least if you use it properly instead of jacking it up to maximum resistance and moving the handle with all arms and back power - the common technique mistake. If you can grab a cheap one on Craigslist, check out The Pete Plan for an easy-to-follow training schedule, and see the Concept2 forum for encouragement and advice.  Best thing about the rower? You can get a killer workout in 20 minutes - great when I'm on deadline.

Etymotic MC5 Headphones 


I used a pair of Sony studio cans for the longest time, but while they offer great sound quality, they leak noise like Julian Assange leaks secrets and don't cancel outside noise (think kids banging on my office door, noisy neighbors) unless you turn up the volume to ear-splitting levels. So, while it is probably criminal to drop 80 bucks on headphones, I did just that at the beginning of summer on the Etymotic MC5s. Like my good friend Mr. Tom Seibold, I am an avid web researcher, and I spent many an evening combing audio forums for reviews, warnings and endorsements, with three criteria in mind: noise cancellation, sound quality, durability.

Results? I can't hear a bloody thing once I've got the triple flange silicone earplugs jammed in, I've cut the volume level on my laptop and iPod by more than 50 percent, and I'm hearing parts of old favorite songs I'd never noticed before (example: Ludovico Einaudi at the Royal Albert Hall - heart-breakingly beautiful piano + strings). Now, there is a breaking in period - putting the afore-mentioned plugs in hurts like heck the first few times, but I got over that quickly and would buy these 'phones again in a second if I lost them.

HTC Flyer tablet


Fact: Writers write things, and most like to do so with a pen. Problem: this leads to half-full notebooks all over the house, which it takes ages to trawl each time you need specific info. Solution: HTC Flyer + Stylus. OK, I am still ticked off that I paid 80 bucks extra for the stylus (curse you, Best Buy!) but I now have a digital notepad that I use several times a day. The notes are synched to Evernote, so I can review them later on any device, and (this is key) perform a full text search to find a specific word or term. I'm also using the Flyer's camera to take pics of expense receipts, emailing them to myself and presto! no more using a scanner. Liking Amazon's Cloud Player music service, too. And if I ever get into ebooks, the ability to write on them - just like the good ol' days of literary criticism with Mr. Tyler Blake at MNU - will be most welcome.

Book Edits - Everything Comes Full Circle

Last weekend was a blur of quad espressos, 18-hour work sessions, little sleep and headphones jammed so deep in my ears for so long I'm surprised I got them out again. Why? Responding to my editor's comments and changes to the manuscript for my forthcoming book, Our Supreme Task: How Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech Defined the Cold War Alliance. 

20,000 words, one reformatted chapter and two completely overhauled chapters later, and the book is in production. To quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "And there was much rejoicing."


So I could concentrate, I split my time between a local Starbucks - where I shamelessly hogged the only big table, spreading out pages in a random order that MIT mathematicians would struggle to interpret - and Mabee Library at my alma mater, MidAmerica Nazarene University. Late Sunday night, it struck me that there was something circular about finishing this process at the latter venue. In the second half of 2009, I spent many evenings hidden away in a corner of this library, poring over interlibrary loan books as I researched the background to Churchill's speech, his life in 1945 and 1946 and the people influenced by his unlikely appearance in Fulton, Missouri. Now, in September 2012, here I was again, this time trying to get past my ego and make the cuts needed to wrap up the project (more on this in the next blog post).

This got me thinking: how does location affect research and writing?

For certain texts, such as Thoreau's  Walden, a certain location is essential, and could not have been any different. But what about President Obama's inauguration address, written in a Washington Starbucks by then 27-year-old Jon Favreau (not to be confused with the Iron Man director, this Favreau is one month younger than me and is the Director of Speechwriting in the White House - unbelievable!)? Did the partially overheard conversations, whir of grinding beans and whoosh of the steam wands affect the content or tone of this speech? Is David McCullough's narrative voice so consistent because he writes each book in seclusion in a modified shed, as did children's author and onetime propaganda agent Roald Dahl?

I welcome your insights and opinions, dear readers!

Postscript: I realized, after re-reading the piece on Favreau in The Guardian (linked to above) that James Fallows of The Atlantic was the same age as Favreau when appointed head speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter. Fascinating.

Citations: Source for Mabee Library picture: MidAmerica Nazarene University
Source for David McCullough image: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
These two entities hold the copyright to the images.

Reading this Week - Communism, Robert Harris and Too Much of My Own Writing!

I've wanted to write a new blog post at multiple points this week, but editing the manuscript for my forthcoming book on Winston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech has me tied up. Not that it's a bad experience - it's quite liberating to receive edits and comments from a fresh set of eyes and someone whose job it is to edit. When you're too close to your own writing (as we all are), you don't see the repetition, the passive voice and the myriad other individual and persistent mistakes.

The key here is humility, and the realization that my editor and I want the same thing - a well-written, engaging story that people will want to read.

Anyway, all that aside, I've had the chance to read a couple of interesting things this week, that weren't composed by my own hand (amazing how un-interesting your own work becomes when you've read each word multiple times, believe me):

First was this wonderful interview with Robert Harris, conducted by Judith Woods over at The Daily Telegraph. In case you're not familiar with him, Harris is the author of all manner of wonderful historical fiction books, including Fatherland, The Ghost (which became the film The Ghost Writer, starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan MacGregor) and Conspirata (the second part of his Rome trilogy, and a bargain at $6.40 on Amazon). I've bought everything he has created since my good friend, Mr. Jon Manley, lent me a copy of Fatherland more than 10 years ago.

In the interview, which he rarely consents to, Harris talks about his creative process, politics and the story behind his forthcoming book on the financial industry, The Fear Index (my lucky friends in the UK can get it several months before us poor buggers living stateside and yes, if anyone wants to send me a copy, I won't turn them down!). Harris combines historic authenticity with the page-turning suspense of a master novelist, and I'd love to sit down and talk writing with him over a pint of stout.

Other than that, I also read this wonderfully succinct and atmospheric piece on Prague’s Museum of Communism, written by another historical novelist, Thomas Mallon for The Atlantic. As my book has the specter of Communism as a backdrop, I'm always interested to learn what life was like in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and to discover what its legacy has been. I implore you to read Mr. Mallon's take. I'm looking forward to reading his forthcoming book, Watergate, in February.

OK, enough slacking. Back to my manuscript and a well-earned glass of Samuel Adams Octoberfest!