SEPARATING THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF: We know that chain bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders have spent the past decade trying to take over the world. They haven't succeeded -- Wal-Mart beat them to it. But the main criticism I have about chain stores is that their staffers don’t know books. A gross generalization, to be sure, but that’s been my experience. That’s why it’s so refreshing to see a book person like Jason Cooper making some changes at the B&N in Cheyenne, thus far the only one of its kind in the state. The UW grad and teacher at the annual Young Writers Camp held in Story, Jason sent this communiqué from the book-selling front: “I thought it might interest you to know that I -- as the head of the bargain department at Barnes & Noble -- have set up a new table in the store that sets the literary titles in bargain fiction apart from the pop titles. When you walk into the store & down the main center aisle, turn left into the second center aisle (the one that leads down toward the restrooms) & you'll see a table with a sign on it that reads LITERATURE AT BARGAIN PRICES. On that table (which shall be, I believe, a permanent fixture, with titles rotating on & off it as new books come in), at the moment, are books by Zadie Smith (Booker Prize-nominee), AS Byatt (Booker Prize-winner), Peter Carey (two-time Booker Prize-winner), LP Hartley, Douglas Coupland, Rose Tremain (Booker Prize-nominee)….as well books about books, books about the act of reading, biographical works on Ted Hughes & the Beats, etc. And all of them bargain-priced. In the near future, there may (if we get our way in the ordering process) be titles from Virginia Woolf, Andrea Barrett, Monica Ali, Mark Spragg, Annie Proulx, Graham Greene, Kent Haruf, a bio of Ralph Ellison & lots of others....Let your literary friends know, as well, that there's now a bargain table fixture in our local Barnes & Noble with the finest in world literature.” The store is located at 1851 Dell Range Blvd. in Cheyenne, sandwiched between Red Lobster and the new sushi place. Call 307-632-3000.
- posted by Michael Shay @ 1:52 PM