Boulder News

Western Book Roundup

Boulder Book Store’s Buyer Blogs, Columnist Arouses Ire, and Vegas Gets the Literary Treatment

By Jenny Shank, 2-06-08

Lately the Boulder Book Store’s website has been pointing to the blog of its head book buyer, Arsen Kashkashian.  I started reading Kash’s Book Corner and am now addicted—he doesn’t update as frequently as some literary bloggers, but each post is a carefully reasoned, well-written essay, packed with interesting tidbits and insights into the world of independent book stores. 

For example, in his recent post ”Hachette Takes a Hatchet to Indies,” he wrote about his attempt to order six copies of Ron Patterson’s new novel Sail.  “My rep informed me that if I ordered six copies of the Patterson book,” he writes, “I wouldn’t get them in time for the national laydown date. The only books that Hachette will send out on time are those that are ordered in carton quantities.” Kashkashian reluctantly raised his order to one carton (ten copies) so that the book would be available on its release date for the half-dozen or so Patterson fans who shop at the Boulder Book Store.

So the perennial national bestseller Ron Patterson doesn’t do well in Boulder, and he and other authors like him leave independent bookstores with a dilemma, wanting to order enough copies to satisfy their customers, but trying to avoid going broke doing it.

I also enjoyed Kashkashian’s post about the after-holiday sale at the Boulder Book Store:

“My favorite shoppers were the ones looking for the super discounts. They trolled through the remainders and used books, looking for the deal of the year on books that were already absurdly cheap. We even had a number of customers down on their hands and knees wading through our used book markdowns that normally sell for one to three dollars… Let’s face it, most of our customers could easily afford everything they were buying at full price.”

As someone who has been known to get on my hands and knees and grovel for books, I recognized myself in this portrait.  Also check Kashkashian’s post ”Boulder’s Reading DNA,” about the books that have sold well recently in Boulder.  Heck, just subscribe to his RSS feed and be done with it.  This is one quality book blog.

Another quality Colorado book columnist whom I’ve mentioned before is David Milofsky, who writes the “Bookbeat” for the Denver Post.  This week he detailed some amusing, irate responses he’s received from readers to his column over the past year (”Judging by letters, somebody’s reading”).  One hot-button topic for him is Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper:

“It’s understandable that whenever I write about any of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s initiatives in the arts, there is reaction, some of it unprintable.

An anonymous staffer, for instance, objected when I characterized Wesleyan University, the mayor’s alma mater, as “sub-Ivy,” but hizzoner was amused, which speaks well for him.

And when I criticized his choice of Chris Ransick as city poet laureate, the response was immediate with letters to me, as well as to the editor, calling again for my dismissal, which seems to be a common theme.”

Finally, there are several Las Vegas novels hitting bookstores these days, making it one western city that doesn’t lack for literary chroniclers.  Beautiful Children, the first novel by Charles Bock, is getting scads of attention, and the first novel by Joe McGinniss Jr., The Delivery Man, also garnered a prompt review in the New York Times, which can be hard to come by for some Western writers.

Have some regional literary news or events to share?  If so,

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