Iris Blasi

May 21

“‘This isn’t the store where you’ll find the book you were looking for,’ Fowler says. ‘It’s the store where you’ll find the book you didn’t know you were looking for.’” An Oddly Modern Antiquarian Bookshop

May 20

“Never forget the wonks, and the weirdos, and the people who will be delighted by this book that they never could even have imagined could exist and they will find on your shelf.”

The advice Sarah McNally’s mother gave her for opening a bookstore.

via

Apr 11

Mar 7

“Pamela Paul, features editor at The New York Times Book Review, says that the Times’ policy of not assigning book reviews to anyone who’s thanked in the book has led to some behind-the-scenes machinations. Authors will purposefully include someone they fear will pan them in those influential pages—or leave out someone they’re hoping will get the assignment. It’s a somewhat shocking degree of calculation for something that is—supposedly—merely about expressions of gratitude.” Noreen Malone, in The New Republic, on somewhat Machiavellian book acknowledgements.

Mar 1

e.e. cumming’s “No Thanks” is actively *not* dedicated to the 14 publishers who rejected him. The un-dedication is arranged as a concrete poem in the form of a funeral urn.

via Mental Floss

Nov 14

“Deep Thoughts” from the NYT in an article entitled How Dead is the Book Business?

If it weren’t November, I would totally think this was an April Fool’s joke.

Oct 25

Random Penguin Facts

Penguins can’t fly.

Most penguins can swim about 15 miles per hour.

A penguin’s lifespan typically ranges from 15 to 20 years.

A penguin is an unofficial symbol of the United States Libertarian Party.

A group of penguins on land is a waddle. A group of penguins in water is called a raft.

Sep 7

Amazon’s chart showing how quickly ebooks have surpassed print book.

Sep 4

“There’s this thing called the Internet, this magical thing, which, with some work, enables a seller—a publisher—to reach a vast number of potential consumers—readers. It has been calling out to the book industry for some time now.” OR Books publisher John Oakes on the future of publishing at Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto

Jun 7

The Javits Center is like an airport with no scheduled departures and much more carpeting. It is hot and cold, somehow, at the same time, and it smells like the sad turkey wraps you’ll see hungry souls clutching as they crouch in the corners of the main convention floor eating hurriedly between meetings. There is not quite enough oxygen. It’s actually a lot less like being in an airport, actually, than it is like being on a plane. But like being on a plane that, if you have been in or around the book industry in some professional capacity, is filled with everyone you have ever met in a professional capacity. So it’s sort of like a high school reunion. On a plane. Ugh, fuck it, it’s like a giant trade show, okay? That’s what it’s like.

-Emily Gould on Book Expo America, in “Four Hours in the Tote Bag Capital of the World”

Iris Blasi

Marketing Manager at Open Road Integrated Media. I like books and the people who read them.

Random Penguin Facts