Bookstores

Say Hello to “Jesse The Reader”

Cal Gough Bookish Humor, Bookstores, The Reading Life

Jesse The Reader is a book-loving blogger who frequently posts humorous videos about the thoughts that run through his mind on his visits to bookstores, or when he contemplates his reading-related patterns.

For example:

Hyperlinks to all Jesse The Reader’s book/reading-related videos is here. His Facebook page is here.

Confessions of a Used Bookstore Worker

Cal Gough Bookstores

Carl Lavigne is a would-be published writer who works at a used bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He posted this week to Literary Hub an article entitled “What Working at a Used Bookstore Taught Me About Literary Rejection,” but it’s actually a series of musings on what it’s like to work in a used bookstore. From a bookstore shopper’s perspective, Lavigne’s observations and confessions are alternately charming and alarming.

Read Lavigne’s article.

A Computer-Based Alternative to Book Browsing?

Cal Gough Bookstores, Neglected Books, The Reading Life, Tools for Booklovers


The New York Times has published an article about a brand new Internet application called Tertulia, designed to condense the immense amount of online “bookchat” into digestible chunks of recommended titles.

Excerpt from the Times article:

Using a mix of artificial intelligence and human curation, Tertulia aggregates book discussions and recommendations from across the web, drawing from social media posts, book reviews, podcasts and news articles to generate reading recommendations that are tailored to individuals’ tastes and interests.

To get personalized recommendations, users answer questions about which genres they like and what types of people they want to hear about books from (options include space explorers, poets, chefs, historians, entertainers and book critics). Users can also sign in with their Twitter accounts, which allows the app’s algorithms to sift through their feeds to pull out book recommendations from people they follow.
Each day, Tertulia generates a personalized list of five books. Elsewhere on the app, users can browse lists of notable titles in different genres, which are ranked according to buzz, rather than sales.

The Tertulia app is available for free from the Apple Store.

Destination Bookstores

Cal Gough Armchair Travel, Bookstores

A listing of unique bookstores, both here in the United States and elsewhere, is a topic regularly revisited by many of the Internet’s travel advice blogs and websites.

Road Affair’s list is a recent example.

If you’d like to take a gander at additional stunning photos and enthusiastic descriptions of visit-worthy bookstores, here are the links to ten previously-posted roundups:

Drool-Worthy Public Libraries, Some Abandoned Libraries, and a Few Beautiful Bookstores

Cal Gough Bookstores, Public Libraries

The good folks who constitute the United Kingdom’s website For Reading Addicts have posted a roundup of what they consider a baker’s dozen of the planet’s most gob-smacking public libraries. (Alas, only one of them is located in the United States.) Take a gander.

Later, it posted some horrific images of libraries around the world that have been abandoned. (Four of these are located in the United States.) Take a look.

The website also posted its list of the world’s most gorgeous bookstores. (Again, only one of which is located in the United States.) Take a look at these.

COVID-Created Supply Chain Problems Playing Havoc with Book Publishers and Bookstores

Cal Gough Book Publishing, Bookstores

Last month, the New York Times published an article detailing the various supply materials shortages, labor shortages, and distribution bottlenecks that are affecting the country’s traditional methods (and delivery timetables), all of them resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of these challenges – none of which will be resolved any time soon – are driving up book prices for publishers and for readers, and adding to the delays in the publication of many titles.

If your access to the Times isn’t hidden behind a paywall, you can read about the daunting challenges facing the book production and bookselling industries here.

One Indie Bookstore’s Campaign Against Amazon and the Uneven Playing Field for Booksellers in the USA

Cal Gough Bookstores

My second-favorite magazine, The New Yorker, has published an excellently-researched, and data-laden article about how a booksotre owner in Lawrence, Kansas has tried to raise the awareness among booklovers of the hidden harm to the commonweal caused by Amazon’s discounted prices for books.

Read Casey Cep’s intriguing (and persuasive) article.

Found at The BookCase Project’s Facebook page (March 17, 2021)