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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Links and funnies and a moment of mourning


www.facebook.com/pages/thingsweforgetblogspotcom/59899066172?sk=wall

Both John Scalzi (president of Science Fiction Writers of America and kick-ass novelist) and Laura Resnick (Word Wench and SF author) had the link to this website posted on Facebook. This guy will draw on sticky notes and post them throughout the city, taking a picture. They've been collected on posters and I love the little bites of philosophy.
Here's another cool, recent discovery:
gapingvoid.streetcards.com

gapingvoid gallery

Hugh MacLeod works in the advertising business, but draws on the back of business cards. Yet again, we have pithy, moving, tapas of thoughtfulness to smile at.

This was a bag found by author Teresa Medeiros in a gift shop. Other than the unfortunate expectations we're giving our children, especially our daughters (did you see the poll where more girls said they'd rather win "America's Next Top Model" than win a Nobel Peace Prize?), it's purple and cute and I would probably buy it to hold my Hello Kitty collection for my character, Mary Margaret.
 
 
http://www.snorgtees.com/t-shirts

A great source for hilarious T-shirts, but I love this one. It's a pet peeve of mine you should know about, while we're in that awkward, getting to know each other phase.

Now, for the moment of mourning:

Kris not only gives a very learned essay on the impact of the closing of the whole Borders chain, she's found out from her sources that Barnes & Noble has told their employees to prepare for a massive return of stock in the immediate future. Now, having been in the bookselling business (I ran a bookstore in the B&N chain for almost ten years), I can tell you that they have many long nights of strip lists and pulling and boxing returns ahead of them. Get your mind out of the gutter. Mass market paperbacks aren't returned whole copy. The bookstore employee pulls the number of copies called for on the list, takes them off the sales floor and rips the covers off, destroying the rest, either by tearing out pages or putting in a locked trash compactor. It made me sick, how many poor, defenseless books I destroyed. It was a practice developed during WWII to provide books to the troops and allow returns of unsold books. The trade paperbacks and hardcovers are returned whole copy, of course, but have to be pulled, boxed and prepared for shipping. I can't tell you how many times I'd find myself at 3 a.m., still working on getting stuff out of the store, because being management, I was salaried, of course.

What does this mean for us, the readers? I'm going to be making a few trips to the Books-A-Million store about a forty-five minute drive away in the next six months to get my fix. Yes, I'll also be buying on the interwebs. May I recommend:
Shop over 9 million new and used books, college textbooks and more at bargain prices. Free shipping worldwide. We donate a portion of all sales to fund literacy programs.
 
But it is truly the end of an era.