Local Poetry

The Peyote Milkshake Review, a local poetry zine published by uber-lionhead Mike Snyder, is now accepting submissions for the fall issue. Inquiries may be sent to Mike at mikeandlaura10 @ embarqmail.com (with spaces removed from addy, of course). And yes, this would be the same Mike who, during the course of his poetry slam/book release party, revealed that our sweet and erudite local Shakespeare prof is ACTUALLY...

DARTH MOUMIN!!!

Choose Your Own Adventure

Okay--time for a quick show of hands:

How many of you have a secret love for Choose Your Own Adventure-style books? 'Cause I know I do.

I used to have over a hundred of those wonderful time-sucks when I was a kid. Tragically, they were destroyed in a storm--all of them. : (

I recently added several to the children's shelves here at the Lion. Many of them were titles I once had. I've been tempted to buy them, myself, but have resisted thus far. Still...The Circus of Fear calls to me (You, too, can be held captive in an evil circus as a young orphan girl who trick rides on griffins and tames displacer beasts while fighting to bring to justice the secret ruling class of Greyhawk!) , as does that trippy literary left turn, You Are a Shark!.

I sold one of them today to another closet Choose Your Own fan, and we had a lively debate over which series was the best. I was partial to the Endless Quests, while she was a purist.

That sale prompted me to wonder: Anyone else out there with this particular guilty pleasure? Did you read them as intended (I did), or were you a rebel and went straight through them cover to cover? Or--horrors--did you defy all ethical standards and sneak peeks at the various outcomes before choosing your path?

Bookstore News

After a decade of wonderful service, Diana’s Book Trader has closed its doors.

Diana was always friendly and gracious to other local bookstores, especially to the Literary Lion. She is a nice lady and a book lover, and that‘s always a great combination. Book addict that I am, I was a customer of hers as well as a colleague. I am sad that she is no longer in the book trade, but wish her many blessings for her future.

The closing of Diana’s Book Trader left an availablity of space just across from our primary shop.

This couldn't have had more synchronous timing. Ever since the Lion started hosting the Lone Star Library (book collector Bob Dunn's stellar Texana collection...check it out here) upstairs in what was formerly its paperbacks section, I've been scratching my head, wondering, "What am I going to do with all these books?" Who knew the answer would turn out to be, "Open a second shop!"?

The Literary Lion is open for business, same as always, but all of its half-price paperbacks and discount hardbacks will soon be for sale at the second location: “The Literary Lion, Too.”

I hope to have the new store open in early March. As soon as I have a concrete date set or any further details, I will post them on this blog.

Yea...books!

Hang Onto Your Tinfoil Hats!

"If I'm not doing anything wrong, I have nothing to hide from you." True, true, but there is also the flipside: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, I have nothing for you to search."

Perhaps I'm opening up a yummy can o' oligochaetes by posting this link, but I think it's newsworthy. I'll step back and let the comments flow, but not before adding this to the mix: Do you think this might be part of the reason people still use brick and mortar shops? By the way, I don't keep customer data online, being a quill pen and vellum babe, myself. Just so's ya know....

Feds Cancel Amazon Data Request (for now...?)

My New Competition

I love it!!!

http://www.glasgowdailytimes.com/schools/local_story_303211742.html

Rowling in a Row with India

Here's some weird book news for you:

J.K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, has lost a copyright suit filed against members of the Indian city Kolkata for creating a giant papier mache replica of Hogwarts Castle. Read on...

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hB0Se_SFVl8Fz4LDWg0uMCBhEMqw

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-10-12-voa27.cfm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7041863.stm

...and so on.

2007 Texas Book and Paper Show

The 14th Annual North Texas Book and Paper Show will be held at the Will Rogers Center on October 6th and 7th. This is a really neat event for anyone who loves books. We will have a table there showcasing some of our more unusual items. If you're in the Ft. Worth area that weekend, please feel free to stop by and say Howdy.

There have been a couple folks looking for others interested in carpooling or caravaning from the Stephenville area. Shoot me an email if you are interested.

Also, I have a couple of discount tickets left. First come, first serve--stop by the store to nab one.

College Textbooks

I have had several customers bring up the rising cost of college textbooks. While this subject does not really pertain to the Lion's book stock (We do sell textbooks, but most of them are specialty items rather than current curricula requirements.), I thought the following article might interest some of you:

Bookstores Only Make Small Profit from Textbook Sales

Any thoughts on this article?