Posts by giovanni tiso
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Emma Hart,
Dude, step away from the Post-Modernism!
Oi!
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In all this, I'm still baffled that Trotter ended up in that chair. How many names were there in the phone list, four million?
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Islander,
Heartening to hear two writers say that.
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Emily Perkins,
I'm talking about a different way of connecting. Venues & ideas that give rise to new writing / reading / speaking / listening forms. The OGB last year was a good example of that for me.
Are we still talking about the viability of bookshops though, or have we moved on to writers and publishers? Unity Books would be a little stretched hosting a great blend.
(That said, there is obviously a very long tradition of bookshops serving as social and cultural venues - in terms of the two examples that I'm aware of I'm unsure that it helped their bottom line very much at all.)
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Emily Perkins,
It's a return to personal community interaction that is growing precisely because it's in contrast to the other changing ways we read... Whether this is taken up by readers and listeners in a way that enables our survival remains to be seen.
You mean whether readers and listeners will be willing to pay? I don't really know how I feel about this. If it's something like your performance with Dylan Horrocks, yes, please let's have more of those, but the flip side are events like, say, the Gaiman town hall appearance last year in Wellington, which puzzled me greatly. I get that he is a popular and charming guy, and I get that people are curious about aspects of his work and he's not shy to answer their questions, but if it's something that becomes expected of authors, that they are extremely personable self-promoters, that troubles me a little bit. It's a very different skillset from being a good writer - not saying that one can't be both, but I'd like us to be able to look out for those who are just bloody good writers.
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Emily Perkins,
So, I'm biased, and not 'blaming' the internet as this doesn't look like a situation of 'fault', but - and I'm possibly preaching to the choir or stating the bleeding obvious! - I just want to speak up for active consumer engagement that isn't only convenience based. If we have to live in a consumer society at least we can try to make it one that serves a physical community too.
That's a bit complicated, though, isn't it. I am very fond of both Unity Books and the Children's Bookshop in Kilbirnie, and if I find a title whilst browsing there I wouldn't think of going home and searching for a cheaper alternative online. Then again if I know the book I want, and it isn't a New Zealand book, I'm more likely to order from the Book Depository. We saved a small fortune buying the books for the kids that way last Christmas - we just happened to have a list of classics in mind from the outset - and yes we could have given a hundred dollar-plus donation to the Children's Bookshop instead, but it's good money, and there are other worthy causes besides our ever-expanding grocery bills.
I don't think bookstores will survive thanks to engaged consumers. They will survive by providing smart readers with a service that cheaper online depositories can't match. Whitcoulls hasn't been doing that, and frankly it's not technology's fault.
My favourite bookseller back home told me once that he didn't let his clerks use the newly acquired computer inventory system - you need to know what a book looks like and where it is and why it is there, he explained. Looks like he was right.
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Richard Derham,
I've noticed, especially in the last few years, that I can go down to Whitcoulls to buy a book and leave empty handed due to there being nothing there I want to read.
Whitcoulls gift voucher is my standard present from the in-laws (not this year, as luck has it - unless they put it in a large box for practical trickery) and that's the only thing that drives me to the bookstore, but more than once I've left empty handed at the first attempt. There's nothing there I want to buy and if you order something the mark up on the Book Depository price is pretty much the amount on the card, so I can just buy online myself and save time, thank you.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Emma Hart,
None. What do I win?
Maybe one? Joan Rivers technically is going to be "at the Oscars".
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Meanwhile, for those who might still be interested in the claims that Emma makes in her post, here's an opinion piece by Tracy Barnett about the win a hot wife competition in which, amidst some general sanity, the author manages a couple of jabs at women who wear revealing clothing and are therefore complicit with sexism.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Danielle,
(My favourite being: "oh mickey ¿cómo estás? ¿cómo estás? me gustas más hey mickey!")
You clearly haven't listened to Bowie's "Ragazzo solo, ragazza sola". His Italian diction is even worse than Lesley Gore's, which is saying something.
(Then again, in those days we had Italian singers putting on a fake anglo accent when they performed, so we did it to ourselves.)