Friedman’s not the first person to remind us that self-promotion—or “building a platform”—in the digital age is a nuanced and long-term project, a leap-of-faith investment, whose dividends are hard to quantify. But she hits the nail on the head nonetheless. Be creative, she is is saying. Participate. Bring something of immediate value to the table, and (this is critical) be willing to give it away.

Most importantly, it has to be about more than selling books—or whatever your goal might be. It has to be about what you stand for, and who you are.

Self-promotion, with integrity. Is that it? Coincidentally, this is the title of a great piece in Publishing Perspectives about Stephen Elliot and the interesting and innovative ways he has generated a following, both as founding editor of the online magazine The Rumpus and as author of The Adderall Diaries. With his house-to-house reading tour, his weekly personal e-mail to 5,000 subscribers, a self-designed iPad app for his book, and other outside-the-box initiatives, Elliot seems to exemplify much of what Friedman is talking about.

But it’s also notable that he is willing and able to live on $25,000 a year (in a co-op with a communal bathroom, no less) and that he disavows any aspiration to become a best-selling author. By his own account, Elliot will be content to know that he has made an impact on a relatively small but devoted readership and that his books will remain in print. The new literary model, the Elliot case study suggests, is not just about improvisational marketing strategies; it’s also about rethinking your definition of success.

Those who really knew him were his friends and family, including Sean Lennon, his son with Yoko. This week’s French pop song of the week, “L’éclipse,” is a French remix of Sean Lennon’s song “Parachute.” Sean, who speaks French, collaborated on the remix with French singer M (Matthieu Chadid), and the video below has a kind of offbeat humor Sean’s father was known for. Sean is wearing glasses and a hat.

Also below is a translation of the French lyrics (which differ from the English version). “Sauter du coq à l’âne” (”to jump from rooster to donkey”) is a French expression meaning “to jump from one subject to another.”

Sean Lennon & -M- l’éclipse
envoyé par LodanDruid. – Clip, interview et concert.

L’éclipse

By Sean Lennon and M

L’éclipse
C’est le remix . . .

On plane
L’amour léger dans l’âme
On a tellement de chance
On saute du coq à l’âne
La tête dans les étoiles
Une chanson est un jeu alors
Faisons de notre mieux
Faisons-le savoir

Si on s’eclipse ce soir
On le sait tous les deux
On se laissera porter
Comme dans nos rêves
Sur cette melodie
Elle nous suffit ce soir
À se croire immortel
Comme la nuit

Sensible
J’ai le coeur qui s’emballe
Il envahit mon âme
Je me croyais plus fort
Meme si ça m’est égal
Si la vie est un jeu
Lequel de nous deux
Est celui qui chante

Si on s’eclipse ce soir
On le sait tous les deux
On se laissera porter
Comme dans nos rêves
Sur cette melodie
Elle nous suffit ce soir
À se croire immortel
Comme la vie

Tum tum tum . . .

Si on s’eclipse ce soir
On le sait tous les deux
On se laissera porter
Comme dans nos rêves
Sur cette melodie
Elle nous suffit ce soir
À se croire immortel
Comme la vie

Tu du du du du du du . . .

Eclipse
It’s the remix . . .

We glide
Love so light inside
So much luck we have
We jump from this to that
Our heads are in the stars
A song is just a game so
Let’s do our best
And let everyone know.

If we disappear tonight
We both understand
We’ll let ourselves be carried away
Like in our dreams
On this melody
It’ll be enough for us tonight
To believe we’re immortal
Like the night.

Sensitive
With a heart that’s out of control
It invades my soul
I believe I’m stronger
Even if it’s all the same to me
If life is a just game
Which of the two of us
Is the one who sings?

If we disappear tonight
We both understand
We’ll let ourselves be carried away
Like in our dreams
On this melody
It’ll be enough for us tonight
To believe we’re immortal
Like life.

Tum tum tum . . .

If we disappear tonight
We both understand
We’ll let ourselves be carried away
Like in our dreams
On this melody
It’ll be enough for us tonight
To believe we’re immortal
Like life.

Tu du du du du du du . . .

I was going to write about Portland State University’s partnership with Hewlett-Packard and Lulu to create print-on-demand books, but then I came across this video. It may not be more newsworthy than the new print-on-demand machine, but it is much funnier, and sometimes that’s what you need.

I suppose the video clip IS somewhat newsworthy, though, since I was not even aware that pop star Justin Bieber had published a memoir. Well, until just recently I was not even aware of Justin Bieber at all! He’s not just another pretty face, dear readers! He sings and dances, and he is a published author. Lest you think I am being too sarcastic, here’s a confession: I saw Justin Bieber on the season finale of Shaq Vs., and I actually found him to be quite charming.

In anticipation of returning to Ireland after seventeen years, I’ve been reading Yeats again, wondering if I will find the country much changed, as some say it is; wondering, too, what words there are to describe where we are now, in November 2010.

Here is a poem on the virtue of speechlessness.

On Being Asked for a War Poem

I think it better that in times like these
A poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter’s night.

From The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

So what does this video have to do with publishing or virtual offices? Well, nothing, really, unless you consider what a staple coffee is in the publishing industry as well as offices (I know, it’s a stretch, but I am taking it). In addition, it’s hard to think about the pleasures of reading or writing without also considering coffee.

I think you can also draw a parallel between the coffee industry and the book publishing/book selling industry. There are the giants, and then there are the small, fiercely independent outfits. To say that coffee is important here in Portland, Oregon, would be a gross understatement. There are dozens of microroasters and nanoroasters with their single-origin, medium-roast coffees. Sometimes, as with small publishing houses and booksellers, it can start to feel a bit . . . precious. That is why I appreciated this Coffee Wars video. I love coffee, and I love books, but I also think it’s important to maintain a sense of humor and not take things so seriously.

France, as a center of wealth and culture, has for many years been a destination for immigrants, allowing it to absorb outside influences and, as a result, continually reinvent itself. Although some immigrants, especially those of North African origin, have had difficulty integrating into French life, there is a more hopeful side to this story. As in the United States, many people in France are committed to their country’s tradition of human rights and being a safe haven for foreigners. And France benefits economically and culturally from the energy and talent of its foreign-born citizens, as well as those who, despite being born in France and thus being French, are sometimes seen as other because of their family origins.

Such is the theme of this week’s featured pop star, Souad Massi. Born in Algeria in 1972, Massi had an eclectic musical background. Her parents loved traditional Algerian, French pop, and American soul music. Several of her family members played jazz. She learned guitar at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Alger and soon became known as a modern, passionate singer—a politically dangerous image at the time in Algeria. After an artistic director of Universal Music discovered her in 1999 at a French festival of Algerian women, she moved to France. Her music—usually in Arabic, sometimes in French, and occasionally in English—has been described as a blending of Algerian, French, and “Anglo-Saxon” musical traditions.

Below is a video of Massi singing “Talit El Bir.” It’s a longer, more developed version of a song that appears on her third Album, Mesk Elil (“Honeysuckle,” 2006). The lyrics are in Arabic, and she begins by saying in French, “Vous nous aidez un peu si vous avez envie. Je force pas.” (“Help us a little if you feel like it. I’m not forcing anyone.”)

Flux Film 001 | Morse from Proper Medium on Vimeo.

Artist John Morse has come up with a clever way of spreading haiku around Atlanta. His project, dubbed “Roadside Haiku,” uses bandit signs, those not very attractive, cheap white plastic corrugated advertisement signs that are ubiquitous in metropolitan areas. In keeping with the general aesthetic of bandit signs, Morse uses large black lettering, and the poems begin with catch phrases commonly found on bandit signs.

Morse has written 10 haiku, each printed on 50 signs for a total of 500 scattered across Atlanta. Here are some examples:

BUILD PERSONAL WEALTH
In the comfort of your home!
Read to your children.

LOSE UGLY WEIGHT FAST!!
Feel Happier! Healthier!
Dump your bigotry.

You can also check out the signs on Morse’s Facebook page.

For more information on the project, visit Flux Projects or see this article from the Guardian.

It’s supposed to be a bad economic climate for brick-and-mortar bookstores, and it seems booksellers are closing their doors left and right. It might come as a surprise, then, to hear about the opening of a new bookstore, one funded by the federal government. The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), responsible for all sorts of government publications since 1861, recently opened a retail bookstore in Washington, D.C. The store is actually a reopening of sorts, since a GPO bookstore has been in existence since 1895. The new store was redesigned to mimic more closely contemporary booksellers. The redesign and renovation were handled in-house by GPO employees.

If you don’t live in D.C., you can always order books online. The GPO bookstore offers thousands of titles that cover a vast array of subjects, everything from the history of the United States to national parks and technical manuals. To illustrate the diversity of the bookstore’s collection, here are the top five best sellers from July 2010.

1. Federal Benefits for Veterans, Dependents and Survivors, 2010
2. Reports of the United States Tax Court, Volume 131, July 1, 2008, to December 31, 2008
3. Civics Flash Cards for the Naturalization Test, 2009
4. Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories, 2009
5. International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis as Approved by the World Health Organization, 2007

Also in keeping with modern times, the GPO has a Twitter feed as well as a blog.

Once upon a time, back in the ‘80s, Katerine Gierak was just a young girl in Paris. At five years old she enrolled in her first music class. Soon she started playing the flute and studying music theory. Then she took up the classical guitar, followed by the electric guitar. From 1999 to 2005 she studied music at the Sorbonne, hoping to become a music teacher. But she failed the CAPES, a French exam for teachers, and instead of accepting the failure as a temporary setback, she changed careers. She became a rock star.

Now heading the band Mademoiselle K, Katerine Gierak is a popular and distinctive voice in contemporary French rock. Here is a clip of her 2006 song “Jalouse” (”Jealous”) from the album Ça Me Vexe (”That Upsets Me”). Below is a translation of the lyrics.

Clip : “Jalouse”, Mademoiselle K. Roy Music
envoyé par roymusic. – Regardez plus de clips, en HD !
Jalouse

By Katerine Gierak
J’suis jalouse à en faire trembler les gens
A faire trembler mes jambes
J’ai plus qu’à plonger en silence
J’pourrais flotter inerte, tu t’en balance
Et ça me ronge, ça me pourrit
Ça me rend dingue, ça me fout en l’air
Quand je sais que tu t’envoies en l’air
De l’air, de l’air, de l’air

Et même si j’le savais pas
J’imagine tout, c’est encore pire
Tu pourrais tomber amoureux
Recommencer une vie à deux
Plus tu la désire et plus j’expire
Et ça me ronge, ça me pourrit
Ça me rend dingue, ça me fout en l’air
Quand je sais que tu t’envoi en l’air
De l’air, de l’air

Jalouse, jalouse
J’suis jalouse à en faire trembler les gens
Et même si c’est moi qui casse
J’m'en fout, j’veux pas qu’on me remplace
J’suis jalouse à en faire trembler mes jambes
J’m'écraserai bien sur l’autoroute
Mais tu t’en fout, t’es déjà loin . . .
Le pire, c’est d’être déjà trop loin

Est-ce que parfois des idées noires
Te traverse sans crier gare ?
Moi, j’en ai un peu tous les soirs
Pourvu que le temps les écrases
Est-ce que tu penses encore à moi
Comme je pense encore à toi ?
Est-ce que tu souffres autant que moi ?
Si c’est moins, j’te le pardonnerai pas

Jalouse, jalouse
Et même si c’est moi qui casse
J’m'en fout, j’veux pas qu’on me remplace
Non, j’veux pas qu’on me remplace
J’veux pas qu’on me remplace
I’m so jealous I make people tremble
I make my legs tremble
Now I only have to dive into silence
I could float without moving, you couldn’t care less
And it eats away at me, it rots me
It makes me crazy, it fucks me up
When I know you’re screwing someone
Air, air, air . . .

And even if I didn’t know it
I imagine everything, it’s even worse
You could fall in love
Start again the life of a couple
The more you want her, the more I die
And it eats away at me, it rots me
It makes me crazy, it fucks me up
When I know you’re screwing someone
Air, air, air . . .

Jealous, jealous,
I’m so jealous I make people tremble
And even if I was the one who split up
I don’t care, I don’t want someone replacing me
I’m so jealous I make my legs tremble
I’ll even crush myself on the highway
But you don’t care, you’re already too far away . . .
The worst, it’s to be already too far away

Do dark thoughts sometimes
Cross your mind without warning?
Me, I have a few of them every night
Hoping that time crushes them
Do you still think of me
Like I still think of you?
Do you suffer as much as I do?
If it’s less, I won’t forgive you

Jealous, jealous
And even if I was the one who split up
I don’t care, I don’t want someone replacing me
No, I don’t want someone replacing me
I don’t want someone replacing me

I have to confess that I have not really understood the point of book trailers. It seems counterintuitive to market a book with a video, but perhaps I just need to rewire my brain. Well, if more book trailers were like the one above for Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, then I would completely be on board. It’s clever! Funny! Heart warming! Of course, not all authors are connected enough to have celebrity authors and famous actors appear in their book trailers, but I think there’s a lesson in the trailer nonetheless: it’s okay to have some fun.

This week Publishing Perspectives launches a new series of stories called Publishing People We Admire. The first installment features Lauren Cerand, a self-taught independent publicist in New York City, who helped discover the enormous book-selling power of “The Daily Show,” in addition to anticipating several years ago that “the online community would be the next stage in public engagement, presentation, and dialogue.”

On her website, testimonials about the quality of her work indicate that she is not only a discerning judge of talent but also a refreshing force of positivity and integrity in the industry. In Meredith Bryan’s recent New York Observer article called “My Town of Kind!”—which describes a new era of civility, earnestness, and colleaguiality on the Internet—Cerand is quoted as saying, “that very cynical voice worked really well from 2003-2006 . . . but really negative people, they don’t have a lot of friends.” (And in 2010, as we all know, “friends” = audience.)

According to Publishing Perspectives, Cerand’s main criteria for the projects she chooses is that they be “dynamic, meaningful and relate to the way we live in culture now.” The profile focuses especially on Cerand’s volunteer work with Girls Write Now (GWN), a New York City non-profit that mentors young, at-risk girls by helping them to develop their voices as writers.

I’m looking forward to following this series and learning about other creative, innovative figures on today’s publishing frontier. If you’ve got a hero in publishing, make your nomination today.

There are probably plenty of writers out there who kind of dread book tours, but author Jim Lynch isn’t one of them, or at least he isn’t at the moment—he has found a way to combine pleasure with work. An avid sailor, Lynch cruised from his home in Olympia, Washington, to various booksellers in the San Juan Islands (in the Seattle area) during a weeklong tour at the end of July. He promoted two of his novels on the tour: The Highest Tide, his first novel, and Border Songs, recently issued in paperback.

Lynch’s sailboat is a 1970 Bristol 32. He kicked off his tour on July 24 on Shaw Island as guest speaker at the Shaw Island Historical Society Annual Meeting. His final stop was on July 31 in Anacortes at Watermark Books. Lynch also made stops on San Juan Island, Lopez Island, Orcas Island, and Lummi Island. This month he will be traveling on land in Oregon and Washington. For more information visit his website. Also check out this article about his nautical tour in the Wall Street Journal.

Thus were the origins of one of the most successful pop songs in American history. Popularized by Frank Sinatra, “My Way” has since been recorded by more than a thousand other singers. But as explained on this French television program, in France it wasn’t initially a big hit for Claude François, who cowrote the song with Jacques Revaux and Gilles Thibaut. The French lyrics are also completely different, expressing a weary routine in a relationship.

Below is a video of Claude François and Mireille Mathieu singing “Comme d’habitude” in 1973. By this time even Elvis had a version of “My Way.” François and Mathieu end this short version of the song with lines from Anka’s English lyrics.

Following the video is a translation of the original French song. (For a video in which Claude François sings all the French lyrics, click here.)

Comme d’habitude

By Claude François, Jacques Revaux, and Gilles Thibaut
Je me lève et je te bouscule
Tu ne te réveilles pas comme d’habitude
Sur toi je remonte le drap
J’ai peur que tu aies froid comme d’habitude
Ma main caresse tes cheveux
Presque malgré moi comme d’habitude
Mais toi, tu me tournes le dos
Comme d’habitude

Alors je m’habille très vite
Je sors de la chambre comme d’habitude
Tout seul je bois mon café
Je suis en retard comme d’habitude
Sans bruit je quitte la maison
Tout est gris dehors comme d’habitude
J’ai froid, je relève mon col
Comme d’habitude

Comme d’habitude toute la journée
Je vais jouer à faire semblant
Comme d’habitude je vais sourire
Comme d’habitude je vais même rire
Comme d’habitude, enfin je vais vivre
Comme d’habitude

Et puis le jour s’en ira
Moi, je reviendrai comme d’habitude
Toi, tu seras sortie
Pas encore rentrée comme d’habitude
Tout seul j’irai me coucher
Dans ce grand lit froid comme d’habitude
Mes larmes, je les cacherai
Comme d’habitude

Mais comme d’habitude, même la nuit
Je vais jouer à faire semblant
Comme d’habitude tu rentreras
Oui, comme d’habitude je t’attendrai
Comme d’habitude tu me souriras
Oui, comme d’habitude

Comme d’habitude tu te déshabilleras
Oui, comme d’habitude tu te coucheras
Oui, comme d’habitude on s’embrassera
Comme d’habitude

Comme d’habitude on fera semblant
Oui, comme d’habitude on fera l’amour
Oui, comme d’habitude on fera semblant
Comme d’habitude . . .
I get up and make you stir
You don’t wake up as always
Over you I pull the sheets
I’m afraid you’re cold as always
My hand strokes your hair
Almost despite myself as always
But you, you turn your back
As always

Then I get quickly dressed
I leave the room as always
All alone I drink coffee
I’m running late as always
Without a sound I leave the house
All is grey outside as always
I’m cold, I pull up my collar
As always

As always throughout the day
I’m going to play at pretending
As always I’m going to smile
As always I‘ll even laugh
As always I’m finally going to live
As always

And then the day will pass
Me, I’ll go home as always
You, you will have left
Not yet returned as always
All alone I’ll go to sleep
In the cold, large bed as always
My tears I’ll hide them all
As always

But as always even during the night
I’m going to play at pretending
As always you’ll come home
Yes, as always I’ll wait for you
As always you‘ll smile at me
Yes, as always

As always you’ll get undressed
Yes, as always you’ll come to bed
Yes, as always we’ll kiss
As always

As always we’ll pretend
As always we’ll make love
Yes, as always we’ll pretend
As always . . .

Book clubs are pretty amazing things. I don’t belong to one at the moment, but I would say 80 percent of my friends are members of book groups. I really believe there is a book group for everyone. There are highly structured book groups, very laidback ones, clubs that read only classics, I could go on and on. Well, I just learned of a public book club in Minneapolis called Books & Bars. The group meets once a month at Bryant Lake Bowl, a theater that is adjoined by a pub and bowling alley.

Books & Bars has a moderator, comedian Jeff Kamin, and each session boasts about 70 attendees. Among the book club’s sponsors are independent bookseller Magers & Quinn and satirical newspaper The Onion. Participants are encouraged to purchase the selected books from Magers & Quinn and to enjoy food and drink at Bryant Lake Bowl during the gatherings. And even though it’s a book club, reading the book selection is not a requirement.

Upcoming book selections include The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, and illustrated novel Blankets by Craig Thompson.

If you like the idea of super compact books that will fit into your pocket but aren’t keen on reading books on a small digital device such as an iPhone, there is still hope! U.K. company TankBooks has come up with a very clever and visually appealing way of packaging miniature books—inside specially designed boxes that look like flip-top cigarette packs.

The company currently offers six titles, all classics, by Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Leo Tolstoy. The books can be purchased individually or as a set (the set comes in a nice tin), and yes, they will ship to the United States. And while the cigarette box-packaged books may be addictive, they won’t be harmful to your health. Seems like a win-win!

A while back I posted about vintage manual typewriters and how they have once again become desirable and popular. Well, if you are attracted to the look and feel of the old manual typewriters yet loathe to give up any modern technology, there is a solution for you—the USB Typewriter (TM).

Jack Zylkin modifies and sells vintage typewriters that can be plugged into just about any modern computer via a USB port. He sells these on his etsy site. In addition, you can purchase a D.I.Y. Kit if you already have an old typewriter you’d like to adapt, or you can send Jack your old typewriter and have him complete the conversion for you.

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be at a French rock concert? Well, here you go: Matthieu Chedid, better known by his stage name M, singing “En tête à tête” (about five years ago in Paris). One of France’s most extravagant and innovative rock stars, M combines the driving, rhythmic motion of rock with the elegant evenness of the French language.

Below are the lyrics and a translation.

En tête à tête

By M
Ce matin j’lui presse des oranges
   mécaniquement
Les yeux encore un peu brouillés par le sommeil
J’me trouve nez à nez avec ce vers qui ne rime
   à rien
C’est vrai ce week-end je suis seul
   avec moi même

En tête à tête avec moi-même
Souvent j’me tâte pour trouver le thème
En tête à tête avec moi même
J’ai pas la force de dire je je je . . .

Il faut aimer pour comprendre
Nous aimer pour nous comprendre
Mieux aimer pour mieux comprendre
C’est vrai ce week-end je suis seul
   avec moi-même

En tête à tête avec moi-même
Souvent j’me tâte pour trouver le thème
En tête à tête avec moi même
J’ai pas la force de dire je je je . . .
En tête a tête
En tête a tête
En tête a tête
En tête a tête
En tête a tête
This morning I squeeze oranges
   without thinking
My eyes still a little blurry from sleeping
I face with this line that rhymes
   with nothing
It’s true I’m alone this weekend
   with myself

All alone with myself
I often hesitate to find the theme
All alone with myself
I don’t have the energy to say I, I, I . . .

We have to love to understand
To love ourselves to understand ourselves
Loving better to understand better
It’s true I’m alone this weekend
   with myself

All alone with myself
I often hesitate to find the theme
All alone with myself
I don’t have the energy to say I, I, I . . .
All alone
All alone
All alone
All alone
All alone

This weekend (June 18-20) in Paris, the much-venerated Shakespeare and Company bookstore is holding its fourth literary festival. Inaugurated in 2003, the festival has since settled into a biannual schedule, running in 2006, 2008, and now 2010. Each festival has centered on a different theme, including “Lost, Beat & New: Three Generations of Writers in Paris”; “Travel in Words: Celebrating Travel Literature”; and “Real Lives: Exploring Memoir and Biography.”

This year’s theme is “Storytelling & Politics”—appropriate, given that Shakespeare and Company founder George Whitman (now in his nineties) has always seen his bookstore as a political vehicle, even describing it as “a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore.” Check out this video to get a sense of the unique literary atmosphere he created.

The 2010 festival’s diverse, international roster of participating writers and artists will include Martin Amis (England), Fatima Bhutto (Pakistan), Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa), Tjawangwa Dema (Botswana), Mathias Énard (France), Janine di Giovanni (United States), Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe), David Hare (England), Jack Hirschman (United States), Ian Jack (Scotland), Yusef Komunyakaa (United States), Hanif Kureishi (England), Nam Le (Vietnam), Philip Pullman (England), Carole Seymour-Jones (Wales), Raja Shehadeh (Palestine), and Gao Xingjian (China).

According to Publishers Weekly, this year’s festival will also mark the launch of a new literary magazine and literary prize. Beginning in 1967, Whitman published three issues of his Paris Magazine over the course of more than a decade. Keeping his title, the new publication will be edited by Fatema Ahmed, formerly the managing editor of Granta. Shakespeare will also announce its sponsorship of a biannual 10,000-euro prize for a novella of 20,000-30,000 words. It’s exciting to see the continued vitality of this iconic Left Bank establishment.

Do you attend bookstore readings? I am fortunate to live in Portland, Oregon, home to many bookstores, including the venerable Powell’s Books. I could probably go to a bookstore reading on a daily basis, and I often read through the listings in the local paper with great interest. The truth, though, is that I rarely go to bookstore readings. I never gave it much thought other than to attribute it to laziness, but then I saw this article, “The Dreaded Question: What is a ‘Reading’?” in the Huffington Post. The piece is by bookstore owner Alex Green, who talks about how the label “reading” is not quite accurate. He writes that “many of us are reluctant to attend a reading because we don’t know what one is, and we become afraid that something egregiously uncomfortable, or boring, is going to happen.” Green then goes on to explain that readings, at least at his bookstore, are engaging and lively discussions.

Green’s article made me question why I don’t attend more bookstore readings, and I think he is right—I think they are going to be kind of boring. I fully expect the author to read a chapter or two from a book, and thanks, but I can do that on my own at home. I would rather know about the author’s writing process or reasons for writing a particular book, or maybe I want to know the author’s favorite flavor of ice cream. If Green is correct that “readings” are actually conversations between authors and readers, then I could get on board, but really, it’s hard to know what to really expect. So, what do you think of bookstore readings? Do you attend? Look forward to them? What do you like about readings?

*The photo is from the last “reading” I attended. It was at Powell’s Books for my friend Amy Karol, author of Bend the Rules Sewing and Bend the Rules with Fabric. At the “reading” she displayed and discussed some of projects in the book, took questions, signed books, and hosted a cakewalk, so no, it wasn’t a typical reading.

Come on, poetry books! Don’t be so modest. You’re too beautiful to sit around in that frumpy old bathrobe. Here are a few looks you could try on!

Christine Hume, Shot; Counterpath Press, 2009

Susan Briscoe, The Crow’s Vow; Signal, 2010

Alex Lemon, Fancy Beasts; Milkweed Editions, 2010; Cover and interior design by Christian Fuenfhausen

C.K. Williams, Wait; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010

Gillian Conoley, The Plot Genie; Omnidawn Publishing, 2009

Kim Addonizio, Lucifer at the Starlite; W.W. Norton & Company, 2009