Unicorn weekend edition

As you watch the agency price model play out, take the opportunity to revisit Leegin v. Kay's Kloset, the Supreme Court decision that held that manufacturers can set minimum retail prices: "The Court has abandoned the rule of per se illegality for other vertical restraints a manufacturer imposes on its distributors."

I have a feeling lots of residents of Bookland will be looking for The Collapse of Complex Societies after reading this post: "ATT, like most organizations, could not be good at the thing it was good at and good at the opposite thing at the same time. The web hosting business, because it followed the 'Simplicity first, quality later' model, didn’t just present a new market, it required new cultural imperatives."

I thought about quoting the most recent post to introduce LOLerature -- but I simply cannot get behind "Team St. John." Go check out the site anyway.

While I've never gotten the smell-of-books thing, Matt Benyon Rees has the most engaging musing on the sensory aspect of reading I've seen in a while: "So forgive me if I go home from the Palestinian john and give my library the same attention." (via)

You'll indulge some blog-nepotism for a moment, won't you? I'm now the sister of a book blogger: "Macbeth and Julius Caesar are masterfully written political thrillers, rife with some of the language's most beautiful poetry, raising questions about the nature and dangers of power. But what in them speaks to the experience of a sixteen-year-old?"

New motto: "The Twittersphere is an odd and uncanny place. It’s something like having fairies at the bottom of your garden."

Northshire Books has just done some useful market research. Read the comments to take advantage of it: "What prevents you from buying a hardcover book? Is it the weight of these tomes, the solidity that make them burdensome for travel or eventual storage, that forces you to wait for the paperback edition? Is it the price that brings a shiver of guilt and the thought that you don’t deserve a hardcover edition when the paperback will be out eventually?"

Why bookstores matter, from a perspective we don't often discuss: "Sometimes they need help finding it, and in these moments I’ve seen some of the most courageous efforts I can imagine; they will ask for help finding a book that discusses the darkest secret of their souls. To make it all the more courageous, they are asking a stranger...So often, a bookseller is the first person to hear of these things, simply because we are there at the crucial moment."

Posted at 07:49AM Apr 05, 2010 by Sarah Rettger in General  |