Notes on the Sidelines -- Bookseller Suggestions From the Literary to the Laughable

The Royal Albert Hall may have featured J.K. Rowling at one of the most heavily attended author readings in history, but booksellers stateside can have an all-star lineup of Gertrude Stein, Charlotte Brontë, Langston Hughes, and Edgar Allan Poe, without a Ouija board and for less than a latté. Literary Luminaries, a new sidelines series celebrating great authors, playwrights, and poets, has become a quick favorite of booksellers. Some other top choices named by booksellers were Moleskines, a line of sturdy small notebooks; a semi-precious stone vending machine; and, from the people who brought you the librarian plastic figure with "shushing action," a tiny pig catapult and a fire-spittin' Nun.

A sample of Literary Luminaries' caricatures.

Literary Luminaries (look for contact information and Web site addresses below), produced by Heat Brothers, a graphic products company, is a new line of richly detailed pen & ink and watercolor caricatures of writers featured on notecards, t-shirts, posters, mugs, and mousepads. The notecards, which are a favorite of Carla Cohen of Washington D.C.'s Politics and Prose, bear a full-color caricature on the front with a quote from the author and a brief bio on the back. "The caricatures [rendered by illustrator Mike Caplanis] are charming, and the line is so perfect for bookstores," Cohen recently wrote to BTW. Leigh Batnick of Politics and Prose also described Literary Luminaries as "a perfect fit. They celebrate writers, and there are few lines that do that. And they're original. We carry about 150 lines, and these definitely have a new look." Beth Boyink, the sidelines manager and buyer of Schuler Books & Music in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said that she's had the notecards in her store for less than a month, but she told BTW that already they're "selling well" and are a "perfect product for the book market."

Another darling of sidelines buyers, and consumers, is the Moleskine line of pocket-sized, blank books -- the "legendary notebook" used by the likes of Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Andre Bréton. And if that's insufficiently literary, you can add Ernest Hemingway and a few others to the list. Each Moleskine has a rigid, oilcloth bound 'moleskine' cover, and acid-free paper pages. They also have an elastic closure and an expandable inner pocket made of cardboard and oilcloth. Laura Glazer of the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York, said that the notebooks have "certainly done very well. Everything we get sells through. Customers like them because they're not really elaborate; they're very attractive and well made. We're gradually getting more and more [varieties]." BookPeople's floor manager Sam Ramos, who owns the small-sized Moleskine, reported that "a lot of employees and customers buy them. We always keep a quantity of them in stock. They're a perfect little journal if you don't want something bulky, and they stand up to a good beating. Plus, they're classy."

The latest in enthusiastic impulse buying, according to Adrienne Harper, co-owner of Brystone's Children's Books in Fort Worth, Texas, are polished semi-precious stones from Alpi International. The bonus is that the consumer buys them from a gumball vending machine, two for 50¢. Harper, who led a panel presentation entitled "Weird and Wonderful Sidelines" at this year's Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association Fall Trade show, said that she keeps the vending machine next to the counter and that "kids are loving it." She mentioned that parents also love the concept and are happy to encourage any interest in geology in their kids.

Gayle Shanks, co-owner of Changing Hands in Tempe, Arizona, couldn't help laughing as she told BTW about the latest from the Seattle-based company, Accoutrements. Along with a Dashboard Jesus, an albino bowler, and many other unlikely action figures, Accoutrements now offers "Nunzilla." As the Web site warns, "This fire-breathing wind-up sister trudges straight out of a Catholic-school student's nightmare like a determined disciplinary force." Shanks said that last December, Changing Hands sold 52 "Nunzilla's" and would have sold a legion? A gaggle? more of the Nuns if they hadn't sold out.

Another sideline that's doing well said Shanks is the Pig Catapult, which propels tiny plastic pigs skyward. Each 5-3/4" shooting device is made of plastic and comes with plenty of piglet ammo for hours of porcine-launching pleasure. Shanks told BTW that Changing Hands can't keep them on the shelves and sells "about 30 a month."

BTW welcomes e-mails from booksellers with information about other unique and bestselling sidelines that they would like to share with their colleagues. Please send an e-mail with your contact information and the product information to [email protected]. --Karen Schechner