SHAUN SMITH'S SUNDAY SUNDRIES

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

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I've written before about the mixed feelings I have when a fine independent bookstore closes. I have no mixed feelings about the closure of a Chapter's stores in downtown Toronto. This is not the loss of culture; it is a fiscal move by a public company. So don't be fooled by the apparent utter hypocrisy of the messaging that the stores are -- at least in part -- victims of the internet. ChIndigo has long waged discounting battles on its website, and the company founded and still has a substantial interest in Kobo. This is just the free market talking in the same way it always does.

"We love the view, but are there any good bookstores in this neighbourhood?"

Meanwhile, there's a real battle raging in NYC to save a real booksore, the Rizzoli, which is slated to close April 11, as its building is slated for demolition by condo developers.

Trending

And truth be told, I think the "death" of big-box book retail (Can something soulless really die?) may be a good thing for indie book retailing.

Bombast

This podcast by James Ellroy is one the most annoying things I've ever listened to. He actually starts it out by reading the entire list of his 19 published works, speaks in idiotic verse, and extols Beethoven in what appears to be a muted but genuine Spicoli-style surfer accent. (I don't care if he was born in California. The man is 66 yrs old.)

Bestseller

Since 1969, when Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar was first published, every thirty seconds a copy has sold. CBS talks to Carle.

Pictures

A glimpse at how illustrator Maurice "Wild Things" Sendak interpreted The Hobbit.

I hear some people like that.

And this year's Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title goes to...(drumroll)...How to Poo on a Date.
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SHAUN SMITH is a novelist and award-winning journalist in Toronto, Canada. His young-adult novel Snakes & Ladders was published in 2009 by the Dundurn Group. His book Magical Narcissism: Selected Writings on Books, Writers, Food, and Chefs was published by Tightrope Books in June 2013. shaunsmith.ca