Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Time	Event
9:11a	Richard Price: hot, hot, hot Everyone loves Richard Price’s latest: Lush Life .. What’s not to like? The man writes like jazz – you may not understand it, but you get taken in all the same. Here’s the first line. “The Quality of Life Task Force: four sweatshirts in a bogus taxi set up on the corner of Clinton Street alongside the Williamsburg Bridge off-ramp to profile the incoming salmon run; their mantra: Dope, guns, overtime; their motto: Everyone's got something to lose.” I loved the book, too, almost to the very end. Then there was a funeral scene that could never take place in real life. Well, most things in a book are like real life only better. This was like real life, only best. It was just too over the top. And the end – the mystery of why one of the men who was with the murdered man lied about what he did and what happened - I honestly forgot it the moment I read it. It just didn’t resonate with me. In fact, the next day I had to go back and re-read it and it still lacked the punch to the gut I had been expecting. But I would still give my right ovary to write like Richard Price. (2 Comments | Comment on this)
11:53a	Fewer books in the store = More sales? Publisher’s Lunch says that “ Borders CEO George Jones reported that in the first few weeks at their new concept store in Ann Arbor, more face-out and a smaller title selection than a typical superstore were producing a "dramatic" increase in sales. Now the chain is quickly spreading those changes throughout their stores. The WSJ says "customers throughout the country should be able to see the difference in displays within six weeks. While books shown face-out will still be in the overall minority, as many as three times the titles as in the past will be shelved with covers showing."” So why should fewer books result in more sales? People can only handle so much choice. In a 2000 issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology a study showed that when shoppers are given the option of choosing among smaller and larger assortments of jam, they are more interested in the larger assortment. But when it comes time to pick just one, they're 10 times more likely to make a purchase if they choose among six rather than among 24 flavors of jam. Another reason that I read online - they also looked at cereals. No one goes to the store and expects to find the cereal boxes with only the side panel facing out. I guess we had all just better hope our books make the cut. (6 Comments | Comment on this)

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