August 01, 2011

July Bestsellers

Hardcovers
1. A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin
2. Naamah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey
3. Rule 34 by Charles Stross
4. Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
5. Embassytown by China Mieville
6. The Dervish House by Ian MacDonald
7. The Year's Best Science Fiction 28th Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois
8. Jim and the Flims by Rudy Rucker
9. Flashback by Dan Simmons
10. Trokia by Alastair Reynolds

Mass Market Paperbacks
1. Heartless by Gail Carriger
2. Deadline by Mira Grant
3. The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross
4. The January Dancer by Michael Flynn
5. Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey
6. The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
7. Feed by Mira Grant
8.  Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey
9. The Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik
10. Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire tie with Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Trade Paperbacks
1. Sword of Fire and Sea by Erin Hoffman
2. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
3. In Extremis: The Most Extreme Stories by John Shirley
4. Save Yourself, Mammal!: A Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Collection by Zach Weiner
5. The Year's Best Science Fiction 28th Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois tie with Stories: All New Tales edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio

Borders. The End.

by Alan Beatts

Despite lots of work on the part of the management and staff of Borders Books and Music it wasn't possible for them to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable company.  Last week all their remaining stores began liquidation sales, leaving Barnes and Noble as the only national bookselling chain in the U.S.

There has been a great deal written about what brought Borders to this point.  In hindsight it seems obvious that two major differences between how it operated compared to Barnes and Noble go a long way towards explaining why Borders is closing and B&N is not.

August News Roundup

* Would you like to buy the house J.G. Ballard lived in for nearly 50 years?  It's for sale for about $520,000.  <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/for-sale-futurologist-jg-ballards-old-home-in-need-of-modernisation-2311651.html>  Having read HIGH RISE, though, I doubt I'd ever sleep comfortably there.

* Inspired by some quite dismissive reviews of HBO's "Game of Thrones" (actually dismissive commentary on the whole fantasy genre masquerading as dismissive reviews of this program,) Jacqueline Carey has posted an eloquent defense of fantasy readers, with a bit of help from _her_ readers: <http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/>

* As Alan suggested about three years ago <http://www.borderlands-books.com/about_newsletter_05-08.html (scroll down a bit to the "From the Office" article)>, giant bookstore chain Borders Books will be liquidated, instead of successfully surviving bankruptcy. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/borders-goes-under-bookstores-begin-to-hold-liquidation-sales-nationwide/2011/07/22/gIQAHWQvTI_story.html>

* In other bookselling news, there is a rumor going around that Apple might be looking at buying Barnes and Noble <http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/28/apple-considering-barnes-noble-acquisition/>.  Though it seems insane on the face of it, B&N's Nook is the second most popular ebook readers in the US and B&N has been for sale for months, so . . . .