Seattle's Proponents of Intelligent Design Celebrate a Successful Year of Ensnaring the Book-Buying Public

Posted Nov. 17 at 12:34 pm by Mark Fefer

Are you going to believe this guy? Or...

​Seattle's Discovery Institute, the nonprofit think tank that's become infamous locally and in national media for fomenting the anti-Darwin "intelligent design" movement, is crowing today about a successful year in selling (literally) its ideas.

Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, published in June by Discovery Fellow Stephen Meyer (shown at right), has cracked Amazon's Top Ten list of science books of 2009. The list is ranked by customer orders through October. But the news isn't all good for Discovery.

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Topics: Books & Authors, Business, and Education

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More Bad News From Indie Booksellers: Bailey/Coy Books to Close

Posted Nov. 2 at 9:41 am by Brian Miller

​As reported, Elliott Bay Book Co. may be moving from Pioneer Square. One possible new location is Capitol Hill, where business conditions aren't necessarily more favorable. Now it's Broadway's venerable Bailey/Coy Books sending out an unhappy news release. After 26 years, writes owner Michael Wells, the store "will be closing its doors at the end of November."

Wells, who lamented changing business conditions on the hill in a SW story last year, blamed most of the same economic forces affecting Elliott Bay: "We have struggled, along with independent bookstores across the country, for the last decade to keep our bookstore profitable and healthy. The economic downturn of the past year, combined with the rapidly changing world of bookselling, has led us to believe that this is the most responsible decision."

The "rapidly changing world of bookselling" includes competition from big-box retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco. And, of course, Amazon. A going-out-of-business sale begins this week with 20 percent price reductions. It truly is an indicator of how bad things are for the books trade that Bailey/Coy couldn't even hang on through the holidays. Wells explains after the jump...

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Topics: Arts & Culture, Books & Authors, and Business

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In a Cold, Skeptical World, O.J. Simpson Found Someone Who Believed in Him: Washington Mutual

Posted Oct. 26 at 8:03 am by Mark Fefer

​It's been two years since the Seattle business known locally as "the friend of the family," and known nationally for serving up mortgages to anyone who could be propped up in a chair and made to scrawl something resembling a signature, became better known as the biggest catastrophic bank failure of recent history. And picking through the disastrous legacy of currently un-indicted, former CEO Kerry Killinger continues to yield great goods for enterprising journalists.

The New York Times made its run at a big, front-page, Sunday "reckoning" last December. But now our Times has weighed in with a far better, more comprehensive, more understandable piece. At 3,000 words, it's also unusually brisk and compact by SeaTimes flag-waving, investigative standards. (Part 2 appears today.) It's well worth a read. But in case you're too busy, say, trying to rent out 7,000 square feet of office space in downtown Seattle, we'll give you the choicest nugget that sums up the whole glorious Wamu enterprise.

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Topics: Books & Authors, Business, and Seattle Times

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B&N's Nook: First Look

Posted Oct. 20 at 12:26 pm by Brian Miller

​Tech site Gizmodo is all over the supposed Kindle killer from Barnes & Noble, called Nook. So thanks to them for first reporting what Jeff Bezos' ninja spies probably already know, having crawled up the side of B&N HQ using suction cups and stealth. Before, we were guessing. Here's what we know:

Kindle Vs. Nook
Price: $259 - $259
Memory: 2 Gigs - 2 Gigs (expandable to 16 with micro SD card)
Wi-Fi? Yes - Yes (free at B&N stores)
Network: Sprint 3G - AT&T 3G
Weight: 10.2 ounces - 11.2 ounces
PDFs? Yes - Yes
MP3s? Yes - Yes
Short-term file sharing? No - Yes
Screen size: about the same.

Gizmodo gives Nook an initial thumbs-up (without having actually touched it yet) over Kindle. TechFlash will weigh in soon. The Nook site is live; see here for more official specs.

Topics: Books & Authors, Business, and Technology

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Meet Kindle's Evil Twin!

Posted Oct. 20 at 11:06 am by Brian Miller

​It is on, Jeff Bezos! Smaller corporate rival to Amazon, Barnes & Noble is announcing today a rival electronic reader device to the successful Kindle. The Nook, as it's called, will compete with Kindle at the same price point, $259 (per the NYT).

Amazon has been coy about breaking out its sales of the Kindle, which has been revamped once already since its fall 2007 debut. Barnes & Noble has been slow but steady in coat-tailing Amazon, first introducing digital content through BN.com in July, and now with Nook, which has its own Web site.

B&N hasn't yet held its expected press conference today, so we're hoping to have an image and specs for the device by later this afternoon.

Topics: Books & Authors, Business, and Technology

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Amazon Vs. Elliott Bay Book Co.: Winners and Losers

Posted Oct. 21 at 12:55 pm by Brian Miller

​Everyone is upset that Elliott Bay Book Co. might move from its Pioneer Square location, where it's been for 36 years, to Cap Hill or Ballard or someplace less touristy but with a more manageable rent. As owner Peter Aaron told The Seattle Times, business is way down in our recession economy, he's got a loan due, and he needs a break on rent from his landlord.

Meanwhile, business is booming at Amazon, which once billed itself as "Earth's biggest bookstore." With the aid of some helpful city rezoning in South Lake Union, with Paul Allen's Vulcan as its landlord, the company is preparing to move 20,000 employees out of the ID and the old PacMed Building on Beacon Hill and into 11 spiffy new office buildings served by the shiny new SLUT. (The old waterfront trolley tracks leading to Pioneer Square have been gathering rust for years.) Oh, and we're about to pay for a $200-million makeover of Mercer Street, so Amazon employees have it even nicer in their new hood. Elliott Bay, a small, private company, doesn't report its financials. Amazon, with a $41 billion market cap, reported a 14% increase in sales for the last quarter, ending in June.

The divergent fates of these two iconic and respected local booksellers are connected, though not the way you might think...

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Topics: Arts & Culture, Books & Authors, Business, and Technology

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Seattle Blogs: Spineless Move Edition

Posted Oct. 19 at 1:44 pm by Caleb Hannan

Seahawk's tailgaters can expect to see a lot fewer of these downtown.

​We read local blogs so you don't have to. Although maybe you should, because a lot of them don't suck.

A move for Elliott Bay Book Company would mean neither death for Elliott Bay nor Pioneer Square. Discuss. (Crosscut)

Comparing the press treatment of Susan Hutchison to that of another female ex-candidate without political experience. Bonus points for the George Wallace comparison. (HorsesAss)

Our long national nightmare is over: swell guy/terrible hitting catcher Kenji Johjima opts out of the last two years of his Mariners' contract. (U.S.S. Mariner)

Topics: Books & Authors, Business, and Sports

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Greil Marcus: No Time for the Frye

Posted Oct. 15 at 11:58 am by Brian Miller

​There's a whole lot to see at the Frye's worthwhile new exhibition "The Old Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art." The traveling show takes its name from the book by cultural scholar and critic Greil Marcus, who, coincidentally, is coming to town next week. Perfect! Get the guy to do a lecture or something, right? He's a nationally famous writer, though sometimes difficult to unpack in print, but surely he could offer some intelligent, off-the-cuff impressions on the Frye exhibit. (See our take from David Stoesz.)

Unfortunately, the Frye confirms, no such arrangements were made with the visiting author, which really seems a wasted opportunity. Did they not know he was coming? Or is he more intent on flogging his fat new anthology, A New Literary History of America (Harvard Univ. Press, $49.95)? He'll be discussing that volume, which he co-edited, as follows:

Seattle Central Library 1000 Fourth Ave., 386-4636, spl.org. Free. 7 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 29.

Topics: Arts & Culture and Books & Authors

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Press Release of the Week

Posted Oct. 13 at 12:19 pm by Brian Miller

​It's only Tuesday, and yet I have decided. Please, God, let there be a book tour. I promise we will send an intern to cover it. Late-night infomercial pitchman Tony Little has a new motivational book coming out—as if his ponytail weren't motivating enough—and the release offers factoids including:

- Tony has sold over $3 billion worth of products worldwide.
- More than 40 million people own a product bearing his name.
- He was a juvenile delinquent before becoming a body builder and pitchman.
- In the 1980s, he introduced the Gazelle Exercise Machine into the home fitness market.
- His ponytail has the strength of ten men!
- And most important, he is totally psyched!

Full release after the jump; it's like living the '80s all over again...

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Topics: Arts & Culture, Books & Authors, and Business

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Dead Seattle Writer's Papers Go to California?

Posted Oct. 5 at 5:25 pm by Brian Miller

​When pioneering black female sci-fi writer Octavia Butler died (1947-2006) of abrupt but apparently natural causes near her home in Lake Forest Park, she was living alone, without heirs, her career somewhat dormant. Her best-known work, the 1979 Kindred, was almost three decades behind her. She published Fledgling in 2005 (review). After she won a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, plus Nebula and Hugo awards, many wondered what manuscripts she had lying in boxes, what stories might be published after her death.

The answer will come from researchers at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, which announced it's to be custodian of Butler's papers—some 39 cartons and eight file cabinets' worth, according to The New York Times. Why not the UW or some institution closer to where she lived (in her late career) and wrote? She moved here in 1999 and had roots in California. The Huntington Library press release doesn't specify if she had any extended family who controlled her estate or if any money changed hands for the papers.

Topics: Arts & Culture and Books & Authors

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Slush Pile! Warren Moon Edition

Posted Oct. 5 at 4:53 pm by Brian Miller

​You better be on time if you want to see a movie with Warren Moon. The former Husky star quarterback, who helped beat Michigan in the 1978 Rose Bowl, is a stickler about showtimes. It's one of the few concrete, character-illuminating nuggets in his new autobiography, Never Give Up on Your Dream (Da Capo, $25). The retired QB, who played the 1997-98 season with the Seahawks and now broadcasts their games, mostly fills the book with inspirational bromides and vague allusions to his DUIs on the Eastside. Born into a large, poor family L.A., he's done well for himself financially after a long career in the CFL and NFL (which ended in 2000), but confesses to carrying a chip on his shoulder about pro scouts considering him too black to play QB.

The book sounds more like his co-writer (Don Yaeger) than Moon himself, but one details sticks with me: Moon, apparently a Yoda-quoting movie lover, is still pissed about people showing up late for the 1981 Michael Caine horror flick The Hand. He relates how he and his UW buddy Lorenzo Romar—a former NBA-er now coaching the UW hoops squad—kept whispering at late-comers to the theater, "The movie started at 7:30!" Twenty-eight years later, and he's still irate. So if Moon asks you to join him for a movie, get there early. (And get there early for his reading at the Duchess Tavern, 2827 NE 55th St., 5:30 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 29.)

Make the jump for more local authors and subjects including the peak year of grunge (1989), being down and out in Bremerton, and our city's Omsted parks...

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The Roman Polanski-Seattle Connection

Posted Sep. 30 at 8:30 am by Brian Miller

​Septuagenarian child rapist and fugitive Oscar-winner in the news, Roman Polanski is stewing in a Swiss jail while celebrities including Woody Allen, known for his high morals, protest his possible extradition to the U.S. He fled this country, rather than do jail time, after the sensational 1977 trial in which he essentially took a plea for dosing a 13-year-old girl with Quaaludes and sodomizing her. The documentary account of that trial and its aftermath, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, played here in July, 2008. Then, in September of 2008, local author Christopher Sandford published his biography Polanski, which added further detail to a creepy/compelling life story. (Polanski, a Holocaust survivor, seems to have developed the attitude that his life's early hardships gave him a free pass for future transgressions.)

So I called our local Polanski expert to ask him about the director's sudden return to the front pages. Has Sandford been following these new developments? "I have indeed. It's fascinating and in some ways, without getting too highfalutin about it, there's a sort of Greek tragedy to it. The guy set these wheels in motion 30 years ago, and it seems like they're grinding slowly to a conclusion..."

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Topics: Arts & Culture, Books & Authors, Crime & Punishment, and Film

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Glenn Beck at Safeco Field

Posted Sep. 27 at 3:00 pm by Don Ward

​In the media event of the decade, or at least the last week of a slow summer news cycle, controversial Fox News talk show host and conservative radio broadcaster Glenn Beck swooped into liberal Seattle to speak to supporters at Safeco Field.

Roughly 7,000 people turned out to watch the event, some standing in line for a couple hours hoping to snatch up the few remaining tickets on sale. Across the street on First Avenue, a scant hundred or two counter-protestors showed up to heckle and recite dated chants.

"Glenn Beck lies. Shame. Shame. Shame."

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Topics: Books & Authors and Media

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In Non-Genius Arts Award News...

Posted Sep. 22 at 1:38 pm by Brian Miller

​So Seattle is proud of the two MacArthur Foundation "genius" awards being bestowed to local artists James Longley and Heather McHugh. Filmmaker Longley and poet/teacher McHugh each get $500,000, along with the considerable prestige of being in such an elect group. Seattle is on a hot streak with the awards, since UW professor David Montgomery earned one just last year.

But more awards were announced this week, those from The Washington Center for the Book, granted to six Northwest writers who will be honored at the Central Library on Weds., Oct. 14. (Each gets $1,000, a nice bonus in the current economy.) They are:

• Jonathan Evison, Bainbridge Island, for the novel All About Lulu.
• David Wagoner, Edmonds, for his poetry collection A Map of the Night.
• Robert Clark, Seattle, for his history Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces.
• Barbara Brotherton, Seattle, for editing the SAM exhibit book S'abadeb: The Gifts: Pacific Coast Salish Arts and Artists.
• Edwin Fotheringham, Seattle, for illustrating the children's book What to Do About Alice?. (See our 2008 Best of Seattle profile.)
• Richard Farr, Seattle, for the young adult history/adventure book Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster in the Antarctic, 1910-13.

Topics: Arts & Culture and Books & Authors

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Make That Two MacArthur Geniuses in Seattle

Posted Sep. 21 at 10:07 pm by Brian Miller

​Local poet Heather McHugh joins the MacArthur "genius" award roster along with documentary filmmaker James Longley. A UW instructor and regular reader on the local poetry scene, McHugh is, in the words of Samantha Storey, "inspired and unabashedly witty at her readings, surprising her audience with lyrical phrasing, playful puns, and the subtle humor that abounds in her writing. If ever there were someone who could be drunk on words, McHugh would happily plead guilty to such intoxication; she overflows with a love for syntax and rhythm and can send her readers into a state of wonderment with her ingenious line breaks." And now, deservedly, her readings are likely to get a lot more crowded.

Topics: Arts & Culture and Books & Authors

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