Hill Avenue Book Company

As regular readers know I LOVE small, hometown bookstores so here is another one I visited while driving to visit my family in Iowa:

Hill Avenue Book Company
1711 Hill Avenue
Spirit Lake, Iowa
hillavenuebooks@iowaone.net

Jill Krebs, Owner

Since this book store is located in the Iowa Great Lakes ("Boji"!!!) area I usually drive by at least once a year so it is always great to visit this shop. Ms. Krebs not only has a great selection of books but has created a great ambiance coupled with excellent customer service.

I wish her the best for 2008 and many years to come since society needs vendors like her.

Read on,

Todd

Barnes and Noble

Due to Christmas (and/or perhaps Kwanzaa) this week today's work day was rather quiet so I took our daughter to the local Barnes and Noble (B&N) book store for story reading time. Personally I don't mind being suckered into a store via such an event since exposing children to reading in many forms is essential. Yes B&N got US$4.00 out of me for a new book for our daughter but that is worth the money to not only have her see the joy of reading but to also have a chance to interact with children in a social setting.

One small boy for instance took the toy train from our daughter that she was playing with before he even entered the "B&N Junior" play area. His grandmother never said anything to him so I had to offer a comment to her and comfort our daughter. Now perhaps my wife will appreciate why I want the kids in martial arts classes!!

But let's get back to the books -- one section of books that I love reviewing at B&N is the "Summer Bridge" series which is designed for use with young students to "bridge" them across the long summer break so they don't lose part of what they learned the year before. For US$13.00 I don't believe this essential tool is out of reach for any family living in poverty in the USA since it is an amount that equals the "one large pizza" amount I so often hear in policy debates especially when it comes to property tax increases.

Invest in children by cutting taxes,

Todd

Catching Spears

Lynne Spears is the mother of two famous daughters -- singer Britney Spears and actress Jamie Lynn Spears of "Zoey 101" on Nickelodeon - who unfortunately we hear about much too often these days. This is detrimental to not only my mental state but also their well being since they need to get away from the media spotlight so they can normalize their lives.

With the recent disclosure that Jamie Lynn (age 16) is pregnant with her 18 year old boyfriend's child, the Christian book publisher, Thomas Nelson, Inc. who was set to publish Lynne Spears' "book about parenting" has postponed their plans. Ms. Spears' book is entitled -- "Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World."

No one should ever label me a "book burner" but I must be honest when I say that I am overjoyed to hear that this book will not be published anytime soon. The Spears family should take care of their personal challenges first before dispensing parenting advice to the rest of us.

Your 15 minutes of fame are over (I hope!),

Todd

Students

Two recent newspaper stories leave me confident our future might be in good hands after all once I read about these student initiatives:

• Edina High School -- one of Minnesota's finest school districts has a book club where "more than 100 students at the school get up more than an hour earlier once a month to discus -- of all things - books" according to the Star Tribune newspaper. This is pretty encouraging news since the students choose to participate in this activity which extends their educational experience -- at no additional cost to the taxpayer as far as I could tell from the article I read, and
• Northfield Middle School -- another Minnesota school district which is also home to Carleton College which is no incubator for free market solutions but yet in this hotbed of liberalism there is a growing awareness of how business works. Northfield Middle School is home to a student-run book store where student can "earn coupons to buy used books" Another great life lesson for students here -- you need to work in order to acquire things you want.

Personally I am encouraged with such news coming from our public schools -- we just need such initiatives to spread to thousands of more schools around the country to counter the "we need more money" crowd.

Read more, tax less,

Todd

Arab World

Via Terry Teachout's "Sightings" column in a recent Wall Street Journal I became aware of this very interesting project known as "Kalima". Kalima is a project based in the United Arab Emirates that is focused on translating foreign books into Arabic for distribution across the Middle East. The project can be found at -- www.kalima.ae

Mr. Teachout's column poses the question -- "Which of our (USA) books and plays would tell them the most about us?" -- to which Mr. Teachout replies with F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Willa Cather's "O Pioneers" among others.

Now I have some own personal list of books which I hope Kalima would include such as:

• US Constitution
• "The Mystery of Capital" by Hernando de Soto
• "1984" by George Orwell
• Anything by P.J. O'Rourke so the Arab world (hopefully) realizes we have a sense of humor when it comes to politics

Just a few thoughts to get my readers talking so I can hear your thoughts.

Translate everything you can Kalima,

Todd

Salaries

"Write only if you have no choice"

Blake Morrison, quoted in The Guardian (United Kingdom)

While reading The Week magazine (British ex-pat publication) recently I noticed in their "Viewpoint" section a short commentary entitled, "Literary Poverty", which focused on how few books most authors actually sell.

This commentary went on to quote "two recent surveys" (the sources were not mentioned) which found that 60% of British authors earn less than US$20,000 per year and that the media earnings for all authors are less than a quarter of the national wage in the United Kingdom.

Clearly the author salary structure is a steep pyramid with authors like JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame at the top of the food chain with her millions of earnings while most authors live at poverty levels. This leads me to speculate that most authors have others jobs like the bestseller author, Vince Flynn, did when he getting started in the business. I used to play basketball with Vince many years ago at the Decathlon Athletic Club in Minnesota at which time Vince was a bartender and part-time writer.

The key point her is that Vince was not living off of some National Endowment for the Arts/Humanities grant courtesy of the American taxpayers. Instead Vince served up Americans' drink of choice while he pursued his writing career. Today -- Vince is a very successful writer and the world is a richer place because he chased his dream.

Write, paint, sing -- give it a go,

Todd

Books For Africa event

My friends at Books For Africa (www.booksforafrica.org) are hosting a large (we hope!!) lunch event designed to introduce new people to their worthwhile work. This event will be held on April 30, 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Since I volunteered to be a "table captain" for this event I will be recruiting friends to attend with me so we can build our network of donors - for both books and money -- for BFA's continued expansion.

Africa needs numerous reforms and books can help inspire Africans to expect changes from their current political leaders. We all can help the cause by donating a box of books today which not only helps the African continent but it also helps clean up your home!!

Please contact me if you want to play a role.

Thanks,

Todd