Archive for the ‘Good news’ Category

Letters About Literature – Our Winners

Friday, February 10th, 2012

This year, the American Library in Paris participated for the first time ever in the Letters About Literature contest created by the Library of Congress. The idea was for school-age children to write to an author  who has changed the reader somehow, or changed their view of the world.

We’ve selected two winners from the entries we received, and all of the letters have been sent on to the national contest. The winners chosen by the American Library in Paris are Loic Lescoat (7-8 grade group) and Molly Griffiths (for the high school group). The two young writers were given a set of brand new, award winning books as well as a calligraphy set to encourage their writing. You can read their letters below:

Dear George Orwell,

Before I read 1984, my concept of freedom was very different from what it is now. Before, I thought freedom was something that I didn’t have much of as a child, but would have more of as an adult. Now I understand that it has a much broader meaning.

Freedom is in fact a most precious and precarious thing. It is a notion that has evolved over four millennia since the start of the first civilization to become what it is today. But it could have been wiped out completely multiple times and is a constant, never-ending battle for liberty.

Seeing that the Party members in your book did not have freedom of speech, or even freedom of thought, made me realize how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy this every day. This gratefulness is amplified by the thought of people in some countries in the world who don’t have these very basic rights.

Winston’s only hope to make a difference in the world is by writing in his journal. My possibilities, on the other hand, are endless. I could do research in science to look for an accessible energy source, I could be president and change peoples’ lives, or I could just turn off unneeded lights and conserve energy to battle global warming. When you think about it, so many people today have a chance to have a major impact on the world.

For the first thirty pages of 1984, I didn’t think the story was particularly plausible: I mean, malevolent policemen who can practically read your mind? A world divided into just three countries? And how did the Inner Party members take control anyway? All this seemed completely unrealistic.

1984_2_george_orwellIt was only after doing a bit of reading that I was awoken to the fact that such an oppressive system really was possible, and could have happened quite a few times in history (the German Nazis and Russian Communists), and that 1984 was in fact a message to the world: if totalitarians took power, it would be extremely hard to reverse this change, and after a certain point in time, rebellion would be completely impossible. People would have a hard time communicating their dreams of freedom because of Newspeak and probably wouldn’t want to change things because they would have no memory of what life was like before the Revolution. Humanity would be doomed to never think for themselves again.

This thought led me to promising myself that should anyone attempt to jeopardize even the smallest of freedoms, I will always stand firm in what I believe is right. Recently I thought of you when my very popular friend asked me why I hung out with my other not-so-popular friend. He said that he didn’t see why I liked him. I replied that it was my call as to whether I wanted to be friends with him or not. It was at that moment that I realized how important it was to me to befriend whoever I wanted to, and how happy it made me to meet new people, and I shuddered at the idea of somebody else deciding for me who I should talk to, as was the case for Winston.

Over the two weeks that it has taken me to read your book, I have learned far more than I ever thought a book could teach me: once freedom is acquired, this does not mean that it is ours for keeps. In the future I will remember to fight for a society for the people, by the people. Thank you for your beautiful writing, and I hope it enlightens many others to come.

Sincerely yours,

Loïc Lescoat

Dear Madeleine L’Engle,

People have always told me that I lack confidence in myself. I have rarely been able to compliment or laugh at myself. But then I read Wrinkle in Time, and it made me believe in who I am, because of the way Meg believes in who she is.

The idea of time-travelling had always seemed impossible to me. That was until I met Mrs. Who and her two extraordinary friends. Travelling, or tessering, through galaxies and dimensions you’ve never heard of before, with those three women accompanying you, you wouldn’t think it to be impossible, which it is what the book taught me.

Love is unconditional, a saying that few understand and believe. But sometimes, a person’s capacity to love can change everything. I was touched when Meg saved her brother from IT, by just simply loving him, which made me think that a person’s fate can be changed by love.

I feel connected to this book because I think I am very much like Meg. A misunderstood, self-conscious young girl, willing to go to any lengths to save someone she loves, and who has the strength to love in the face of pure hate.200px-A_wrinkle_in_time_digest_2007

Before I read your book, I would internalize insults and start believing in them, thus losing confidence in myself. Charles Wallace, who is called a “moron”, because he doesn’t speak, while he actually has an advanced knowledge for his age, inspired me to change my view of myself, and stand up to the insulting given to me by people who didn’t actually know me.

Meg and Charles Wallace taught me to stand up for myself, and for others, and to gain confidence. It has changed me because now, I fight back, instead of retreating.

My life will be different from now on, because I have become a new person; a self-confident person, who isn’t afraid of showing who she is.

So I would like to thank you, Madeleine, for helping me realize that I like who I am, and also for teaching to stand up for myself.

Yours sincerely,

Molly Griffiths

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The First Ever Haunted Library: A Grand Success

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

haunted House Volunteers

This year we had over 200 people attend our annual Halloween party and another 100 people took tours through our haunted maze. We couldn’t have organized these events without the help of our wonderful volunteers, so thank you! Pictured above is the Haunted Library team, including:

Jennifer Dobson
Salome Mirigay
Maya Trifunonovic
Alex Boccon-Gibob
Cecily Spiers
Marcia Lebre
Chase Davis
Sophie Wilson
Angela Hin
Emma Chapman
Yaroslava Bhandari
Kiho Yamanaka
Ingrid Nickelsen
Victoria Robert
Reda Faid
Mika Kaski
Zoe Pons
Carole Black
Liyan Xu
Morgan Shafer
Marina Vernick

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Independent bookstores add a new chapter

Friday, August 19th, 2011

The small, independently owned bookstore is staging a modest rebirth amid a killer economy

portrait of a bookstore

By , for The Washington Post

The brick-and-mortar bookstore is, like most of the economy, dead or close to it. See: Amazon, growth of. See: Borders, tanking of. Everybody knows this.

So here’s Eileen McGervey, owner of One More Page bookstore in Arlington, standing next to her gourmet chocolates and a nice little wine selection, right across from the food and travel section, and she . . . opened in January of this year?

“It’s going well, we’re in a great neighborhood,” she says. “Where else do you get to meet such fun people?”

In the District, Politics and Prose, which looked like it might go out of business last year when its longtime owners were retiring, is thriving under new management. In Richmond, the landmark Narnia bookstore underwent a similar transformation late last year, reborn as Bbgb under new owners Jill Stefanovich and Jenesse Evertson. In Nashville, author Ann Patchett and business partner Karen Hayes are gearing up to open Parnassus Books this fall. And in Hawthorne, N.J., a former Internet technology consultant named Bill Skees has been sitting behind the counter at Well Read, his very own store, for the past 10 months.

“From a financial perspective, it was a step down to open a bookstore, but it’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream,” he says.

These quirky anecdotes are the underpinnings of one of the unlikeliest of business stories: The small, independently owned bookstore is staging a modest rebirth in the midst of a bone-killing economy and the exponential growth of online retailers and e-books.

The American Booksellers Association, the national trade organization for independently owned bookstores, counted a 7 percent growth last year and has gained 100 new members i n the past six months. The association now counts 1,830 member stores across the country, up by 400 since 2005, according to Meg Smith, the association’s spokeswoman. The new stores have opened in at least 35 states, from New York to California, an indication that store owners across the nation see an opportunity to find a concrete niche in the e-book world.

“The takeaway is that independent bookselling is still a desirable profession and it’s sustainable,” Smith says.

Smith says the growth appears to be due to a number of factors — the demise of large bookstores; a general social identification with locally owned businesses, an offshoot of the ‘go-local’ movement in restaurants and grocery stores; and a number of store owners who have identified a small but viable market in their communities.

The steady growth is surprising, as the number of independent stores had shrunk by as much as 30 percent in the early part of the decade, hit hard by the growth of big box stores and by online sellers such as Amazon, where the supply was almost limitless. E-readers, such as the Kindle and Nook, had further put a dent in brick-and-mortar businesses. Lastly, the recession of the past two years has cast a shadow over the entire retail market.

But, while Smith says that “no one knows if we’ve hit the bottom,” a small tribe of devoted book lovers with a business bent say that the economic setting has been right for small, highly personal ventures.

The lesson in the decline of big stores, these owners say, is not that no one wants to buy books. It’s that the big stores were too big. They had overreached and, in trying to be all things to all readers, had lost a sense of intimacy that books and reading seem to thrive on.

Alma Katsu got just that feeling when she stopped into McGervey’s store. An intelligence analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency for nearly three decades, she was a book lover who had just written her first novel, “The Taker.” That first day she stopped in, the pair made plans for a launch party to be held at the store and have since come up with more promotional plans for the book.

“Every time I go down there, it’s like meeting family, hanging out with people who like what I like,” Katsu says. “They even got me started drinking wine again!”

Most of the new independents are 1,500 to 3,000 square feet, as opposed to the 20,000-square-foot Borders model. They are intensely local, setting up partnerships with nearby schools, libraries and businesses. They tailor their 10,000 or so book inventories (a standard Barnes and Noble store has about 80,000) to their customers, many of whom aren’t coming in for the latest bestseller. And, as Skees points out, they have modest financial goals.

“One of my first advisers was going over my business plan and I could tell he was concerned,” says McGervey, who gave up her career as a marketing consultant to high-tech firms to open her store. “I finally said, ‘I know I’m not going to make any money,’ and he was very relieved, and said, ‘Oh, good, okay.’ ”

Hayes, working to get her and Patchett’s store opened in Nashville, is in final negotiations for a lease. After working at a publishing house and as a regional sales representative for more than two decades, she knows the business well — but still waited to open the venture until she had the financial ability to work one year without taking a paycheck. Patchett, whose books have sold millions of copies, is likewise not counting on the store for mortgage money.

“It’s so important to be able to put everything back into a small business in that first year,” Hayes says.

Perhaps the key characteristic these owners share is a beyond-business-hours fascination with their product.

McGervey loves mysteries and came to the business with a solid understanding of spreadsheets and accounting. She attended a weeklong seminar run by the ABA for prospective bookstore owners and noticed that stores that offered something more than books did better on the bottom line. So she added two of her favorite things — wine and chocolate — and now offers a couple of dozen wines, ranging from the $9.50 Tamas Pinot Grigio to the $24.29 Bouchaine Pinot Noir. McGervey also looked for the right location for more than 18 months, settling on a small street near a couple of restaurants and a large apartment building.

“A lot of times, residents will come in to pick up a bottle of wine, find one that they like and then come back in a couple of times a week for it,” she says. “Then they’ll come in for author events.”

Jenn Lawrence, a book blogger who lives in Sterling, had been asked by Borders to run a book club at a store in Vienna. It flopped, but McGervey saw her there and recruited her to run a once-a-month meeting at One More Page. Starting with eight members, the club now has about 15 regular attendees, Lawrence says.

“At Borders, there wasn’t a sign saying that we were having a meeting; the employees didn’t even know we were there,” Lawrence says. “Eileen’s store is just the opposite. She’s very supportive, the book club members get 20 percent off, she really markets it.”

In Maryland, Novel Places opened in Clarksburg in June. And last fall, Nina Embrey opened Booktopia Books and Gifts for Children in Bradley Shopping Center in Bethesda, a year after high rents ended her six-year run at a different location across town. She likes for her customers to address her as “Miss Nina,” hires American University students as most of her work force and offers $10 gift certificates to young readers who read — and report on — three books in galley editions. “I really just want us to be viewed as the neighborhood bookstore,” she says.

At Bbgb in Richmond, Stefanovich and Evertson inherited a 26-year-old children’s bookstore with a devoted clientele. They’re trying to build the store’s reputation with a new name and attitude. They’re hitting all the local schools’ book fairs and reading lists.

Stefanovich had been a stay-at-home mom since her twins were born seven years ago. She says she had been in their classrooms almost every day. “Now I pick them up from school four days a week, get them home and fed and to bed and then the laptop comes out. . . . It’s great, but I’d be lying if I said it was all easy and fun.”

Skees opened his stand-alone storefront in November, unhappy to discover the technicalities of zoning restrictions and code inspections after having gutted the premises (it had been a karate studio before standing empty for several years). It delayed his opening by more than a month, causing him to miss a town festival that he was counting on to help him launch.

He has one full-time employee and one part-time, his wife and teenage sons help out, and he’s there seven days a week. He acknowledges that “at times, it’s been a little overwhelming.”

But he was a lifelong sci-fi fan, loved books and had spent several years saving for the opportunity to open a store, all while developing business models. He says he’s not at what he initially projected — but it’s better than his worst-case scenario, too.

“If you can pay your bills and are happy doing what you’re doing, that’s the key,” he says. “It’s really pretty neat being surrounded by your passion.”

Fiction editor Ron Charles contributed to this report.

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