Here’s a Boston Globe story about notes and personal ephemera found in books at used bookstores. (Link may require free site registration or bypass) (via Bookdwarf).
Lorem Ipsum Books, one of the shops mentioned in the article, has a nice blog. It’s RSS feed is difficult to find, so I’ll point to it here.
The Boston Globe Books section also has an RSS feed by the way.
Anna of little.red.boat gets to know people on the bus from their reading material:
I know their ringtones, I know the voice they answer their mobile phone with in public, and the difference when it’s work or someone else. Some of them, I know their favourite deoderant, but that’s London for you.
Mostly, though, I know them by their books. See, I’m not too tall, and sometimes (only sometimes, mind) manage to fight my way to a seat, which either way, puts me about the same level as most people’s tightly-clutched chesticular reading matter. We bump along the London streets, and, listening to endless tunes on shuffle (it’s mainly classic Bollywood hits at the moment, I confess) I stare at the crumpled covers and pages, and get to know my bussie book club.
A Japanese paper reports on reservation-only bookstores. Browsers pay by the hour, but that’s not the only innovation:
“Most of the 2,500 books at the store are used copies. Each is contained in a paper bag so they cannot be read without opening the bags. Should a potential customer decide not to purchase a book in a bag he or she opened, the customers must leave a brief message about the book for the next person.”
(via Shelf:Life)
The Seattle Weekly profiles eleven lower profile local writers.