I'm thinking of writing and publishing a guide to Ann Arbor
bookstores.  My initial idea is to put together a 5 x 8" paperback
book, with one or two pages per bookstore and a couple of maps to help
people find the stores.  In addition to the usual info (address,
phone, hours, etc.), I want to include some kind of rating for things
like service, selection, periodical selection, etc.

Do you think this is a good idea?  

What kind of info would you like to see in this book?

Would you be interested in helping collect information for this book
and reviewing stores?  (I don't know how much I could pay, but I'd make
every effort to compensate you somehow).

50 responses total.

if it involves books, i'm ALWAYS interested!!!!!!!!  just mail me and let me
know if you want me!  :)

Me too.

Neat idea. How about featuring interviews with the owners & managers?

Parking suggestions and directions would be nice.

Great ideas!  Keep 'em coming.

A book like this would have to be "dated", and republished regularly, to
stay current. That suggests it might be possible to include scheduled
book fairs, sales, "Antiquarian Book Fairs". Also, since there are some
rather unique libraries in Ann Arbor (Kelsey, Clements, Chemistry.....)
it would be interesting to include them.

Another good one!  Yes, I planned to have yearly editions.

Those of us who live far away would be interested in mail order and if they
do special orders...

  I have an idea for a completely separate Ann Arbor book idea:
The Health Inspector's Guide to AA Dining.  Have you ever read
the inspector's reports in the Ann Arbor News?  That's my fave
part of the paper.  They even give numerical scores for each
restaurant.  "Accumulated dust - minus 2 points, uncovered
pasta container - minus 5 points."  And it would involve almost
no writing, the reports are all public information.

about the book stores - since they would be the ones (presumabley) selling
these..... the "store in question" ought to be the FIRST store in the
book, which means your binding(s) would have to be adjustable, as well
as page numbering adjustable.

Cute. One can obtain flyers in antique stores listing all the other stores
in that area, and one has to be listed first - but they are not *sold*.
There are also guides to restaurants, etc, for many cities, which are sold
(unless they are Chamber of Commerce pieces, heavily laden with
advertising), but those are not normally sold in restaurants, etc, but
rather book stores. It would appear that you (danr) might want to plug
into the bookstore world, to see how they would suggest dealing with this,
so as to serve their objectives (advertising, even if not of their making)
in a manner that will also inspire them to sell the book. 

I'm going to make up a questionnaire with some basic questions and send it
around to the booksellers.  I thought about selling advertising, but the more
I think about it, the less I like the idea.  I think that such advertising
tends to reduce the credibility of the publication.  I just saw a new AA
restaurant guide, for example.  Oddly enough, all the "editorial" talked about
current advertisers.  This guide doesn't have to fall into that trap, but I
think it would be best to avoid that altogether.

        What format will the book be?  Will it be a chapbook, or a perfect
bound book?  You might want to do the first one as a chapbook because
production costs are cheaper, then go to a perfect bound book if you have
a lot of success.  I might be interested in doing a review of one the used
book stores as those are the ones I tend to haunt.

How about linking this to books?

i'm new user, i know nothing, anyway nice to be your member...

Welcome to Grex, jerry.

Yes - welcome to Grex. You *do* know how to reach Grex, which is something.

Agora item 93 has been linked to books item 45. If you forget the item
in agora and join books, you will get the bonus of other bibliophilic
discussion. 

bibliophilic sounds like the first word in the name of a bad disease. :)
Or, maybe it is the second word. Dangerous.

Are you thinking of bibliophallic?

No, but it sounds interesting. Tell me more, Dr. Curl.

Yesterday, I wrote up a questionnaire for bookseller.  Have a look and let
me know what your think.

Bookstore Name:
Address:
Phone number:
Manager/Owner:


Selection (please check appropriate boxes)
===================================================================
o fiction/literature  o poetry        o mystery
o children's books    o science/engineering
o sports/fitness      o travel        o religion/philosophy
o psychology/self-help  o cookbooks
o home and garden     o local interest

o magazines   o newspapers   o foreign newspapers and magazines

o software

o remainders   o used books   o books on tape
o music        o greeting cards   o other (t-shirts, mugs)

Do you specialize in a particular topic?  If so, which topic?


Special Services
===================================================================
o special orders    o cafe
o gift wrapping     o public rest room
o shipping          o parking validation


Do you offer a special service not listed above?  If so, please
tell me about it.

Please use another sheet of paper for other comments you may have.

danr, how about an "other" category in the "Selection" part? They could
fill in something that might not quite fit the listed categories.
I think you should ask about discounts, special sales, videos, reader's
clubs. This is a great idea. Wish someone would do the same for 
aquarium stores.

OppI see you have an "other" category. I wonder, however, if you should have
the one like you state "t-shirts, mugs" and then add another line for
somthing we have not thought of? 

I suggest a clearer distinction between dealers in new and/or used books.
You might ask:  "percent new books ____" / "percent used books _____",
(or something that accomplishes the same thing). One could also ask
"percent remainders ____", so one answer is not the complement of the
other. This does not extend to other offerings, like books on tape, 
music. There own description of themselves ("in 50 words or less") might
take care of the numerology problem.

Something about events like book readings and meetings of reading groups
sponsered by the store.

I presume you are going to include reviews, not just store's self
descriptions.

Discount policies...lots of stores have discounts on best-sellers and such.

Approximate number of titles in stock.

Public restrooms?  If you browse as long as I do, a convenience is an
important convenience.  Borders and B&N have 'em.

Many bookstores carry software these days.

You should work out a test for staff informedness.  Send in people with
various questions and see how good answers they get.

Ideally, what I would like in a comparitive book store review, would be
number of titles per section, for example:
 
                   Borders    Barnes & Noble     Meijers
Computers           1,500         1,000              2
Science Fiction     1,000         1,500              1
Periodicals           750           900             50
Albums              5,000             0            500
 
A minimum would be comparing total titles per bookstore, but the further it
could be broken down (sections like computers, or subsections like OS's,
programming), the better.
 
Discount programs are also important to some heavy readers.  Some stores
have 10% off NYT best sellers, or "frequent purchaser" cards.  Whatever
they offer would be worth noting.
 
Square footage is a good objective measurement.  And will they special order
any book in print?  Parking availability is a good subjective one.  (Do they
have a lot?  How close can you usually park?  Free/metered/pay-at-a-booth?).
 
Also, rather than just noting "cafe" or "not cafe," it might be nice to
know a bit about it - how many seats/tables, how many drinks, how many
foods, typically?  Is it fresh?  Nice view?  Comfortable?  Cramped?
 
Subjective info is as important as the objective info, I think.  Like a
restaurant review doesn't just list what dishes they have, they say what's
was good and bad (food and service).  Same should hold with a bookstore
review...how do they feel about your sitting down and reading for an hour?
Do they have a comfortable place to do so?  And so on.  Doesn't have to
list all those for every store, just point out pros and cons of each one.

instead of just yes-no, maybe  have a commants section after each part to give
more detail....

   I have a real quandry when it comes to bookstores.  DC has some fine
independent bookshops, places that have book readings, carry 
works by writers that arent published by by the big publishing houses,
and they generally do a great deal for the community.  The biggest
threat to these small bookstores is the big corporations and 
their superstores (here in DC and in NY, that means Barnes and Noble,
Borders, and SuperCrown)  

And I have to admit it...I love those places.  No small bookshop can
possibly carry the selection that Borders does, and the Borders here
in DC goes out of its way to stock local authors and independent
imprints.  

The way I've reconciled it is that I do my browsing in the big stores
like Borders but if I want to buy a book, I make a point of seeng
if any of the local shops have it.

Still theres noting I like more to do than on a rainy or snowy day,
going into Borders and getting some interesting new work, taking it into
the coffee shop and browsing through it over a hot coffee.  So I guess
this is one aspect of corporate america that I like.

One of my favorite places actually is the Barnes and Noble used book
place on fifth avenue in New York.  If you're ever in the big apples, thats
a great place to find book deals!

<adbarr puts "Go to bookstore" on to do list>

 <<bees cries because she cannot afford books, and we just got a Borders and
everything}}

This response has been erased.

You really neeed to talk to my wife on this one, but you should probably
find several "reviewers" to rate each of the book stores and get an average
of how people feel about them.  contact top@mnet.arbornet.org.   My wife
is a book store and library junky.  :-)

I haunted the NYC Barnes and Noble used book store in the '40s - I was
a boy chemist, and could get professional chemistry books very cheaply.
I still have some!

geez.  thanks for all the good suggestions.  i see that i've got some work
to do on this form.  I was trying to keep it to a page, but I guess it will
have to expand to two pages.

bru, i will e-mail your wife about this project.

  There is a place called the Strand on Broadway in New York that is
also something of an institution.  The Strand is a great place to find
marked down review copies and a lot of other things.

If we're going nationwide, the Tattered Cover in Denver is probably the
greatest of the independents.  It was probably the prototype of all the
monster bookstores that Borders and B&N are building all over the place these
days.  When Borders was still an independent, the owners used to claim they
had the second best bookstore in America, after the Tattered Cover.  In those
days, a four story bookstore was kind of a mind-blowing experience.

Yes, that's a great bookstore! I like all the little spaces, with sofas.
The attached parking garage is a bonus - though Borders has that now too. 

Today, I went through the phone book and made up a mailing list.  There are
now over 35 establishments on that list.  Even I didn't know that there were
that many bookstores in the area.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss