The French Way of Buying Books!!

The New York Times featured an interesting article titled The French Do Buy Books. Real Books. by Pamela Druckerman. It sheds light on the fact that the French do not give deep discounts on the books that are sold. In fact, they have fixed book pricing in France. 

In her article, Druckerman writes the following:

France, meanwhile, has just unanimously passed a so-called anti-Amazon law, which says online sellers can’t offer free shipping on discounted books. (“It will be either cheese or dessert, not both at once,” a French commentator explained.) The new measure is part of France’s effort to promote “biblio-diversity” and help independent bookstores compete. Here, there’s no big bookseller with the power to suddenly turn off the spigot. People in the industry estimate that Amazon has a 10 or 12 percent share of new book sales in France. Amazon reportedly handles 70 percent of the country’s online book sales, but just 18 percent of books are sold online.

The French secret is deeply un-American: fixed book prices. Its 1981 “Lang law,” named after former Culture Minister Jack Lang, says that no seller can offer more than 5 percent off the cover price of new books. That means a book costs more or less the same wherever you buy it in France, even online. The Lang law was designed to make sure France continues to have lots of different books, publishers and booksellers.

Fixing book prices may sound shocking to Americans, but it’s common around the world, for the same reason. In Germany, retailers aren’t allowed to discount most books at all. Six of the world’s 10 biggest book-selling countries — Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Spain and South Korea — have versions of fixed book prices.

What do you think? Should we have fixed book prices here in the USA?

Wonderful Self-Portraits Bring Great Classics to Life!!

I enjoyed viewing one man's self portraits made of reading various books! Check out Klassy Goldberg's post.

Top Ten Tuesday --- Top Ten Favorite Movies!!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. 

Each week a new Top Ten list that one of the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget, so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow book bloggers!!

There are soooo many movies to choose from that I enjoyed watching over the years!! This made selecting my top ten favorite movies pretty difficult, so below is my list of top ten movies.

1. The Great Outdoors
2. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
3. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
4. Sweet Home Alabama
5. Rio
6. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
7. Octopussy
8. A Perfect Murder
9. Seven
10. Lucky Number Slevin

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

World Book Night USA Suspended

I'm quite saddened to learn that World Book Night USA has been suspended after 3 years due to financial reasons. 

I love reading books and am passionate about sharing my love of reading books with others. The past 3 years, I've been a World Book Night book giver within my own community. And each year, I've had a blast handing out copies of free books to other people and encouraging them to read the book I'm passing out during that particular year. There's nothing more exciting than spreading the love of reading person to person. Especially, if the person you're giving a book to can see how passionate about the book you're giving them that they can't wait to start reading it themselves. I actually saw one of the people I gave a World Book Night Book to this year, sit down and start reading the book right away... How cool was that!?!?

So, needless to say, I was looking forward to applying and becoming a World Book Night book giver once again in 2015. World Book Night is such an awesome program. Too bad it is coming to an end here in the USA!

Checkout the following article from the USA Today website titled, Book Buzz: World Book Night suspended for lack of funds by Bob Minzesheimer! I learned the following information:

The non-profit program, modeled on a British Book Night, enlisted more than 25,000 volunteers each spring to give away more than 500,000 copies of specially printed paperbacks of about 30 different titles. 

It was aimed at people who did not have much access to books. Volunteers gave away books in health clinics, jails, parks and in low-income neighborhoods. Its motto was "Spreading the love of reading. person to person." 

In a statement, the program's executive director, Carl Lennertz, said, "This has been a remarkable, passionate undertaking, and it has been a success by all measures, except for one: Outside funding."

For three years, he added, "the publishing industry and book community have very generously footed the bill and contributed enormous time and effort … We had hoped to have more success with grant requests. But there are a lot of other worthy causes out there and only so much money available. Unfortunately, we can't carry on without significant new outside funding."

Click on the link above to read the full story!

Bookish Quote of the Day!!!

Friday Finds #41

Friday Finds is a book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Friday Finds is a chance to share and show off the books you discovered during the week and would like to add to your reading list...

Or a place to simply feature the books you've actually purchased throughout the week and have added to your to be read pile!

Here is the list of books I've acquired in the past week! 

Three audiobooks made the list:

Sold by Patricia McCormick
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Three eBooks also made the list:

1. Flash Gold by Lindsay Buroker
2. Dying to Dance by Katie O'Connell
3. Rosaria of Venice by Aaron M. Miner

Which books have you added to either your wishlist and/or reading pile? 

The Soloist by Steve Lopez

I picked up the unabridged audio version of The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez and narrated by William Hughes from Audible when it was a daily deal for $2.95 not too long ago.

All I can say is W-O-W, The Soloist is an amazing story! The Soloist has easily become one of my favorite books of 2014. Not only is The Soloist a story about a lost dream, an unlikely friendship, and the redemptive power of music, it also sheds light on mental illness, homelessness on LA's Skid Row and the struggles that go along with it in ways I could have never envisioned before my encounter with The Soloist. 

The Soloist is my first experience with anything written by Steve Lopez (that I know of anyway) and he is a wonderful writer! He knows how to tell a story that draws the reader in and keeps them interested in what he has to say.... Which I must admit is a sure sign that he's not only a good writer, but also a good journalist (Lopez has written for the LA Times. I'm not sure if he still writes for the LA Times or not). 

I also thought that William Hughes did a wonderful job narrating The Soloist, which made my experience with The Soloist an even better experience.

The following is the publisher's summary for The Soloist, which I found on Audible:

When journalist Steve Lopez sees Nathaniel Ayers playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles' skid row, he finds it impossible to walk away. More than 30 years ago, Ayers was a promising classical bass student at Juilliard - ambitious, charming, and also one of the few African-Americans there - until he gradually lost his ability to function, overcome by schizophrenia.

Over time, the two men form a bond and Lopez imagines that he might be able to change Ayers' life. The Soloist is a beautifully told story of devotion in the face of seemingly unbeatable challenges.

Also, checkout the following YouTube video featuring Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers.

I also enjoyed reading an article titled The Real Story Behind 'The Soloist' on NPR's site, along with an excerpt of The Soloist. I also enjoyed listening to a 39 minute interview with Steve Lopez on NPR found in the above mentioned NPR link. In the interview, you can learn more about Nathaniel Ayers. 

Until my next post, happy reading!

Half Price Books Bookstore

Sunday evening, my husband & I visited Half Price Books bookstore in Dublin, California. Wow, this place is HUGE inside and contains not only hardback and paperback books, but also audiobooks, music on compact discs, records, games, stationary, magazines and more! Half Price Books even buys books. 

I enjoyed the ambiance at Half Price Books. It is light, bright, well organized, and very clean. Visit Half Price Books' website by clicking on the link above to see pictures of the interior of their bookstore. Also peruse, their website to learn more about them.

I also see that Half Price Books has a blog aptly titled Half Price Blog. Checkout their blog as well while your at it!

Until my next post, happy reading!!

Top Ten Tuesday -- Top Ten Favorite Classic Books

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. 

Each week a new Top Ten list that one of the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget, so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow book bloggers!!

I found it difficult to come up with 10 classics that are my favorite classics of all time!! Here is my list of favorites in no order of importance.

1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
2. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
3. The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
4. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov
5. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
6. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. The Giver by Lois Lowry
8. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
9. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
10. No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre