Home sweet bookish home
Posted by Jacque on March 10th, 2008
Nancy Pearl, familiar to book lovers for her “Book Lust” guides to must-read books, is a retired Seattle librarian with a national following. The New York Times says that her rise parallels Seattle’s rise in the publishing world where three local companies “increasingly influence what America reads” — Amazon, Starbucks and Costco.
Although New York is still the home of big publishing houses, the combined power of the three companies headquartered in Seattle “has put the city in the position of tastemaker,” says the NYT.
Seattle’s literary seeds are decades old, with many local authors, abundant writing courses and robust independent bookstores, according to J. A. Jance, the Seattle mystery author whose books have sold 15 million copies over the last 20 years.
And despite periodic budget problems, over the last 10 years, the city has spent nearly $200 million to improve its libraries, including the new downtown showpiece designed by Rem Koolhaas and completed in 2004.
Amazon, Starbucks, and Costco have different approaches to bookselling, but all seem to work well both locally and nationally.
