Sunday, January 9, 2011

We Close Early for Inventory, Nonfiction Bestsellers, Our MLK/African American History Display Goes Up

Inventory is today at 4 pm. Alas, that means we're closing early. It also means I'm working the 2 to 10 pm shift (I like to do my AM and PM in caps, but since most eveyone else at the store does them lower case, I'm trying to adjust). I don't like it!

We've already done a lot of preparation, and this afternoon, my job is to make sure that I didn't hide any overstock, and that the gift items are clearly separated from the books.

Needless to say, after Christmas, the bestseller list quiets down and starts to get event heavy. This week's nonfiction top five has two upcoming events on it. Our rep asked us about the sales for Danielle McGuire's At the Dark End of the Street. This was partly a special order for multiple copies and partly a regular sale. Sometimes I don't include bulk orders on the list we send out, but combos seem worth including, especially as we had been selling the book steadily for the past few months. Let me just say that our sales rep inquired, as he was a bit suprised!

Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers, week ending January 8, 2011
1. At the Dark End of the Street, by Danielle L. McGuire
2. Apollo's Angels, by Jennifer Homans
3. All Things Shining, by Hubert Dreyfus
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
5. American Rose, by Karen Abbott

Not one, but two of the titles (the other was Rebecca Skloot's) were on our new combination Martin Luther King Day/African American History month display that went up on Saturday. What's nice is that I was able to repurpose books from other tables. The Warmth of Other Suns was on our New York Times Best Books of 2010 display, Hellhound on His Trail was on a general history table, and The Hemingses of Monticello was on a small display that saluted winners of the MacArthur Genius Awards. Oh, and since I included some historical novels, Bernice McFadden's Glorious was on the Lori-Tharps-recommends-these-books display.

Yes, I know that African American history month starts is February. But shouldn't you read the books early, so you can discuss among yourselves?

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