Los Angeles Times: “This is the paradox of modern bookselling. Even in an entertainment-saturated age, people still buy books. But the casual reader has many other places to get bestsellers and topical books, from warehouse stores to the mall. Meanwhile, book nuts — the ones who simply must buy several volumes a week — are lured online. Few businesses can survive that lose customers from both ends of the spectrum.”

Los Angeles Times: “If these changes in the literary landscape are evoking intense emotion in the city’s bookish set — from declarations of devotion to accusations of betrayal — it’s nothing like what could be unleashed if a long-developing plot twist comes to pass: The three-section, nearly 5,000-square-foot Dutton’s Brentwood Books may soon succumb to its landlord’s plans to redevelop the site, part of a compound on San Vicente Boulevard.” (via James Tata)

Kevin Sampsell has a helpful list of tips on how an author should attend a reading. It’s worth the read alone for a list of the crazed gifts that fans have unloaded on poor David Sedaris.

Colisseum Books has filed Chapter 11.