Sorry, I missed this one. Been busy. Every day is Book Day around here.
Trying to read some of them, get rid of others.
Anybody have any Book Day experiences to relate?

(Crystal):
"...organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and
copyright...began in 1995, beveloping a previously celebrated Day of the
Book (Dia del llibre) in Catalonia, held on this day, which is also the
feast day of St.George."

(Yes, I looked it up, Sant Jordi is the patron saint of Catalonia.)

"In the UK and Ireland a related event is held in early March."

Now it gets confusing:

"A second initiative was introduced in 2010, when each of the UN's
official languages was given its special day. This date was chosen for
English because it was the traditional birthday...and deathday...of
Shakespeare in the New Style calendar introduced into England in 1652."

(These old style/new style calendar shifts always confuse me. I guess
that would be why Wikipedia says that W.S. was born/died on 23 April?
I believe the death date is actually documented, the birth only inferred
from his baptism on the 26th.)

"However, a linguistically more motivated English Language Day is
celebrated later in the year (13 October)".

We'll see about that.

"An alternative would be to celebrate Spanish Language Day instead, for
this date was also the one chosen by the UN in honour of Cervantes,
whose birthday was close by, 22 April."

Wait! I think that should be "deathday" of Cervantes.
Wikipedia: "29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS"

That's just the first half of the page. Continuing:

"In 2009 the Shakespeare Theater in Chicago introduced a Talk Like
Shakespeare Day...."

No. Enough.

Ar an cúigiú lá is fiche de mí Aibreán, scríobh Ross Clark:

> Sorry, I missed this one. Been busy. Every day is Book Day around here.
> Trying to read some of them, get rid of others. Anybody have any Book Day
> experiences to relate?

I started re-reading Andy Grove’s High Output Management on Monday to
celebrate? (The celebration was not particularly intentional.)

There has been a bit of coverage lately in the bits of the web that I read of
the really minimal sales of most books (in the US, because that’s where a
an antitrust case revealed the details). It’s a fascinating picture, quite a
hit-driven economy, lots of money lost on loads of books.

https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books is quite a good write-up.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)

On 2024-04-25, Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> wrote:

> There has been a bit of coverage lately in the bits of the web that I read of
> the really minimal sales of most books (in the US, because that’s where a
> an antitrust case revealed the details). It’s a fascinating picture, quite a
> hit-driven economy, lots of money lost on loads of books.

The argument that bestsellers subsidize the availability of a larger
variety of books comes up regularly in debates about fixed book
price laws, which exist in a number of Continental European and
other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price#/media/File:Countries-with-a-Fixed-Book-Price-Agreement.svg

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

Ar an cúigiú lá is fiche de mí Aibreán, scríobh Christian Weisgerber:

> On 2024-04-25, Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> wrote:
>
> > There has been a bit of coverage lately in the bits of the web that I read
> > of the really minimal sales of most books (in the US, because that’s where
> > [a^H] an antitrust case revealed the details). It’s a fascinating picture,
> > quite a hit-driven economy, lots of money lost on loads of books.
>
> The argument that bestsellers subsidize the availability of a larger
> variety of books comes up regularly in debates about fixed book
> price laws, which exist in a number of Continental European and
> other countries.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price#/media/File:Countries-with-a-Fixed-Book-Price-Agreement.svg

Part of the argument in the Wikipedia article is that well-stocked bookshops
are important for cultural life, and that’s something that’s less important
with good online sources for books. Certainly if I had been attempting to
source John Perry’s Tajik Persian Reference Grammar in the 1990s (assuming it
had been published then) living in Dublin, I strongly suspect I would never
have been able to source it at all. Whereas currently (and in 2006ish) it’s
just a matter of throwing enough money at the problem.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)

On 2024-04-25, Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> wrote:

> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price#/media/File:Countries-with-a-Fixed-Book-Price-Agreement.svg
>
> Part of the argument in the Wikipedia article is that well-stocked bookshops
> are important for cultural life, and that’s something that’s less important
> with good online sources for books. Certainly if I had been attempting to

There seem to be a sufficient number of studies with a wide range
of results--the German Wikipedia article cites a bunch more--that
you can pick and choose to support whatever argument you want to
make. :-)

> source John Perry’s Tajik Persian Reference Grammar in the 1990s (assuming it
> had been published then) living in Dublin, I strongly suspect I would never
> have been able to source it at all. Whereas currently (and in 2006ish) it’s
> just a matter of throwing enough money at the problem.

Back in the 1990s I walked into the university bookstore and tried
to order a book on... GSM cellular networks, I think. "Oh, that
one's published in France. I'm sorry, but we can't get that. Maybe
you could drive [50 km] to the border and try there?"

In the 1980s/1990s, when I was a customer, the German bookseller
system worked well for books published in Germany, but poorly for
US/UK books and failed entirely for French ones. When online
bookstores became a thing, I switched to ordering there and I don't
even remember if I have ever since bought a single book in a
brick-and-mortar store. Requiescant in pace, I will not miss them.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

Ar an cúigiú lá is fiche de mí Aibreán, scríobh Christian Weisgerber:

> On 2024-04-25, Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> wrote:
>
> > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price#/media/File:Countries-with-a-Fixed-Book-Price-Agreement.svg
> >
> > Part of the argument in the Wikipedia article is that well-stocked bookshops
> > are important for cultural life, and that’s something that’s less important
> > with good online sources for books. Certainly if I had been attempting to
>
> There seem to be a sufficient number of studies with a wide range
> of results--the German Wikipedia article cites a bunch more--that
> you can pick and choose to support whatever argument you want to
> make. :-)

Yes indeed!

> > source John Perry’s Tajik Persian Reference Grammar in the 1990s (assuming
> > it had been published then) living in Dublin, I strongly suspect I would
> > never have been able to source it at all. Whereas currently (and in
> > 2006ish) it’s just a matter of throwing enough money at the problem.
>
> Back in the 1990s I walked into the university bookstore and tried
> to order a book on... GSM cellular networks, I think. "Oh, that
> one's published in France. I'm sorry, but we can't get that. Maybe
> you could drive [50 km] to the border and try there?"
>
> In the 1980s/1990s, when I was a customer, the German bookseller
> system worked well for books published in Germany, but poorly for
> US/UK books and failed entirely for French ones. When online
> bookstores became a thing, I switched to ordering there and I don't
> even remember if I have ever since bought a single book in a
> brick-and-mortar store. Requiescant in pace, I will not miss them.

Most of my book purchases currently are business expenses, the online invoices
with Amazon on their own are a substantial improvement on keeping track of them
for the accounts, over slips of paper that are likely to go astray.

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)