HMV, owner of Waterstone's and suitor of Ottakar's, has rejected a
takeover offer from venture capital firm Permira as too low, according
to
Bloomberg. As a result, HMV's share price fell 6.5% in morning trading in London.
---
Strangely and sadly Alan J. Shalleck, 76, a Curious George
collaborator, was found dead in the driveway of his mobile home in
Boynton Beach, Fla., the
Palm Beach Post reported. His bloodied body had been covered by plastic garbage bags. The police are treating the case as a possible homicide.
In the 1980s and early '90s, Shalleck co-edited several dozen Curious
George books and helped write and direct more than 100 film shorts
starring Curious George. The feature film
Curious George makes its debut on Friday.
---
Publishers continue to experiment with packaging books together with DVDs of movies
based on the book and results have been mixed, according to the
Chicago Tribune. College campuses may be the most promising market, as more professors link studies of books and movies.
Penguin's Chamberlain Bros.'s imprint is focusing on classics
book-and-DVD combinations. For its part, Sourcebooks, which has
published a range of successful titles with accompanying CDs, will
continue to stick with CDs.
---
A federal judge in Atlanta has thrown the book at a Georgia law
exempting the Bible and books relating to Scripture from sales tax,
the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. In recent years, the exemption had been expanded to the Quran.
Thomas Budlong, a retired librarian and former head of the Georgia
Library Association, and Candace Apple, owner of the Phoenix &
Dragon, Sandy Springs, Ga., a metaphysical, religious and spiritual bookstore, had filed
suit against the law, arguing that it discriminated against sellers of
other religious, philosophical and spiritual works.
Apple told the AP that she didn't think the Bible should taxed, rather
that "it just shouldn't get preferential treatment. Books concerning
life and death, good and evil, even if they are not of a specific
religious orientation, should qualify as books in the same category of
the Scriptures. They are being used for the same purpose--to try and
lead a better life."
---
A
Seattle Weekly
review of the Library Bistro at the Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle
focused on food and drink but noted that a few books are for sale. "In
the end, the literary theme is mostly for show, though it'd be cool if
they had regular poetry readings."
---
Following last week's Hamas sweep in Palestinian elections,
Yale University Press is moving up publication of
Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad by Matthew Levitt ($26, 0300110537). Originally scheduled to be released this fall, the book will now appear in May.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the
Department of the Treasury since November, Levitt earlier was a
senior fellow and director of terrorism studies at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy, where he wrote the book. He has also
worked as an FBI analyst in counterterrorism.
In the book, Levitt takes a dim view of Hamas, arguing that the political leadership, social
services and terrorist activities of the organization are fully integrated.
---
Ingrid Estell has joined Fulcrum Publishing as western sales manager,
covering Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. She had
worked at Mountain Press for nine years. She will work from a home
office in Missoula, Mont., and can be reached at
Ingrid@fulcrumbooks.com.
Incidentally Fulcrum just broke ground on a new corporate headquarters
a half mile from its current building in Golden, Colo. The new
facility, housing editorial, administrative and sales staff, should be
completed this summer.