September 1, 2005
Category: Publishing
Meant to get here earlier in the week but I have been riveted to CNN. Jack Schafer at Slate manages to articulate what's been bothering me about the Katrina aftermath.On the bookselling front, massive cheers to Steve Riggio. Word has it that B&N employees in the stricken states can go into any Barnes & Noble or B. Dalton and get financial assistance and a place to stay. Steve keeps these kinds of things under his hat, but the fact is the man is phenomenally generous.
Personally, it's just horrifically surreal to see the New Orleans convention center, where I spent ALA Midwinter 2002 (stayed right across the street at the Hampton Inn), with its windows blown out and turned into what amounts to...well, even the professionals can't describe this. CNN is now reporting from there, saying the place has "the worst possible conditions", and that the people there are "forced to live like animals" - "thousands and thousands of people laid out on the street" - people dying right in front of reporters. No buses seem to be coming to rescue people, abandoned by the beaurocracy they paid taxes to - the looting and the gangs terrorizing already-traumatized people - apparently there are "plans", but one wonders, after all the money we've paid to build up the Homeland Security department after 9/11, why is it so hard to get these plans executed immediately?
In other news, the goddessly Tess tells me that the GAO has done a report on the rising cost of textbooks. Textbooks comprise approximately 26% of a student's tuition and fees, according to this report. The AAP has done its own report, placing the blame for rising costs squarely on what they call "textbook 'add-ons' - CD-ROMs and other supplemental materials."
Yeah, and we know that CD-ROMs cost about a nickel, so that obviously explains things.
When in doubt, blame technology. That appears to be working for FEMA.
What I offer:
