Thursday, June 9, 2011
Books Ann Patchett Opening a Bookstore in Nashville
Posted by Jack Silverman on Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 2:06 PM
- Photo: Melissa Ann Pinney
- Ann Patchett
It's worth noting that Patchett tells Rehm that she's partnering with Hayes, though in the Phoenix story, she says, "There's a woman that I'm working with, and I am helping her open one."
From yesterday's Diane Rehm Show:
PATCHETT
I'll tell you what, Diane, I am opening a bookstore. I live in Nashville. We lost our independent bookstore, Davis-Kidd and several months later, we lost our Borders. There is not a bookstore in Nashville.REHM
Oh, my goodness.PATCHETT
We have used bookstores, but the closest Barnes and Noble is 20 miles outside of town. And, you know, I don't know if I'm opening an ice shop on the age of Frigidaire, but I can't live in a city that doesn't have a bookstore. And I've partnered with an amazing woman named Karen Hayes who really knows what she's doing. She's been a sales rep for Random House for 18 years. She knows how to run a store and we're getting it together. We're hoping to be up and running by Christmas.REHM
Well, we're so thrilled here in Washington, D.C., that the independent bookstore, Politics & Prose, has been purchased by two individuals who like you, want to keep that independent bookstore going.PATCHETT
Absolutely. And I think that the problem is the bookstores got too big. The bookstores that closed in Nashville, they were both over 30,000...REHM
Yeah, huge, huge.PATCHETT
...square feet. We're looking at 3,000 square feet. So, you know, it's kind of this model for what's gone on in our country in so many different ways. We just super-sized. We got bigger and bigger and bigger and it couldn't sustain it. We can't sustain a 30,000 foot bookstore, but we really can sustain a 3,000 square foot store.
An excerpt from The Boston Phoenix interview, after the jump.
I SEE YOU'RE READING AT PORTER SQUARE BOOKS.
I used to live in Cambridge, and I'm always happy to go back to Porter Square. I lived right across from Radcliffe Yard when I was at the Bunting Institute, which is now called the Radcliffe Institute. It was 17 years ago. I had written a proposal to write Taft, and I finished it three days before I arrived at the Bunting and I had nothing to do.When I first finish a book, I am always at a complete loss of what I'm going to do next. My time at Radcliffe was spent swimming and running and going to classes. I had a good time, but I really wasted my time. I'm not sure I could've been more disciplined, because when I finish a book, I am so out of book. The cupboard is bare.
WHERE ARE YOU IN THAT PROCESS NOW?
Let me tell you what I was doing this morning. Just before I talked to you, I was standing in a cafeteria that had been empty for three years, with giant flashlights and contractors because I think I'm going to open a book store. There's a woman that I'm working with, and I am helping her open one.WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU OPENING A BOOK STORE?
We had an independent [in Nashville]. . . . It was bought by Joseph-Beth Booksellers and it became part of their chain, then they moved it to the mall and it went bankrupt. A Borders closed a month later, and now we don't have a book store. I'm working with this woman, who is a Random House [sales] rep, who is determined to open a small independent book store in Nashville. I don't know if it's the craziest idea in the world, but I cannot live in a city without a book store. It is so weird to have a book coming out when there are no book stores here.I think we've got to get back to a 3000-square-foot store and not 30,000. Amazon is always going to have everything — you can't compete with that. But there is, I believe, still a place for a store where people read books.
Comments (33)
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Yeah, we have used bookstores (as she discusses in the article). I love me some McKay and all, but when I want new releases, there are no places to go. And to top it off, it's a locally-owned independent run by a respectable author. Win-win, if you ask me.
"we're guessing she's looking at the old Belle Meade Cafeteria as a possible site. "
Interesting.
Back in the Cretaceous era, there used to be a Mills bookstore in that shopping center very close to there.
But there *are* bookstores in Nashville.
You mean adult bookstores? Yeah we've got those! Christian bookstores where you can buy the latest devotionals and serial fiction? Plenty of those too! But bookstores where you can buy the new Ann Patchett novel?
Nope.
But there *are* bookstores in Nashville.
Well, yeah, there's Lifeway. And there's Books-A-Million, which even has a few books beyond best-sellerdom if you have the patience to make your way through the maze of "Jesus Loves You" t-shirt racks, binders for coin collectors, and romance novels. Many, many of us in Nashville will welcome a bookstore in the tradition of Zibart's, Mills', and the original Davis-Kidd.
But Southern Beale, are there any Christian adult bookstores? Maybe I've found a new niche! "All couples in this video are legally married." That sort of thing. Hmmm.
I didn't see anything about it being a "new" bookstore she was opening. So I was thinking of Bookman/Elders/Bodacious/Rhino etc.
What kind of person would make fun of someone (Diane Rehm) who suffers from spasmodic dysphonia?
Someone who hides behind his/her anonymity.
As for the bookstore. I hope it opens in the same spot as the Belle Meade Café. That would be walking distance for me- and hopefully a place to sign copies of my books (maybe not the ones that have been published, but the ones such a move- as other bookstores disappear- gives me the incentive to complete!).
Stacy Harris
Publisher/Executive Editor/Media Critic
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://stacyharris.com
Hey Stacy, how are things smelling around your place lately?
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2011/04/20/6503202-claims-of-filth-may-force-condo-owner-from-unit
There are used bookstores, christian bookstore, and porn bookstores. The Borders in Brentwood is a pit with a crappy staff. Nashville will support a real, independent bookstore.
Your news just made my day! Wishing you all the good luck in the world on this venture. If you build it, we will come!
>>What kind of person would make fun of someone who suffers from spasmodic dysphonia?
You obviously don't know me very well.
That is the most akward pose by Ann Patchett, ever. Can't. Stop. Looking. At. It.
Ditto on the Patchett pose - seems like a lot of her pictures have that affected, unnatural pose thing going on. Like her head was photoshopped onto another picture of her. And ditto on the post by WS. If that story is accurate, I feel very sorry for Stacy's neighbors. What an awful situation.
The Borders in Brentwood was supposed to be closed a long time ago...before the West End store... and the Borders site doesn't show it anymore....
Ann--we love you and congratulate you. Are you coming to Burke's soon, possibly for the new novel?
Good luck to you and Karen both.
Corey and Cheryl Mesler
Ann--We love you! Congrats on this. Are you coming to Burke's anytime soon, possibly for the new novel?
Good luck to you and Karen. This is outstanding good news.
Corey and Cheryl Mesler
The Belle Meade Cafeteria location would be great! Also, the street-facing retail space of the old Belle Meade Theatre (currently surrounded by a Harris Teeter, and formerly Bookstar) would be a great option too.
Great news, I'm hopeful...
@Kay: What a bitchy thing to say to WS!
And who the hell is Stacy Harris to complain about anonymity on a blog comments section? That's right, a nobody.
@Stacy, if you are so intent on ascribing your words to your legal name, write a fucking letter to the editor.
Ann! I was devastated when Davis Kidd closed down and then Borders. As a writer and artist....I find so much pleasure in the solitude of a book store...as well as having a great appreciation for words and books. You are a beautiful writer and we are thrilled of this news. Karl is my physician by the way. Thank you, Beth H
