Book News, In Brief

Amazon.com now offers shopping via text message. Is this a breakthrough in short attention span shopping, or a frown-faced emoticon waiting to happen? Publisher's Weekly has the details: Here’s how it works: a person sends a text message to “AMAZON” (262966) with the title or ISBN of the book she wants to purchase. Amazon sends a response confirming the book and stating its price, telling the customer to reply with the text message “1” to purchase the book. Amazon then calls the customer with the final details and asks the customer to confirm or cancel the purchase.

Bookgasm has a list of The 9 Most Annoying People I Always See at the Bookstore. If you don't see yourself on this list, you're blind to the truth. Feel free to ask us which category you fall into the next time you're in our store.

The next time you're in Vegas, make it a point to visit the Gambler's Book Shop. Then, when your family and friends make fun of you for your tacky, culture-free choice of a vacation destination, you can pretend you were on one of those Book Store Tours. That should shut them up.