The Reports of My Death...

Noam Chomsky gained another prestigious place in history the other day when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez inadvertently added him to a select list of famous notables who's deaths have been announced before they were actually dead. Others on the list include Abe Vigoda and Mark Twain, whose famous adage, "The report of my death was an exaggeration" has been quoted in several different variations. Hemingway was reported to have died in a plane crash in Africa, only to be discovered very much alive, though he eventually took care of that, didn't he.

HUGO CHAVEZ NOD TURNS CHOMSKY BOOK INTO BESTSELLER

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Move over Oprah -- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is calling the literary shots this week.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made headlines for his United Nations speech on Wednesday calling President Bush "the devil himself," but a reading suggestion he made in the same speech created a bestseller.

At the United Nations, anti-imperialist Chavez began his speech by displaying a copy of U.S. writer Noam Chomsky's book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance" and recommended that Americans read it.

By Thursday, the book had risen from backlist obscurity to be the No. 3 bestseller on Amazon.com. Before the speech, the 2004 book reprinted by Owl Books was being outsold by thousands of other titles on the online bookseller's Web site.

On Thursday, Coliseum Books in mid-town Manhattan was sold out of the book by the famed linguistic scholar and critic of U.S. foreign policy.

"After the Chavez speech, we promptly sold out," one manager at the store said. "And looking at our computer, it looks like our wholesaler has sold out too."

Popular U.S. television talk show host Oprah Winfrey often creates bestsellers by recommending titles, including classics, on her Oprah's Book Club segment.

Chomsky, who is professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, could not immediately be reached for comment.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Breaking News from the clandestine book front!

LOOMPANICS LIVES!

Loompanics' website is still up with all their old articles and offers links to 13 places you can still acquire their books! Sky Cosby of Earthlight Books and Last Word Books has almost 200 titles stockpiled if you're looking for somethin' scarce. e-mail earthlightbooks(at)gmail.com for a full list.

Paladin acquires 40 titles from the late, great Loompanics Unlimited

The news that Loompanics Unlimited had decided to close its doors after 30 years in business caught us as much off guard as it did everyone else. Founder Mike Hoy chalks up his decision to increased competition from such giants as Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as simple burnout. He is ready to retire.

We at Paladin Press have always admired the fearless Loompanics. After all, there just aren’t that many publishers in the country who produce books that even we wouldn’t touch! But when we heard the news, it didn’t take long for us to strike a deal to acquire the rights to publish 40 titles we considered good fits for the Paladin catalog.

Paladin welcomes Claire Wolfe, Eddie the Wire, and all the other Loompanics authors to our house, and we extend our best wishes to our good friends Mike Hoy and the entire Loompanics staff. Here is a complete list of Loompanics titles being revived by Paladin . . .

THE LATE GREAT LOOMPANICS COMPILATIONS
BACKYARD CATAPULTS
THE BIG BOOK OF SECRET HIDING PLACES
BOXING'S DIRTY TRICKS AND OUTLAW KILLER PUNCHES
COMBAT KNIFE THROWING
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO LOCK PICKING
DEEP INSIDE THE UNDERGROUND ECONOMY
DON'T BE A VICTIM!
DRINK AS MUCH AS YOU WANT AND LIVE LONGER
EDDIE'S IRON
THE FREEDOM OUTLAW’S HANDBOOK
GUNS SAVE LIVES
HOME WORKSHOP PROFESSIONAL LOCK TOOLS
HOMEMADE GUNS AND HOMEMADE AMMO
HOW TO BE AN ASS-WHIPPING BOXER
HOW TO BURY YOUR GOODS
HOW TO EARN $15 TO $50 AN HOUR
HOW TO HIDE THINGS IN PUBLIC PLACES
HOW TO KILL THE JOB CULTURE BEFORE IT KILLS YOU
HOW TO START YOUR OWN COUNTRY
I AM NOT A NUMBER!
THE ID MASTER
KILL-AS-CATCH-CAN
LIVING NAKED AND FRUGAL
METHODS OF DISGUISE
MODERN FRAUDS AND CON GAMES
THE NEW BULLWHIP BOOK
OUT OF BUSINESS
THE POLICEMAN IS YOUR FRIEND AND OTHER LIES
PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA
RANCHO COSTA NADA
SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR THE MASSES
THE SCOURGE OF THE DARK CONTINENT
THE SLING
THE SUNSTONE SUPERSTOVE
SURVIVING ON THE STREETS
TECHNIQUES OF SECRET WARFARE
THE TEMP WORKER'S GUIDE TO SELF-FULFILLMENT
THINK FREE TO LIVE FREE
ÜBERHACKER II MORE WAYS TO BREAK INTO A COMPUTER
UNDER THE TABLE AND INTO YOUR POCKET
THE WILD AND FREE COOKBOOK

TAKEOVER! - Big Money Moves into the Small Press World

In a civilization run by wealth and dominated by monopolies, should one small section of culture remain independent; free from the influence of a growing plutocracy?

THE FACTS
The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) was founded in 1967 as the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines, with a mission to advocate for independent publishing endeavors. As recently as 2004 CLMP's Board of Directors consisted chiefly of actual representatives from the small press world, including the editor of an obscure poetry journal in California; the publisher of Graywolf Press; a buyer from City Lights Books; and a poet from Queens College in New York.

Already, though, the board showed signs of a change in direction in the person of Constance B. Sayre, a former VP at Simon & Schuster and current President of Market Partners International. MPI is "consultant to the ten largest U.S. trade book publishers and three of the largest U.S. magazine publishing companies."

Was this someone to represent the small press?

Two years later the CLMP board is dominated by VIPs from the most monied segments of America. A few of the current board members:

JAMES L. BILDNER: Owner of New Horizons Partners, a venture capital firm. Bildner, trustee of the Kresge Foundation, is former chairman of a chain of food stores.

ELLIS B. LEVINE: Corporate lawyer for Cowan, DaBaets, Abrahams and Sheppard, Levine is described as a "lawyer for the book publishing industry." he's former VP and board member of the publishing giant Random House.

SUZANNE DE BACA: President of Private Capital Solutions, a financial and investment services firm "that specializes in helping high net worth individuals plan for and manage financial change."

JULIE SCHAPER: President of Consortium Book Sales, a book distributor which was bought in 2001 by investment banker Don Linn, then sold to Perseus Books Group in July 2006. Perseus, which comprises seven imprints, is a portfolio company of Perseus LLC, "a merchant bank and private equity fund management company." "Perseus manages six investment funds with capital commitments totaling $1.3 billion. . . ."

JENNIFER BLUESTEIN: VP at Mirram Global, a big bucks political consulting firm in New York City which received more than $900,000 to manage Fernando Ferrer's recent mayoral campaign. Mirram's questionable behavior was addressed by Michael Slackman in the March 10, 2005 New York Times.

GERALD HOWARD: Executive Editor at Doubleday Books, a division of Random House.

NICOLE DEWEY: Assistant Director of Publicity at Doubelday Books.

The board also includes Sara Nelson, Editor-in-Chief at Publishers Weekly, a magazine for insiders in the conglomerate publishing industry, and Ira Silverberg, a major figure at Donadio & Olson literary agents, whose job is to serve said industry.

Compared to this array of heavyweight names, remaining boards members David Lynn of Kenyon Review; Johnny Temple of New York-based Akashic Books, and "freelance editor" Elizabeth Bogner appear to be tokens. (Ms. Bogner is in fact married to Jesse Sheidlower, principal North American editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, hardly a home of small press outsiders. Elizabeth's main qualification for board membership seems to be that she's good at throwing Manhattan parties attended by literary Insiders. Maybe she's produced some zeens I don't know about.)

My conclusion about this list: The foxes are running the henhouse!

TO READ MORE, a full report, including what this takeover means, and why it occurred, click on the "ULA's Monday Report" at Literary Revolution

For background and updates go to "Attacking the Demi-Puppets" at King Wenclas

R.I.P. Thieu Nghiem

A good customer of ours and a damn shame. Thieu was a wealth of information and a testament to keeping oneself healthy. I believe long long ago he was the youngest professor at Harvard Medical School... until his son beat his record! His daughter did/does something ridiculously intelligent as well. Thieu was way into preventative medicine, citing that as the main reason for his split with Harvard and western medicine in general. I always enjoyed our rambling conversations whenever he wandered into the bookstore and he always had a fresh bit of health advice for Lyli and Scarleht. Olympia has lost a great friend and valauble resource in Thieu Nghiem, Last Word will be at half mast for a few days in remembrance. Here's a bit of his credentials: Professor Thieu L. Nghiem, M.D, Ph. D., epidemiologist, M.Sc. in teaching preventive medicine, graduated from and former professor of the medical university of Hanoi, Vietnam (1952), university of Saigon, Vietnam (1956-1958), Harvard University, U.S.A. (1960), John Hopkins University, U.S.A. (1960-1965), Wayne State University, U.S.A. (1967-1973), Washington state epidemiologist (1973-1978). He also served as Washington State Chief of Public Health.

And here's the foreword to a raw foods nutrition book written by Nghiem. I'm a resourceful boy but if anyone happens to have known Thieu or his extended family I would like to get in touch with them. Thanks! More to follow after his obit hits the papers. At least he got to die in a place he loved dearly.

from that piece of shit local paper: the olympian

OLYMPIA - A theater patron died in a restroom at the Capitol Theater, police reported Thursday.

Thieu Lenh Nghiem, 82, of Olympia was found by another patron on the floor in the restroom, Thurston County Coroner Judy Arnold said. He had a head injury, but it appears to have been caused by a fall and was not the cause of death, she said.

An autopsy is scheduled for today. "We don't suspect any foul play," Arnold said.

Nghiem was attending an Olympia Film Society showing at the theater, 206 Fifth Ave. S.E. Emergency personnel were called to the theater at 8:50 p.m. for a man down with a head injury, but they determined the man was dead.

The theater was showing "District B13" at 6:30 p.m., a sci-fi action comedy set in 2010 Paris, and "Three Times" at 9 p.m., a foreign-language film about three different love stories.

Anyone with information about the death is encouraged to call the Olympia Police Department's detective bureau at 360-753-8400.

"if you want to get laid, go to college. if you want to learn something, go to a library." - frank zappa

just some book links to pass the time away:

Live Gatsby Performance - "Okay Great Gatsby fans, here's your chance to have a unique experience. If you are going to be in Minneapolis September 21-24, you can catch Gatz. Gatz is an unabridged performance of The Great Gatsby. The show is six hours long and is broken only by an hour long dinner break."

History News Network

Search books by color! - Right... anyone who's worked in a bookstore will love this one.

Shelved - nice librarian/book-based web comic

Lipstick Librarian

The Modified Librarian - Tattooed librarians, eeek! Oooooooo! Ahhhhhhh!

Laughing Librarian - Humor for bibliophiles

Revolting Librarians

Old Article on Vermont Bookseller purging records, thanks P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act!

The End of Copyright

UK Schools Seek to Abolish Homework!!!

"by the time a man can read a woman like a book,
he is too old to collect a library"