Category Archives: On the Web

Birmingham, Book Talk, Bookstores, On the Web

Kathleen Schmidt Interview with Books-A-Million CEO Terry Finley

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Here’s an interview with the CEO of Birmingham/Homewood-based bookstore chain Books-A-Million, Terry Finley. Finley (Instagram) has been in bookselling for 50 years. Schmidt’s Publishing Confidential newsletter is book and publishing focused and always an interesting read.

BAM is an interesting company due to its larger size and regional approach to operations. They have stores in 32 states and have recently opened a large and well laid out shop in Bloomington, MN. The Twin Cities are an amazingly bookish part of the country and I’m excited to see how this new store shapes up.

The front of BAM in Bloomington, MN

Here are a few more photos I took, inside their new store, on a recent visit this year. The aisle layout was fun and added to the book discovery journey. There are so many books there!

A couple of the interview questions I found really interesting shine a spotlight on how Books-A-Million approaches books vs. entertainment vs. lifestyle items, as well as how Dungeon Crawler Carl (published in August 2024; these covers are great fun!) became their 2025 Book of the Year. I’m also really curious about the in-store AI Search tools as I have not seen that in action yet. I may have to go to BAM with a question for an associate to see how and how well that works.

Schmidt’s interview is worth a read for a glimpse behind the curtain at Books-A-Million.

On the Web

Words of the Year 2025

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UPDATE: Today (12/15/25), Merriam-Webster Dictionary declared “slop” as the word of the year. This seems equal parts fair and depressing. I hope humans do better in 2026.

It is always interesting to see what the dictionary folks declare their “word of the year” to be. As fragmented as everything feels these days, it’s nice to think about a group of learned individuals steadily tracking how we speak and what we say. I’ve always thought it be fun to be in on the discussion to pick a “word of the year”.

For the Oxford Dictionary, it is “rage bait,” which is telling and sad and makes me want to unplug my computer and pick up a book. Not only because that’s more than one word (though to be fair, last year they chose “brain rot” so maybe they’re just staying on trend), but the fact that it’s so widespread to grab this high a pedestal can’t be a good sign for online conversations.

The folks at the Cambridge Dictionary declared “parasocial” as their pick. While not a new concept, the explosive growth of those types of relationships is yet another descriptor of what time online has done to our sense of personal relationships. Their 2024 Word of the Year was “manifest,” which felt odd at the time. This year’s word feels very timely.

In 2024,  Dictionary.com chose “demure” because it was a social media flash in the pan. For 2025, they have chosen “67” as their word of the year. This one is just dumb. It feels like dictionary folks should pick a word that has ‘arrived’ so to speak, after a long time of working its way into conversations. Not just one of the last 3 months of TikTok memes.

Which, since that last one is actually a number and not a word, may just be rage bait, which is actually two words of the year and not a word of the year… which… I… um…. I think I do need to log off…

Hope you all have a restful and book-filled weekend ahead of you!

On the Web, Things to Read

Things to Read – Edition 0004

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Since the fall of Twitter I have struggled to find a place to share links and online articles that I find interesting. I am really enjoying Mastodon though (and think it’s worth checking out if you haven’t). But now I am finding links there that I’d love to share more broadly. So I am creating small ”link round up” posts on the blog. Hope this ongoing series or posts surface some interesting news & thoughts for you.

It’s been around for more than 200 years, but the current 2026 Farmers’ Almanac will be the last. As someone who loves print I am bummed to hear this and I’m not sure what more they could have done or what all they have tried to stay afloat. I see they’ve even has a premium subscriber tier as well. So they certainly tried things. Also, the Old Farmers’ Almanac is still rolling along and jumped on the news of demise of their competitor touting their “80 percent accurate weather forecasts” which made me smile.

LitHub shared a post by murder mystery and true crime author Sarah Weinman on the importance of public libraries and the “most comprehensive, and most uncomfortable truths” that librarians make available to all.

I still haven’t seen the Broadway Books pilot being shopped around. Have any of you guys? Here is a link to the trailer and it’s been shown at a few festivals, but I can’t find it anywhere. Her is the synopsis: “In aggressively gentrifying Manhattan, a group of over-educated, under-employed bookstore workers struggle to keep their independent bookstore in business using increasingly desperate measures.” I remember the show Black Books which was fun (and very British) which took place in a bookshop as well. I’m hoping that Broadway Books is funny.

Bookstores, On the Web

Today Show Talks Bookstores

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Here is a quick 3-minute Today Show segment (I saw mentioned on the Travel Between the Pages blog) about bookstores this holiday season. Not much here other than I am always glad when media folks are talking about bookstores and books.

Two thoughts: one, the publicity team at B&N all need raises this year. I’ve never seen a blitz like they did in 2024. The mainstream media folks ate up every crumb. And two, what do we have to do to get a new bookstore movie to replace You’ve Got Mail? So many news stories use it as a point of reference. It seems like 99% (not based on real data) of newly released movies are all redos or sequels… why not this one?

Bookshops are not just great for your community, visiting bookshops while traveling is a great way to get to know a place you are visiting. Bookstore Tourism should be a thing! Seeing what books are offered up front and scanning through the Staff Picks shelves always offer lots of insights. And books make pretty dang good souvenirs.