I was blown away by Jessa Crispin’s Book Standard article. Blown away, that is, in terms of how pitiful it was. When I originally read the article I just ignored it, but after seeing another book blog highlight the article in one of its posts, I had to speak my mind…. Her “comparison shopping” is nothing more than a shallow look at Alibris, Abe, and eBay. Some of my favorite gross overgeneralizations include “at best, I consistently found the same books… for half price” at Abe and Alibris “can be shockingly expensive.” As someone who prices hundreds of titles as day through Addall, I can tell you these statements are just silly. This article was entirely misleading and a tad sophomoric. Come on Book Standard, let’s raise the bar a little.

The New York Times recently had an article that does a great job discussing the online used book market, focusing especially on Amazon and college texts.

A while ago we posted about the success of Spanish language bookstores in California. Now, the Book Standard recently posted an article discussing another player in this booming market. Ritmo Latino is a NJ based retail store who has opened 8 stores in the past 18 months. At their locations, all signs are in Spanish and all employees speak Spanish as well. Books originally written in Spanish (not translations) comprises the overwhelming majority of their stock. Books are not its focus (this store carries mostly music titles with books and movies thrown in as well) the articles states it does carry around 2000 books/titles?. The quesiton is, have you tapped into this sector yet?