Happy 200th birthday to Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin!

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Something to Read, which had closed last year, has reopened in downtown Jackson, Tenn., according to the Jackson Sun. The store sells new and used books and is owned by d n English, co-owner of Main Street Publishing, whose offices are nearby.

Something to Read was inside the Painted Lady until it closed. Store manager Lisa Carroll told the paper, "We wanted to be involved in downtown and be in the heart of everything."

The store is located at 215 E. Main Street, Jackson, Tenn. 38301; 731-423-0105.

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Because owner Mary Suelflow couldn't find a buyer, Bound to Read, Marshall, Minn., is closing February 23, the Marshall Independent reported.

Suelflow wanted to sell the store for personal reasons as well as "the tough economy, competition and technology." A former B. Dalton Bookseller assistant manager, she opened the store five years ago and moved into its current location in August. 

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Ted Watkins, owner of Gold Beach Books, Gold Beach, Ore., told the Curry County Reporter that "sometime in early March, he will be closing the upstairs, and consolidating the bookstore to his downstairs space; he has also put the building up for sale or lease."

"My initial business model, which called for our 50,000 volumes to be listed on the Internet at the same time they were for sale in the store, never materialized as I spent nearly all of my time trying to figure out the retail sales world, something with which I had little prior experience," said Watkins. "My core employees did a wonderful job, but not having the off-season Internet sales inventory in place was our undoing and entirely my own fault. I have thought about just keeping the business in operation only during the tourist season, but I just didn't feel that was a good solution for my employees, not to mention the year-round coffee customers.

"I want to thank the community for its solid support," he added. "We couldn't have gone as long as we did without the backing of the community and I have nothing but gratitude for my customers and friends. I know any new version of the bookstore and coffeehouse will enjoy the same enthusiastic support. Although we did not achieve the long term viability as a large bookstore which I had hoped, we did come close!"

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Welcome back to Larry Portzline, whose Bookstore Tourism blog has been revived with a new motto: "It's back! And it's going to be better than ever."

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A segment on yesterday's All Things Considered offered a range of views about the Kindle and quoted several of our favorite people: M.J. Rose and Daniel Goldin (not Golding!) as well as Random House's Richard Sarnoff and James McQuivey at Forrester Research.

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Booksellers often hear their customers express the belief that working in a bookshop must be a dream job. The Chicago Tribune noted that, "even in pinched times, there's room for fantasy. What's your fantasy backup job? I mean a job that's pleasant but secure, satisfying but not all-consuming."

Only someone who hasn't worked in a bookstore could believe that the job is "not all-consuming," but Carol Felsenthal imagined she "was working at a store like Barbara's on Wells Street in Old Town, helping customers figure out which novel to read next, explaining why one Jane Austen novel, in my opinion, was better than another, or why Edith Wharton's best novel is not one of her most famous."

Unfortunately, the Trib had to rain on her fantasy: "But Barbara's on Wells, along with most small independent bookstores, is gone."

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Michelle F. Bayuk has joined Albert Whitman & Co. as director of marketing. She was most recently marketing director at the Children's Book Council and earlier worked at Scholastic, Millbrook Press, Putnam and others.

The 90-year-old publishing company was bought last year and has made, Whitman said, "a renewed dedication in creating high-quality children's books."