Obama on Martha's Vineyard: Will he stop by an independent bookstore this summer?

Obama angered some in the independent book world after he praised Amazon's business practices in 2013 and skipped his usual visit to a Martha's Vineyard indie bookstore later that year. Will he pick up some books during his Vineyard visit this year?

|
Carolyn Kaster/AP
President Barack Obama, with his daughters Malia Obama and Sasha Obama, waves to a gathered crowd as they leave the Bunch of Grapes book store in Vineyard Haven, Mass. in 2010.

Booksellers are watching and wondering: Will President Barack Obama stop by an independent bookstore during this summer's Martha’s Vineyard vacation?

In previous visits to Martha’s Vineyard, Obama often stopped by the Bunch of Grapes independent bookstore to pick up a few titles. However, some in the indie book world weren’t pleased when the president traveled to an Amazon warehouse in Tennessee during the summer of 2013 to praise the company.

“The Amazon facility in Chattanooga is a perfect example of the company that is investing in American workers and creating good, high-wage jobs,” White House deputy press secretary Amy Brundage said at the time. “What the president wants to do is to highlight Amazon and the Chattanooga facility as an example of a company that is spurring job growth and keeping our country competitive.”

Some objections were quickly raised after the planned visit became known, with the American Booksellers Association staff and several indie bookstore workers sending a letter to Obama saying that “Amazon’s business practices are actually harming small businesses and the American economy” and that “Amazon … slashing prices far below cost on numerous book titles is further evidence that it will stop at nothing to garner market share at the expense of small businesses that cannot afford to sell inventory below their cost of acquisition.”

During his 2013 summer visit to the Vineyard, Obama skipped going to Bunch of Grapes as he had before, though as Monitor contributor Danny Heitman pointed out, “Maybe Obama didn’t relish the prospect of picking out books with the rest of the world looking over his shoulder.”

So will the president stop by Bunch of Grapes or Edgartown Books this year? Hillary Clinton is signing copies of her book “Hard Choices” today at Bunch of Grapes, which could be a reason for Obama to go or to avoid the area. Either way, the book industry will be watching to see whether Obama goes book-shopping this summer.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Obama on Martha's Vineyard: Will he stop by an independent bookstore this summer?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0813/Obama-on-Martha-s-Vineyard-Will-he-stop-by-an-independent-bookstore-this-summer
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe