As you may have heard, the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight broke box office records this weekend. The effect on books was pretty stunning as well.

Curiously, in books, it is the NEXT Batman movie (I should have said, “the NEXT movie based on a famous DC Comics series.”  Thanks for the correction, Katie and the others who wrote in!) that generated the most sales. Not due out until March 2009, anticipation for the Watchmen is already building. A Watchmen trailer preceded showings of Dark Knight, sending the book it’s based on to #2 over the weekend (still not managing to unseat Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn) where it remains. (For Watchmen titles, see earlier post).

Below are the other Batman titles now on the Amazon Top 100:

#12 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 

by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley (Colorist), Klaus Janson (Illustrator) 

Listed as not in stock until August 24

• Paperback: $14.00
• Publisher: DC Comics; 10 Anv edition (May 1, 1997)
• ISBN-10: 1563893428
• ISBN-13: 978-1563893421

Borders new concept stores

Many years ago, when Borders began to expand their stores beyond Ann Arbor, media reports often commented, with some amazement, that they seemed like libraries. The stores had comfy chairs, encouraged browsing, offered lots of titles and even allowed people to read books they didn’t buy.

This week, Reuters trumpets,”New Borders Stores Combine Literary and Digital Worlds.” Hmm, now that sounds even MORE like a library. USA Today, in comparing bricks and mortar stores to online booksellers, reports, “One of the saving graces for bookstores, say analysts, consumers and industry officials, is they offer people with shared interests a site to gather and socialize.” Hmm, sounds like ALA past president, Leslie Burger, talking about libraries as community centers.

Borders premiered the first of its new “concept stores” yesterday. As USA Today puts it, the chain “hopes to reverse years of sluggish sales by reinventing itself as a hub for knowledge, entertainment and digital downloading.” They plan to open thirteen more stores by the end of the year. Among the new offerings, Borders is working with Internet companies such as Ancestor.com to allow customers to do genealogy searches.

It’s amusing to read about Borders new approaches to merchandising, like displaying cooking magazines and books together. How many different shelving approaches have libraries tried over the years?Borders press release gives full details (with a few ideas worth stealing).