Bookstore operators
Marie Vytopilova, wife of the late Jaromir Vytopil, stands in a bookstore in Pelhrimov, Czech Republic, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020. Some 25,000 have been killed by COVID-19 in the hard-hit Czech Republic. Jaromir Vytopil was one of them. His everyday presence in the small Czech town of Pelhrimov was something everybody took for granted for seven decades as he had served the generations of readers. The longest serving Czech bookseller, passed away on Nov 9. 2020, at age of 83. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Longest-serving bookseller among 25,000 Czech virus victims

By Karel Janicek Mar. 28, 2021 03:08 AM EDT

Customers wearing face masks as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus, in an Ikea store on its reopening day, in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, March 1, 2021. Swiss authorities last week gave a go-ahead to what they called a “cautious” reopening despite a new, more-transmissible COVID-19 variant that first appeared in Britain that is increasingly circulating in the rich Alpine country. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Swiss bask in reopened shops as COVID-19 cases drop

By Jamey Keaten Mar. 01, 2021 01:48 PM EST

FILE - In this April 9, 2020, file photo, employees observe social distancing due to coronavirus, at the entrance of Amazon, in Douai, northern France. Amazon announced Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO later in the year, leaving a role he’s had since founding the company nearly 30 years ago. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler, File)
5 challenges awaiting Amazon's new CEO

By Joseph Pisani And Anne D'innocenzio Feb. 03, 2021 06:29 PM EST

FILE - In this May 28, 2015 file photo, attendees at BookExpo America visit the HarperCollins Publishers booth in New York. The annual publishing convention and trade show, a decades-old tradition, may be coming to an end. ReedPop, which has managed BookExpo for a quarter century, announced Tuesday that it was dropping the event, along with the fan-based BookCon. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Event organizer drops BookExpo, annual publishing convention

By Hillel Italie Dec. 01, 2020 12:00 PM EST

FILE - This Feb. 19, 2019, file photo shows former President Barack Obama speaking at the My Brother's Keeper Alliance Summit in Oakland, Calif. Obama’s “A Promised Land” sold nearly 890,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada in its first 24 hours, putting it on track to be the best selling presidential memoir in modern history. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Barack Obama memoir off to record-setting start in sales

By Hillel Italie Nov. 18, 2020 04:06 PM EST

FILE - The Amazon logo appears in Douai, northern France on April 16, 2020. With many independent bookstore owners facing the most dire financial crisis in their lifetimes, the American Booksellers Association has teamed with an award-winning advertising agency known for “culture hacking” to dramatize the threats of the pandemic and the growing dominance of Amazon.com. On Tuesday, the trade group launched the “Boxed Out” campaign, for which a handful of bookstores around the country will have windows boarded up and boxes piled up out front that resemble Amazon delivery containers. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler, File)
Indie bookstores launch anti-Amazon 'Boxed Out' campaign

By Hillel Italie Oct. 13, 2020 02:01 PM EDT

In this Thursday, June 25, 2020, photo, Karen Hayes works in her office in Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tenn. The independent bookstore, owned by Hayes and novelist Ann Patchett, opened and thrived while others were closing their doors and is once again defying the odds during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Novelist Patchett has Nashville bookstore customers swooning

By Travis Loller Jun. 26, 2020 12:04 PM EDT

A driver wearing a mask parks his bus after a special trip for government employees during extended lockdown in Kochi, southern Kerala state, India, Monday, May 18, 2020. India on Monday saw a slow trickle of people returning outdoors and thin traffic on its roads in some states, a day after the federal government extended the nationwide coronavirus lockdown to May 31 but eased many restrictions to restore economic activity. (AP Photo/R S Iyer)
Some traffic returns to roads as India eases virus lockdown

By Sheikh Saaliq And Emily Schmall May. 18, 2020 04:22 AM EDT

This combination of images released by Scholastic shows the cover image for "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," by Suzanne Collins, left, and a portrait of Collins. The "Hunger Games" novel will be released on May 19. (Scholastic via AP, left, Todd Plitt/Scholastic via AP)
The promotion will be virtual for new "Hunger Games" novel

By Hillel Italie May. 14, 2020 11:14 AM EDT

In this photo taken Monday, April 27, 2020, the Astro-Zombies comic shop in Albuquerque, N.M., sits closed due to a statewide health order to stop the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)
Socked by virus, comic book industry tries to draw next page

By Jake Coyle May. 01, 2020 03:16 AM EDT

FILE - This May 22, 2018 file photo shows Stephen King at the 2018 PEN Literary Gala in New York. With independent bookstores shut down nationwide, a new online seller is offering help. In January, Andy Hunter launched Bookshop.org. Simon & Schuster is adding buy buttons for Bookshop.org to all of its websites and promoting Bookshop through emails and elsewhere online. It also has enlisted numerous authors, among them Stephen King, Susan Orlean and Jason Reynolds, to get the word out about Bookshop on social media and elsewhere. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
New online store offers help to shuttered indie booksellers

By Hillel Italie Apr. 02, 2020 02:25 PM EDT