This past January, Gunter Thielen wrapped up his six year tenure as C.E.O. of Bertelsmann AG, the German corporation that owns the largest American publishing operation, Random House Inc.; today the Bookseller reports that Thielen has been named chairman of the company’s supervisory board.

Bertelsmann was most recently in the news when a German magazine reported (without citing sources) that it had offered Rupert Murdoch a billion dollars for HarperCollins, the book publishing arm of News Corp.  read more »

We missed this article on Friday about one of our favorite bookstores, Cobble Hill's BookCourt.

In the late 1990's, whining about the fate of independent bookstores was a favorite pastime in a certain New York demographic. But the counterexamples are starting to crop up: For every Madison Avenue Bookshop there is a Corner Bookstore; Shakespeare and Company never really went out of business; and now comes word that BookCourt is expanding for a third time in response to demand in its nook in Cobble Hill.  read more »