Un-Banning a Book: I told you a while ago that Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian was banned in some Idaho high schools. In response, two readers have created a GoFundMe campaign to send 350 copies of the book to students who'd like to read it. Unfortunately, the campaign plans to buy the books from Amazon.com and not an independent bookstore, which would surely offer a bulk discount and similar shipping prices. (Maybe the books could even be ordered and bought from an independent bookseller in Boise. Just a thought.)

East Coast Newspaper Notices Seattle: In case you missed it this weekend, the New York Times published a piece about Seattle's love for independent bookstores. There's some more information about the upcoming Phinney Books, which I told you will be owned and operated by a husband-and-wife team including Jeopardy! champion Tom Nissley:

The shop, Santoro’s, which he plans to rename Phinney Books, is in a neighborhood, Phinney Ridge, with plenty of Amazon employees, many of whom Mr. Nissley knows as former colleagues or neighbors, and who he hopes will shop at his store (or at least come in to offer commiseration and advice). The purchase price, essentially the value of the inventory, was $35,000.

I think I know what I’m getting into,” he said. “I hope so.”

The soon-to-be-Phinney is by no means a Goliath. At 1,200 square feet, and about 5,000 titles on the shelves, it is a retail space that might have once fit a five-and-dime.

Public Art Controversial: Boston is getting this new statue of Edgar Allan Poe. Some call it too cartoonish, but others like it a lot.

"She May Be the Beauty or the Beast" The trailer for Gilian Flynn's Gone Girl is out, and it's a pretty great trailer that uses one song (Elvis Costello's "She") to set a tone and then imbue several layers of meaning to that tone. The movie is directed by David Fincher from a script by Flynn and it's out this fall. There's a local angle, too: Seattle Arts and Lectures is bringing Flynn to Town Hall this Thursday. Gone Girl is a fun, twisty thriller, and Flynn will hopefully be willing to talk about the experience of adapting her own book to film. You should go to this reading; it should be fun.