Barnes and Noble are suffering one of the worst years in their history. Borders is trying to sell. No one is buying. Books A Million is down 9% and one publisher has instructed its staff to buy NO MORE MANUSCRIPTS.

Why is business so bad? It’s bad everywhere. And most of it is bad because fear is driving this economy. Oh, there are reasons to be fearful, there is no doubt about that. But fear has caused people who are doing well to suddenly stop spending. I’m not going to advocate spending crazy dollars on crazy things. I’m simply saying that a $9.–, $15.00…$25.00 book is a very thoughtful, very inexpensive gift to give.

And a book is one thing that never gets regifted or thrown away. People love books! Always have, always will. People have entire rooms dedicated to nothing but books. ( They call them libraries.) And if you can get a signed first edition, that’s even better!

Keep an eye out this Christmas season for author signings, for new releases, and for old favorites. Visit a new bookstore, a vintage used store, your local B&N or Borders, or go online and see Amazon. Whatever you decide, buy a book for Christmas. It’s the best gift you could ever give. Or keep (if it’s for you.)

And if you visit www.donbrunsbooks.com you can find a complete list of books to please everyone on your Christmas list. Or, you can visit Judy, Casey, and Jeff. Not only that, if you want your book signed…send the book to us, (with postage) and we’ll sign it and send it back.

We can’t let bookstores and publishers fall by the wayside. Think about it. Obama made $4,000,000 last year off the sale of his two books. He went from being rich ($250,000 a year by his standard) to super rich. Super super rich. Maybe even Super Duper rich. All because of his books.

Buy a book for Christmas. You may be helping keep literature alive. You may be helping a struggling writer survive. And you could, yes you could be helping finance the next president of the United States.