The King's English | 
 enlarge | Author: Betsy Burton
Publisher: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $2.00
You Save: $13.95 (87%)
New (48) Used (36) Collectible (2) from $1.83
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 163645
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 312
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 1423601246
Dewey Decimal Number: 381.4500209792258
EAN: 9781423601241
ASIN: 1423601246
Publication Date: August 9, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Has a publisher remainder mark. 1st Edition. 2006 Paperback.
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Product Description
Betsy Burton, owner of The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, has been a bookseller for nearly thirty years, and a passionate book lover all her life. Her modestly sized yet widely respected shop has hosted authors such as E. L. Doctorow, Isabel Allende, Jon Krakauer, Margaret Atwood, Octavio Paz, and Sue Grafton, and she has built a reputation as a passionate purveyor of the written word in a world where stores like hers are a dying breed.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 What a store; what a book! August 13, 2007
Co-owner Betsy Burton has captured the store's own story in her book, The King's English. Complete with book lists, this hardback is loaded with tales of author signings gone wrong, success stories, and hardships. With so few independent booksellers still holding on in a land of giants, The King's English tells of a time both readers and writers long for.
I highly recommend a visit to The King's English bookstore, but if you can't make the distance, the book of the same title is the next best alternative.
 An extraordinary book May 30, 2007
After reading "The King's English", I decided it would have to live on my bedside table indefinitely as a resource for all things readable. The only thing that would be better is a second edition!
 Turned off by the preachiness April 29, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm a lover of books and bookstores, but for all of the author's enthusiasm, she didn't turn me into an unqualified supporter of the independent bookstore. If anything, I came away with a negative attitude. I found the book overly preachy, and the positions not fully explained. I did enjoy the entertaining stories about various author visits. And the descriptions of the authors that Burton likes were enlightening. I do admire her devotion to the business - the unfathomable amounts of money she must have sunk into it over the years, and the determination she has to keep it going. But much of the book rubbed me the wrong way, culminating with the Harry Potter book release story: Buying up the chains' stock to sell at their own store sounds like an unseemly business practice to me.
Fast-paced, humorous, eye-opening January 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Betsy Burton writes a lively, humorous book about her experiences as an independent bookseller. You are there when Isabel Allende talks to her audience; you feel Betsy's humiliation when John Mortimer arrives and she has some problems with "Mum's car." She also writes about serious topics such as censorship and competition with chains and superstores. The one criticism I have is that there isn't an index with a listing for all the authors she writes about. If you've never been to a bookstore to meet an author, you will after reading this book.
A passion for literature and liberty November 9, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is a delight. Passionate, strong-willed, full of love for literature and liberty --especially for our First and Fourth Amendments -- Betsy Burton gives an account of her first twenty-five years as one of the owners of The King's English, an independent bookstore in Utah's Salt Lake City.
For the person who wants to learn more about the book industry, you'll learn about sales reps and what goes into getting on to various bestseller lists. For the person concerned about protecting our rights, you'll learn about some of the threats that have been made to bookstores, from both individuals and the government. For the person who simply adores reading, you'll learn a bit about how your precious books make it into your hands, and if you took the process for granted, you will take it for granted no longer.
You'll also learn some of the pitfalls of opening a business with little (or no) experience, how to deal (or perhaps how not to deal) with the press, and how to work (or not work) with partners and employees, and last, but not least, how to maintain conviction in the face of cut-throat competition (where the competition is likewise mysteriously cutting its own throat).
Finally, you will enjoy Betsy Burton, and the way she barrels down on problems. I laughed out loud when I read about how she could not get a key to open the trunk of a car (a problem I have also experienced - glad to see I'm not alone) and how she dealt with a Harry Potter crisis.
Well worth reading!
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