A Sad Day In Milwaukee

Today is truly a sad day for Milwaukee, our home base and for me. Our parent company, Dickens Books LTD., announced they are closing their four brick and mortar, Harry W. Schwartz retail stores in two months. This is where I started and those stores are truly in our DNA. I still remember that first morning in February of 1984, sitting in the back of the Schwartz bookshop on Fifth Street. Here is the front page story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. From OnMilwaukee.com From the Milwaukee Business Journal From Twitter For more on the struggles of independent bookstores, here is a story from BusinessWeek about Codys in San Francisco. Like I said, this is sad. The Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops have been a mainstay in Milwaukee for 82 years, but they are folding their tent in a very classy way. I have been getting calls about what this means for 800-CEO-READ. We have just had our fourth consecutive record year and this year looks strong as well. A couple of things:

Effective tomorrow, Todd Sattersten takes over as President of 800-CEO-READ and I will remain as Founder. Todd and I will continue to work together as we have for the past five years and continue to focus on business books.

In 17 days our book The 100 Best Business Books of All Time will be published.

All in all, the future looks exciting.