Why Half Price Books, the Best Bookstore in Dallas, Isn’t Sweating the Digital Age

Today is the birthday of Half Price Books, which first opened in a converted laundromat on Lovers Lane (near Inwood Road) in 1972. Thirty-nine years later, the chain has 113 locations in 16 states, and was named Best Bookstore in our latest Best of Big D issue.

Not long ago I had the pleasure of breaking fast with Sharon Anderson Wright, the CEO of Half Price. Her mother was one of the two company co-founders, and Wright has spent her entire career (starting at age 13) working in its stores. The email that the Half Price PR team sent me this morning about the significance of today’s date reminded me of one note that didn’t make it into my piece in the July-August issue of D CEO.

Wright and I got talking about the store’s early history, and Wright explained that the second store that Half Price ever operated was on McKinney Avenue near Knox Street. Well, that site today houses a temporary Apple store while the nearby regular Apple store is being renovated.

And so that’s where Wright, who doesn’t believe that e-readers will ever entirely supplant printed material in the hearts of bookworms and doesn’t have one herself, had to take her 11-year-old son a few months ago to buy an iPad. The boy likes to read, and excitedly told her soon after the purchase that he’d downloaded a couple iBooks. But, ever loyal to the family business, he stuck to the public domain fare, like Darwin’s Origin of Species.

“I didn’t pay for it, Mom,’” he assured her.

Spoken like a true Millennial.

When Teacher Layoffs Hit the Books, Will Rick Perry’s Texas Economic Legend Take a Hit?

Why can’t the mainstream media acknowledge the Texas economy for the miracle that it is, and realize that when God called Rick Perry to be our state’s governor, He was showering blessings upon us as part of His divine plan to return a Texan to the White House? Why’d they have to go look at the numbers?

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Lone Star State gained more than a million jobs since the end of 2000, while the U.S. has lost almost 1.5 million, according data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

About 300,000 of the new Texas jobs were in government. Well over half of them, fueled by the surging population, were at public schools. Employment in the state’s public sector has jumped 19% since 2000, compared with a 9% rise in the private sector.

Now layoffs loom. State budget cuts, championed by Mr. Perry to address a big budget shortfall, are prompting school districts around the state to lay off hundreds of teachers and other workers going into the school year starting next month.

The layoffs haven’t shown up in federal data, but some economists forecast they may damp the state’s vaunted economic growth.

The Things I Get in Emails: The Lynn Spears Edition

So, as I’ve mentioned, readers send me lots of emails. I love it. Seriously. Sometimes I don’t get to respond to all of them, but I do love hearing from everyone. Even that guy who likes to tell me, “Your so stupid.” I don’t even correct him.

So with that, I give you this picture of Lynne Spears – Britney’s mom – in a pool at a Dallas hotel. I don’t know which hotel, because nobody ever sends me emails inviting me to pools at fancy Dallas hotels. But they do send me emails with links to pictures of other people in fancy Dallas hotel pools.  Feel free to tell me which fancy hotel pool this is in the comments.

And reader, I’m not even going to judge you because of the fact that the original link you sent me was to one whole page of what TMZ dubs, “Hot Mamas.” You go, boy.

Leading Off (7/27/11)

Club Offering Alternatives. As Zac mentioned last week, the city is trying to shut down two clubs that claim they are churches. WFAA 8 talked to the club church manager, Glenn Hudson, and this is what he told them, “We have outreach programs that are catering to the youth and disadvantaged people in the communities trying to provide an alternative to what currently exists, which are drug-infested.” However, undercover cops say they saw drug sales in the clubs churches. So there’s that.

What’s That Light? NBC cameras caught a strange light streaking across the sky and then veering off to the right. So that has raised the question as to what exactly that light was. My guess? Go back to this hypothetical. I think someone decided that, yes, he would accept the terms and use the portal, thus the light. And now he weighs five to 10 pounds more.

Who’s Ready for Some Football? I love football season. But I mainly watch college ball. I only watch NFL when I realize that one of my players on my fantasy team is playing (I always lose). So here are some links with news about the Cowboys. Highlights: the Cowboys re-signed Doug Free and cut Williams, Barber, Davis, and Brown, which saved $17 million. Now you know. Now I know.

Future Sooner Fights for Her Life. Micaela White has been dealt hard cards. She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer two years ago. And now she has leukemia. She’s graduated from Ursuline Academy and is planning on attending the University of Oklahoma. But she needs help. She needs A-negative platelets (which are rare). Please go to the Facebook group “Micaela’s Army” to see how you can help.