Brome Lake Books Stays Afloat

Brome Lake Books in Quebec’s Eastern Townships sold 26,601 books in 2009. About 55 percent of those sales were made in a traditional bookshop. The rest were sales to public institutions, including the penitentiary in Cowansville, 15 kilometers away. And what do they like to read in the pokey?

“The big sellers at the penitentiary are science fiction, new age and books on body building,” says [store owner] Hoblyn. “We held our first book fair there last year.”

[Thanks to John Mansfield for the story.]