Holiday Sales, Industry Optimism, and Laurence on TV

Tomorrow I crawl back to work after a nice extended break for the holidays--but just for three days. Then we're going to Disney World. We're tagging along with Jason as he attends the Pearson winter sales meeting there.

A few things have caught my notice this week:

• Barnes & Noble's 50% off sale: Looks like thousands of books in all categories, calendars, and more at 50% off. The winners here are the consumers and the publishers. B&N will be making just 5% off of anything they sell at this discount.
• Motley Fool gives the publishing industry the thumbs up: Despite the steady increase in doomsday predictions for books, these investing experts say that it will be a long time before the world gives up on Gutenberg's content-delivery method.
• Amazon reports best Christmas ever: Sure, not everything they sold was books, but it's still a good sign to me.
• Laurence Shatkin on CBS News: Yesterday morning we awoke to see JIST author and friend Laurence Shatkin appearing on a CBS News report on recession-proof jobs. His book, 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs, got a mention--and they even showed the cover.

And best of all, local editor Suzy had her quadruplets on Christmas Eve! I guess I can tell her a thing or two about having a baby on that date, but I know not one thing about having four!