Carter coming to town

Posted by trav in Authors, Birmingham, Events      No comments

Nov
30

President Jimmy Carter will be in the Birmingham area on December 1st. He’s making the rounds promoting his new book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.

I haven’t read it yet, but I’m told this latest release is about on par with Carter’s previous books. Sort of “same thoughts and rationale, just different backdop”. But I’ll have to pick up a copy and judge for myself.

You can only get yours signed if you have a ticket. Tickets can be bought at the Alabama Booksmith’s site or at the store. You buy one book, you get one line ticket. Makes sense. Of course, if you can’t make the December 1st event Jake at The Alabama Booksmith will make sure to hold you a signed copy, if you let him know!

Penguin’s Pet Project

Posted by trav in Book Covers, Book Design, News, On the Web, Publishers      No comments

Nov
28

They seem to be going after the “Pimp Your Ride” crowd.

Basically Penguin will start selling (end of November) real books by real authors… but with no covers. Apparently they hope people will buy the blanks and design their own covers and share with the world.

You can keep up with this project and gallery of uploaded user’s pics on Penguin’s site.

I’m not sure this gimmick will catch on. Just seems kinda hokey. Should be fun to watch though. I wonder if there will be a price difference in a book with a cover and without a cover?

Title trivia and other tid-bits

Posted by trav in Book Reviews, Book Talk, New Releases      No comments

Nov
26

Four days of BookTV has been great! The best segment I saw was Morse talking about the Dictionary. Fascinating! But I still have three shows to watch on the old dvr (including Isaac Stern!)… so that may change.

Just wanted to let you guys know about the fun Title Quiz the New York Times has posted right now. It was pretty fun and I picked up some neat facts.
Also,  I had The Fellowship  by Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman on my Christmas Wish List. But after reading the NYTBR I’m thinking about dropping it. Just not interested if all the book as to offer is re-hashing the sex drive and decades old gossip of one of our nation’s most talented designers.

Let me know if any of you have read it and disagree with the NYTBR. I’d love to be persuaded to buy and read it! I’ve always enjoyed Frank Lloyd Wright’s work.

Trolling for titles

Posted by trav in Book Talk, On the Web      No comments

Nov
20

Here’s a list of lists, with a few more lists.

Pretty cool. I’m not gonna reveal how much time I burned over the weekend clicking though all these links and scrolling through the sites.

A neat resource if you’re looking for a little-known title that has garnered some acclaim.

Author Expo

Posted by trav in Authors, Birmingham, Events      No comments

Nov
20

The Birmingham Public Library is hosting an Author’s Expo on December 1 and December 2. At last count, nearly 40 authors have plans to be there, selling and signing.

It seems a good chance to pick up a few unique Christmas presents.

Awards announced

Posted by trav in Book Talk      No comments

Nov
20

In case you haven’t seen them yet, the National Book Awards announced the winners last week.

Organized chaos

Posted by trav in On the Web      No comments

Nov
10

It’s no secret that we are big fans of LibraryThing here at {head}:sub/head. They consistently do good work and offer up cool add-ons like widgets (see sidebar) and search functions.

But the smart folks over at the Fine Books & Collecting blog have a neat article about other options. Some I’ve heard of, others just sound like they’d be fun to try.

I just don’t know if we’d ever have more fun than we do over at LT though…

Don’t forget…

Posted by trav in Book Talk, On the TV      No comments

Nov
10

to check out this weekend’s BookTV schedule.

Sparks Signing

Posted by trav in Authors, Birmingham, Events      No comments

Nov
7

Nicholas Sparks is signing Dear John this Thursday (11/9) at Books-A-Million inside Brookwood Mall. Line numbers will be distributed beginning at 9 AM the day of the event.
You can call 205.870.0213 to get a copy. And if you sign-up for their email program they’ll send you a coupon for $2 off.

B’ham Book Forum

Posted by trav in Birmingham, Book Talk, On the Web      No comments

Nov
2

I just found a book-centric forum buried in al.com. It’s still active with just a handful of posts each month. But it’s been running since 2002. Good to know that Birmingham has things like this out there. I just wish they weren’t so hard to find!