Don’t forget…

Posted by trav in On the TV      No comments

Dec
29

There is LOTS of Book TV to watch this weekend. It starts Saturday and runs all the way through Tueday morning!

Here’s the schedule.

Happy New Year!

Winding down the calendar

Posted by trav in Book Talk      No comments

Dec
27

The last week of every year always sits funny with me. Not sure why. It just seems like an odd lull between all the holiday hype dying off and the fireworks of the New Year.

So I hope you had a peaceful holiday and were gifted some good reads. It’s cold and wet down in our little corner of the world right now. Perfect reading weather. Which is good, because I’m forcing myself to finish Rubenfeld’s The Interpretation of Murder before tearing into some books I received this week: Kamp’s The United States of Arugula, Curtis’ And A Bottle of Rum, and Bryson’s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

Hope you and yours have a happy New Year!

The more the merrier…

Posted by trav in On the TV      No comments

Dec
21

An extra day of BookTV goodness!

I have the dvr set for…

Eric Burns talking about his book Infamous Scribblers,

Artist Donald Jackson talking about a brand-new hand-illuminated Bible,

and David Kamp talking about his book The United States of Arugula.

Merry Christmas!

Back at it

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

Dec
20

Well that was relativley painless. Those folks over at WordPress sure are smart. All went according to plan and I even installed one of those “math comment field” spam blocker deals.

Let me know if it gives you any trouble.

While all this was backing-up/updating I watched the New York Times Book Review tour that aired on BookTV this past weekend. Pretty cool if I do say so. That would be a most awesome job to have. Did you see the pile of books that will never appear in the pages of the NYTBR? HUGE!!!! They said they get some 1,000 books submitted per week and only review 30-40 per weekend. Wow.

Makes me want to go read So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid again.

I have work to do…

Posted by trav in Site News      No comments

Dec
19

so the site will be off and on all night tonight. The spammers apparently have my number. I haven’t been this ticked off in a long time.

I just deleted 290 comments, carpet bomb style. So if I trashed your comment, I’m sorry. I hope you’ll keep coming back to check us out.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we’ll be up and running in the morning.

Top-notch tour

Posted by trav in Bookstores, On the Web      No comments

Dec
16

Here is another great idea for a blog! The Independent Bookstore Photo Gallery posts visitors’ pics of their favorite local independent bookstore haunts. They even post a little write up about each place. It’s sort of a super-flickr group or something. Should be fun to keep up with.
We’ll be contributing Reed’s Bookloft and The Alabama Booksmith shortly.

The blogosphere could use a little southern lit love!

Words from wayback

Posted by trav in On the Web      No comments

Dec
14

The kind soul over at Tech Ramblings from the Rare Book Trade turned me on to World Wide Words.org.

This is a fascintaing site! It’s chock-full of tidbits and nuggets about word history and development. Lots of fun facts to memorize, just in time for the holiday party season! Maybe my wife won’t be too embarassed when I share that “January 5th was referred to as Old Christmas Day, back when the world was settling on a calendar”. That’s a nugget I picked up from this exhaustive article.

It’s as much fun as reading Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue.

Good stuff!

Just finished…

Posted by trav in Book Reviews, Book Talk      No comments

Dec
14

Christopher Morley’s 1918 The Haunted Bookshop.

As always, my thoughts are cross-posted here and on LibraryThing.

This was an enjoyable book. It’s very “classic”, in that American Movie Classics Channel Jimmy Stewart kind of way. Everyone is soooo polite and proper. Everyone blushes and women drop their handkerchiefs.

The whole WWII-era spy plot is a bit flat. True, I was always wondering what was going on, but I almost didn’t care, that’s not what kept me turning the pages. The few spots of book talk made it worthwhile for me. There’s a part where the owner of the Haunted Bookshop (which has no ghosts what-so-ever) meets with all the other crusty educated book-ish types around a roaring fire with their pipes and some toddies.

read more

Great idea!

Posted by trav in Events      No comments

Dec
11

Some University of Alabama students are helping ship books to college-age students in Africa. Here’s a link to a press release about the cause and book-drop locations.

Birminghamsters… unite!

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

Dec
8

A local good soul has started a Birmingham, Alabama group over on LibraryThing. The potential is great. You should click over and check it out. I’ve already learned some local lore, just by clicking through to the B’ham based books list over on the BhamWiki.

The Wiki has lots of cool stuff. If you’re not careful you’ll loose an hour (or two) just clicking through all the uber-infomative related goodness.