The JCLC has a new look to their site and user interface. The update looks great! What is interesting though is they have added “social networking” type functions. So people can now rate books they like, etc. According to the blog post, users will eventually be able to write reviews and make suggestions and such.
The [...]

Publisher’s Weekly has a short article on the three leading “book social networking sites“. (via fadetheory).
Let me say up front, that I am an avid LibraryThinger and that I really think the PW article does a disservice to the reader…

Now that Summer is half over and school starts in just two weeks… Birmingham’s local Black and White city paper has released its Summer Reading issue.
Better get cramming!

I drove around town a little this evening taking in all the Potter Pandemonium. I’m always amazed at how many people come out for these releases. But I was no where near as excited as Line # 72 (pictured below) at Barnes and Noble at the Summit.

He came walking out of that store whooping it [...]

Here is one for all of you “book arts” types. It’s a music video that uses a pop-up book for 90% of the video. I don’t know how hard it is to make a pop-up book, but this is pretty fun stuff to watch. (via Book Patrol)

There’s a new service designed to ease all of our green guilt. You can pay to have trees planted in accordance to how many books you own. Best I can tell they encourage an easy one tree planted per one book owned ratio (at about a dollar per tree).
It’s also neat that they plant the [...]

According to this cool article/interview, Amazon’s most prolific customer reviewer has posted 12,000 reviews in 7 years. That’s unbelievable and a lot of folks in the industry have been taking note. Though an English professor interviewed for the article admits that she has, on occassion, read 5 books in a day!
I don’t think I can [...]

Book TV has updated and improved their site. It’s loaded with video, audio, calendars, etc. It really is a much improved experience. Kudos to the folks behind the scenes. It’s fun poking around all of the interviews and appearances. Of course, please feel free to ignore anything that might reinforce stereotypes about my beloved Birmingham [...]

I just had to share this gallery of Penguin paperbacks. Pretty cool! It’d be a fun collection to have.
I ran across that link over at Veer’s The Skinny.

I just saw in Bookmarks magazine where Michael Chabon has another new book coming out
?! I haven’t even read about the Yiddish policeman yet. The magazine said August of this year, but Amazon has it listed for October.
I’ve been told that the new book is a collection of short stories he’s done and has not [...]