Local author interview

Posted by trav in Authors, Birmingham, Book Talk      1 comment

Jan
30

Wade, of wadeonbirmingham.com fame, has posted an insightful interview with Birmingham author Kim Sunée. She’s making the rounds promoting her new book Trail of Crumbs. It’s worth a  look. Plus, Wade went the extra step and rounded up links to mp3 files and other stories about Sunée.

So is it collectible?

Posted by trav in Book Talk, Media, New Releases      2 comments

Jan
29

Word on the street is that one of the supposed top selling non-fiction titles on the market is going to be allowed to “die on the vine”. That is, no new copies are being printed and the distributor is asking for all the books out there to be returned to the warehouse. The folks at Galleycat have been keeping up with this pretty well (though they aren’t naming names).

I’m assuming it’s the new New York Times #1 Bestseller Tom Cruise biography (groan) which I really care nothing about. Which is exactly why it’d be worth picking up, if it’s going to be seen as scarce in the near future, I wouldn’t mind parting with it. Last week, shipments were blocked to Australia and a couple of other parts of the world. Which is why I’m guessing it’s the one being pulled. Evidently Cruise has some pretty powerful lawyer type friends.

I’ve only seen this book in two stores here in Birmingham. I wonder if it’d be worth “investing” in… or if it’s just going to be seen as the pulp that it is? Or am I being suckered by some sly marketing scheme?

Of course, I could be way of course, in which case I’d have a perfectly good copy of Tom Cruise for sale–cheap!

They are just asking for it

Posted by trav in On the Web      1 comment

Jan
29

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a hosting a design contest. One where they are asking folks to design the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Can you imagine the submissions they are going to get?

Of course, the winning design has no impact on the actual library, but the winner does get an iPod Touch. All entries must be penned on the back of an envelope, which is only slighty larger than the napkins I’m used to sketching on. I envision some serious censoring going on when building their web gallery for us all to vote on.

{via So Many Books}

Birmingham and Books

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

Jan
25

Earlier this week Bhamterminal ran an interview I did. It was with one of the more prolific online contributors here in Birmingham. Dystopos (as he’s known online) founded the Bhamwiki, started the all seeing Magic City Flickr Group and started the Deep South book discussion group on LibraryThing. While on his journey to chronicle all things Birmingham, he has quite naturally become a good book collector, with an ever expanding collection of Birmingham, Alabama centered books. All of which has afforded him a unique perspective on the Magic City and its history.

The article appears in its entirety, (with a book photo by Dystopos) after the jump.

read more

One-minute Critic

Posted by trav in Book Talk, On the Web      1 comment

Jan
23

Here is a fun little palce to visit from time to time… it’s a site displaying short videos of librarians reviewing and recommending books they have read. All the videos are 60 seconds or less. Finding book recommendations  online is nothing new, but it is fun to see the people behind the review and with the videos it’s fun to see just how much fun they are having producing the 60-second spots.

I  can’t remember where I ran across the site, but I think I read that they started the One-Minute Critic reviews as part of a bigger program and the reponse was big enough that they just kept going. Their site says that the videoa are produced and maintained by the Fort Vancouver Regional Library up in Washington state.

Bad bookcover blog

Posted by trav in Book Covers, Book Design, Book Talk, On the Web      1 comment

Jan
22

I ran across Judge a Book By Its Cover this weekend. It’s a public librarian’s blog that features the worst book covers in the library. Pure torture, if you ask me. There are some really bad covers out there. Ugh! Not sure I can check in too often. After visiting that one I always have to click over to Henry Yene See’s blog to cleanse my palette and calm down. His covers are great and his work is fun to follow because he posts everything from concepts through final work.

But that first blog kind of runs along the line of the Boston’s Museum of Bad Art (which is home to the immortal Lucy in the Field with Flowers).

Save your pennies

Posted by trav in Birmingham, Events      No comments

Jan
21

Find your elbow pads… the annual second-floor gobbling Super Book Sale at the Vestavia Hills library kicks-off Friday, February 1st at 5pm and continues through Tuesday, February 5th.

No doubt the crowds will be there early, but it’s always fun to go on the last day when they say something like “give me $2 and go fill this grocery sack” or something like that. I think proceeds benefit the new library planned to replace the one on Highway 31.

Scavenging for books

Posted by trav in Birmingham, News, On the Web      1 comment

Jan
21

I’ve heard of book scouting. Ever since reading John Dunning’s Booked To Die I have romantcized that I could amass enough book-knowledge to make a living squeezing every last undiscovered rare volume from local bookstores. But, I haven’t quit my day job yet… but this great article in the NY Times is one of the first times I’ve heard of book scavanging as a living.

I can’t imagine going through the trash here in Birmingham and finding enough discarded books of value to feed yourself. Which is about all the money the two guys featured in the article need, because they are homeless. What a quirky turn to the story. I’m not saying them being homeless is a good thing, I’m just saying that it made for an interesting news article.

It also tipped me off to Mitchell Duneier’s Sidewalk, which I had never heard of. But is now on my list, as the author uses these street salesmen to address the “Broken Windows” strategy/theory of cleaning up a neighborhood, which our new mayor has just begun to employ across Birmingham.

{via BookChase}

Photos for Project Mockingbird

Posted by trav in Birmingham, Events, On the Web      1 comment

Jan
18

We have plugged the Birmingham’s 2008 Big Read Project Mockingbird a few times already. Now organziers are flexing the ir Web 2.0 muscles and asking for help from the immensley productive Magic City Flickr Group. Basically, the call went out for photos of events, people or anything that related to project Mockingbird or the book To Kill a Mockingbird.

So if you have any pics sitting around, just upload them to any Flickr account and tag them “projectmockingbird”, so the libraries can parse them to their sites via widgets.

Stylin’ stamps

Posted by trav in New Releases, Type      No comments

Jan
17

The USPS has long been cranking out stamps designed specifically for collectors. Now they are releasing some with a great eye for design. I have to agree with the Theorist that these Eames stamps are high on the want list!

But I have to say I also dig this short sheet of vintage black cinema posters. I like the typography and boldness of some of the colors.