Alabama Book Festival 2012

Mark your calendars for Saturday April 21! That’s the day for the 7th Annual Alabama Book Festival, held each year down in the super unique Old Alabama Town in Montgomery. Not all of the authors and booths have been confirmed, but you can keep up with the official list of authors who are coming. So far there are about 25 authors on the list including fan favorites like Homer Hickman, Wayne Flynt and Gin Phillips. There are also always lots of fun areas for the kids and book booths full of books for sale.

You can also get updates via Twitter on happenings around the 2012 Alabama Book Festival.

 

A Tower of Lincoln Books

Abraham Lincoln did a lot of good for this country and he’s done a lot of good for the book industry. Currently, there is a monumental tower at Ford’s Theater made up of 15,000 books, each a unique title about Abraham Lincoln, driving this point home.

His story is one that is always coming out under a new title every year. It’s amazing how many books are still being written on Lincoln. I wonder what’s left to be said?

I’ve only read two books out of this massive 34 foot tower (which combined are only 8.34 inches thick, so that leaves about 33 feet to go). It may be a cool art piece, but I just see a massive TBR pile. I wonder if Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer is included? Because if it is, then I have read three. They need to publish a list of the books.

Dickens at 200

Today marks the 200th year since Charles Dickens was born. It’s been fun seeing all of the build-up to today amongst bookish folks. Google has a great artful logo to commemorate the occasion, which will be on their main page all day.

What’s also been fun is following all of the hoopla over in the UK. The Guardian newspaper launched their own “official” Charles Dickens at 200 mini-site late last year as a place to aggregate all of the pieces they’re putting together. It’s worth checking out, but only after you to their archives section to see how the paper covered Dickens way back in 1912 on the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth. It’s neat to be able to compare the thinking and statements.

 

Used-Book Sale Downtown Birmingham

The book sale ends February 4th. So you have a few more days to get to the downtown branch of the Birmingham Library and scope out the books. The deal is you pay $6 and get an official library re-usable tote to stuff with as many books as you can. The only catch is that your selection is restricted to the “overstock” carts outside of the bookstore. So the books inside the shop (still priced only 50 cents to $2) are off limits.

You can expect lots of Clancy, King and Wouk out on the carts, but there are lots of other things too. Two carts are crammed with newer kids’ books.

Just inside the Friends of the Library shop is the new merch room with lots of branded shirts, mugs cups and bags. It’s worth checking out as well.