Mark your calendars for December 3rd, 10:00am-3:00pm. That’s when the sixth annual Local Authors Expo is slated to take place. As always, the event will take place downtown at the Central Library. The expo is always an interesting mix of authors and books. Most of the tables are stacked with books by self-published authors. So [...]

UPDATE #2: Looks like the Kindle library lending options are live for the JCLC system! UPDATE : OverDrive has released a statement saying that the library system will work with WhisperSync to push notes, bookmarks, etc. to the ebook if you buy it or check it out again. But you still can only download library [...]

We are in the middle of this year’s Food for Fines month, in Jefferson County. Basically, you get $1 credit applied to your library fines for every canned good you bring in. All 39 JCLC branches are collecting the food for their annual food drive. It caps out at $10. So if you have $11 [...]

Publishers Weekly shared some Nielson BookScan data showing that sales of print books fell by 10.2% in the first half of 2011, with sales of mass market paperbacks falling the fastest at 26.6%. This time last year, it was the same song except that print sales were down only 0.4% in the first half of [...]

I just wanted to mention the new Church Street Coffee & Books that’s opening in Crestline Village as first announced over on Magic City Post today. The shop is opening in an recently closed Starbucks and the folks opening in sound like they know what they’re doing: A limited selection of books will be available, [...]

April 28th is the “first issue” day for the Gregory Peck stamp. This is the latest in the Hollywood Legends series and is a ‘forever’ stamp. But why I like it is that the image used for the stamp is a still from Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. I hear the folks over in [...]

I have to admit, out of all the options I’ve seen available for recycling magazines, newspapers and books… I never saw this one coming. Nike is stitching together sneakers that place the paper’s features section on your feet. These shoes are made from recycled print pieces. Not sure how comfortable they are, but they are [...]

This is a GREAT weekend to buy used books in Birmingham, with THREE new places/events to buy. First, Vestavia Hills library has shut down as they are moving to their new building (slated to open in early-November) so they are toting books outside to a tent and selling what they can. It’s being organized by [...]

EDITORIAL UPDATE: Books-A-Million has opened a used-book store called 2nd & Charles, so BAM locations are no longer buying used-books. But you can sell your stuff at 2nd & Charles. *************** This is the sign that greets you as soon as you enter the Books-A-Million on Highway 31 in Hoover: Last week this location started [...]

May 1st is Free Comic Book Day this year. It’s been a looooooong time since I’ve kept up with comics, but some of the coolest publishing experiments are coming out of that area of publishing apps, e-readers, digital art and… free comic books! So this Saturday, comic book stores all over the country will host [...]