Books Etc. is the latest addition to our chronicling Birmingham-area bookstores. The shop is going on three-years-old and let me tell you, this is my kind of used-bookstore. It’s one of those places that is crammed with books to the point that you just have to meander about, letting serendipity do its thing. But you [...]

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 buying used books, cd’s, dvd’s and video games. They only accept used books and such between 11a and 5p and they only pay cash.
I can’t find any information on their website about [...]

Barnes & Noble is finally leveraging their greatest asset: their stores. A “boots on the ground” plan is exactly what they need to help them continue to compete with the changing landscape for publishers, booksellers and readers. That’s exactly what they currently have going by giving away free eBooks (for any device running their app) [...]

Books truly are the foundation for. . .  Props to the shop. . .  Look at how resourceful. . .
A photo is worth a thousand puns. I have been in many shops that this very same structural support could have been in. They always are the fun ones.

This came via email from the thereifixedit.com site. [...]

Amazon fired the opening salvo in the latest skirmish over eBooks with mega-publisher Macmillan. Macmillan, one of the largest publishers in the world is at odds with Amazon over the pricing of Kindle books, so Amazon deleted all of the “Buy Now” buttons from all Macmillan published titles! I’m sure Amazon can predict the impact [...]

It’s less than a week before Steve Jobs takes the stage atop a unicorn showing the world the fabled Apple Tablet (iSlate). And it appears that Amazon thinks there is going to be a real battle for books. In the past two years, Amazon has used its size to bulldoze its way through publishing. But [...]

Not ten. Ten is too many. But five is doable. I was shopping this weekend and stopped in a few local indie stores. They had nice tables showing “NY Times Bestsellers” and the like, all of which was great, but didn’t help me at all. So here I offer you five things that I want [...]

It looks like Birmingham is loosing another indie bookstore. After almost six years in business and just weeks after setting up their Twitter feed, Linda Brown has sent out a very sincere and personal note about plans to close Milestone Books or at best, let it change hands. I have pasted her message, in its [...]

I opened the Birmingham News this Sunday morning and saw the great feature story The Alabama Booksmith owner Jake Reiss. It’s always fun to learn more about the people in the stacks of some of our favorite stores.

The annual Local Author Expo has been in full swing since 11 a.m. today and ends at 3 p.m. for the day. If you didn’t make it out today, you can go by the Birmingham Library tomorrow (Sat., Dec. 5th) and mingle with some of Birmingham’s literary minds.
Over 140 local authors are attending this year [...]