A local good soul has started a Birmingham, Alabama group over on LibraryThing. The potential is great. You should click over and check it out. I’ve already learned some local lore, just by clicking through to the B’ham based books list over on the BhamWiki.
The Wiki has lots of cool stuff. If you’re not careful you’ll loose an hour (or two) just clicking through all the uber-infomative related goodness.
Forbes magazine has crunched the numbers and has run a series of articles about how books and book publishing are far from dead. That’s something I’ve felt, in my soul, for a long time. It’s a hard argument to make as more and more goes online, but how can you argue with the pragmatic dry wits of Forbes?
We talked about Joe Namath coming to town to sign books.
Well, one local blogger has the inside scoop on what Mr. Namath is like behind the scenes.
I can imagine famous people get tired of “having” to do “famous people stuff” and slum with all of us commoners. But there is no need to be a butt about it, ya know? I mean if you are so busy that you can’t sign a few extra books for fans who stood in line forever, then you really shouldn’t bother. Just ruins the whole thing.
Maybe it’s cause he’s not a real writer. He’s an athlete. So maybe that’s why his booksigning didn’t crank his tractor. I dunno.
They seem to be going after the “Pimp Your Ride” crowd.
Basically Penguin will start selling (end of November) real books by real authors… but with no covers. Apparently they hope people will buy the blanks and design their own covers and share with the world.
You can keep up with this project and gallery of uploaded user’s pics on Penguin’s site.
I’m not sure this gimmick will catch on. Just seems kinda hokey. Should be fun to watch though. I wonder if there will be a price difference in a book with a cover and without a cover?
