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What has changed? September 12th, 2008

This political season, Amazon is tracking all of the “red books” and “blue books” sold. It’s been fun watching the trends as they move through the country, but I’m having a tough time making sense of any of it. Usually, all the traditionally more liberal states are buying the “blue books, while the more traditionally […]


The Man Booker Shortlist - 2008 September 9th, 2008

Here’s this year’s list and I haven’t read any of them. Not sure why I feel guilty about that… I think it’s just that I’d enjoy this more if I had a horse to pull for in this race.
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger  (Atlantic)
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)                        
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies (John Murray) […]


Happy International Literacy Day September 8th, 2008

It’s only been around since January 2003, but the United Nations System has put a great amount of effort in building this annual observance. I might have to go over to the Alabama Literacy Council Used Book Shop to buy that Iain Pears book I should have bought Friday night during ArtWalk… you know, just […]


Penguin posts new ebook buffet September 7th, 2008

I haven’t tried it yet… but Penguin is now offering (what they call) ‘ebook tasters’. These are files are from upcoming or newly released books, in a digital download form. It seems they are only available in ePub format which means you’ll need an ereader or Adobe Digital Editions installed on your computer. I’m sure […]


Print must be a zombie September 6th, 2008

I just started reading Jeff Gomez’s Print is Dead. It’s a strong title, but I haven’t even made it half way through the introduction and he’s already opened a paragraph with “While print is not yet dead…”.
It’s going to be hard to argue with someone who gets to have it both ways.


Palin Profile Pays Off September 3rd, 2008

Epicenter Press is living the small press dream… they have stayed focused to their core material/genre and have turned out to be the only publisher with a book about the hottest topic in the US right now… McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for VP.
Epicenter, which publishes books on the Pacific Northwest, printed 13,000 […]


Erase your Over-due Fines September 2nd, 2008

If you are a card-carrying member of the JCLC system, you can have $1 erased from your over-due fines for every canned food item you bring in. The limit is $10 knocked-off your record. The deal runs until the end of September, when all donated goods will be given to local Birmingham-area food banks.
September is […]


Philip Roth Live Simulcast September 2nd, 2008

On September 16th, at 6:30pm, The Alabama Booksmith will play host to a live simulcast with author Philip Roth. The Booksmith is one of a handful of venues that will be dialed into the event, allowing visitors to watch Philip Roth and participate in a Q&A with the reclusive author.
According to their site, the Booksmith […]


Merging Media August 28th, 2008

The creator of CSI and Dutton are teaming up to produce a new three-book series of “digital novels”. Let me preface this move with a quote from the CSI guy, Anthony Zuiker…
“I personally don’t have the attention economy to read a 250-page crime novel from start to finish.”
So that’s where he is coming from, on […]


2008 Bulwer-Lytton winner August 17th, 2008

This is the 26th year of the Bulwer-Lytton contest, aimed at finding the best of the worst opening lines to imaginary novels. The winner is pretty good, but I enjoyed the “Spy Fiction” Winner and Runner-Up better. So I copied them below as well. I mean the Spy Novel winner is baaaaaad and the Runner-Up […]


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