Tag Archives: collecting

Book Collecting Contest

The 3rd Annual Student Book Collecting Contest, over in Tuscaloosa, is under way. Both graduate students and undergraduate students have until March 27th to catalog and submit their entries. There is an essay to write and it turns out that 80% of the book collection, er, must be books… hmmm. Seems they are allowing some cd’s and dvd’s to be included… anyway… there are cash prizes with the 1st Place winner getting $500 and a chance to compete in Fine Books & Collections annual competition.

Awards are April 16th at Gorgas Library and might just be worth the drive from Birmingham, if the collectors show enough creativity and fun with their book collections.

So is it collectible?

Word on the street is that one of the supposed top selling non-fiction titles on the market is going to be allowed to “die on the vine”. That is, no new copies are being printed and the distributor is asking for all the books out there to be returned to the warehouse. The folks at Galleycat have been keeping up with this pretty well (though they aren’t naming names).

I’m assuming it’s the new New York Times #1 Bestseller Tom Cruise biography (groan) which I really care nothing about. Which is exactly why it’d be worth picking up, if it’s going to be seen as scarce in the near future, I wouldn’t mind parting with it. Last week, shipments were blocked to Australia and a couple of other parts of the world. Which is why I’m guessing it’s the one being pulled. Evidently Cruise has some pretty powerful lawyer type friends.

I’ve only seen this book in two stores here in Birmingham. I wonder if it’d be worth “investing” in… or if it’s just going to be seen as the pulp that it is? Or am I being suckered by some sly marketing scheme?

Of course, I could be way of course, in which case I’d have a perfectly good copy of Tom Cruise for sale–cheap!

Birmingham and Books

Earlier this week Bhamterminal ran an interview I did. It was with one of the more prolific online contributors here in Birmingham. Dystopos (as he’s known online) founded the Bhamwiki, started the all seeing Magic City Flickr Group and started the Deep South book discussion group on LibraryThing. While on his journey to chronicle all things Birmingham, he has quite naturally become a good book collector, with an ever expanding collection of Birmingham, Alabama centered books. All of which has afforded him a unique perspective on the Magic City and its history.

The article appears in its entirety, (with a book photo by Dystopos) after the jump.

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