All posts by trav

At the heart of it all, I’m a fan. A fan of books and bookstores. A fan of fiction and non-fiction. A fan of authors and publishers. And most of all I’m a fan of great conversations sparked by books. All that to say - I really need more bookshelves.

Booking the ‘ham

If you’re in the ‘ham this weekend you’ll want to swing by the Vestavia Hills library. Their BIG annual book sale kicks off this afternoon at 5pm and runs through Tuesday. The library opens at 9am on Saturday and 1pm on Sunday.
I’m thinking about taking elbow pads and a helmet, in case it’s anything like last year’s sale. Some people are CRAZY about $1 books and I always seem to be in their way!

Potter and Paper

July 21, 2007 has been flagged for the release of the final Harry Potter book. I know tons of people that read the book and I may be the only person on LibraryThing that has never read/owned an HP book. Though I have not missed a release date!

The last two releases were quite fun. Most of the bookstores in the city stay open through midnight to try and cash in on the hype. It’s fun to drive around town visiting all your favorite bookstores, checking out all the fans’ costumes, play a few games and eat some free snacks.

Then there is other side of a new Potter book coming out…

Continue reading Potter and Paper

1986

According to the booktrade gurus, 1986 was the year that “hardback books began selling like paperbacks”. I honestly had previously wondered when the publishing industry started down the road of ordering up millions of first run hardbacks, all set to sell at hardback prices.

Apparently it all started when Stephen King, Danielle Steele and Tom Clancy, started to put pen to paper, churning out books at a regular schedule.

All this is from a pretty interesting piece in the Telegraph today.