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.
This weekend there is a massive used-book sale at the Hoover Library. Looks like hardback books will be $1 a piece and paperbacks will run cheaper. Definitely worth checking out.
The sale will be open on Saturday, June 21st, 10:00 a.m–5:30 p.m. and then open again on Sunday, June 22nd, 2:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
The sale will take place at the Plaza near the Friends of the Hoover Library Bookstore. But be sure while you are there to check out the “extra book room” downstairs. This room is usually full and the books found here are all for sale and always $1. But this weekend it sounds like the $1 fun is spread out through all of their books.
One of my favorite new-to-me blogs is Emily Schultz’s Spending the Stephen King Money, where she is journaling what she buys with the money she makes every time a Stephen King fan accidentally buys her book. You see Schultz’s book Joyland came out almost 9 years ago and in 2013 Stephen King released a book titled Joyland as well.
King’s book is not available in eBook, but anxious Stephen King fans searched online stores and clicked on the first Joyland title they saw… which was Schultz’s. Whether it was their error or not, a disappointed rabid fan is an irate rabid fan. So after weathering the trolls Schultz decided to have fun with it all and air everything she does with the money she makes. Plus, she weighs in trying to figure out if Stephen would like the purchase.
So check out what Emily Schultz is buying. It is shaping up like she will be having a really fun time with it. It’s just one of those things that reminds us how quirky, weird and fun the book world is.
Basically you buy a $10 ticket to get in the door at 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 24th. You get eats, coffee and a $10 coupon towards a book. No real loss here is there? But you get to spend that $10 on a book AFTER you’ve sat around and chatted about some of the cool new and old books that are out there. Think about that. When is the last time you got to sit around with smart knowledgeable book folks and talk about books?
Even if you’re in a book club, this event immediately brought to mind the “salons” that were held at Shakespeare & Co. and the discussion groups that F. Scott and Zelda attended all throughout Therese Anne Fowler’s Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. You remember… the ones where Zelda and F. Scott would have their public pouting and shouting matches… anyway…
I’m sure this book discussion will be a little more low key than all that, which is all the more reason I would check this event out, if I were you. Birmingham needs more groups and bookish folks gathering to talk about good books and reading. Kudos to Carrie and the crew at Church Street.
Scribbled on the scrap, in Jane Austen’s handwriting, is the following:
“Men may get into a habit of repeating the words of our Prayers by rote, perhaps without thoroughly understanding – certainly without thoroughly feeling their full force & meaning,”
What is so neat about this, is the insight it could possibly give to how the thoughts and development behind now-classic book Mansfield Park came about.
Jane Austen experts say:
the scrap was written in 1814, which is the same time Mansfield Park was released
the words seem to be from a sermon Jane Austen’s brother was preparing.
So they are not her words, but they certainly echo much of her thinking put forth in her book. So did the whole Austen family feel this way too? How heavily was Jane Austen’s book influenced by her brother? Or (was it the other way around) how heavily did Jane Austen influence her brother’s sermons? Or was Jane writing a note in church and got caught? (Just kidding… I’m no Austen scholar.)
