September 9th at 10:00 a.m. local-Hoover author Heather Jones Skaggs will be speaking at the Hoover Library. Her appearance is free and open to the public, though it is part of the Friends’ meeting. While her Bluff Park book was a great success, you may be able to get the scoop on her upcoming book (also by Arcadia) titled Early Hoover, which she is currently working on.
The meeting will be in Meeting Rooms A,B and C. You can call 205-444-7840 for more information.
There is a great thread, in the Books on the Nightstand group, over on Goodreads, where members are listing their favorite podcasts for bibliophiles and book lovers. Even if you’re not a member of GoodReads or prefer other sites (like LibraryThing!) this thread is worth checking out. There are quite a few podcasts mentioned that I’m going to have to check out at least once. Here is a list of the first five that I’m downloading now to see what they have to say:
Greater Boston Book Loft – sounds like this will be a nice shorter 10-15 minute podcast and includes author interviews.
Literary Disco – three friends who are self-professed booknerds
Authors on Tour – this podcast is produced by the good folks at Denver’s indie rockstar bookstore The Tattered Cover
KCRW’s Bookworm – a podcast about books and authors, based in L.A.
The Afterword – produced by Slate
Other than Books on the Nightstand and NPR’s offerings, what podcasts do you listen to? Let me know if I’m missing out.
The Pelham Library hosts a used-book sale a few times a year. The next one kicks off on August 26th and runs through the end of September. I’ve only been once, but need to fix that as the prices are always good. Hardbacks will be $1 at this sale. All kids’ books and paperbacks will be 50 cents. You an follow the library on Twitter for updates or to ask questions.
Here’s a link to their “Location” page so you can find them. Happy book hunting! And let me know if you score anything good.
I’m reading Pushcart Press‘ perfectly pocket-sized (only 101 pages) Rotten Rejections and it’s great fun. It’s amazing some of the rejections now-famous authors have gotten over the years. Some of my favorites so far:
Rudyard Kipling (1889) – “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.”
Norman Mailer (1948) – “This will set publishing back 25 years.”
Samuel Beckett (1951) – “There’s no sense in considering them for publication here; the bad taste of the American public does not yet coincide with the bad taste of the French avant garde.”
John Le Carre (1963) – “You’re welcome to le Carre – he hasn’t got any future.”
I have to say it’s been fun reading through all of the blurbs and quotes from the author rejections. It’s interesting to see how often a book manuscript is rejected based on being bad vs. the author’s lack of skill. One thing I’ve noticed is that the publishing industry is a lot nicer these days. The form letters of 2013 are dull and drab to some of the absolutely b-r-u-t-a-l barbs editors and publishers replied with back in the late-1800’s through the early 1900’s.
But the colorful writing found in Rotten Rejections does make for better reading.
