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.
The Friends Bookstore in the Downtown Birmingham Library (isn’t their new site swanky?) kicks of its Big Bag Sale today! The sale runs through July 14th. Basically you show up, pay $6 for a Friends’ Book Tote and stuff, cram, and mash as many books and magazines as you can in there. Whatever you can fit you get to take home. How fun does that sound? The shop’s hours are Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and Sunday, 2:30-5:30 p.m.
Alabama ranked 4th in the nation when looking at “number of bookstores per capita” in 2012 according to Publishers Weekly. The report is a little strange to look at, since it’s a function of a state’s population and the number of book stores a state has. So Wyoming, with only 35 IN THE ENTIRE STATE, ranks 2nd. Still it’s interesting to see a breakdown of the number of independent bookstores, chain bookstores and big-box bookstores for Alabama.
The official numbers for Alabama Bookstores came in with
2012 Estimated Population: 4,822,023 2012 Independent Bookstores: 122 2012 Chain Bookstores: 47 2012 Total Bookstores: 169 2012 Big-box Stores: 117 2012 Total Stores: 286 2012 Per Capita: 1 per 16,860 2012 Per Capita Rank: 4
I just ran across the Alabama Booksmith’s blog and wanted to share with all the other bookish folks in Birmingham. Here the link to their blog. Looks like it’s been weekly since April 2013 and is being staffed by someone calling themselves Paige Turner. So far it’s been an even mix of honest book reviews, recommendations and pitches for Alabama Booksmith events/programs.
I can’t seem to find an RSS feed though. Would you share if you happen to figure out if there is a way to subscribe? Thanks!
Alabama ranked 4th in the nation when looking at “number of bookstores per capita” in 2012 according to 
