Category Archives: Birmingham

Book Art and Recycling Books

All Summer long the Birmingham Library system has been hosting events that teach you how to make things out of old books. I haven’t been able to make any of the evening courses yet, but they sound kind of fun and there are a few more left.

Friday, July 20th 10:00a-12:00p at the Powderly Branch – learn about “Stamps and Stiches” and use different printing techniques and sewing to create truly unique altered book pieces.

Monday, July 23rd 6:30p-8:30p at the Avondale Branch – learn “Collage and Image Transfers” to add images and depth to your altered book art project.

If you’ve missed all of the other sessions (as I have) look towards the bottom of the library’s blog post where they list a handful of books that they have on the shelves to help you get inspired and started with your own book art project.

Book Events: July 8th – July 15th

Here are three bookish-type events going on this week in the Birmingham-area that should be on your radar this week. If you know of any upcoming author signings, book sales or library events around the Birmingham area, please share via email or in the comments.

July 10th at 4p – Benjamin Busch signing Dust to Dust at the Alabama Booksmith. (Free)

July 10th from 7:00p to 8:30p – Birmingham Arts Journal reception and community reading at Emmet O’Neal Library. (Free)

July 15th at 5p – Final movie in the Avondale Library’s book-to-film discussion group at Kingdom Comics. (Free)

Bookstore Density

Great Britain Bookstores

Check out this very cool interactive map of bookstores around Great Britain. You can zoom in and out all around the country and it shows where the clusters of shops are. As useful as this would be for someone living over there (or someone over here planning a vacation) I admit to being jealous in seeing just how MANY bookshops are crammed into such a small area. But before I broke out the bourbon to lament the state of U.S. bookshops I thought I should at least make sure I was comparing apples to apples. . .

Here in Birmingham, we have 6 really good independent shops and another 7 big box bookstore chains all in a geographic area of around 152 square miles and a population of around 212,000 people. So I looked around and found Brighton and Hove. It’s a seaside town, south of London, which has a population between 210,00 and 220,00, but it only takes up about 30 square miles and has 12 bookshops showing on the map.

Brighton and Hove Bookstores

No doubt the research turned up by my few clicks around the internet wouldn’t hold up in court and with only one cup of coffee in me, I can’t even draw any really meaningful conclusions except to say that we seem right on track with the rest of the world. How often do we get to claim that?

We have some great bookstores here in Birmingham run by some wonderful people. The only thing I’d change is that I’d like more bookstores. Little shops with little eccentricities. Special book places that specialize in certain topics. And most of all… a growing populace that supports them all!

Book Events: July 1st -July 7th, 2012

Here are three bookish-type events going on this week in the Birmingham-area that should be on your radar this week:

July 3rd at 6:30p – Hunger Games Trivia Challenge at the Hoover Library. (Free)

July 6th from 6:00p to 8:00p – Dan Wells signing at Little Professor in Homewood. (Free)

July 10th from 7:00p to 8:30p – Birmingham Arts Journal reception and community reading at Emmet O’Neal Library. (Free)