Category Archives: Birmingham

Birmingham, Bookstores, On the Web

Bookstore Density

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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!

Alabama, Authors, Birmingham, Events

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

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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)

Birmingham, Book Sale, Bookstores, Events

Birmingham Library Used-Book Sale

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Today kicks off the Summer Reading Book Sale at the library bookstore at the Birmingham Central Branch. The sale, which runs through June 10th, knocks another 25% off books priced at $2 or less (which is much of their stock). You can get more details over on the blog post that the library put up. According to that post the shop will be open until 5:30p every day.

The book store is located on the 2nd floor, to the left of the escalators, as you come up. Here’s a quick photo tour of the Friends Bookstore from earlier this year too. Though it’s worth mentioning that the stock has increased a good bit since these photos were taken.

Hope you get the chance to swing by and find something good!

Birmingham, library, New Releases, On the Web

Newest Books at the Library

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Here is a great link for folks in the Birmingham-area to bookmark. It’s a handy collection of lists showing you the most recent books, dvd’s, eBooks, audiobooks, etc. available for check out from local libraries. The lists are maintained by the Birmingham Central Library, Hoover Library, Vestavia Library and the Botanical Garden branch.

For the most part they are updated about twice a month. So it’s a good place to check on the 1st and 16th of each month to see if there is something new you’d like to read. Of course, being in the JCLC system, if you see something you like you can always have it requested and shipped to the closest library branch to you.