Category Archives: Events

But we had tickets…

I read today that Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner) has canceled the remainder of his promotional tour, including this Tuesday’s appearance, here in Birmingham.

Oh well. It would have been a great meet and greet. I heard his presentation about displaced peoples around the world was fantastic. Not too mention the signed editions of A Thousand Splendid Suns ticket holders were supposed to get. Oh well. But, I do hope the family emergency that called him home isn’t anything too terribly serious though.

Let us groc together

snipshot_e4twg7abcls.jpgI’m not a “re-reader”. In fact, there is only one book that I have re-read, on purpose and under my own free-will. It is Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. I think it stands just as tall as Huxley’s Brave New World.

Apparantly, I’m not alone. This year,on July 7th, folks all over the world are celebrating (ok, maybe just recognizing) the centennial of Heinlein’s birth.

Pushing the people out

snipshot_e4tuvfx44l2.jpgApparantly, I am one of the three people that watched The Quill Book Awards last year. Now, organizers say public interest has been so bad, that they are taking voting privleges away from the public and giving them to 6,000 booksellers and experts.

Us commoners used to get to vote in all the categories. Now, the experts pick the winners in 19 areas, while the public gets to pick the winner for a single 20th category “Book of the Year”. Organizers say that this will “streamline consumer participation and add to the credibility of those who are named winners”.

We’ll just have to wait and see how all this pans out on October 27, 2007.