Jonathon Benton Bookseller

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sadly, this shop closed in April 2009. This post is being left up as an archive.

jb021.jpgJonathon Benton Bookseller
2705 Culver Rd
Birmingham, AL 35223
(205) 870-8840
jbbookseller@gmail.com

This small independent shopis located in Mountain Brook, just off Highway 280. Their store web presence seems to always be in flux but they do seem to do a better job of keeping their MySpace presence more up-to-date. They have a full coffee bar and the bookstore staff always seems very knowledgeable and helpful. It’s popular with a handful of book clubs and local folks.

It’s a nice small bookstore to peruse. They do a good job of keeping the most recent titles in stock, but nothing too far back.You’ll have to call about the hours, as they don’t keep them posted.

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A bass-tastic video

Designer Saul Bass was BIG a few decades ago (think Vertigo and the original AT&T logo) and his influence can still be found in book covers today. Here is a short video a design student worked up, imagining “what if Saul Bass had been tapped to do the now iconic Star Wars title sequence. I think the fonts and titles are spot on and “very Bass”. It’s all pretty cool (though I’m not sure about the music).

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And I wish I could get it to embed, but we seem to be having problems, so you’ll have to click on through, if you want to watch. Sorry. Once there you’ll be able to see the other films Bass’s brush has been applied to.

Joshilyn Jackson signing

 

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming Cover

This Friday night at 6pm Joshilyn Jackson will be signing her new book The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, at the Alabama Booksmith.Via the Alabama Booksmith’s site:

Award-winning Atlanta author (and true Southerner) Joshilyn Jackson returns with The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, a charming, but dark, mystery full of family secrets, Southern twang, outrageous characters, and a surprise ending that will leave you kicking yourself for not seeing it coming. Joshilyn’s short fiction has been published in literary magazines and anthologies including Triquarterly and Calyx, and her plays have been produced in Atlanta and Chicago. Her best-selling debut novel, gods in Alabama, won SIBA’s 2005 Novel of the Year Award and was a #1 Booksense pick. Between, Georgia was also a #1 Booksense pick, making Jackson the first author in Booksense history to receive #1 status in back to back years.

Lots of Lettering & Font Fun

BookPatrol mentioned a cool archive this weekend that features 100 Years of Alphabet Books. I wish I had all the time in the world to go through and look at these. Some of the lettering is worthy of framing.

Over on BibliOdyssey, this weekend,  a collection of over-the-top “holy smokes how long did it take them to make that back then” ornate letters and folios were posted. Some of the letters are so ornate that I wouldn’t know what letter it was if not for the tag line. I’ll remember this is how they used to do it, the next time I’m cussin’ a font designer for not setting the kerning correctly on a new display font and maybe it won’t seem so bad.

Books, Publishing and Birmingham