Hope your Summer was a good one! I was able to take a sizable notch out of Mount TBR which feels good. I also got to visit a few new-to-me bookstores which I’ll have to share. But up first, what book events are happening in and around Birmingham, AL that you – the ever alert book lover – might enjoy?
Here are three local book events that you may want to add to your calendar:
This weekend there is a massive used-book sale at the Hoover Library. Looks like hardback books will be $1 a piece and paperbacks will run cheaper. Definitely worth checking out.
The sale will be open on Saturday, June 21st, 10:00 a.m–5:30 p.m. and then open again on Sunday, June 22nd, 2:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
The sale will take place at the Plaza near the Friends of the Hoover Library Bookstore. But be sure while you are there to check out the “extra book room” downstairs. This room is usually full and the books found here are all for sale and always $1. But this weekend it sounds like the $1 fun is spread out through all of their books.
One of my favorite new-to-me blogs is Emily Schultz’s Spending the Stephen King Money, where she is journaling what she buys with the money she makes every time a Stephen King fan accidentally buys her book. You see Schultz’s book Joyland came out almost 9 years ago and in 2013 Stephen King released a book titled Joyland as well.
King’s book is not available in eBook, but anxious Stephen King fans searched online stores and clicked on the first Joyland title they saw… which was Schultz’s. Whether it was their error or not, a disappointed rabid fan is an irate rabid fan. So after weathering the trolls Schultz decided to have fun with it all and air everything she does with the money she makes. Plus, she weighs in trying to figure out if Stephen would like the purchase.
So check out what Emily Schultz is buying. It is shaping up like she will be having a really fun time with it. It’s just one of those things that reminds us how quirky, weird and fun the book world is.
Basically you buy a $10 ticket to get in the door at 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 24th. You get eats, coffee and a $10 coupon towards a book. No real loss here is there? But you get to spend that $10 on a book AFTER you’ve sat around and chatted about some of the cool new and old books that are out there. Think about that. When is the last time you got to sit around with smart knowledgeable book folks and talk about books?
Even if you’re in a book club, this event immediately brought to mind the “salons” that were held at Shakespeare & Co. and the discussion groups that F. Scott and Zelda attended all throughout Therese Anne Fowler’s Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. You remember… the ones where Zelda and F. Scott would have their public pouting and shouting matches… anyway…
I’m sure this book discussion will be a little more low key than all that, which is all the more reason I would check this event out, if I were you. Birmingham needs more groups and bookish folks gathering to talk about good books and reading. Kudos to Carrie and the crew at Church Street.
