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)
Clay Johnson’s The Information Diet (published by O’Reilly) is one of those books that I want everyone to read. It is very short. So it won’t take long. But it does get you thinking (and hopefully talking) about some very important points that many of us have not yet thought about.
In order for our country and culture to remain stable we must be well informed. Johnson does a good job of quickly outlining how and why we are becoming less informed these days. To be honest, half of the stuff he mentions – you probably already know, but you just haven’t thought about the implications. The “diet” metaphor isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Mainly because it’s not so much ‘counting calories’ but thinking about the quality of what you are consuming and where it comes from (hint: local is better in food and information.)
Things like ‘what’s the difference in getting your news via Facebook rather than straight from a new source’ or ‘just how much do CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Washington Post, NY Times alter a story/headline to make it “more compelling”‘ and so on. This is one of those books that you will read and then will find yourself bringing it up in conversations for the next two weeks. It helps that the author is so up front with his political leanings so that we know where things are coming from. It allows the reader to follow him honestly and listen to the causes of much of what is changing in the media landscape.
The book not only does a good job of quickly showing how our news sources alter and filter information for us, but it also begins to explain why. Which starts us down the path of trying to fix the problems. The last bit of the book does contain some concrete “how to”‘ information and a pretty strong call to action, with a companion website.
My only complaint is that this wake up call/manifesto is as short as it is. The call to action and tool set offered at the end would have been a little more compelling if backed by some deeper discussion. But then the book would have been longer… and thus, not as approachable. This is one I wish everyone would take an afternoon to read. It’s a solid 4 out of 5 for me.
(In the spirit of full disclosure I did receive this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.)
BookExpo America 2012 is well underway up in NYC at the Javitz Center. Tuesday, Bowker shared some the results from their latest research. Here are a few highlights from their report on eReader statistics:
1. almost 50% of content downloaded by eReader owners is free
2. 14% of eReader owners never buy an ebook
3. the number one reason is because they “can’t share the book”
4. fiction eBooks still leads the pack in sales
5. eBook “Power Buyers” buy 4 eBooks a month and is a group consisting mostly of educated females; they make up 35% of the customers, yet account for 60% of sales
Jane Little over at Dear Author has a great wrap up of the whole report and BEA happenings from Tuesday. I’d recommend heading over there if you’d like to read more about the report’s findings.
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!
