The annual Local Author Expo has been in full swing since 11 a.m. today and ends at 3 p.m. for the day. If you didn’t make it out today, you can go by the Birmingham Library tomorrow (Sat., Dec. 5th) and mingle with some of Birmingham’s literary minds.
Over 140 local authors are attending this year to sell, sign books and meet readers. I haven’t been by today, but I did go last year and posted some photos of the author tables winding around the corridors of the library’s first level.
One thing you are guaranteed, if you you make it by the Author Expo… lots of interesting people talking about interesting local topics.
This is one of the few “book videos” I really enjoy. I still haven’t found video promos or book trailers to be that appealing. But this one produced by the New Zealand Book Council is phenomenal! It is a book video worth watching, all the way to the last page, where the letters walk off of the page. Fantastic!
The video is taken from Maurice Gee’s Going West.
I think I ran across this on fadetheory some time ago and have been meaning to share it. It’s the Periodic Table Printmaking Project. A very cool project brought together 97 printers from 7 countries, each lending a unique printed piece with special techniques. The result is a mesmerizing quilt of art, science and awesomeness. There is also a Flickr group for print artists to submit and swap out their pieces.
The Richest Man in Town is a book in the vein of The Millionaire Next Door and paints an interesting picture of America’s most financially successful people. Author Randall Jones pulls out his notes and rolodex he amassed while putting together Worth magazine. The cross section and insights these provide are very illuminating. This book is less on the stats and numbers and more about the philosophies and outlooks of the richest men in town.
Jones organizes the book into 12 Commandments of Wealth, all traits and habits he’s noticed many RMITs share. He then fleshes out these ideas with interviews, history and facts provided by the RMITs he interviews. While you will probably recognize many of the people Jones interviews, the fun part is reading about the RMITs you’ve never heard of. He even interviews and quotes two people from Alabama! One from Tuscaloosa and another in Birmingham.
The book is equal parts personal finance philosophy and business acumen. I think it’s a great read for anyone trying to grow the back account beyond the “paycheck to paycheck” cycle so many are stuck in. I give it 3 out of 5. You can visit the book’s standalone site here.
(In the spirit of full-disclosure, I was given this book by the publisher to read and review.)
