Tag Archives: Alabama

Book Events: Jan. 5th – Jan. 12th

Who knows what the new year holds for the Birmingham-area and book events. Lots of author signings and book launches popping up on calendars on into Spring. But what is there to do this upcoming week for all the Birmingham’s bookish folk?

Here are three events that you may be interested in:

January 9th 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. – the Bessemer library will host author Julie Williams as she leads a discussion on her book Wings of Opportunity: the Wright Brothers in Montgomery, AL, about the Wright brothers opening the first civilian flight school in Alabama.

January 9th at 6:30 p.m. – the Church & Oak book club will have its first meeting of 2014. They meet in the upstairs room at Church Street Books & Coffee. They are reading The People of Forever Are Not Afraid.

 January 12th at 2:30 p.m. – the Avondale library kicks off its Adaptations group with a screening party for The Hobbit followed by a discussion comparing the J.R.R. Tolkien’s books with the movie.

Reading and the South

The Alabama Humanities Foundation has a new blog up and running called the Kudzu Twines Journal and it’s off to a good start! In fact, a recent post there caught my attention as it speaks to a new “book theory” of mine that I’m working on. The more I talk to folks about books and business and life and etc. the more I’m convinced that it’s a good sign if someone reads biographies. I don’t know too many people that start off reading biographies, but all the really smart, passionate, interesting folks I get to know all seem to take the next step and read about the musicians or about the architect or about the author… you get where I’m going.

Anyway, here’s a post from the Kudzu Twines by a “transplant to the South” who picks up on the idea of studying the people behind the stories and the places you visit. She says much more, but I like that.

Books, Beans and Candles MS

Books, Beans and Candles MS is in an old Birmingham house going up 20th on your way to Vulcan. It’s on the righthand side, just after you pass the “Y-split”. Owners Mitchell and Darby Hagood have been at this location since August 2008, though they’ve been in business for two and a half years. Ever since seeing the sign out front (it starts with the word books!) I’d been trying to find time to stop in and see what it’s all about and finally was able to make it in and get some photos.

The view from the street.
The view from the street.

Mitchell Hagood sums up the shop with one word… “metaphysical”. (photos after the jump)

Continue reading Books, Beans and Candles MS

Alabama Booksmith Sells eBooks

I just noticed this on the Alabama BookSmith website, you can buy ebooks from them.

The interwebs are all a Twitter with the new IndieBound iPhone app, but I had not read deep enough into all the news to realize that the stores had started competing in this space too.

Though they may not have many customers via the ebooks channel yet, it’s smart that they are making it an option to site visitors and store customers. Even though they’re hands are tied by the DRM publishers and distributors have on their books, I thought that the eBooks FAQ was pretty informative for the everyday newbie.