Tag Archives: book

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.

Falling Books Bookend

If you are going to fall for a novel bookend at least make it humorous. And this one certainly floats to the top of all the choices on the interwebs and would be a great gift for book lovers.

Falling Book Bookend

It’s aptly called “The End” and features a little bookworm about to get squashed by the tilting titles.  It’s just under 4.5″ tall so don’t expect to hold too many books with this (or even one big book). But it will certainly be a great talking piece as friends peruse you shelves.

The price is all over the place, but averages around $15 as it’s listed here on the Mental Floss site.

Do chime in if you have found any clever bookends that top this one!

 

Two Recommended Reads

Happy New Year! I hope 2014 is off to a great start for you and that many great books are in your future. Here are two highly highly recommended reads for any functioning adult… who is on the internet… and wants to continue to be an effective and functioning adult. I’m serious about these two books. They are great reads.

InformationDiet_cover

The first recommended read is Clay Johnson’s The Information Diet (my review). This book is a short one, but it is jam packed with information and case studies about most of the places you interact and inhabit online. The book is eye-opening, but not in a scary “big brother is gonna git chu” kind of way. He just lays it out clearly. It’s all about understanding how algorithms and networks operate online and on sites like Facebook. Plus, he ends up with ideas and tips for turning your media consuming self into a more productive person and savvier consumer.

power-of-habit-cover

The second one is Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. This book is fascinating. He shares data and stories on why you probably tie the same shoe first every morning,  strategies to break your bad habits or reinforce your good ones. Not too mention interviews with the people at Target and music sites that are using our habits against us in efforts to market to us and lure in their shops. Amazing stuff.

Both these books are bursting with information that I think will make you a better citizen both on and offline. Plus, it’s just good to know what kind of a world you will be wading through in 2014.

The British are Coming!

United Kingdom-based BookDepository has opened up shop on our virtual shores. The BookDepository has been raking in awards around the world as a leader in the online bookselling world and seems to be the only current site that can compete with Amazon and B&N.com on price.

I price compared three titles that I would like to purchase soon and they were all cheaper on BookDepository, with a price difference ranging between a penny and 62 cents. So not major savings (they do claim free shipping worldwide though), but it sure is nice to have someone else trying to be competitive.

One thing I really do like is that they are using Google Preview API on their site. It’s nice to be able to read enough of a book that you know you’re making an informed purchase. It’s not as nice as being in a real bookstore, but the extra preview pages are the next best thing. Let us know if you’ve had any experience buying from them.