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Free Audiobook and Ebook Opportunity

Julia — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:59:35 +0000

I got an email from Golden Age Stories today. It’s pretty cool, they’re offering a free audiobook and a free ebook. You do have to give your email address and such, but I like free stuff, so it works for me. Check it out!

Local Horror Discussion

Julia — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:00:09 +0000

At the Mystery and Imagination Bookshop there will be a “Wicked Literature” meeting at 7 PM on October 18th. If you live in Los Angeles, talk it up and check it out! At the very least you will get to check out one of the original genre bookstores in Los Angeles.

Roald Dahl – Man of Many Affairs?

Julia — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:00:09 +0000

This article is a trip. It says that famed children’s book author Roald Dahl had several affairs in the states. One thing that’s very weird about it is that I, being Roald Dahl obsessed throughout my life, have never heard a peep about it. I’ve even read his autobiography (which I highly recommend if you love Roald Dahl’s work).

Since my memories of Roald Dahl’s books are in my pure and blameless youth, I don’t know that I can believe an article that says he was a player. What do you think?

Oldest Children’s Bookstore in the US

Julia — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:55:12 +0000

I have seen Once Upon a Time Bookshoppe through my entire childhood – and I’ve found out that I’m not the oldest kid on the block who’s grown up with the store as the children’s bookstore to go to. It’s always been there – Crown Books my fall, but Once Upon a Time in Montrose will remain forever. Now I’ve read that Once Upon a Time has been named the oldest children’s bookstore in America. It was founded in 1966, so I know for sure it’s at least older than me. I love this store, it’s got very helpful people behind the counter, people who care about books and the environment in which they are sold. I could walk around that little store and browse for hours – I actually have in fact done that. It’s the kind of store that makes one eager to have children who can, in their turn, enjoy it.

Anyway, congratulations to Once Upon a Time for sticking around, staying a family business and generally not letting the man bring you down. And thanks for helping the kids of La Crescenta, Montrose and La Canada, California enjoy books.

Utah Book and Magazine

Julia — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:12:49 +0000

A while back I wrote a post about a place in Salt Lake City, Utah called Utah Book and Magazine. I said I was going to be going to Salt Lake later on in the year and would review the store. So, here I am. I’ve gone to see the store and will commence reviewing.

Driving to the store, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had gone off with my stepdad – away from our yearly family reunion – to the center of Salt Lake City. Being from Los Angeles, I was a bit disoriented by the strange numbering on the streets on our drive there – but with the help of my trusty new iPhone (which I am way too in love with), we got there safe and sound.

We found a parking spot right in front of the store, next to a cute cafe that I would love to snuggle up with a big fat cup of coffee and read, read, read at. Utah Book and Magazine is a second hand book store with rows and rows of books – a cordoned off porn section and an enclosed comic book section. There are fans going constantly (it is the middle of summer right now) and there are cardboard signs that swing gently in the breeze, telling you what kind of section you are in. This is the kind of bookstore someone who really really loves books started. It’s literally packed with books, most stacked in shelves under various headings – some not under any real heading at all.

I tried to check out the comic book section, since that was what the article that told me about the store spoke about, but it was closed up due to there just being too many. Also, per the guy at the front, they sell a lot of the comics on eBay, so it’s not really feasible to let people browse through them. Fortunately for me, I’m not a big comic collector – though I do like them – so I didn’t push the point too much.

There is a hefty supply of old pulp magazines – the eldest I found was from 1949 – in various states and conditions. Any fan of X Minus One would be pleased to find the piles of Galaxy Science Fiction magazines, other sci fi and fantasy fans would be pleased to find good ol’ Astounding Science Fiction and Fact (now Analog) along with assorted other old pulp mags.

A connoisseur of good deals, lots to browse and really old books would have a blast in this neat second-hand store.

It looks like I’m going to be having my family reunions in Utah from now on (my grandma’s getting too old to leave), so I guess I’ll have to just suck it up and go to Utah Book and Magazine to get old pulps and cheap, good books.

I’m going to have to check around Los Angeles now for good second hand book stores and review them once and a while. In a world full of Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon, it’s nice to know that some of these treasures still exist.

Depressing Statistics

Julia — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:00:11 +0000

I just read that:
- One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
- Forty-two percent of college graduates never read another book.
- Eighty percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
- Fifty-seven percent of new books are not read to completion.
- Seventy percent of Americans haven’t visited a bookstore in five years.

Anyone have an idea on why these statistics are so awful?

Foldable Ebooks

Julia — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:00:01 +0000

I have always been interested in ebooks, audio books and regular books. The only drawback I’ve ever seen to ebooks and audio books are that they don’t make me feel as if I’m reading a real book and I can’t read them in the tub without the possibility of getting electrocuted. But, a dutch manufacturer has come out with a new kind of ebook reader. The screen is made of a substance that is bendable and can even be folded and put in ones pocket. That solves the “not feeling like I’m reading a real book problem”… now can they make one that’s waterproof for us bathtub readers?

Terry Pratchett

Julia — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:44:20 +0000

After David’s comment, I found out some information regarding Terry Pratchett’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. He’s written a letter to fans. I think I can say for everyone that we wish him the best. I hope he has many happy years ahead!

The Hobbit Movie

Julia — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:14:06 +0000

I didn’t know this, but the movie for The Hobbit that’s in production is being filmed by Guillermo Del Toro – the director of Pan’s Labyrinth and the new Hellboy movie. I read it in this article.

I really like Guillermo Del Toro as a director – he did a fabulous job with Pan’s Labyrinth, but I’m looking at the new Hobbit movie with a bit of trepidation. I can see that a director could go two ways with this book – one being to bring out all the beauty and magic of the intense journey Bilbo takes to get to the dragon. The other is to concentrate mostly on the fighting and adventure of that journey. I would like a combination of both things, but it’s hard to find a happy medium when translating a book for film.

What do you think? Will The Hobbit film live up to the book?

Authors Pressured to Write a Book a Year

Julia — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:54:34 +0000

I read an article about big, blockbuster authors being forced to write a book a year, either by contract or by promises of a larger advance.

I can understand when it comes to marketing books that it’s better to get the product’s (in this case. the author’s) face out there as much as possible. However, when it comes to any art, it seems weird to me to put a deadline on it.

I mean, if you write a book, then let it sit, it rises like yeast. New ideas form, problems work out. Once the book has been placed in a dark, cool place and been allowed to rise, it must then be put in the oven and baked. The baking process takes different lengths of time for different bakers.

Okay, maybe I took it a little far with the baking metaphor… but you get what I mean.

What do you think, is it better to pressure an author into getting a book out each year, getting them more exposure, but by the same means allowing fewer new authors into the “cool club”? or, should authors be allowed to write at their own pace, some fast and others slow, and the in-between time is spent on acquiring new faces? I can see both sides of the spectrum – the publishers want to concentrate on the talent they have and not spend the time, money and resources on new talent that may not do well, while there are lots of writers out there who do not produce a book a year, but still want their chance. What do you, fine readers, believe should be done?