The Written Nerd

Back in blogland again, after a great weekend of eating, drinking and dancing, like you oughta. Still recovering a bit, but I've managed to pull together a link or two. But not many, because I'm sleepy. Michelle of The Inkwell Bookstore in Falmouth, Mass, suggests that indie booksellers tend to be obsessed with bookcovers -- she sites her store's link to Book By Its Cover , a blog by a designer here in Brooklyn whose posts are mostly just pictures of beautiful book images. Beware -- it's strangely addicting... Thanks, Michelle! The discussion of Alan De Niro's Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead at the Litblog Co-Op has spilled over into this week -- there's a lot going on in those stories, so you've got time to read more. Speaking of the LBC, I want to send a signed book and publicity poster for Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die! to contest winner Ed Vick, but I can't seem to get ahold of him by email. Anyone know him, tell him to email me with...

Dude, I totally flaked on posting yesterday, didn't I? Well, I was working in the Book Nerd cause -- attending a special session at the fabulous Brooklyn Public Library on starting a small business. Look out for more on that here in future. But I'm hoping all that good info for the future bookstore can marinate in my head and my notebook for a while, because I'm having a hard time concentrating for long on anything but marrying the ALP in June, and all that that implies in the meantime. He's headed out of town this weekend for some mysterious bachelor activity, while I've got my college girlfriends coming in to town for esoteric girl stuff (like champagne and dancing). So you probably won't hear from me tomorrow either... too much to do. I'll be back next week, though. There's still BEA and Emerging Leaders to keep me in the book world. And the Litblog Co-Op is still going strong with READ THIS!, focusing on Alan De Niro's Skinny Dipping in ...

Oh right -- blogging day. Where was I again? Folks, BEA is less than four weeks away -- do you know where your parties are?? I can tell you definitively about two: Emerging Leaders of Bookselling is planning a killer shindig from 7 to 9 on Wednesday May 30, and the Litblog Co-Op will work their usual magic on Thursday night. Stay tuned (or email me) for further details. And you can make your BEA plans and schedules at the BEA site , and the ABA site (check out the Brooklyn walking tours on Wednesday). Seriously, I expect to see you all there! BTW reports that two lucky young booksellers will be going to BEA for free, thanks to the ABA's "twice as nice" Emerging Leaders Scholarships: Mark Bradshaw of Watermark Books & Cafe in Wichita, Kansas, and Angela K. Sherrill of 57th Street Books, a branch of the Seminary Co-op Bookstore in Chicago. Major congrats, guys -- hope to meet you here in Brooklyn! And for all of you Emerging types thinking about opening a...

Folks, let's not forget tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day ! Click on the link and enter your zip code to find a shop giving out yummy cartoon goodies near you. And in honor of that (and because I've had an astonishingly good run of comics reading lately), I'd like to present my take on three great recent graphic novels. (Please note I'm starting a new convention of linking to the publisher pages for books I review. That way you can take a look and find out more about the book, and you don't even have to go to Amazon. If you want to get yourself one AND make me happy, I recommend clicking over to Booksense.com to find your local indie bookstore.) American Elf: Book Two by James Kochalka (Top Shelf Productions, February 2007) At the panel on comics and interstitiality at MoCCA the other day, the question of web comics came up (they do kind of fall between your traditional publishing categories, yeah?) and I realized that two of my favorite comics of the last year st...

Guys, I promise I'm gonna try to post later today -- have to run out the door, but I've got a stack of graphic novels waiting to be reviewed if I can find some time later. In the meantime -- happy Friday!

I've got books to review, too, but I'm behind on my links, so let's try to keep up! - In big book world/blog world news, the National Book Critics Circle led by John Freeman has launched a campaign to save the newspaper book section -- specifically, to keep the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from firing its book review editor and eliminating the section. The campaign has sparked interest everywhere, including this article in the New York Times positing that reviews may be moving from mainstream print media to blogs (and everyone's got an opinion on that one). The Times article mentions a bunch of my fellow Litblog Co-Op members -- major congrats, guys! I think many folks ultimately agree that newspaper book review sections and amateur literary blogs both are (or can be) vital parts of the nation's literary culture and conversation -- it's not an either/or thing. There's something to be said both for the professional editorial "filtered" atmosph...

We were making rather merry yesterday (sampling 5 different kinds of bubbly to pick which one to serve at our wedding), so I'm playing hookey this morning. I'm taking an impromptu vacation from daily responsibilities, and there ain't a thing you can do about it. So I suggest you head over to the LBC , where it's the week of The Cottagers. There's a great post up about suspense in the novel. And you can start thinking about the question of the worst vacation you ever had -- or a great bad vacation story -- for the contest later in the week. Enjoy!