Events at Open Books

Open Books in Chicago has some nifty events coming up, including the release party for their latest ReadThenWrite anthology...

...and another shindig celebrating the debut of J.K Rowling's post-Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy.

And I'm also thrilled to announce that I'll be doing a reading at Open Books to promote The Book of Horrible Stories on Thursday, September 6, starting at 6 p.m. Woo! Book fun!

I call this one "Stress Makes My Jeans Too Tight."

Sometimes I think
That this world takes too much from me.
Then I step on the scale.

*beat*

Reading Other People's Stories, Shamelessly Advertising My Own

I recently finished reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente. Very whimsical fairy tale, lots of fun for readers both young-ish (age 10-12?) and old, with one touch at the end that especially made me smile. What made me bury my hands in my head was that, at one point, the main character turns into a tree. I have a story in my book called "The Tree in the Field," and guess what happens in it? But... but I... ah, @#$! And she wrote it better, too!

Anyway, wouldn't you like a book? 'The Book of Horrible Stories' is available for $12 shipped in tangible form, $0.99 on Amazon Kindle, both via some links on the right-hand side here. /self-promotion off

Something stinks in here.

Kevin Elliott is the kind soul in charge of the Open Books bookstore in Chicago. Here on his blog, he posts about physical books, e-books, and why indulging in only a sugary bit of nostalgia (but then leaving the bookstore without effin' buying anything) probably doesn't do much to help the case of bookstores:

Sniffing Glue

Here's the "article" that Kevin's responding to:

An E-Book Fan, Missing the Smell of Paper and Glue

The four of you here know me: I love physical books, especially the smell. But there are so many other great aspects of physical books to discuss that dashing off a trite essay about this one aspect of them to a major news outlet likely won't further any attempts to bridge the gap between physical books and e-books.

Two Poems to Make You Go, "Oh!" (for completely different reasons)

Yes,  I know these were published in 2009.  What can I say? I'm slow about updating the blog sometimes. 

Hailey Leithauser's poem

and

Mel Nichols's poem

Bonus points if you find the palindrome in the first one! It's a great image, too, especially for these summer days.

Ray Bradbury

No words I post could possibly come together as elegantly as the ones he committed to paper did.

I promise, sir, that there will always be a place for books in my home.

Author Ray Bradbury dies, aged 91

(Edited to include a link to this sweet tribute written by Neil Gaiman)

Shake it, don't break it.

Friends, thank you for your support of  The Book of Horrible Stories this past week! I'm very happy that people have responded so kindly to it so far.

However, I would like to address a concern that I've heard, which is that the binding on the handmade hardcovers might be too delicate to stand up to normal reading wear. With Wes's help, I made the video below to demonstrate that The Book of Horrible Stories in fact takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. And if a book that stands up to abuse is something that interests you, consider procuring a copy of your own via those links to the right!