Photo: John Lok/Seattle TimesThe Sorrento Hotel is celebrating it's 100th birthday. This Seattle landmark opened its doors in 1909, just in time for the 4 million or so visitors who descended on Seattle for the storied Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. Their first registered guest was President William Taft. In the early years the hotel also hosted numerous readings and literary events.As part of the anniversary festivities the hotel has created a series of events called "Night School at the Sorrento." One of the events is '12 Books.' Here's the deal:In partnership with Elliot Bay Book Company and University Book Store, the Sorrento...
About That Halloween Book Burning
Well now that Halloween has come and gone Book Patrol wanted to follow up on our previous post regarding the planned Halloween book burning at the The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina.The good news is that book burning never took place. It rained and the police were present. Interestingly enough, as you'll see below, the congregation actually prayed for the rain to come. They also declared that the "Book Burning was a great success." The bad news is that they claim to have destroyed the books anyway.Here is a version of the evening's festivities from someone who...
Picturing the London Book Trade
Bernard Shapero"Bookdealing must be amongst the most wonderfully eccentricprofessions on Earth" - Mike TsangPhotographer Mike Tsang had recently returned to London from a demanding project in the Sudan when he popped in to visit his friend who was then manager of the Biblion bookshop in London. By the time he left the seeds for "The London Book Trade" project were planted. Tsang would go around town photographing booksellers in their domain with the end result being an exhibition at Biblion. When all was said and done Tsang had photographed most of the booksellers of note in London and the result...
Sherman Alexie at Big Think
Here is a 21 minute gem of an interview with Alexie at Big Think. From his literary influences to his place in both the current literary cannon and in the Native American Literature canon. From his thoughts on e-books and the printed book to readings and being a multi-genre writer and the role of drugs and alcohol in his life and writing.A must see for any Alexie fan or really anyone interested in writing, reading and the state of the book world.Here's the full transcript of the interview:Sherman Alexie: My name is Sherman Alexie and I’m the bantamweight champion of...
The Good "Book Reverend"
Reverend Martin WeskottIn 1987 President Ronald Regan made his now famous plea, "Tear Down This Wall," to Mikhail Gorbachev in front of the Berlin Wall. Nowhere in his speech did he say Tear Down This Wall and Throw All the Books Out.Twenty-nine months later the wall was gone and with it went upwards of 100 million books published in East Germany that were simply thrown away.Enter Reverend Martin Weskott. After seeing an image in the newspaper of thousands of books in the Leipzig garbage dump Weskott went to work. With a truck and a few friends he went down to...