AJC Renews Decatur Book Festival Title Sponsorship for Three More Years
Decatur Metro | February 3, 2012And now a little good book news. From Ryan Klee at Lenz…
February 3, 2012 (Decatur) — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has signed on for a three-year contract as title sponsor of the AJC Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical.
AJC DBF Executive Director Daren Wang said the AJC has been a vital part of the Festival since the early organizational meetings prior to the first event in 2006.
“We are thrilled that the AJC has chosen to continue as a title sponsor. This level of support from our founding partner ensures that the Festival will grow and prosper,” Wang said.
“A three-year commitment is especially important in a challenging fund-raising environment. On behalf of everyone who attends and makes AJC DBF possible, we thank them for their support.”
The AJC Decatur Book Festival will celebrate its seventh year of bringing a wide variety of authors and events to the Decatur Square Labor Day weekend, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2012.
For 2012, young adult novelist Terra Elan McVoy returns as the Festival program director, and Decatur resident Stephanie DiLorio signs on as development director.
Featured authors for the 2012 event will be announced at a Festival kick-off event in early summer.
The book gods taketh away. The book gods giveth. Congratulations to Daren and Terra, and thanks to the AJC for continuing to sponsor the best of Decatur’s great festivals.
Great news!
So puzzling. The CONTENT of books is thriving, just not the hard copy book itself and certainly not the brick and mortar sellers of books. So what does the term “book” mean now? Is it the literary content or the physical form? Will we eventually have the ‘Decatur Literary Festival” instead of the “Decatur Book Festival”?
This is where I become an old fogie. While I intellectually understood the ramifications of replacing letters and other hard copy written communication with email and other online communications, I was not devastated by it. I am devastated by the decline of hard copy books. I love my books. Not just the content, but the entire tactile experience.
i hear you, but that’s the march of time. i’m sure when automobiles first appeared some people lamented the loss of interaction with their horses, the clank of their tack, the clop of the hooves, etc.
ditto, records: the smell of an album, the sound the needle made when it first hit the vinyl . . .
i have no problem with “Decatur Literary Festival”–the content is more important to me than the medium.
The smell of an album was often influenced by whether or not the record jacket had a gatefold…
. . . ah, the scrape, the rolling of the seeds . . .
Meanwhile, the kids are scratchin’ their heads…
ah, the scrape, the rolling of the seeds . . .
“I am devastated by the decline of hard copy books. I love my books. Not just the content, but the entire tactile experience.”
With you a million percent there!
Great and positive news. And a reminder that the DBF is a gift that takes a considerable effort from organizers and sponsors. Thank you!
Oh boy. Three more years of getting my Kindle autographed by my favorite authors. All kidding aside, congratulations to the Wang Gang.
Wang Gang looks great on “paper”, but I find it quite difficult to say. Even in my head!
Does it, perhaps, put you in mind of that Nugent song? (I think you know what I mean…”Wang, dang, sweet…”!)
Better that than Wang Chung.
I’m sorry, but I really cannot see your name without singing “Everybody have fun tonight”.
OK, I lied. Sometimes I sing “Dance Hall Days”.
Well, that’s fair. But I’m afraid that every time I see your screen name, I think of the best rock and roll band no one ever listened to but me, The Original Sins, and their lead singer, JT. I believe he modeled his entire persona on O’Connor’s Misfit.
Ergo, you are unjustly grouped with a grandmother-killing serial murderer.
Sorry about that, but I actually really love that band.
And yes, to string this all together, I do have several of their albums on vinyl. But without seeds.
But actually, I have a couple Seeds albums too.
Well played, Mr. Wang. I can live with that. I still come out way ahead in this exchange, with a literary reference to boot! Though I must admit that a quick first listen brings to mind more of Glenn Danzig than Flannery O’Connor as far as Misfits go.
Alas, the only Seeds I have on vinyl would be of the Springsteen variety. I’d go search for that Live/75-85 set in the FEMA disaster area that is my garage but I sadly have no turntable to play it on.
Perhaps the staff of the Book Festival could work on a small art project to be auctioned off to benefit it. They could call it the Wang Gang Doodle.
Except that it’s pronounced “wong,” isn’t it, which makes all of your rhymes–well, NOT rhyme.
Pffffft! And just how do *you* know that he didn’t mean it to be pronounced “gong”?
It’s called an Eye Rhyme, sometimes a Sight Rhyme.
I went to high school with a fella named Frank Wang in 1966 and have been pronouncing it correctly since then. Come to think of it, I bought a Seeds album around then, too. Sky Saxon forever!
One more desperate defense of the book, as in book in the format of a book, not a literary product in electronic format. A book can be brought to the beach! And the pool! And even the bathtub. It survives sand with no problem, and even a little water. It has no fragile chips, bytes, disks, whatever is in electronics. It can be dropped, thrown, hit, or stomped without much damage. Spilt liquids may stain it but does not interfere with function. It is toddler-proof, dog-proof, clumsy-proof, and importantly……..virus- and spam-proof. If one’s presbyopia requires a larger font, the book can be immediately moved closer to the eyes without the need of a keyboard. Almost no maintenance or repairs are needed, except occasionally a piece of scotch tape. If preserved well, it can last a very long time, like centuries, even a millennium, whereas we haven’t tested the longevity of electronic data much. In fact, only a few get around to transferring files in older electronic format into newer file formats.
I am beginning to understand how the Amish feel……
AHID, I must contradict. My dear dog loved literature. His first book, when he was just a pup, was The Joy of Cooking, probably because of the gravy stains. After that he ate a favorite complete collection of short stories by Somerset Maugham, a slim volume of poetry by New Jersey’s poet laureate Joyce Kilmer, and Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings. He had a taste for crime fiction as well, polishing off La Brava by Elmore Leonard and the great crime novel, When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, by Lawrence Block. He devoured Scaramouche, Horatio Hornblower, and Volume 1 (A through L) of Funk and Wagnall’s. His taste was catholic and his discernment acute. He enjoyed only the best books in my collection.
I don’t know what he would have done with an e-reader, but considering what he did to my TV remote, he might have made the switch as well.
I stand corrected! But at least your dear departed dog never electrocuted himself while consuming said books….! Who knows what he could have done with an electronic device plugged in while charging plus his bowl full of water.
……that’s another thing about book books–they never need charging! They are always ready to read!
Wow. I would’ve thought the Maugham collection would have been enough to stanch his appetite for printed paper. Or am I the only person ever expelled from an AP English class for giving my honest analysis of Of Human Bondage?
I wonder how many people have dived into Of Human Bondage and given up on Somerset Maugham altogether? You are right, it’s grim. The short stories are gems, my favorites are Rain and Mr. Know All. The short novels are wonderful too, try Cakes & Ale, and The Moon and Sixpence.
If you are interested, here’s Mr. Know All.
http://maugham.classicauthors.net/knowall/
It won’t take more than 10 minutes to read.
Another nice things about old-timey books: The cost of entry isn’t hundreds of dollars.
But if you’re a Good Will hunting type, you can spend 80 dollars and get every single classic at your fingertips for nothin’!
I bought the complete works of Jane Austen–including some things I’d never heard of, and I’m a big Jane Austen fan–for 99 cents.
Dear AHID and anybody else who feels compelled to “defend” print books:
Nobody is forcing you to use one, but please accept that e-readers are not going away. Nor are they putting bookstores out of business. Indy bookstores have been on the skids for years. E-readers are not helping, but they’re not responsible. (Oxford Books, an Atlanta institution, officially bit the dust 15 years ago but the main location closed long before that, I am pretty sure.) Over my lifetime, I have spent far more money on books than any other single discretionary item, and have always opted for independent merchants when I could. In the past few years, though, I’ve virtually abandoned all bookstores, instead relying on the public library (more than any time since childhood) and Costco where books are 40% off retail. I simply can’t afford to pay a 40% premium for what is now (for me) a luxury item. I received an e-reader for Christmas, and I’m loving it even though there some trade-offs. I doubt that I’ll give up print books altogether.
The choice of how to read — just like the choice of what to read — is a matter of personal taste and preference, and one that for many people is not all-or-nothing but depends on the situation. You should not feel driven to “defend” your choice to continue reading print, nor should you feel compelled to criticize e-readers so vehemently because it drives somebody like me to defend them!
If you have not tried one, you may not realize that an e-reader in a rugged case can be dropped without disaster. (I’ve already found mine on the floor next to the bed on several mornings.) My plan for the beach is to put mine inside a ziploc bag, just as I do my cell phone. Granted, overall it’s more susceptible than a print book to water and sand and coffee and whatever else, but it’s not as fragile as all that. (No print book is 100% toddler-proof or dog-proof, either.) The battery needs recharging every few weeks, but it doesn’t take long. I’ve never heard of anybody being troubled with viruses or spam on their e-reader, although it probably is a consideration if you use it for email, streaming video, and other such stuff. Mine is strictly for reading.
My e-reader is very lightweight, enabling me to read many books which I would not otherwise because they are physically too heavy. (Many books of history and nonfiction are quite bulky, even in paperback.) And I just suffer from wimpy girl wrists and laziness. I’m sure they are a real boon for people with arthritis. I can hold the e-reader as close to my face as I want to, just like a book, but unlike a book, I can also adjust the font size (choosing from a wide array of sizes). No doubt that feature restores the literary horizons of people with serious vision problems who would otherwise have to depend on what’s available in large print. When I travel, I can take a bushel of books with me in a side pocket of my purse. A copy of every e-book I buy stays in my personal library up in the cloud — I don’t have to keep them all on my device, but can move them back and forth as I choose. If I finish a book I really like and am eager to read the sequel, all I have to do is turn on the Wi-Fi receiver, go to the e-store, buy it and download it and start reading — a process that generally takes less than a minute. It’s obviously not the same experience as browsing through the bookstore, but it can be immensely gratifying in its own way.
Well, actually, I probably WILL be forced to read e-books eventually from what everyone is saying here. But I don’t have to like it! I have been fine with the existence of multiple media formats for books. I coexisted for years with audio books and then electronic books without feeling threatened. I’m just not so fine with the possibility of losing the format I love. Probably never will be. This is my old fogie issue, the one where I lament “Why does everything have to change?” Do the Amish have bookstores still?
RE the economics of book books: My husband is quite the connoisseur of used book stores all over the Metro area. So there is a low cost option even though I freely admit that I’m a new bookstore junkie. And libraries are great. I spent a lot of time in libraries back in more carefree times. If they evolve into places without bookshelves, I will be sad. And as some one else mentioned, there’s no entry cost or learning curve to book books.
Re Oxford: I always heard that there was major poor business management involved. I wonder if Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon will survive as bookstore or morph into something else. It is an example of a well-managed local bookstore. If it cannot make it, nothing can.
AHID, I appreciate that you did not take it personally when I got up on my high horse. On reflection, I realized I was responding not only to your observations but also to an accumulation of conversations over the past few years in which various friends and family have advocated Eager Embrace of Every Technological Advance (EEETA) versus Determined Resistance to Advances in Technology Until Forced (DRATUF). These acronyms mean nothing at all. But it got me thinking about how these conversations get polarized for no good reason; and how many conversations get polarized for no good reason; and that maybe that has gotten to be a habit with us. (Not “us” as in you and me, but “us” as in our public discourse. And maybe the thing we (as in the We of the greater society) ought to be focusing a lot of attention on, is how to get back to having discussions in which different viewpoints can be expressed and explored and challenged and defended, without everybody getting all angry and stomping off and swearing commitment to scorched-earth debate and, even worse, scorched-earth legislating.
Then I realized I’m not the first one to think of this, but if I can figure out the solution, I should write a fvcking book and retire in comfort and security and give all of my extra money to Planned Parenthood.
I am completely behind you. We need the civilized discussion of ideas. Critical thinking is a good thing. Schools now value it over rote memorization. But thinking is what it is, not truth. How can we fallible humans discuss, evaluate, and advocate without shrillness and defensiveness?–that is the trick. Humor is a good thing too-it lightens the heaviness of discourse and defuses issues. But how to keep cleverness and snarkiness from degenerating into meanness is another difficult trick. When you write your book, try to print out at least one hard copy and I will buy it.
We have to congratulate ourselves here on DM. We’re not perfect but this forum is a local gem, IMHO. The ratio of valuable info and civilized discussion to attacks is darn good. Just before coming back here to DM, I was reading some pieces on education in the AJC online. The pieces were interesting but many of the comments were so horrible or so stupid or both that the experience was ruined. I became discouraged about the viability of the human race. My children are still such naive, hopeful, enthusiastic beings that I hate to see them venturing out into a world with such vitriol. So I still subscribe to the AJC even though I may be the last person on earth to do so because we can read it minus the vitriol, do the puzzles, read the comics, have the tactile experience.
Full disclosure: I strongly considered buying one of my children an e-reader of some sort for Christmas. So I followed the discussions here avidly when you, and maybe others, posed the question of how to choose an e-reader. In the end, I decided that we did not need another electronic device in our home even though I probably would like this one better than the others.
‘My e-reader is very lightweight, enabling me to read many books which I would not otherwise because they are physically too heavy. ”
***********************************
This is what’s going to make me a convert, I’m afraid. Like AHID, I have resisted the e-reader transition. I like books printed on actual paper. The thought of one more electronic device with a screen to look at is depressing. However, the ability to carry thousands (millions even?) of pages on one small device rather than lugging 50 pounds of books is a pretty amazing concept, especially for anyone who travels with any regularity. I’m pretty sure that the next time I have to fly somewhere I will finally give in and get a Kindle or an iPad.
I expected the e-reader to extend my screen-viewing day, too. (Which would not be a welcome thing.) But it doesn’t feel that way, I guess because it isn’t backlit. It’s totally different than looking at my PC screen or my phone.
Subtracting a giant bag of books from the car will mean adding a giant bag of wine and beer for the summer beach expedition, or maybe an extra cooler making it feasible to bring home shrimp. No downside!
I selected Kindle because it’s already embedded among the family & friends who constitute my book-lending circle, and the process for lending books back and forth is pretty simple. Unhappily, very few books are “loanable” since it is part of the publishing rights agreemens and those are all over the place. I expect that will gradually shift over time, but who knows. Meanwhile, if I’d know we couldn’t all just swap all our books around, I might have taken a closer look at the Nook, for the simple reason that Amazon is such a behemoth and it needs competition. Especially after reading last week’s article about B&N. (Who thought, when Oxford Books and Chapter 11 were turning up their toes, that I’d ever think of B&N as the underdog needing support?)
. . . and the natural extension to this discussion is the effect tablets, whether they’re dedicated e-readers or more fully featured like the iPad, are going to have on education.
by the time children are in middle school, they’re typically lugging a heavy backpack full of books between home and school, and the content in those books is static. contrast this with the future they’re beginning to step into in which all of their learning material for all of their classes can be contained on a single device, e.g., an iPad, that not only allows them read all of the relevant text, but also includes dynamic rich content like movies, interactive graphics, links to additional material on-line . . .
i love this evolution and won’t for a second bemoan schools implementing this new technology.
Hi gang. This is Diane from Little Shop, feeling the need to jump in and offer my two cents about books and bookstores.
No doubt about it, times are hard for indie booksellers. The news of two Atlanta indies closing in less than two weeks brings that point close to home to those of us in the business, as well as to those of you who are fierce advocates of the bricks and mortar bookstore.
However, I don’t believe it is all doom and gloom. Earlier this month, I attended the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute where approximately 500 indie booksellers from across the country got together to talk with one another and hear from experts in the business about industry best practices, the evolution of books and bookselling, and how to remain viable in a fast-changing selling environment. The overall feeling at this meeting was one of hope and optimism, though it was certainly a cautious and realistic optimism for the future of bookselling.
Bookstores can survive but in order to do so, the bookselling industry must take an especially careful look at the model of how, when, and what books are bought and sold, bringing in non-book merchandise in a thoughtful manner without diluting a brand, being especially creative about driving new business to the store, and not turning its head to the perceived threat of e-books and e-readers. Indie bookstores must also work hard to be viable and present members of their communities. And the publishing industry must take a hard look at how it does business with independent booksellers as well.
But of equal importance, is the value that a community places in its indie bookstore. Community members must make it a regular, given practice to support that business on a regular basis, not just 3-4 times a year or just at the holidays. It is important that people remember the value in paying full price for a book- you are paying for the bookseller and their talents, energy, passion, and knowlege about books. We don’t just sell books- we hopefully sell an experience. We lovelovelove to talk books but the frequent assumption that we are here to do it for free needs to change. Indie booksellers everywhere scratch their heads when fans of a beloved author arrive at a book signing having purchased books elsewhere, or when “customers” use us for our book knowledge and then go purchase elsewhere, typically online. As long as this mentality continues, as long as the consumer does not truly understand the value that an independent bookstore brings, it will be difficult for indies to survive.
Thanks for listening and considering. And Yay for Decatur BOOK Festival!!
wow, well, way to go and humanize the topic and everything, Diane.
now i want to completely flip and argue against myself. really.
you’re great, Little Shop is great: we bought a Jim Henson doodle book for our boy from LS this weekend. our house is full of books.
frankly, i want it all: for cool indie shops to thrive, for books to remain viable and available, *and* for me to get my techno yayas off.
Re “frankly, i want it all”: That’s really what I want too, unrealistic as that may be. I have no problem with e-readers as long as the hardcopy book and bookstore experience is still available. Probably the only reason I don’t have an e-reader at this point is that I am totally overwhelmed with the home and work computers, smartphones, and blackberry that I already deal with. I can only be on so many learning curves at once. Hardcopy books are my easy-going, always available, never hard to reach friends since my first memories.
Hey, y’all stop in to Decatur CD this week and spend a few bucks, willya? Please?
Hey, Rick- No hard feelings. Next time you are in the shop, please introduce yourself. We have some friends in common…
Diane, can’t i just Skype you? Talking in meatspace is so antiquated . . .
sending handwritten note to you via carrier pigeon.
I wonder if there’s any chance that the Decatur Book Festival will book another show by the great wrestling madman Abdullah The Butcher. When he appeared at the festival in 2009 for an “exhibition” match, a total bloodbath ensued!
[...] case you’re not familiar with this festival, here’s a recent post on how the AJC has re-upped their sponsorship of the Decatur Book Festival for three more years. [...]