Over on the Little Shop blog, Dave tells the story of how “Pete the Cat’: I Love My White Shoes” went from a local sensation to getting picked up by none other than Harper Collins.  Pretty sweet story!

Eric Litwin, a local storyteller and musician, had an idea for a children’s book starring Pete the Cat. A chance random meeting with James Dean, a local artist and creator of Pete, started the collaboration. Eric and James put the book together and published it themselves. Amazingly successful, the first printing sold out. Outrageously successful, the even bigger second printing also sold out.

In the meantime, multiple big time publishers began knocking on their doors.

Read the rest of the tale over on the Little Shop blog.

The Decatur bookstore will host a book release party for Dean and Litwin this Saturday, March 6th at 7pm.

Disclosure: Little Shop of Stories is a DM sponsor.

Susan at the Decatur branch of the DeKalb County Library sends in this event announcement…

Friends of the Decatur Library Used Book Sale, Saturday, Feb. 27, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Ground floor of the Decatur library.

A wide assortment of books on many topics, priced from $.50 to $4.

All proceeds benefit programming and events for adults and children at the Decatur library.

http://www.dekalblibrary.org/events/browse-by-event-type.html

Could an American city embrace and support a “community bookcase”?

Apparently there are cities across Europe where bookshelves sit on sidewalks, jam-packed with novels and non-fiction, just waiting to enlighten those passing by.  Each one operates on an honor system.  You’re welcome to pick up a book or two at your leisure, just as long as you’re willing to replace it with a book of your own in the coming days.

Here in Amurica (misspelling intentional), we’ve taken to a different type of book exchange.  We’re all about the online book exchange variety, such as BookMooch.

Without the strong community oversight of many European cities – like this one in Germany – the idea of putting free books out on an American street seems absolutely ludicrous.  Erect a bookcase, stuffed with books out on a sidewalk and it’s easy to imagine that within hours all the good books would be gone (and not replaced) and the not so great ones would be defiled and strewn across the ground.  The bookcase itself would then be hauled off quicker than most residential curbside items.

Too bad.  Because ultimately, it’s sort of a huge waste of energy to ship a book across the country for a trade you could have made with a neighbor down the street.

So, back to my original question.  Could a city like Decatur, or any of it’s surrounding Georgia city brethren and sistren, EVER support something such as this?  Maybe with a few tweaks? Or will we forever be regulated to online, long-distance sharing, supported by a heavily subsidized mail system?

h/t: DCPLive

Agnes Scott College, Little Shop of Stories and Daren Wang all have reason to be yelling “Squeeeee!” this week.

In an extensive article profiling the prolific, counter-culture, superstar author Neil Gaiman, all three Decatur institutions found themselves mentioned in the latest issue of the New Yorker.  After detailing Gaiman’s life-story and his unique fan-base in an elegant journalistic style , the article closes with Gaiman’s December trip to Decatur.

In December, Gaiman flew to Decatur, Georgia, the location of Little Shop of Stories, which he had picked as a winner of the contest. In tribute to “The Graveyard Book,” the store had transformed its basement into a crypt and led the children in a danse macabre, beating out a store in Larchmont, New York, that had brought in a live white pony, in honor of the preferred conveyance of the novel’s death figure.

It was a foggy day, with intermittent rain, and people started lining up before noon outside Agnes Scott College, which was hosting the event. The reading started at six.

Little Shop announced the news yesterday in a post on their blog, while Mr. Wang had a bit of an identity crisis over on Verb.

More great press for the little city of growing book fame!

It’s kind of fitting that the man who created “Verb.org” and started the Decatur Book Festival was recently written up in a publication that abbreviated reads “ABC”.  (Yes, I find amusement in the oddest of places.)

The Atlanta Business Chronicle profiled Decatur’s Daren Wang on Friday, though most of the article is currently behind a firewall.  However, if you have a subscription, you can now learn more about the man who, among other things, built a book festival and convinced a Decatur resident to purchase a beer for over $2,000.  Is there a master’s program for that?

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the post title, “Man in the Red Shoes” label can be explained by clicking here.

With Neil Gaiman just out the door, today Agnes Scott announces another big book-get for Decatur.

Emily sends word that Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the New York Times #1 Bestseller Eat, Pray, Love is coming to Agnes Scott College on Monday, January 11th @7pm (doors open at 6pm).  The event is being presented by the college, along with Barnes and Noble and the Decatur Book Festival.

Gilbert’s website indicates that the event is part of the book tour for her Eat, Pray, Love follow-up, Committed. It will include a talk, Q&A and book-signing in ASC’s Gaines Auditorium.

The evening with Gilbert is free to the public, but seating is limited.  Tickets will only be distributed the night of the event.

Neil signed Daren Wang’s car.  He writes…

I now am the proud owner of a 2009 Neil Gaiman Limited Edition Scion Xb . This is the prototype.

It should be interesting when Daren has to explain to police why a bunch of starry-eyed tweens stole the plastic around his gear shift.

UPDATE: Little Shop’s “Thank You” note to Neil can be found here.

Paula is good enough to provide a recap to last night’s Little Shop Neil Gaiman event.  (The AJC’s Jamie Gumbrecht reported on the event too.)

Report your own experiences in the comments below. If you have photos from the event, send ‘em in and I will post!

Just wanted to give a quick report on the Gaiman event last night. First of all, I am so incredibly proud of Little Shop of Stories. They did a great job all around – they put on a winning Graveyard Book Party, distributed a limited number of tickets in a fair and equitable manner, and did a great job corralling 1000+ anxious and cold Gaiman fans last night.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Little Shop blog reports a 99 person line had formed in front of the store prior to opening yesterday as the bookstore gave out all but 100 tickets for the Niel Gaiman event on December 14th at 6pm.

As for those 100 remaining tickets, the store is reconsidering how they will be distributed.  Jump over to their site for more detail.

I wonder if the Brick Store provided 99 bottles of beer for those in line…sorry, I thought I’d just throw myself on the lame joke sword before someone else did.