September 2006

Today is the first day of Banned Books Week, an annual event near and dear to our Vromanian hearts. Sponsored by both the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association, Banned Books Week strives to bring attention to titles that have been removed from libraries, challenged in school curricula, or limited to a “select” [...]

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“In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.”- S. I. Hayakawa “It is so unsatisfactory to read a noble passage and have no one you love at hand to share the happiness with you.”- Clara Clemens “The oldest books are only [...]

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The other day at a management meeting I received the sad news that both Rick’s Drive-in and the White Hut are going to be closing — or at least moving their places of operation. I hear that the land on which each sits has been sold to make way for more luxury condos and apartments. [...]

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Simon Callow is best-known for his acting (Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love, Four Weddings & a Funeral), but he’s also a well-reviewed author. The second volume of his biography of Orson Welles was published recently, and today he stopped by the store to sign copies. He’d just done an interview on KPCC with Larry Mantle and [...]

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I hate trying to predict a book’s success. Too often some little title I adore never makes the big time, despite my efforts (and probably those of hundreds of other devotees) to promote it. So I’m not going to predict great things for Max Brooks’s new novel World War Z — I’m just going to [...]

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Q. Where did you get the idea for “Just Drive”?A. Sometimes the easiest way to begin a story is to start with a “What-if.” This is one that started that way. I began to think about the premise, what if you were stopped at a light and someone yanked open the passenger door and hopped [...]

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