• First Lines is a great use of the always tricky Tumblr platform.  It’s pretty simple, really:  the first lines of famous novels.  Read it, and you’ll be much more prepared for the next Vroman’s Trivia Night.

• Jacket Copy points out that, once again, the Academy Awards will be a decidedly literary affair, with four of the Best Picture nominees based on books (The Blind Side, An Education, Up in the Air, Precious).  Incidentally, I have a copy of Lynn Barber’s memoir An Education on my desk and it is a gorgeous little paperback, so much more attractive than a movie tie-in copy.

• And lastly, Unbridled Books has made this very clever PSA about the dangers of consuming too much high quality literature.  We’re all at risk! 

  Click here to view the embedded video.

All Vroman’s locations will be closed on Thanksgiving, so the blog will be quiet for sure.  Use the time you would usually spend mocking my grammatical errors to tell a family member they’re speaking too loudly.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is going to be wild, of course.  At Vroman’s, we’ll be offering “Green Light Specials” from 9 – 4.  Every hour, on the hour, we’ll announce a 40% off sale on a specific item or two in the store.  That item will be on sale for one hour only, and you must be in the store to purchase it.  It shall be a blast, I’m sure.  (You can follow on Twitter (@vromans) to find out what the items will be 10 minutes in advance, by the way).

Finally, a few literary-ish tidbits to carry you through the most glorious meal of the year.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

• I’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner with Edan Lepucki and her fine family.  Perhaps we will discuss literary sausage parties.  “In 2004, all of the National Book Award nominees for fiction were female. I remember my annoyance at how much gender was discussed that year. “What about the books themselves?” I kept crying. But, look at me now, lamenting that only sausages got invited to the Top 10 Publishers Weekly party.”

• At the Pasadena Star News, Larry Wilson writes about two local history books worthy of your attention.  One of them, Southern California:  Seeking the Better Life in Sierra Madre, is by Michelle Zack who will be at Vroman’s on Wednesday, December 2 for a discussion and signing.

• This list of the 25 Scariest Moments in Non-Horror Movies got me thinking about the same thing, but with books (this being a bookstore blog and all).  Of course, any list like this has to take into account genre issues — is Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply a horror novel?  I would say no, but others might disagree.  Anyway, here’s what I came up with, and feel free to add your own in the comments:

1. The prison castration scene in 2666.
2. The hand amputation scene in Await Your Reply.
3. Pretty much any scene from The Collector.

• Lastly, lest we end on too terrifying a note, we held a fashion show last weekend to celebrate the launch of our new Kid’s Clothing Corner.  As you can see from this video, our models actually eat (goldfish and fruit jells, mostly) but they’re every bit the divas as their older counterparts.  Enjoy.

All this week, we at the Vroman’s Blog are going to be examining our feelings and thoughts about eating animals.  Each day we’ll post a little something from a staff member or a customer looking at how we feel about eating (or not eating) meat.  The aim of this series of posts isn’t to preach or convert, but rather to explain our own positions and to open a dialog and learn from each other.  If you have an opinion or a great story you’d like to tell, leave a comment.  If you’re local and would like to talk on camera, stop by the store anytime before 5:30 p.m., ask for Patrick and I’ll put on the blog (You’ll be a star!).

Today’s video is about my weekly trip to the Farmers Market, something I have mixed feelings about.  We hope you enjoy the video, and remember, more to come all week long.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But it was a good broadcast show.  I was sad to see it go, not only because it provided me with an hour of entertainment every few weeks, but because I’m convinced it sold books.  Look at “Episode 2:  You Never Forget Your First Time” (admittedly, kind of a lame title, but whatever):  I read all or part of every one of the books featured on this episode.  While I had already planned to read Gessen and Crosley’s books, I’d never heard of Julie Klam or Ceridwen Dovey before this, and I read and liked both of their books.  I’ve since sold a ton of both as a result of seeing them on this show.  I can’t be alone in this.

Since writing a blog post complaining about the end of Titlepage wouldn’t accomplish much, I thought I’d use this space to recommend a couple of the worthy book-related video projects out there on the web.  I’m not sure how to fund content like this in the future, but I think getting an audience is a good place to start.

• Open Book.  This is kind of a cheat, since it technically airs on TV on some Direct TV channel that rich people (read ‘people with cable’) get, but I’m going to put it here anyway, because it’s well-represented on Vimeo.  The show’s concept is an interesting one:  take one place on earth and show the various ways that literature has risen from said place.  The first episode is about Ft. Green, Brooklyn, and features author Jennifer Egan talking about the Brooklyn Navy Yard and actor Jeffrey Wright reading a poem by Walt Whitman in front of the Walt Whitman Homes.  It’s visually awesome and very well produced. 

  Click here to view the embedded video.

• Open Book.  Hey, wait a minute.  There’s another Open Book?  Yes, this one is a collaboration between Slate and the NYU Creative Writing Progam.  I think one of these two needs to consider a change of name, because it’s very confusing.  But who am I to say?  There’s a few issues with this show.  It’s a pretty straightforward talk show, which as we just discussed, might need to be gussied up a bit for the web.  Still, they have some compelling guests and they have a refreshing tendency to break from the hype cycle (many of their guests don’t have new books out), something I think the book industry could benefit from.  Here’s an episode featuring Amy Hempel.

So what do you say?  What would your ideal book video internet show be like?  How would you the show to involve the online audience?  Would it be a round table discussion or some other format?  Leave your brilliant ideas for the future of online video in the comments.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.