Sorry a lot of you missed our very fun and enlightening meeting on Feb 23rd. Here’re a few video clips from our Skype-chat with author Laird Hunt discussing his wonderfully weird and wild, Ray of the Star. You should definitely read the book.

www.lairdhunt.net

The Inspiration for Ray of The Star

Poetic and Lyrical Style of Long Sentences

Talking Stinky Shoes

Advice for Writers

“Ladies, would you go out with a guy stalking you in a Yellow Submarine?”

If you don’t get in the theater for the discussion, please stick around and feel free to have a small group book chat in the bar/restaurant/bowling alley area. We will reopen the doors to the theater by 8:30 and you can come back in for more social time. Or we will join you in the bar. It’s a small consolation perhaps, but if you are there already and wish to discuss the book with others, please do so. We are doing our best to get everyone in, but the first 100 people are all the fire code will allow. That’s why we’ve been doing hand stamps and counting clickers at the door. And also one of the reasons I am experimenting with twice a month.

Another idea I had was to push back the start time a little bit, but am not sure that would help as many people. If you have other ideas, especially venue related, feel free to e-mail me.

Thanks for a great 6 years and here’s to many more.

Jeff Kamin
jeff@booksandbars.com
Moderator/Producer

Hannah Tinti was fun and informative in a rousing year end night at Books & Bars.
I was all set to blog it up and then saw her awesome status update (above) and blog post. So, let’s start with the author and read what she had to say about our event:

http://hannahtinti.com/2009/12/books-bars/

Brief video clip (shot on tiny camera whilst holding a microphone and moderating – anyone want to volunteer to shoot some B&B footage for me? Build your resume/portfolio? Let me know. Thanks)

Thanks to everyone who braved the snowstorm. Hope to see you many of you attempt our double reading winter challenge starting Jan 12th with The Road by Cormac McCarthy and then The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. We’ll try to do more Drink-Skypes soon. Or, as Elli (@lotaleesparkman) tweeted: “@jefe23 i think the correct term for that (because i made it up) is iDrink”

Happy New Year,

Jeff Kamin
Charming Moderator/Producer

If you missed our last video chat, check out the clips featuring Seth Grahame-Smith.

Jan 12 and Jan 26

Feb 9 and Feb 23

March 9 and Mar 23

You can come to both or come to one but we’ll be reading twice the books this winter. You decide. Hope many of you can try to keep up with double the books as we battle cabin fever. They’ll be shorter books around 300 pages or less, very doable in a Minnesota winter.

Titles to be announced soon. Considering:

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, Netherland by Joseph O’Neill, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, The Slide by Kyle Beachy, City of Thieves by David Benioff, Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich, and Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald among others. Submit your 300 pages or less suggestion for our winter reads. Thanks.

Thanks to Emily Finley for the find.