A little bit of funny found on the interwebs

Contra Costa Library turns 100!

For information on various 100th year celebrations happening all over the CCC Library system check out http://guides.ccclib.org/100thbirthday.

via madmagazine.com/blog

Happy Valentine's Day from Edgar Allan Poe

46th California International Antiquarian Book Fair

The 46th California International Antiquarian Book Fair is soon approaching. This great event is being held at the  Concourse Exhibition Center (635 8th Street in San Francisco) from 3 p.m. - 8 p.m. on Friday, February 15; 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. on Saturday, February 16; and 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Sunday, February 17.

Your humble blogger was given a media pass to attend this three day event. This will be my first ever book fair so I'm not exactly sure what to expect. The closest experience I've had was reading The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett and attending the  the San Diego Comic Con about ten years ago.

              I was recently given a list of 13 of the rarest books that will be at the convention. The two that I am dying to see are a first edition of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith ($125,000) and an incredible set of first editions of all 85 Federalist Papers by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton ($382,000). 

For those that aren't History/Economics teachers you may find the autographed, hand written original manuscript from chapter 20 of a A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain ($79,000), original John Lenin sketches ($134,000), or a rare copy of Birds of America by John James Audubon ($32,000) more interesting. 



At those prices, of course, I'll just be looking. But we these items as the headliners, this should be a fun weekend of window shopping.
 

Three-day admission tickets are available online at www.cabookfair.com or at the door on Friday for $25.  Tickets purchased online or at the door for Saturday and Sunday are $15 each and allow return admission for the remainder to the fair. For more information about tickets or exhibiting, visit www.cabookfair.com.

For more information about tickets or exhibiting and access to pre-sale discount tickets, please visit the website at www.cabookfair.com or the ABAA website at www.abaa.org; or call (415) 962-2500, (800) 454-6401.

 

February Book of the Month: The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

via goodreads.com

David Liss’s bestselling historical thrillers, including A Conspiracy of Paper and The Coffee Trader, have been called remarkable and rousing: the perfect combination of scrupulous research and breathless excitement. Now Liss delivers his best novel yet in an entirely new setting–America in the years after the Revolution, an unstable nation where desperate schemers vie for wealth, power, and a chance to shape a country’s destiny.

Ethan Saunders, once among General Washington’s most valued spies, now lives in disgrace, haunting the taverns of Philadelphia. An accusation of treason has long since cost him his reputation and his beloved fiancée, Cynthia Pearson, but at his most desperate moment he is recruited for an unlikely task–finding Cynthia’s missing husband. To help her, Saunders must serve his old enemy, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who is engaged in a bitter power struggle with political rival Thomas Jefferson over the fragile young nation’s first real financial institution: the Bank of the United States.

Meanwhile, Joan Maycott is a young woman married to another Revolutionary War veteran. With the new states unable to support their ex-soldiers, the Maycotts make a desperate gamble: trade the chance of future payment for the hope of a better life on the western Pennsylvania frontier. There, amid hardship and deprivation, they find unlikely friendship and a chance for prosperity with a new method of distilling whiskey. But on an isolated frontier, whiskey is more than a drink; it is currency and power, and the Maycotts’ success attracts the brutal attention of men in Hamilton’s orbit, men who threaten to destroy all Joan holds dear.

As their causes intertwine, Joan and Saunders–both patriots in their own way–find themselves on opposing sides of a daring scheme that will forever change their lives and their new country. The Whiskey Rebels is a superb rendering of a perilous age and a nation nearly torn apart–and David Liss’s most powerful novel yet.

atari.com/arcade

enjoy.

Atari Files For Bankruptcy

Surprisingly this story is from 2013 and not 1985

via CNN Money:

The U.S. arm of Atari, the iconic video game company that created "Pong," filed for bankruptcy on Monday.

But Atari will live on. The move is aimed at breaking the American branch away from its unprofitable French parent company.

In particular, Atari U.S. is looking to "secure independent capital for future growth, primarily in the areas of digital and mobile games," the company said in a written statement.

Over the next three to four months, Atari U.S. will seek buyers for some of its assets, including the Atari logo and the company's games catalog. Atari as a whole owns or manages more than 200 games and franchises.

The gaming landscape has changed dramatically since Atari was founded in 1972. Atari scored hits with groundbreaking gaming consoles and classic titles like "Pong," "Centipede" and "Asteroid," but later lost its dominance to rivals like Nintendo. The brand has bounced around through several different owners.

France's Infogrames Entertainment acquired a stake in Atari in 2000, then bought out the company in 2008 and changed its name to Atari S.A.

Since then, the rise of casual gaming on PCs and mobile devices has cut into the video game industry as a whole. Atari S.A. has been unprofitable for years, and warned just last month that it will book a "significant loss" for its fiscal year 2013.

The biggest headache for Atari S.A. is the suspension of its credit line with BlueBay Asset Management. Atari owes 21 million euro ($27 million) to BlueBay, with the balance due on March 31. The company says it is "starved for funds" and hasn't found another principal creditor to take BlueBay's place.

The New York-based U.S. arm wants to be free of its French baggage. Atari U.S. said it will "conduct its normal business operations" during the bankruptcy proceedings, and it's been approved for $5 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Tenor Capital, a firm that specializes in distressed lending.

Hobbitt Sequel Trailers!!!

On the Dying of the Newspaper

I saw this video a day after I realized that while my young sons can name even the most obscure animals on the African Savannah, they had no idea what a newspaper was.

Slow Hand BBQ

Over the last 5 years or so the PHBC has met at several different places. Our latest meeting spot may, however, be the best one. Slow Hand BBQ is located at 1941 Oak Park Blvd in Pleasant Hill and has some of the tastiest BBQ I have ever eaten. Every month I look forward to chomping down on some delicious brisket or pulled pork. Their coleslaw is also probably the healthiest/tastiest I've ever had.

And if that wasn't enough, the owner, Daniel  Frengs, also has some great ideas about future books we should check out. The most entriging of which is  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.
 
But enough about what I think about it, The Contra Costa Times published a review of the restaurant yesterday that I think does it justice (although I think the Mac and Cheese is way better than they describe).

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_22275038/review-slow-hand-bbq-pleasant-hill-is-smokin

Another Review by Grub Street San Francisco:
http://sanfrancisco.grubstreet.com/2013/01/slow-hand-bbq-pleasant-hill-dan-frengs.html

Like them on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slow-Hand-BBQ/120036794696480

Follow them on Twitter:
@slowhandbbq

PS- Their business cards also make great bookmarks!

Merry Christmas!

It's a little late, but thought it was still worth posting.

Here are 15 Christmas/Holiday related covers from Marvel Comics. #10 is my personal favorite.
Courtesy of  Entertainment Weekly (ew.com)

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20657579,00.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entertainmentweekly%2Fbooks+%28Entertainment+Weekly%2FEW.com%27s%3A+Books%29

January Book of the Month: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

After two previous appearances on Book of the Month ballots (losing out to Ender's Game and Bitter Seeds) Ready Player One has finally been chosen as the Book of the Month!



Description via goodreads.com:

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?