Category Archives: Books N’at

Bringing Back the Book Shops – You’re Invited to the East End Book Exchange Grand Opening

a peek at the new home of East End Book Exchange

Last July my friend Lesley wrote a post about wanting to open a book shop in Pittsburgh.  I wrote a follow up post reminicing about all of the book shops that used to be open in Sq. Hill and Oakland.  I am happy to write yet another post to tell you about the next chapter of East End Book Exchange!

For the past year – the East End Book Exchange operated out of the Pittsburgh Public Market – open each Friday, Saturday and Sunday with an extensive collection of books for their little space.

While the Pittsburgh Public Market may be struggling as a market – it has been the perfect incubator for Pittsburghers to test out their businesses before moving to a storefront.  The Crested Duck Charcuterie started out in the public market before opening a store front in Beechview and they just announced they are expanding again!

East End Book Exchange

This Saturday the East End Book Exchange opens the doors to their new permanent location on Liberty Ave in Bloomfield.  Just down the street from The Big Idea Bookshop – Bloomfield is the perfect home for a used book shop.  There are also at least 3 other awesome resale shops on Liberty Ave – including the newly opened Clothes Minded.  Making Liberty Avenue a perfect place for vintage shopping and browsing unique finds in clothing, books and more.

Read more about the East End Book Exchange in Pop City Media here.

Everyone is invited to their grand opening celebration on Friday night – get a sneak peek and pick up your favorite books before the shop officially opens on Saturday.

 

East End Book Exchange Grand Opening Celebration
Friday, November 16, 2012
6-8pm
East End Books Exchange @ 4754 Liberty Ave
Please RSVP on Facebook here

The Found Magazine Tour Stops in Pgh on Sept. 5 – Win Tickets!

It’s funny how things work out – I was sitting here at my desk bemoaning the end of summer fun – I know summer doesn’t end for a few weeks but it seems like the summer fun stops at Labor Day.  Then I started reading some of the emails and tweets I ignored while I was celebrating a wedding and trying to squeeze the last few hours of summer fun out of labor day.  There is a ton of great things happening in Pittsburgh this fall.  As I was starting to make a list of all of the things I want to post about I got an email from the folks at Found Magazine – they are bringing their 10th Anniversary tour to the burgh on Wednesday.

I had just post a link on the BlogLocal Facebook page about a New York Times article “A History of New York in 50 Objects” – and I was thinking I should ask the IheartPGH readers what 50 objects should go into a similar list for Pittsburgh.  So I think it is serendipitous that Morgan from Found Magazine sent me an email today.

Found Magazine was started by Davy Rothbart – who is a frequent contributor to NPR’s This American Life.  Found is all about items that people find and submit to the website.

 

And as I was looking up Davy Rothbart on the This American Life website – it turn out he recorded an episode about his conversation with Pittsburgh’s favorite neighbor – Mr. Rogers back in 2001.  You can listen to episode  184: Neighbors here.

Which brings us to 2012 – Found Magazine is on a their 10th Anniversary Tour and Davy Rothbart has just published a new book “My Heart is an Idiot” – the tour stops in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont Facebook Event Link.  Tickets are $7 at the door or you can win a pair of tickets below.  Davy is joined on the tour by his brother Peter who the frontman for folk/rock group The Poem Adept and his music was featured 2012 documentary film Mister Rogers & Me.  One of the things that I thought was pretty cool about this tour in Pittsburgh – before I realized all of the Mr. Rogers connections – is the idea of two brothers going on tour together.

Win 2 Tickets to My Heart is an Idiot: Found Magazine’s 10th Anniversary Tour

The folks at Found Magazine have kindly offered us 4 tickets to giveaway to tomorrow’s event. So to enter – I ask that you leave a comment about what item you think should go on the list of Pittsburgh history in 50 items.  You can also get additional entries by following IheartPGH on Facebook and Twitter. And since we’re limited on time for this giveaway – 3 entries if you tweet about this contest and help us spread the word.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Meet the Author of From Animal House to Our House: A Love Story

When I think about how I would really love to spend my time – I think I would love to restore old buildings.  I have absolutely no home improvement skills – but I think we need to do more to save and restore old buildings.  It is interesting that we have so much technology and lots more sophisticated tools, but most new buildings just don’t seem to have the detail and the character of structures from 75 years ago.


So the email about this event struck a chord with me.  I recieved and email about an event with Ron Tanner – he and his wife    Preservation Pittbsurgh and the Pittsburgh Arts and Lecture Series are hosting a free event with author Ron Tanner.  Ron and his wife bought and restored a big old victorian house in Baltimore.  He lived to tell the tales of renovation and has published the book From Animal House to Our House: A Love Story.   The house that they have lovingly restored was once a fraternity house and fell into disrepair.

Check out the trailer for the book here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx2nt7SRg58[/youtube]

Author Event – Ron Tanner
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 – 6pm
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Oakland
Free – but you need to register online to attend 

The Real Story Behind Charlotte’s Web

Since tomorrow might be gray and rainy… here is a great indoor activity perfect for anyone who loves books.  Mystery Lovers Bookshop, located in Oakmont, is whole shop dedicated to mystery books, they also sell other books and can order any book you would like (support your local book shop).  On Satruday, Mystery Lovers Bookshop is hosting a Coffee & Crime author event with Michael Sims who wrote the book The Story of Charlotte’s Web: E.B. Whites’s Eccentric Life in NAture and the Birth of an American Classic.

head shot of nonfiction author Michael Sims

Image via Wikipedia

Michael Sims, Coffee & Crime Oct. 1

If you’ve ever wondered how E.B. White came to write the children’s classic Charlotte’s Web you’ll find all the answers at our Coffee & Crime author breakfast with Michael Sims on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 10 am.

Michael’s newest book, The Story of Charlotte’s Web, is a fascinating exploration of the eccentric life of E.B. White and the events that led this long-time writer for the New Yorker magazine to pen one of the enduring classics of children’s literature.

Tickets are $5 and available online here. You can follow Mystery Lovers Bookshop on Facebook here.

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Pittsburgh Signs Project on BoingBoing & Book Giveaway

The Pittsburgh Signs project photos and book are featured on the BoingBoing today – “Pittsburgh Signs Project: appreciation of the glorious signage of Pittsburgh.”

BoingBoing is a popular blog, that originally started as a zine in 1988, that covers interesting information from around the web.

The Pittsburgh Signs project started as a website and was turned into a book was founded by Pittsburghers – Jennifer Baron, Greg Langel, Elizabeth Perry and Mark Stroup and contains photos submitted by many others.  I just went way back to the IheartPGH archives and actually I think the Pittsburgh Signs Project was one of our first 15 posts back in September of 2005 you can check out that post here.

Here is a set of photos from Flickr tagged Pittsburgh Signs.

Check out the website at pittsburghsigns.org

The Pittsburgh Signs Project book is available for purchase from the Carnegie Mellon Bookstore here for $29.95. One of the comments on BoingBoing notes this book is listed on Amazon
for $125.  I just checked the CMU Bookstore site and they have the book in stock for $29.95).

Photographer: Shari Paglia, Spring 1999

One of our favorite signs was the Atari Sign along Penn Avenue.  The Atari repair sign was located near what is now Salt of the Earth.  Thankfully the Pittsburgh Signs Project has that documented.

Pittsburgh Signs Project Book Giveaway

Because we think this book is awesome – we are going to giveaway a copy.  To enter just leave a comment with a link to your favorite sign from the Pittsburgh Signs website or Flickr or upload a photo of your favorite sign to the comments below.

Next Wednesday, August 10, 2011. We will randomly select one entry to win a copy of the Pittsburgh Sign Project Book.  All comments must be posted by Midnight, Aug. 9, 2011 to enter.