Illinois Press Book Blog

My latest Amazon purchase (burning a Coinstar gift coupon) included three CDs, all released in 2007 or 2008. I could have downloaded the MP3 version more cheaply, but surprisingly I also could have ordered an LP version of each album. This was especially surprising for Chamber Music: James Joyce, a somewhat obscure collection of indie-rock interpretations of Joyce’s love poetry.  (Turns out that Joyce’s sappy and overwrought poems make great lyrics for pop songs.) 

I had heard that vinyl LPs are making a comeback, and I actually considered getting the LP versions. We recently received the stereo system that my father-in-law took to college back in the day, as well as his collection of Elton John, Neil Diamond, and Doobie Brothers records. We also got the full 4-record set of Jesus Christ Superstar, which sounds awesome on LP. But I went with the CDs instead, an only slightly less obsolete medium, since it would be easier to get the tracks onto the iPod.

I also wanted to get a cheap copy of the actual book Chamber Music, but apparently it’s out of print. But I could download a Kindle version, which for the first time ever made this die-hard bibliophile think that an e-book reader might be a cool thing to own. I decided I’d just get a copy of the book from the library, but I liked the incongruity of rocking out to the new Portishead album on my father-in-law’s dusty old record player, while clicking through a slick e-book edition of James Joyce’s 1907 book of poems.

David Zalaznik, author of the forthcoming photography collection Life along the Illinois River, will sign copies of his book at the Peoria Art Guild on Friday, November 7, 2008, 4:00-7:00 p.m.

See photos from Life along the Illinois River, and other samples of David Zalaznik’s photography, at www.davidzalaznik.com.

John Carroll, author of the University of Illinois Press book Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football, will be a 4:00 p.m. featured speaker at “A Celebration of Red Grange, a University of Illinois Football Legend,” Saturday, September 6, 3:00-5:00 p.m. at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. The game against Eastern Illinois University begins at 11:00 a.m. so you’ll have plenty of time after the win (that’s right Panther players, post this on your locker room bulletin board, I am predicting a win) to follow the Illinois marching band back to the central campus area and on to the Alumni Center. The event is sponsored by our friends at the Illini Union Bookstore, in association with The University of Illinois Alumni Association and the University’s Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.

This year is the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and 2009 is the bicentennial year of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. We’re readying a Lincoln cover for our Spring 2009 catalog and following news of today’s anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debate that took place in Freeport, Illinois.  On October 11, Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson, co-editors of the new book The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The Lincoln Studies Center Edition will participate in the 23rd Annual Lincoln Colloquium in Galesburg, Illinois.  A paperback edition of Brian Dirck’s Lincoln the Lawyer will arrive here in December and I’ve just ordered advance galleys of the 1,000+ page The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence. And, the University of Nebraska Press is Linking in Lincoln, but that’s a different Lincoln.

I won’t be checking e-mail or watching TV or playing backyard soccer on Saturday evening.  I’m making the trip to St. Louis for one of Rivals.com’s five games to watch in week one of the college football season.  Will Davis, meet Chase Daniel.  It’ll be a long drive home in the dark if the orange and blue don’t win this border war.

A handful of new books landed on my desk in the past two weeks:

-Laboring to Learn: Women’s Literacy and Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era by Lorna Rivera (September 15, 2008)
-Been a Heavy Life: Stories of Violent Men by Lois Presser (September 15, 2008)
-Black Star: African American Activism in the International Political Economy by Ramla M. Bandele (September 19, 2008)
-The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The Lincoln Studies Center Edition edited by Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson  (October 1, 2008)

The publication dates are noted above but all will be available to order within the next week.

Robert Dowling, author of the recent University of Illinois Press book Slumming in New York: From the Waterfront to Mythic Harlem, was interviewed on the August 21, 2008, edition of Connecticut Public Radio’s The Faith Middleton Show. The interview begins halfway through the program.

What ’70s rockers and Guitar Hero 3 contributors will be rockin’ the Urbana Sweet Corn Festival this weekend?  If you come out, look for the tallest guy in the crowd with the shortest guy in the crowd.

Bookseller.com reported this morning on Penguin’s new business venture:

“Penguin is launching a dating website aimed at book readers in conjunction with online dating giant Match.com. The service goes live this week and can be accessed via the Penguin home page and at www.penguindating.co.uk.”

(PW Daily pointed the way.)

The August 21, 2008, edition of Inside Illinois reports on the Press’s 90th anniversary.