Good morning Booksellers’ supporters, we’re still finalizing details on the event so I don’t want to say anything for certain yet, but stay tuned. I hope to have concrete details by this weekend. It is still set for February 14th. Thank you to all the authors that contacted me about wanting to support the event. I will have more info for you guys soon too. If you are a local author and haven’t contacted me yet, feel free to at savebooksellers@gmail.com. Now the next element of this event will need to deal with refreshments. Food and drinks are both great ways to attract people to a special event and I would like to have a little bit of both at the February 14th event. So, if you work at or are the owner of somewhere that caters or sells food, please consider helping us out by sponsoring this event and providing refreshments for all the book lovers that show up. Last week I shared some fun facts about books, so this week I would like to share some fun facts about reading (the following list is reproduced from an article by AbeBooks): 1. Reading about yawning makes you yawn. 2. Books used to be shelved “backwards” with the spine facing the back of the shelf and the fore-edge facing out. 3. On average across the world people spend 6.5 hours a week reading. 4. Dr. Seuss coined the word “nerd” in his 1950 book “If I Ran the Zoo.” 5. It takes an average of 475 hours to write a novel. 6. Books that were penned or conceived behind bars include Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes), Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan), De Profundis (Oscar Wilde), and the Prince (Machiavelli). 7. The ratio of customers to bookstores is highest in Nevada, Texas, and Mississippi. 8. On the average, a bookstore browser will spend eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds scanning the back cover. 9. Half of all books sold today are to people over the age of 45. 10. Adults who read literature on a regular basis are more than two-and-a-half times as likely to do volunteer or charity work, and over one-and-a-half times as likely to participate in sporting activities. 11. The page most readers lose interest at? Page 18! 12. A glimpse into the NASA library reveals astronauts’ preferred reading includes A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne, and London Bridges by James Patterson. 13. The longest reading aloud marathon by a team lasted 224 hours and was completed by Milton Nan, Silvina Carbone, Carlos Antón, Edit Díaz, Yolanda Baptista and Natalie Dantaz (all Uruguay) at Mac Center Shopping,Paysandú, Uruguay between September 13-22, 2007. 14. Nancy Pearl, in addition to being the most famous librarian in the world, is also now the only librarian to have an action figure created in her likeness. 15. It is estimated that limited literacy skills cost business and taxpayers $20 billion in lost wages, profits, and productivity annually. 16. A bibliokleptomaniac is someone who steals books. One of the most famous bibliokleptomaniacs is Stephen Blumberg, who stole more than 23,000 rare books from 268 libraries. He had various methods for acquiring his estimated 20 million dollar collection, including climbing through ventilation ducts and elevator shafts. 17. The term “bookworm” derives from tiny insects who feed on the binding of books. Upcoming at Booksellers -Liquidation Sale: 40% of all products & Buy 2 Get 1 free on all children’s books -No other upcoming events right now (other than the February 14th event of course), but visiting the Bookseller’s staff is always an enjoyable experience :) Don’t forget to save the date: February 14th and remember #MemphisGetsLit, Emmett Miskell