William J. Cobb to visit Paragraphs

In February we will be entering our third year of business and what a couple of years we have had.  I hope to get a chance to sit down and write a post looking back on what we have accomplished, what we still haven't gotten around to that we have wanted to do since day one, and also look ahead to what things we hope to do in the near future.  But, alas that is not what is on my mind right now.

One of my main goals when opening Paragraphs was to offer the community an opportunity to meet a variety of authors and to let the publishing world know that there are book lovers and readers that live and work in the lower Rio Grande Valley, regardless of what the management of Walden and Barnes and Noble may think. To date we have had a variety of authors appear at the store and we work hard to support our local, self-published authors by providing them with a venue to sell, promote, and discuss their books. But, my vision is to become as recognized a book seller as my role models the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver and BookPeople in Austin.  Both of these stores have active event calendars full of the biggest names, which appear on all the best selling book lists. 

I not only want to provide a service to our residents and visitors but it is my goal to make Paragraphs a destination itself, which many independent bookstores are, and as such add to the economic strength of the island by helping to attract tourists from the valley and beyond to our little sandbar.

So, I was thrilled, excited and did I say really stoked, when I received an email from Rich Rennicks, who is in charge of bookstore outreach and event planning for Unbridled Books, a well-respected, independent, national publisher, asking if we would be interested in hosting an event for William J. Cobb upon the release of his new novel The Bird Saviors which will be published in June, 2012.

William J. Cobb is the author of a book of stories and two previous novels, including the critically acclaimed Goodnight, Texas. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and many other magazines. He has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, and the Sandstone Prize. He was raised in Texas and currently lives in Pennsylvania, where he teaches in the writing program at Penn State, and in Colorado.  So, I think you can see why I am so excited about having the opportunity to welcome this talented author to Paragraphs.

There are a couple of publishers that I consistently rely on to provide books of quality literary merit that I can always feel good about recommending for visitors to the store.  One of the things we pride ourselves on is helping an undecided reader find a great read from an author or publisher that they are not familiar with and the books from Unbridled Books are always welcome additions to our shelves.  I have recommended several of their titles in previous blog posts.  Although on my list of books and titles that looked interesting, and which I wanted to read, I had not actually taken the opportunity to read anything by William J. Cobb until Rich sent me a galley of The Bird Saviors to consider for review..  I don't have the time tonight to give this novel justice -- but once I finished it I immediately ordered Goodnight, Texas which is another incredible read written by Cobb.

So, put October 20, 2012 on your calendar and plan to show up to give Mr. Cobb a true South Padre Island welcome.