By JOHN E. BIALAS Time for trivia. Rachel Kushner’s new, long-awaited and highly recommended essay collection was published on 4-6-21, and the California novelist said the title comes from lyrics in a Cream song. This post will list five Cream songs and I invite you to guess the one that inspired Kushner to create the […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS The roof leaks at our Barnes and Noble in Gulfport, Miss., and because of that, the valuable real estate that is the front of the Crossroads store gets caught when it rains day and night like it did on Tuesday, 3-23-21. The display of new books is moved to a spot […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS The winter storm brought ice, incredible ice to Gulfport on Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras, or in 2021, Yardi Gras because of house floats and no parades during the covid pandemic, but the only snow I saw was in the window display at Barnes & Noble. I took the […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS My blog’s name is You Can Learn From Books, whose inspiration comes from a scene in the 1964 Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night.” The scene involves an exchange between Paul McCartney’s grandfather, played by actor Wilfred Brambell, and Ringo Starr, played by Ringo. I found the exchange on IMDB and […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS I received a Goodreads email Thursday night (1-7-21) and the subject line was “John Rachel has invited you to the event: FREE READ … The Worst Book Ever Written!” I was intrigued and couldn’t wait to see what this was all about from an author I knew nothing about. I blocked […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS See the autograph that is in the image at the top of this fine piece of journalism? It appears in one of the Barnes & Noble 2020 Black Friday editions and I was interested in buying the book until I saw the awful signature at the Gulfport store on Tuesday. I […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS Something that brought me immense joy in 2020 was the magical convergence of New Orleans, Melba’s, books and Matthew McConaughey on Nov. 24, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. McConaughey was on Facebook Live and Zoom from Austin, Texas, for a lively Q&A with fans who went to Melba’s to receive a free […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS I received a Tourneau catalog in the mail at home in Gulfport, Mississippi, two weeks ago, not that I wanted one, and I had planned to trash it immediately. Instead, I looked at it from front to back for a minute or two and saw nothing that would entice me to […]
By JOHN E. BIALAS Yeah, this post’s lead image features the cover of Pattie Boyd’s memoir, “Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me.” I enjoyed reading the book shortly after it was published in 2007 because I was curious to know about the rock music muse who was also among the influencers in the […]