Hello Bookmans World! Thanks for coming out and meeting some incredible animals! Volunteers from Arizona Greyhound Rescue were on hand to answer questions and introduce you to some amazing creatures. Volunteer opportunities, adoption and much more. This is a great organization and Bookmans loves the Greyhounds!

Find us on Flickr to check out the pictures from this awesome event! PeaceLove

Hey Bookmans Universe! Check this out! 9 Queens and Bookmans held the first ever 9 Queens Family Chess Experience right here at the Speedway store! There were pick-up games, puzzles and prizes and much chess fun was had. Thank you 9 queens! Lets do it again! It was a chessrific event!

Find us on Flickr to check out the pictures from the event! PeaceLove

This past Saturday night at The Loft Cinema, Bookmans celebrated our community's efforts to fight censorship, and our support of the weekly Cult Classics screened every Friday and Saturday night, with a special screening of A Clockwork Orange! We had a great time and gave away some serious Bookmans goodies to folks in attendance, including our classic lightbulb censorship T-shirts, $10 gift cards, six $50 Bookmans' gift certificates, and three $100 Fight Censorship goodie bags filled with books, CDs, and movies that have been challenged or banned in our country.

Paul Sprawl has his own approach to music, the guitar, songwriting, and to finding an audience for his work. He sprouted a small national following by traveling around in a van going to open mics. His songs combine percussive guitar techniques with bottleneck, tapping, harmonica on a rack, and songs of the downtrodden and forgotten. He travels with a truck-stop guide next to the driver's seat, has a college arts education and put out six CD's in seven years. One of those stops was right here in Bookmans on Speedway. Paul Sprawl delighted us with an afternoon of incredible music! Thanks Paul and all those who came out to listen!

Thursday morning, Sept. 23, I attended the press conference for the brand new Shift Arizona campaign created by the amazing individuals of Local First Arizona. Watching Kimber Lanning speak is always a pleasure. A true power-house for her local community and the entire state of Arizona, Kimber explained to us the large impact of changing a small percentage of our spending habits. I absolutely love the tag line, "A local shift, a big lift for your community." By taking on the simple goal of shifting 10% of your spending habits to support a locally owned business you can make a big impact. When you spend in Arizona, your money stays in Arizona. Shopping local takes a little more effort, however it doesn't have to cost you any more money. Using the Local First Arizona business directory, you can quickly find out if there is a local alternative to your needs. I personally have been doing what I can to create new spending habits. I've realized that it's not that difficult and I feel much better knowing I am doing what I can to support my immediate community.

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: Poopoo Choochoo

Hey everyone! I'm Nature, here to tell you about two guys in a band called Regretting Silence, now know as Wild at Heart. These two local guys came in Saturday and played a short but sweet set of their original music. Great voices and smooth guitar, these self taught musicians swept the crowd away with their stellar jams. Keep an eye out for these guys playing a venue near you. Check out the pics from Saturday's event at this link! PeaceLove  

Fight Censorship month here at Bookmans has always been one of our favorite months because we love digging through our boxes of books for the classics we grew up with and seeing why they were banned or censored. We are thrilled with the chance to share the gift of information with our customers in any form and show them that books they read or are reading aren’t allowed in some locations. In honor of all that has been banned, we chose one of the most beloved banned books from this past decade to celebrate with our local kids.

In 2001, J.K. Rowling put out her first children's book, The Sorcerers Stone, and within those pages a new fandom was born based around everything Harry Potter. We chose to celebrate this banned book because on a daily basis, we help our customers invite the adventures of Harry Potter into their homes and see how quickly and easily people become enamored with the magical story set within the seven books. We’re very familiar with the wizarding world and wish daily we could live there ourselves, so what better way to fight censorship and celebrate Harry and his gang than to bring Hogwarts into Bookmans?

Last Saturday, the East Valley Children’s Theatre blasted into their 2010 season with an abridged performance of the beloved classic, The Emperor's New Clothes, at Bookmans in Mesa.

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: Runaway Train

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: Calic-uh-oh

Almost everyone in my family is a lawyer, and they've all been trial lawyers at one time or another. My mother once told me that whenever she would get really nervous to stand in front of a judge, or, on occasion, the whole supreme court, she would imagine that the judges were all sitting on their toilets, taking a poo. She said it reminded her that whatever our jobs and responsibilities, we're all human. Her internal giggle made it possible to start her case.

September has always been Fight Censorship Month at Bookmans and we make it bigger and more awesome every year to make sure our customers are aware that we help protect their freedom to read, watch, play, and listen to whatever they want. Sept. 12 was also National Video Games Day, so in honor of both, we set up multiple gaming consoles and invited our customers to sit back and play some of their favorite games that have been banned or censored.

People challenged each other to games like Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty, and Counter Strike. Others enjoyed playing solo with Zelda, Reservoir Dogs, Manhunt 2, and Grand Theft Auto (almost every single Grand Theft Auto every made has been banned at some point). The Nintendo games we started the night off with weren’t necessarily banned, but Nintendo did re-edit them to censor out certain imagery, language, and content they felt would tarnish their image such as Duck Tales, Zelda, and Wolfenstein 3-D.

Sunday at Bookmans Mesa, we had muggles, magic, and much, much, more. In honor of Fight Censorship Month at Bookmans, we held a Harry Potter party. (Did you know Harry Potter was banned?)

We started by gathering everyone in a circle and let each participant reach in the sorting hat to get sorted by house names. Everyone who drew a house received a special edition house/Bookmans lanyard to commemorate this awesome day. After everyone had been sorted by their houses, the party kicked into gear!

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: The Immortal

Living in a hippy mountain town like Flagstaff, I often see the bumper sticker that reads “Follow Your Bliss” and wonder: How do I do that? What is bliss?

This much I do know: bliss is different than comfort. I enjoy an ice-cream cone, I like my high thread count sheets, I enjoy watching movies on a big screen TV, but none of these bring me bliss, unless the ice-cream is a true pistachio Italian gelato. So, how do I follow my bliss, other than shipping out to Florence? I guess I should start by thinking about what I'm doing when bliss finds me.

When I walked into Madcap Theaters and took a seat, I had no idea what an experience the evening would be. You can watch the trailers and read the fine print on their website, but nothing will prepare you for Everything is Terrible II: Tokyo Drift.

I thought I was going to watch a collection of clips from the long lost media known as VHS [insert dramatic music]. What I experienced was two hours of said clips, but also short intermissions of audience participation and appearances by the Everything is Terrible monsters themselves. Who knew that the creators were a bunch of seven foot tall, furry, and extremely excitable creatures who enjoy VHS tapes, Jerry Maguire, and high fives?!

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: Flared Up!

You can also find The Konamis on Facebook or on Twitter.

Day before yesterday, Bookmans hosted a free Fandango puppet making event at the downtown public library, and everyone had a blast! We had monsters with many googly eyes, cyclops spiders, fuzzy puppy dogs, office workers with pipe cleaner ties, and all sorts of crazy creatures and characters! I made a super girly puppet that incorporated many of my daughter's favorite things, including: butterflies, flowers, cupcakes (one in the mouth & two in the hand), a motorcycle, and ladybugs. For the last twenty-four hours, I have had no trouble at all getting my 22-month-old to eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed, with the help of the sparkly puppet. I had no idea how powerful puppet peer pressure could be!