My Book Trail: Austin Kleon
To get us in the spirit of this year’s Austin Texas Book Trail on April 12 + 13, we asked a few of our favorite local readers, writers, and community orgs about bookshops on their must-stop list. Keep scrolling to learn which bookstores Austin Kleon is hitting up this year.
✽ Meet Austin Kleon, local author + artist
Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going. He’s also the author of Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker. His books have sold nearly two million copies and have been translated into over 30 languages. He’s been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. New York Magazine called his work “brilliant,” The Atlantic called him “positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet,” and The New Yorker said his poems “resurrect the newspaper when everybody else is declaring it dead.” He speaks for organizations such as Pixar, Google, Netflix, SXSW, TEDx, Dropbox, Adobe, and The Economist. In previous lives, he worked as a librarian, a web designer, and an advertising copywriter. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and sons. Visit him online at www.austinkleon.com
What’s on Austin Kleon’s Book Trail?
I live in South Allandale, so my list would be entirely dependent on what I can hit on my bike.
Livra Books on the Guadalupe edge of Hyde Park hits a really sweet spot for me — a well-curated used bookstore whose prices aren't totally outrageous. I also love that tiny little arcade building.
Just east a few blocks is First Light Books, which is in the new plaza where the old post office used to be and makes me wonder if I suddenly got transported to LA. It's a beautiful shop with a good selection. (I might get a slice and an affogato at All Day Pizza next door.)
From there I would head south on Speedway and cut over to campus and check in with Alienated Majesty, who took over the space from Malvern Books (RIP). See if they have any funky indie comics or some NYRB Classics I don't already own.
Then I would zip down the outstanding bike lane on Rio Grande and all the way to 9th, cut west and stop at BookPeople to see if they have any internet orders of my own books for me to sign. Then I'd browse their music and philosophy sections a bit.
Now for a nice long uphill ride back, I'd cut through Pease Park, and keep heading up Shoal Creek past 2222 and up to Black Pearl Books to hang out with Eric and Katrina. (Although the best day to visit is Prince Friday, when Eric plays his mix of The Purple One.)
If I was still feeling like riding, I would bike east into Crestview, cruise down Arroyo Seco, and wind up at Recycled Reads. (My favorite thing to buy there is old tapes and CDs.)
That's a nice 15-mile bike ride for a weekend in April!