Welcome to the Texas Reads blog. My name is Glenn Dromgoole, and I have been writing a syndicated newspaper column called Texas Reads for seven years. Now I'm expanding it to a blog as well, as a way to supplement the information in the column and make it available to residents who may not see the printed column.
The column appears every week in the Abilene Reporter-News, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, San Angelo Standard Times, Bryan-College Station Eagle, Beaumont Enterprise, and New Braunfels Herald Zeitung, and from time to time in the Round Rock Leader.
In the column I write about Texas books and authors, and that's what I will do in this blog. The blog will allow me to comment on some books that I might not get around to in my column, pass on information about book events around the state, and offer some recommendations, top 10 lists, and such from time to time.
Be aware, I will also take the opportunity to promote some of my own books, since I can't write about them in my column, and I will also tell you about the Texas book and gift store that my wife and I own in downtown Abilene.
It's Texas Star Trading Company, and you can look up our website at http://www.texasstartrading.com/. We offer discounts on nearly all the Texas books we sell. And if you can't find the book on our website, you can always call or e-mail us and see if it's available or can be ordered. Our telephone number is 325-672-9696; the store's e-mail address is info.texasstar@yahoo.com. You may have seen the ad that we run in Texas Monthly every month, usually promoting our line of T-shirts, mugs, tote bags, magnets and note pads with the phrase "Fixin' To -- The State Verb of Texas."
If you want to tell me about upcoming book festivals and other literary events, e-mail me at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net. I am not providing an opportunity for direct feedback on this blog because I am strongly opposed to anonymous postings.
I am the author of 22 books, which you can find on the Texas Star website and which I will talk about every so often. My latest is a book of meditations for men on baseball and life which I co-authored with my friend Phil Christopher, an Abilene minister. It's called Parables from the Diamond, it's $9.95 ($8.95 at Texas Star), and it makes a great gift for a man or young person. The 50 pieces in the book are quite short and they all try to relate something from baseball to the kind of daily issues and challenges men face in their lives.
Before I started writing books, I was a newspaper writer and editor for more than 30 years, including 12 years as editor of the Abilene Reporter-News.
Enough for now. I hope you will tell other people who like books about this blog. And keep me posted on literary developments around the state.
Thanks, and good reading.
Glenn Dromgoole
