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Sometimes all you need for a book trailer is a telephone. For his new set of book trailers, author Shalom Auslander recorded dark and absurd phone calls with his friends.

To support his new novel, Hope: A Tragedy, Auslander staged strange conversations with Ira Glass (embedded above), John Hodgman and Sarah Vowell. What do you think of the series?

Here’s more about the book: “Hope: A Tragedy is a hilarious and haunting examination of the burdens and abuse of history, propelled with unstoppable rhythm and filled with existential musings and mordant wit. It is a comic and compelling story of the hopeless longing to be free of those pasts which haunt our every present.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

September went by in a flash, but I stayed on course and read Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard. I also read half of the remarkably fun How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy by Crystal Allen, and I hope I get to finish that soon. And I've started Rupta Sepetys' Between Shades of Gray, a heart-wrenching story about Stalin's forced deportation of a Lithuanian girl and her family to

I have promised you tales of BINGO, have I not?  Tales to curl the very insides of your soul.  Tales that recount my magnificent victory over Lady Luck, Charlie Chance, and Sarah Serendipity!  And recount my tale I shall, but first!  Some mood music to set the tone.

That’s the stuff!

A week and a half ago I asked you, my faithful readers, to sponsor me in the 826NYC Dueling Bingos challenge.  Not only did you respond in kind but for a while there I was wiping the floor with the competition.  Then the competition bit back, but for quite some time we were really riding the wave of most-money awesomeness.  I promised that in return I would give you one heckuva recap of the event.  And recap I shall!

Oh, the outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Betsy Bird that day.  Having just finished moderating two brilliant panelists at NYPL for my Children’s Literary Salon (Stephen Roxburgh and Jennifer Perry, and it went beautifully) I immediately sped after work with husband in tow from Manhattan to Brooklyn on a Saturday night.  If you know the New York subway system then you’ll realize what a miracle it was to get there precisely on time.

I decided to wear something appropriately Bingo-ish.  I don’t know what constitutes correct Bingo attire, but I figured it should probably involve a lot of dots, right?  Here’s what it looked like during the Lit Salon:

Thanks to Melanie Hope Greenberg for the pic.  So with dress, husband, camera, and Flip camera in tow we burst through the doors of 826NYC.

A quick word about the actual physical doors of 826NYC.  Each 826 venue (there are many throughout America) is fronted by a faux storefront that covers up the true nature of the facility in an amusing fashion.  In New York, the front is a Superhero Supply Store.  Inside you can buy many of the fun “superhero” products that they sell.

Inside the place filled up fast.  That was when we heard the rules behind the game.  You see, in dueling bingo you have an actual opponent.  Whoever you sit across from is your rival.  Then there are three games of lightning quick speed and whoever gets the best of three is crowned the ultimate winner.  Easy peasy.

To make the game a bit more lively you can take the money folks have donated in your name and “buy” extra bingo cards and even balls for the caller with your preferred number and letter.  So if you look at these cards:

2 Comments on Dueling Bingos: Emphasis on “Duel”, last added: 8/12/2010