Bloomsday-BYOBook Event a Success!

Bloomsday St. Petersburg - we did it!

Two weeks ago was our BLOOMSDAY - BYOBook event at Wilson's Book World and we had a great turnout to celebrate James Joyce and Ulysses.  I want to thank Jeff Morris at Wilson's Book World and Tiffany Razzano from Wordier Than Thou for partnering with me on this event and helping me promote it.  A huge thanks to our sponsor J.J. Taylor and Guinness for providing refreshments for everyone.  I also want to thank Chuck Vosburgh for the photos, Joe Deal for filming the event, and my brother Randy Myers for assisting with everything else.

With Wilson's owner and
my co-host Jeff Morris.

I've planned many events over the years, but this was one was probably one of the hardest due to my juggling so many aspects of it.  In addition to reading all 786 pages of Ulysses in just three weeks (and tweeting about it daily), I also divided up the 18 episodes into five minute sections and assembled a list of 18 readers, several who dropped out at the last minute due to illness and had to be replaced.  Let me tell you something, getting people to read from Ulysses is not easy!  Finding 18 was near impossible.

John Fleming kicks off the
readings with Episode One.

It was an event I had been wanting to do for a while and it was nice to finally do it surrounded by so many of my friends.  My favorite part of the event was probably our "Best Molly Bloom" contest where the winner received a bottle of burgundy wine and a block of Gorgonzola cheese (in honor of Leopold Bloom!)  The women (and man) who competed offered up a variety of hilarious readings that made the judging that much harder on John Fleming (former performing arts critic for the Tampa Bay Times and my special guest reader.)

"Best Molly Bloom" contestants

Our winner was Jude!

I've edited a video with some of the highlights, which was almost as hard as planning the event as there was over two hours of footage!  Plus there were so many fun moments to share but I couldn't possibly include them all.  Thanks again to everybody that participated or attended the event, and who knows, maybe we will do it again next year!

I had every library copy of
Ulysses in Pinellas County.

Guests enjoying cans of Guinness.

Explaining the purpose of Bloomsday.

Stan Myers introduces us
to Leopold Bloom.

Richard Dipietra reads
Episode Nine. 

Corinne Broskette & Davina Reid
act out Episode 15.

Jeff Morris whipping out his
Finnegans Wake.

And of course, me performing
"JOYCE Around"

Thanks to my fabulous readers that included: John Fleming, Mary Ellen Dipietra, Paul Wilborn, Jude (from the audience), Stan Myers, Allan Smith, Eddie Nunez, Meredith Myers, Christine Page, Richard Dipietra, Jeff Morris, Justin Grant, Cole Bellamy, Lynn Waddell, Davina Reid, Corinne Broskette, Chuck Vosburgh and Pat Vosburgh.

For more photos, please visit my FB page here.

For a direct link to the Bloomsday video, click here.

"I came to get down.  I came to get down.  So get out your books and JOYCE Around..."

BLOOMSDAY - BYOBook Event - June 16

So excited to announce an event I have been wanting to do for years...

To celebrate the life of Irish writer JAMES JOYCE and his groundbreaking novel ULYSSES, Wordier Than Thou, StandUpLibrarian.com and Wilson's Book World present BLOOMSDAY - BYOBook on Monday, June 16 from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. at Wilson's.

Hosted by Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers and Jeff Morris of Wilson's Book World, BLOOMSDAY - BYOBook will feature readings from Ulysses and performances honoring Joyce, plus offer a variety of Irish-themed refreshments all with the mission to unite the community in reading one of the most important works of modernist literature. The event is completely FREE and will also feature special Bloomsday/James Joyce-inspired literary accessories by Stand-Up Librarian Designs.

Your literary hosts Meredith Myers & Jeff Morris. 

"Think of this night as one kick-ass book club 

because if you are going to read a tough novel like Ulysses, 

why not do it with a Guinness in one hand and a microphone in the other? 

St. Petersburg, get your books out and let's JOYCE Around!" 

- Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers

To RSVP for the event, visit our FB event page here. For more information or to get involved with reading or submitting any Bloomsday/Joyce-inspired art or performance piece, please contact Tiffany Razzano at WordierThanThou@gmail.com or Meredith Myers at StandUpLibrarianMM@gmail.com

***Leading up to the event on June 16th, Meredith and Tiffany will be also be sharing their personal experiences reading Ulysses on Twitter. To get involved and read along, follow Meredith @StandUpLibraryN and Tiffany @WordierThanThou

For a direct link to Meredith's "JOYCE Around" literary music video honoring James Joyce, click here.