Detroit’s Source Booksellers to take part in world record book signing attempt Saturday

Independent bookstores across the world are participating in an effort to break the world record for the most authors to sign a book in one day on Saturday, July 16.

Detroit’s own Source Booksellers is joining the cause organized by contributors to The Carbon Almanac, a new book that breaks down climate change and sustainability issues in an easy-to-understand format.

The Carbon Almanac was collectively created by more than 100 volunteer researchers, and authors in more than 20 countries including metro Detroit natives Tonya Downing and Kristy Sharrow. The project is helmed by writer and editor Seth Godin.

They hope attempting the world record will continue the conversation and make the urgency of climate change clear for people across the globe. Downing and Sharrow will be at Source Booksellers for the signing on Saturday from 1-2 p.m.

Downing, who has a marketing background, says the book presents unbiased facts and uses a threshold of publicly sourced, academic data. It dispels myths like the idea of carbon footprints being the responsibility of individual people rather than corporations.

“The idea of an individual carbon footprint was actually a marketing tactic by BP in the 2000s to shift the corporate responsibility onto the individual,” she explains. “What we want to do is reverse that and say alone, as an individual things like recycling matter, but not nearly as much as we think. Only about 9% of what we recycle actually gets recycled, and what matters more is that we hold the people up top accountable. It’s a systemic problem that’s going to require systemic change.”

Event manager for Source Booksellers Alyson Turner (whose mother owns the shop) is excited for Detroit to be in the mix of a worldwide effort.

“We hope this can help engage the community around us and just try and liven up the neighborhood,” she says. “We thought it would be a fun addition to the Summer Saturday in Midtown series and we’re having a happy hour on summer reads after the book signing.”

Summer Saturday in Midtown is a monthly event where businesses in the Detroit neighborhood have sidewalk sales, and special discounts to encourage people to check out local businesses.

Source Booksellers is located at 4240 Cass Ave., UNIT 105, Detroit; sourcebooksellers.com.

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