IU Press offers unique holiday gift ideas for book lovers

Scholars, professors and book lovers will have an opportunity to break free from the normal big-market book-buying experience this holiday season. \nThe IU Press Holiday Book Sale will take place 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Saturday in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union, offering more than 350 titles and featuring book signings by local authors Reid Duffy, Darryl Jones and Norbert Krapf.\nDuffy, who is a food critic for the Daily Journal in Franklin, Ind., and for Indianapolis DINE Magazine, has just published his newly updated version of "Reid Duffy's Guide to Indiana's Favorite Restaurants."\n"I tried to write as succinct a history as possible of about 30 icon Indiana restaurants throughout the state in the original book," Duffy said. "In the updated versions, I featured reviews from around 430 Hoosier restaurants."\nThe IU Press Holiday Book Sale is Duffy's first scheduled book signing, but he plans to join 90 other Hoosier authors for the Indiana Historical Society's annual holiday book signing program in December.\nThe IU Press was responsible for publishing both the original and updated versions of Duffy's restaurant guide.\nJones, a photographer, and Krapf, a poet, will be available to sign their compilation book, "Invisible Presence: A Walk through Indiana in Photographs and Poems."\nThe IU Press lists all of its available titles in a catalog it distributes each semester to a variety of businesses, faculty, staff members and libraries. Its sales representatives also use the catalogs at meetings and events.\nThe IU Press, a nonprofit organization, prints about 80 to 100 books each year and has been responsible for publishing more than 2,100 titles over the past few decades, said Pat Hoefling, director of marketing and sales at the IU Press.\n"We have everything from academic articles and women's studies to humor -- even books that you can find in a Barnes and Noble," Hoefling said. "Basically, we have something for everyone." \nAlong with the latest work from IU professors, IU Press also works in cooperation with local, national and international writers and critics. Among these are the United Nations and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Hoefling said.\nFor more information, visit the IU Press Web site at www.iupress.indiana.edu.