30.12.05
2005: a year in books
It was the year we went utterly Potterly, a dark
horse won the Booker and Hunter S Thompson was blasted into the sky. But what
else happened in the world of books in 2005? Michelle Pauli rounds up the literary
year ... more
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29.12.05.
Bookworm Droppings
"An anthology of Absurd Remarks made by Customers
in Secondhand Bookshops", was published some years ago by Paul Watkins.
Time
may have moved on but the book trade and it's customers remain as idiosyncratic
as ever and if our experiences at INPRINT are anything to go by, the remarks are
just as amusing and worthy of recording.
You can order
the book and it's sequel, read a few of the gems Shaun collected, as well as Fresh
Droppings submitted by our readers here, where you
are also most welcome to leave your own droppings. :)
Just
to get you started here's a very Fresh Dropping, from the Saturday before Christmas.
'Do you have Pooh Sticks by A Milne?' To my shame I just couldn't remember which
of the Pooh books the story comes from, but placing both volumes on the counter,
I suggested the customer leaf through them to find it. Without a word, she turned
on her heal and marched out of the shop! Add a comment
28.12.05.
Matters typographical
The other day someone commented to me on what
they saw as the similarity between TheBookGuide's logo and The Guardian's old
masthead.
My reply was that our logo had been an attempt
to emphasise the fact that we were an internet only publication (thebookguide.co.uk
- with the necessity of no spaces between the words), to celebrate the beauty
of the Garamond typeface, and to highlight the most important words, by using
weight and colour.
What
the old Guardian logo and TheBookGuide's share in common is an italicised *The*
in a similar typeface - but ours is a different weight and TheBookGuide is all
in the same font. I was of course aware of the Guardian's typography, but hope
my effort - whilst obviously referencing it - uses the language of typography
to say something about ourselves. If you care about these things, you can see
both, here.
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26.12.05.
Book dealer joke
A rare book dealer was looking at some old books a
man was selling when she noticed an old bible. "I had one older than that," he
told her. "It was printed by Guten somebody. It was falling apart, so I threw
it away." The book dealer sat down. "You threw away a Gutenberg bible? Do you
realize that one recently sold for over a million dollars?" The old man dismissed
this. "Ah, this one wouldn't. Some guy named Martin Luther wrote in all the margins."
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24.12.05.
No news today ...
Thanks again to all who have contributed during the
past year and particularly to the growing band of informants who helped make maintaining
this guide a pleasure.
I hope everyone
has an enjoyable holiday, no matter what you choose to call it. Personally, I'm
going to celebrate the return of the light, by spending as much time as possible
outside and away from computers and old books. :)
The
news will return on January 2nd. However, desperate news junkies can find links
to 1,000's of book related stories and articles in our archives.
23.12.05
Top Ten most valuable comic books in January auction
Heritage Galleries
& Auctioneers (HG&A) will offer all ten of the Top Ten Most Valuable Comic Books,
as designated in the current edition of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price
Guide, in their upcoming Comic and Original Comic Art Signature Auction, to be
held January 19 - 21, 2006, in Dallas, Texas
... more
Add a comment Harry
Potter keeps children out of hospital
A study by doctors into the attendance
of children at hospital emergency departments has revealed that numbers dropped
by almost a half on the weekends when Harry Potter books were released. The research,
published today in the British Medical Journal, suggests that the boy wizard’s
adventures are directly responsible for keeping accident-prone children out of
hospital ... more
Add a comment Vatican
opens up secrets of forbidden books list
The Vatican has opened up to German
historians the secret records associated with the Catholic Church's former Index
of Forbidden Books, revealing that well-loved books of the 19th century nearly
came under bans ...
more
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22.12.05
Ancient prayer book to be shown at V&A
For 300 years it has been a book
without a beginning, middle or end. But thanks to scholarly detective work, a
15th century Book of Hours, written for King Louis XII of France, has been pieced
back together and will go on display for the first time at the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London in February
... more
Add a comment Bible
is rare King James original
Tidings of great joy came to the University
of Manitoba this month with the discovery that a Bible donated to one of its founding
colleges more than a century ago is one of the first King James Bibles ever printed
... more
Add a comment Priest's
hunch finally uncovers Porto's hidden holy scrolls
Few people ever knew,
but the medieval alleys of the Portuguese city of Porto on the Atlantic coast
once provided cover for a persecuted minority at risk of being burnt at the stake
...
more Add a comment
21.12.05
Fight to removed Hemingway's name from bar
Would Ernest Hemingway - the
Nobel Prize-winning author with a well known liking for a cocktail or two - really
have minded having his name grace a drinking establishment? ...more
Add a comment BookFinder.com's
Top 10 out of print books of 2005
According to BookFinder.com’s research,
the top 10 most sought after US out of print books of 2005 are...more
Add a comment Famous
Five tops poll
Enid Blyton, who was called "the 20th century Mother Goose",
still reigns supreme this century. Yesterday adults voted her Famous Five series
as their favourite books for children. The series - which started 63 years ago
- beat friendly lions, hobbits, wizards and big friendly giants. It narrowly pipped
Chronicles of Narnia to win first place despite the boost given to CS Lewis's
stories by the current film...more
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20.12.05
Comic
books can become a serious habit
As a family practice physician, Dr. Jeffrey
Rapp of Fremont provides all kinds of relief to area residents - including comic
relief - because Rapp has collected comic books as far back as he can remember...more
Add a comment Some
150 valuable books to return to Hungary
The Russian State Duma has adopted
in the second reading a law which will allow the return of cultural valuables
taken to the USSR from the Sarospatak library during World War II...more
Add a comment Pile
of scrap once cast a fortune
Steve Blum has been spending his days locked
up alone in a silent warehouse in central New Jersey, sorting through boxes of
what looks like scrap metal. But to him, the dusty shingles are buried treasure.
These old dies and plates were once used to print items of great worth: bank notes,
stock certificates and bond coupons, as well as postage stamps, tickets, playing
cards and other types of paper ephemera...more
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19.12.05
The
History of Santa Claus
Our cultural melting pot led to many different versions
of Santa eventually melding into the jolly fellow we recognize today, and thus
begins the history of Santa Claus...more
Add a comment Will
2005's books echo down the years to come?
At this time of year, it's time
to take stock of what's been published, and begin a first winnowing. How many
good books make it a good year for books? Do we write classics any more? Books
that last? Are we drowning in a torrent of pulp? One simple benchmark might be
the surviving books of 1905, at least according to The Oxford Companion to English
Literature...more
Add a comment The
treasures of Timbuktu
Today, treasures are being unearthed here that are
radically changing the way the world views Timbuktu, Africa and her history. They're
called the "Timbuktu manuscripts" and they disprove the myth that Africa had no
written history...more
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17.12.05
Your
Comics Online launches web site
"The idea is to have a community where
comic collectors can discuss topics related to our favorite hobby," Stu Berryhill,
co-founder of Your Comics Online and long-time comic collector, said. "We want
to be a forum for information on fair grading of comic books and correct shipping
procedures that will help protect against damage. Another goal of the site is
to help in the reduction of any other ‘negative phenomena’ that tends to cheapen
the comics we collect"...more
Add a comment Auction
provides glimpse of Kennedys
John F. Kennedy's 1951 passport sold for $54,000
and Jacqueline Kennedy's 1953 passport for $56,500 yesterday, the opening day
of an auction of Kennedy memorabilia that offers a glimpse into their daily lives...more
Add a comment Rare
cricket book sells
A rare book chronicling the visit of a team of Irish
cricketers to the America more than 125 years ago fetched 4,419 Eueos at Bonhams
in London...more
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16.12.05
Audubon
book `Birds of America' sells for $5.6 million
A rare complete edition
of John James Audubon's "The Birds of America" was auctioned Thursday for $5.6
million, ending three years of legal wrangling over a decision by a financially
strapped Providence, R.I., library to dispose of its most valuable holding...more
Add a comment 'Terrorised'
writers lament state's assault on free speech
Ertugrul Kurkcu has been
hauled before the judges for saying the wrong thing so many times that he has
almost lost count. "Six or seven trials, always acquitted, but I did get a 10-month
jail sentence from a military court for translating a Human Rights Watch report,"
says the veteran leftwing Turkish dissident...more
Add a comment Ulysses
first edition makes 100,000 Euros
A copy of James Joyce masterpiece, Ulysses,
today sold for 107,000 Euros at an auction in London. The first edition fetched
over twice its guide price at Sotheby’s sale of English Literature & History Books
in New Bond Street...more
Add a comment Edith
Wharton's books finally arrive in Massachusetts after 100 years
During
Edith Wharton's well-travelled life, the American writer crossed the Atlantic
an impressive 66 times. Now, after many months of negotiations, her extensive
library is to cross the Atlantic again, to the US from Britain...more
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15.12.05
Playing
with the past
A presentation of collected children’s games and pastimes,
dating primarily from the 19th century, is on show at the Bodleian Library, Oxford
University until April 29 2006...more
Add a comment Library's
'Birds of America' to be auctioned today
After nearly three years of infighting
and courtroom skirmishes, the Providence Athenaeum on Thursday will auction off
its most valuable holding -- John James Audubon's celebrated "The Birds of America"...more
Add a comment Bookstore's
closing "the end of an era"
Imagine just about anything that could be
printed on paper: posters, postcards, pamphlets, letters, manuscripts, invitations
- and box after box after box of books. That's what David Ishii was virtually
swimming through Wednesday as he worked to dismantle the small bookstore he opened
in Pioneer Square, Seattle, in 1972...more
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14.12.05
Map
room restored
The room's bronze-handled doors were shuttered nine months
ago. But Thursday, after a $5 million restoration, the largest map collection
in any public library in the world will reopen in its Beaux-Arts jewelry box at
the New York Public Library, a room noted for its spectacular corner view of Fifth
Avenue and 42nd Street...more
Add a comment Iran
has largest collection of handwritten books
Iran has the largest collection
of handwritten books in the world, declared the Director General of Handwritten
Books Department of Iran National Library Habibollah Azimi...more
Add a comment Dyslexic
writer savours Nestle victory
An author with severe dyslexia, who did
not learn to read until she was 14, has beaten Philip Pullman to this year's Nestle
children's book prize. Sally Gardner's fantasy adventure, I, Coriander, was chosen
by a panel of schoolchildren as the best book in the nine-to-11 years category...more
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13.12.05
Memoir:
Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs by Jeremy Mercer
On the left bank of the Seine,
set back a few yards from the river and with a perfect view of the Ile de la Cité,
is one of Paris’s stranger institutions. It is a small, ramshackle second-hand
bookshop, specialising in English books, a favourite with tourists, an unofficial
guesthouse and site for literary happenings of varying quality. For more than
50 years, the shop, now known as Shakespeare and Company, has attracted to it
men and women, mostly young and usually idealistic, whose greatest dream is to
be a writer...more
Add a comment Stolen
books can stay lost for years, even decades
Ken Sanders, past chairman
of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America's Security Committee, says
book theft and fraud are on the rise across the country. When he began his tenure
as chairman six years ago, he issued a couple of dozen book-theft and fraud alerts
each year. In April, when he stepped down, he was issuing more than 100 alerts
a year...more
Add a comment Lennon's
exercise book for sale
John Lennon's old school exercise book, complete
with an illustration of a walrus, is expected to fetch up to £90,000 at Sotheby`s
auction in London, on Thursday...more
Add a comment Libraries
tightening security as thefts rise
It's been a bad year for thefts from
cultural institutions, libraries in particular. Thursday -- just two days after
the four defendants were sentenced to seven years in federal prison for stealing
from Transylvania -- news broke of another theft of historical artifacts from
a Kentucky institution. This time the thief was a 70-year-old retired executive
who pinched more than 53 documents and other objects from the Filson Historical
Society in Louisville...more
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12.12.05
Book-lover
earns ownership of bookshop
Last month, Stan Katz deeded the store over
to Bob Wayne. The shop is now called Bob's I Love Books. "He earned it by sweat
equity, and that's the best kind of equity there is," Katz said...more
Add a comment Sci-fi
author Robert Sheckley dead at 77
Prolific science fiction author Robert
Sheckley has died from complications of a brain aneurysm, The New York Times reported
Saturday. Sheckly was considered one of science fiction's seminal humorists, the
newspaper said. He wrote more than 15 novels and around 400 short stories. The
count may actually be higher, however, since he often wrote stories under pseudonyms.
His work has been translated into 10 languages and is extremely popular in Eastern
Europe...more
Add a comment In
the book market, the first word counts
This holiday season, some lucky
person will receive a first-edition set of all six "Harry Potter" books by J.K.
Rowling. The set, which is featured in the Christmas catalogue of Peter Harrington
Antiquarian Booksellers, comes with a whopping £28,500 price tag; it has already
been reserved, the bookseller said...more
Add a comment Kashmir
quake survivors burned books
When night fell after the October 8 quake
dozens of survivors stormed the shattered state-run Khursheed National Library.
In that one night alone, an estimated 10 000 books and thousands of newspapers
went up in smoke, and the looting and burning of literary treasures continued
for the next three days until the army moved in and stopped the practice. By then,
half of the library's books had been turned into ashes...more
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09.12.05
They
call it carnage
A good book in John Milton's day was the precious lifeblood
of a master spirit. Today the accolade goes to a bookshop. Truly the medium is
the message. It is a bookshop that "embalms and treasures up a life beyond life".
A bookshop is the place of cultural worship, the high street's hallowed ground.
When Borders sold the first double-shot latte with chocolate or cinnamon in a
bookshop, it was like swearing in church. People are soft in the head about bookshops...more
Add a comment Stolen
script for 'Casablanca' recovered
United States detectives have recovered
original manuscripts from Casablanca, Citizen Kane and My Fair Lady while investigating
a series of burglaries in the Los Angeles area. US detective sergeant Bobby Hughes
of the San Bernardino county sheriff's station in Victorville said the thieves
"didn't know how to get rid of (the stolen goods) because the stuff was so hot
it's not like you can sell this on eBay. That's why they held onto it for so long"...more
Add a comment Princeton's
rare Islamic texts collection go online
In a marriage of new technology
and old documents, a vast treasure trove of information about life in the early
Islamic world is about to go online, enabling Muslims, scholars and the merely
curious to peer into a window on the faith's rich historyn...more
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08.12.05
Book
gang sentenced
They admitted stealing millions of dollars in rare books
and art from Transylvania University. On Tuesday night, a federal judge sentenced
the four college friends from Lexington to the minimum sentence of seven years
and three months each in prison...more
Add a comment Rare
volumes returned
Two volumes of rare copies of a sports newspaper missing
for more than a year from the University of Illinois library were found on a table
there after officials appealed for their return, the library said Wednesday.
Library
officials say someone obviously decided to return the missing volumes of Collyer's
Eye, an old baseball tabloid credited with helping to expose the gambling scandal
involving members of the Chicago White Sox during the 1919 World Series...more
Add a comment Motion
Picture Arts Gallery moves
The legendary Motion Picture Arts Gallery announces
that it has recently moved its headquarters from its original Manhattan location
to 90 Oak Street in East Rutherford, New Jersey...more
Add a comment Stan
Berenstain
The American writer and illustrator Stan Berenstain, who has
died of lymphoma aged 82, was one half of the husband and wife partnership that
produced more than 250 titles about Papa, Mama, Brother and Sister - the lovable
Berenstain Bear family...more
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06.12.05
How
to keep a gorilla, and other stories
As ape-obsessed publishers disgorge
an avalanche of Kong-related dross, Iain Sharp tells the true history of gorilla
lit...more
Add a comment A
slave poet's $253,000 letter
Phillis Wheatley first set foot in this country
as a child of the auction block. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped in 1761
and transported to Boston by way of a slave ship. After arriving she was sold
to John Wheatley. Last month, under extremely different circumstances, she returned
to the block again. This time the item up for sale was a letter written and signed
by Wheatley on Feb. 14, 1776...more
Add a comment Rock
memorabilia market booms
The rock memorabilia market is exploding. It's
no longer unusual for the most serious collectors to shell out well over $100,000
for top items. These collectors were rock fans in the Sixties and Seventies, and
now they have a lot of money," says John Collins, managing director of U.K. rock
auction house Cooper Owen. "They're buying their history"...more
Add a comment National
history devoured by mould and bugs
Millions of rare artifacts in museums
and libraries across the United States are slowly disintegrating because of improper
storage, according to a survey said to be the largest ever look at the condition
of such collections...more
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05.12.05
Howard
Gotlieb, an archivist with persistence
Howard B. Gotlieb, a Boston University
archivist who cajoled, charmed, wheedled and - most effectively, he said - groveled
to snare the papers of notables like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bette
Davis, not to mention Fred Astaire's dancing shoes, died Thursday at a Boston
hospital. He was 79...more
Add a comment Veiled
ode to George Bush deleted from Pakistani textbooks
At first sight it
is little more than a poetic polemic about the virtues of an effective leader.
But a poem has been removed from school textbooks in Pakistan after it became
clear that the first letter of each line spelt out "President George W Bush"...more
Add a comment Battle
of Lake George documents sell for $68,000
"A Prospective-Plan of the Battle
near Lake George, on the Eighth Day of September, 1755, with an Explanation thereof:
Containing A full, tho' short, History of the important Affair. By Samuel Blodget,
Officially at the Camp, when the Battle was fought." That was the full name of
a historical pamphlet detailing the 1755 Battle of Lake George, which sold at
a Sotheby's auction on Thursday for $13,000...more
Add a comment
02.12.05
Food
critic Coren wins British bad sex award
It was the shower hose that clinched
it. A passage from his debut novel, Winkler, describing a male character's genitalia
as "leaping around like a shower dropped in an empty bath" won the 13th annual
Literary Review award for Bad Sex in Fiction for food-critic-turned-novelist Giles
Coren last night...more
Add a comment Beethoven
manuscript fetches £1.1m
The lost autograph manuscript of one of Ludwig
van Beethoven's most revolutionary works, which had been missing for 115 years,
fetched £1.1m at auction at Sotheby's yesterday...more
Add a comment Ludwig
and Rabbie: A partnership that ended in tears
When an Edinburgh publisher
tried to unite one of the world's great composers with an internationally acclaimed
poet, he hoped to make his fortune. But the failure of the resulting Beethoven
manuscript to sell at auction yesterday is a reminder of how badly things went
wrong...more
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01.12.05
Book
stolen from Danish Royal Library sold at auction
An unidentified foreign
buyer won the bid for a 500-year-old copy of Thomas More's book "Utopia" stolen
from the Danish Royal Library, news reports said Wednesday. The 1516 book was
sold for 1.3 million kroner (205,000 dollars) at Copenhagen auction house Bruun
Rasmussen...more
Add a comment Strange
odyssey of a poet's diary
Swiped, B.L. Kennedy says, by a junkie in the
mid-1990s, the diary somehow found its way to a respected San Francisco rare book
auction house. It is now for sale on Abebooks and Biblio, for $10,000...more
Add a comment Mental
illness link to art and sex
From Lord Byron to Dylan Thomas and beyond,
the famous philanderers of the art world may have had a touch of mental illness
to thank for their behaviour, psychologists report...more
Add a comment One
of earliest Buddhist manuscripts acquired
A project that is fundamentally
changing the way scholars look at the ancient world and the teachings of the Buddha
has received a major addition. A birch bark manuscript from a Buddhist monastery,
believed to have been written in the first or second century A.D., was recently
acquired by the University of Washington Libraries and will become a key component
of the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project...more
Add a comment Modern
tools to unlock Ancient Texts
Tools for ancient texts have been successfully
created that will open up rare texts and manuscripts locked away in museums, libraries
and archives, and promote new kinds of scholarship while also preserving large
swathes of European history and culture for the future...more
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