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31.10.08.
Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair
The 32nd Boston
International Antiquarian Book Fair, one of the oldest and most
respected antiquarian book shows in the country, will take place
November 14 through November 16, 2008, at Boston’s Hynes Convention
Center ... more
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A bookshop
in a shopping mall? My word
The renowned
independent bookshop Foyles is evidently treating with some scepticism
rumours of the demise of the book. At least, that's the message
I took from the fact that yesterday, when the vast new London shopping
centre Westfield threw open its doors, the company had staked a
claim to 12,000 square feet of retail space over two floors - a
space it plans to fill with 35,000 titles ... more
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Trust takes
over Burns cottage
The conservation
charity behind plans for a £21m Robert Burns Birthplace Museum is
set to take control of the cottage where the poet was born ... more
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Book thieves
won’t get more prison time
An American federal
judge declined on Thursday to give additional jail time to four
men serving 87-month sentences for stealing rare books and tasering
a librarian at Transylvania University ... more
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30.10.08.
Postage Stamp Sells for $1,035,000
While the financial
markets may be down, the market for rare stamps seems to be red
hot. A single stamp issued by the U.S. post office in 1868 sold
for $1,035,000 in an auction held today in New York City. The price
includes the 15% buyer's premium ... more
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Poet's restored
childhood home opens to public
The refurbished
childhood home of Dylan Thomas was unveiled to the public on Monday,
which would have been his 94th birthday. The poet was born in the
semi-detached house at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea and wrote much
of his early work there ... more
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29.10.08.
Libraries' book budgets fall again
More bad news
for library users in a month where culture secretary Andy Burnham
has ticked them off for not "looking beyond the bookcase". The amount
UK libraries are spending on books is down for the third year in
a row, according to a report to be released later this week, with
further reductions predicted next year ... more
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Who wrote
the original Frankenstein?
Mary Shelley
created a monster out of her "waking dream" – but was it her husband
Percy who "embodied its ideas and sentiments"? ... more
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Literary
giants: think before you delete
The problem is
that nowadays writers may delete even their loveliest texts from
their inboxes, heedless of posterity and the needs of biographers.
"Some people hoard almost everything, backing up emails and copying
them many times. Others do not do so," says John. He heads a new
British Library project called Digital Lives, which is investigating
how we use computers to capture personal moments and memories and
will offer advice on long-term preservation ... more
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28.10.08.
Google and book publishers reach settlement
Google Inc. and
five major book publishers have reached an agreement that will allow
the search-engine titan to make millions of in-copyright books and
other written materials available online ... more
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Mary Pickford's
autograph book up for auction
More than 120
famous names from 1926 to 1981 signed the silent film star's personal
autograph book, which is among more than 750 lots from the Pickford
estate going up for auction for the first time in November ... more
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Librarians
oppose age recommendations for books
Librarians have
thrown their weight behind the campaign to keep age ranges off children's
books, saying they will ignore the classifications and describing
them as potentially harmful to children's enjoyment of reading ...
more
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27.10.08.
Arrested book dealer launches legal challenge
A dealer arrested
over the theft of a 400-year-old Shakespeare book worth £15m is
mounting a legal challenge to have it returned to him. Ray Scott,
51, from Washington, Wearside, will launch the action against Durham
University at Durham County Court this morning ... more
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She'd like
to close the book on his collection
I am glad that
he is passionate about books. My only objection is that he refuses
to embrace the basic principle of a used bookstore, which is recycling.
You sell the old books you no longer want and then you buy someone
else's old books ... more
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Priceless
manuscripts fall prey to careless upkeep
Despite having
a priceless collection of 30,215 rare manuscripts, the Oriental
Institute of Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) today cries for
proper infrastructure for their upkeep ... more
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Rare volumes
left in charity bin
A mystery donor
has left four 18th Century volumes described by experts as incredibly
rare in a charity book bin ... more
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24.10.08.
Alan Bennett donates archive to Oxford University
More than 40
years of the author's diaries, letters and scripts of films such
as The History Boys and The Madness of King George are among the
material being handed over as a gift to the university's Bodleian
Library ... more
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‘National
treasure’ on way back home
A plane carrying
the rare first folio of the collected works of Shakespeare, which
has been valued at up to £15m, touched down at London’s Heathrow
Airport this morning, before completing its journey back to the
North- East ... more
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NY Art Book
Fair
Starting today
at Chelsea’s Phillips de Pury & Company, located at 450 W. 15th
St., Printed Matter will be hosting its third annual New York Art
Book Fair: a bazaar of artists’ books, art books, magazines, zines,
and art catalogues ... more
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Poet arrested
for insulting Islam
Jordanian police
arrested a local writer on Tuesday for incorporating verses of the
Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, into his love poetry, a judicial official
said ... more
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Sisters snipped
$900 from book's value
An antique book
featuring a revealing photograph of early Victorian settler William
Buckley has lost ninety percent of its value because previous owners,
the Mercy Sisters, scissored out the offending items ... more
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German libraries
hold thousands of looted volumes
Hundreds of thousands
of book stolen by the Nazis are still in German libraries. A few
librarians are acting like detectives, searching for the books and
hoping to return them to the former owners or their families. However,
many libraries have shown little interest in the troubling legacy
tucked away on their shelves ... more
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23.10.08.
Book a fresh online success story
A US-based online
bookseller which gives a proportion of its turnover to literacy
charities has launched its first overseas subsidiary in Scotland.
Better World Books (BWB), which was set up in 2001 by a trio of
IT graduates in Indiana, has opened a warehouse in Dunfermline and
claims it is aiming to become a serious rival to Amazon on both
sides of the Atlantic ... more
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Banned in
Hackney
A warning to
any innocent Hackney writer: question the coming triumph of the
2012 Olympics and, like me, you could achieve the dubious glamour
of becoming a banned author ... more
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Bond author's
letters to the real Miss Moneypenny
A society hostess
who dazzled James Bond creator Ian Fleming with her wit and beauty
has emerged as the true inspiration for Miss Moneypenny ... more
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Doris Lessing
donates revelatory letters to university
Doris Lessing
described winning the Nobel prize as a "bloody disaster", so perhaps
it's unsurprising that she turned down a Damehood. Offered the honour
in 1992 by Alex Allan, then principal private secretary to the prime
minister, Lessing declined on the grounds that the British Empire
no longer exists ... more
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How the wild
child of Victorian Britain came of age
A new biography
of William Robinson, 'the grand old man' of wild-flower gardening,
impresses Ursula Buchan ... more
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20.10.08.
James Bond memorabilia causes a stir
From original
costumes to posters, books and even toy cars, virtually anything
related to the 007 franchise has seen its value rise over the years
... more
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Rare books
keep their price despite threat of depression
Amid the growing
global financial crisis, rare books are still fetching a high price
as collectors see them as a safe place to invest their money ...
more
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Novelists
fight age bands for books
The practice
of displaying age ratings on children’s books has been condemned
by the novelists Jilly Cooper and Ian Rankin. Speaking at The Times
Cheltenham Literature Festival, they added their voices to other
writers’ protests about “age banding” ... more
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17.10.08.
Gagarin's manuscript about space flight to be auctioned
Sotheby's will
hold an auction in Moscow to sell unique manuscripts and printed
documents connected with the history of Soviet space research programmes.
The auction will be held at Moscow Auction House in Romanov bystreet
from October 15th to 19th ... more
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British Library
buys archive of poet Ted Hughes
The library said
the 224 boxes and folders of manuscripts, letters, journals and
personal diaries would be an invaluable resource for literary researchers.
The material ranges from recollections of fishing trips to correspondence
with literary figures including poets Seamus Heaney, Kathleen Raine
and Thom Gunn ... more
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Police thwart
attempt to smuggle historical manuscripts
Police at Sana’a
International Airport foiled a Yemeni woman’s attempt to smuggle
38 ancient manuscripts and other antiquities onto a flight destined
for Qatar ... more
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New Bodleian
makeover stalled
Bodleian staff
have admitted that the redevelopment of the New Bodleian is on hold
indefinitely. The news comes after the final appeal for the £29m
new book depository at Osney Mead failed ... more
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Some willing
to sell rare books for gas money
“We have more
people call or offer us books now in one month than I used to see
in a whole year,” said Steve McAllister, co-owner of McAllister
& Solomon, 4402 Wrightsville Ave. in Wilmington. “I’ll have 10 or
15 appointments (to appraise books for purchase) in a single day”
... more
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16.10.08.
'Jazz For the Eyes'
As the premier
chronicler of West Coast jazz, photographer William Claxton took
his subjects out of the shadows and into the light. He worked in
a style he called "jazz for the eyes," and he died on Octobrer 11th
aged 80 ... more
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Alibris launches
new pricing and sales data tool
Alibris, announced
yesterday the launch of a new data-rich tool for its independent
sellers. Alibris’ seller network of more than 12,000 independent
sellers has requested more data to help them decide what items to
buy and how best to price those items, and the company has responded
with Alibris Inventory Demand ... more
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Will Frankfurt
open Turkey's censored books?
Some see the
book fair's spotlight as a sign that censorship's power is waning.
As Alison Flood discovers, others are less hopeful ... more
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The books
that shaped Hitler's worldview
Author Timothy
Ryback's discovery of a cache of 1,000 volumes from Hitler's personal
library in the Library of Congress resulted in his new book, "Hitler's
Private Library." Ryback concludes that the dictator was a passionate
reader, searching out works of literature, philosophy and history
that furthered his goals of world domination ... more
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Booklovers
turn to Karl Marx
Karl Marx is
back. That, at least, is the verdict of publishers and bookshops
in Germany who say that his works are flying off the shelves ...
more
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11.10.08.
No news today ...
I'm out of the
office until October 16th, so no news, reviews, or updates until
then.
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10.10.08.
Calcutta's 'neighborhood of books'
Through summer's
sweltering heat, through the monsoon season's torrential downpours
and even after the city's recent accumulation of air-conditioned
shopping malls, Sandhya Tiwary, 20, and her friends remain loyal
to their afternoon strolls through the crowded, muddy lanes of College
Street, long known as India's "neighborhood of books" ... more
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Pullman wins
battle of Jericho boatyard
Bestselling author
Philip Pullman today called for a property company to give up trying
to develop an historic Oxford canal boatyard into luxury flats after
a public inquiry inspector rejected its plans as "sterile" and "uninspiring"
... more
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No regrets
over €1.2m purchase of Joyce's work
The head of Ireland's
National Library has "no regrets" about the purchase of James Joyce
manuscripts for nearly three times the original price ... more
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Books that
are works of art
R.D. Burton,
is a book artist who conceptualizes his own little worlds. He follows
in a long tradition of artists who create limited-edition art books.
That tradition goes at least as far back as the poet/artist William
Blake in the late 1700s through early 1800s ... more
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09.10.08.
Browse the artifacts in Jay Walker's library
Nothing quite
prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker's library. You
exit the austere parlor of his New England home and pass through
a hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed
with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects—on the walls,
on tables, standing on the floor—the room occupies about 3,600 square
feet on three mazelike levels ... more
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New chapter
opens for treasured texts
A meeting to
decide the future of 18,000 rare books has agreed “a way ahead”.
A group comprising representatives from the Welsh Assembly Government’s
museums, archives and libraries division, Cardiff Council, Cardiff
University, the National Library of Wales and the Glamorgan Record
Office (CyMAL) will receive specialist advice on which books should
be selected to keep – and pulled from a planned rare books sale
... more
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Libraries
should be about books
Perhaps the peculiarly
hybrid name of his department – Culture, Media and Sport – has clouded
his judgement. But the Secretary of State, Andy Burnham, will today
add his voice to calls by chief librarians for a revolution to modernise
public libraries and "bring them into the 21st century" ... more
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Historian
says Beatles were just capitalists
John Lennon controversially
declared they were bigger than Jesus, and the levels of fan hysteria
and devotion they engendered made them synonymous with the youth
culture of the swinging 60s. But a Cambridge University historian
today argues that the Beatles were not heroes of the counter-culture
but capitalists who cynically exploited youth culture for commercial
gain ... more
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08.10.08.
Paradise Lost at the Morgan Library & Museum
To celebrate
the four-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the English poet
John Milton (1608–1674), The Morgan Library & Museum presents the
only surviving manuscript of Milton’s masterpiece Paradise Lost,
Book 1 from October 7, 2008, through January 4, 2009 in the Clare
Eddy Thaw Gallery.
In addition, first editions of Paradise
Lost printed in England and the United States during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries are on view as well as a handsomely bound
copy of the book from the library of King Charles II of England
(1630–1685). A rarely seen miniature portrait of Milton is also
exhibited ... more
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The tangled
legacy of Jacques Brel
The 30th anniversary
of the death of the greatest popular singer in the French language
has generated an avalanche of tributes this week – and an unseemly
legal row. Sotheby's Paris will today auction 94 objects which once
belonged to the Belgian singer, song-writer and actor Jacques Brel,
including a fountain pen, pipe, and manuscripts of his best-known
songs ... more
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Forensics
casts doubt on music of Bach
A forensic analysis
of 18th century letters and musical manuscripts has shown that Johann
Sebastian Bach’s second wife may have written or co-composed some
of the genius composer’s best-known works ... more
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07.10.08.
Prophet bride book appears in US
A novel about
the Prophet Muhammad's child bride has been published in the US
ahead of schedule after the office of the British publisher was
attacked ... more
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Willows'
author rarities on show
Documents charting
the non-literary life of The Wind in the Willows author are to go
on show to mark the 100th anniversary of the book's publication
... more
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Terry Pratchett
talks about the stigma of dementia
Best-selling
novelist Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's
disease last December. He said: "It's a strange life when you 'come
out' - people get embarrassed, lower their voices and get lost for
words ... more
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'Give me
a day in court'
The North East
book dealer arrested over the theft of a priceless first edition
of Shakespeare’s works yesterday said he would welcome a day in
court to clear his name ... more
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State police
seize old prison log book from dealer
Philadelphia
- An antiques dealer says state police illegally seized a rare prison
log book that he had purchased legally, but authorities insist the
volume was stolen ... more
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06.10.08.
Books stolen from Vienna turn up in Toronto
A sting operation
by Toronto police has resulted in the recovery of two rare texts
stolen a year ago from an antiquarian book dealer in Vienna. Police
took two males in for questioning last Thursday after they tried
to sell an early 19th-century German-language manuscript on horse
diseases and a 1719 edition of La Princesse de Cleves, a novel by
the Comtesse de La Fayette, to Toronto rare book dealers D. & E.
Lake Ltd ... more
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Bob Dylan
names Burns as inspiration
Dylan was asked
to name the lyric or verse that has had the greatest impact on his
life. He selected the 1794 love song A Red, Red Rose, penned by
Robert Burns, who was regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement
and became a source of inspiration to the founders of liberalism
and socialism ... more
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The comic
fanatic now running Japan
For a country
that counts a cartoon cat among its ambassadors, Japan's new prime
minister Taro Aso seems like an obvious choice. The 68-year-old,
LSE-educated Aso boasts a voluminous manga and anime collection,
is said to read around 10-20 comics a week, and has become an instant
hero among Japan's subculture of manga-obsessives (or otaku, as
they are known) ... more
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Cool-headed
father of 007 saved MI6
The James Bond
author Ian Fleming rescued MI6 from an untimely death that would
have put paid to his 007 hero before he was even created. But in
saving the service, newly released secret documents reveal, Fleming
inadvertently helped pave the way for the Secret Intelligence Service
(MI6) to be infiltrated by members of the Cambridge spy ring, its
most destructive traitors ... more
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03.10.08.
US exhibition traces the history of bookbinding
Despite the proverb,
judging a book by its cover can illuminate the rich creative and
cultural history in the art of bookbinding, as demonstrated by an
exhibition at Aubrey R. Watzek Library in Portland. The exhibit
examines 500 years of bookbinding history, from the era of vellum
through contemporary handmade books, revealing some of the lesser-known
items in the rare book holdings of Lewis & Clark College Special
Collections ... more
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The market
for limited edition books
The British-born
photographer Michael Kenna, well-known for his highly graphic landscape
and architectural images, uses the limited edition book as one of
many routes to getting his pictures to their audience ... more
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Dead German
poet gets TV demands
The celebrated
German poet Friedrich Schiller, dead for more than 200 years, has
been sent reminders that he should pay his TV and radio licence
fee ... more
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Three charged
over novel attack
Three men have
been charged with conspiring to damage the home and office of a
man due to publish a novel about the Prophet Muhammad ... more
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02.10.08.
Penguin hunters head for Edinburgh
Penguin hunters
will invade Edinburgh this weekend but they are unlikely to trouble
the zoo's most famous inhabitants. Instead, the city is the setting
for the annual meeting of collectors of Penguin books, which up
to 500 enthusiasts from across the UK and Europe are expected to
attend ... more
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Harry Potter
author earns £3m a week
JK Rowling earned
£3 million ($5.3 million) a week in the last year, six times more
than the second highest-paid author in the world, it has been disclosed
... more
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Bloomsbury
Auctions celebrates its first year in New York
Since its inaugural
sale on September 26th 2007, Bloomsbury New York has achieved a
remarkable twelve month auction season of books, manuscripts and
works of art on paper. Bloomsbury's dynamic 2007 and 2008 auction
schedule proudly establishes it as one of the most prolific auction
houses in New York ... more
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01.10.08.
Illustrated Fine Press: Whittington & Matrix in America
This exhibition
will focus on the Whittington Press and its influential annual,
Matrix, which provides an important platform for typographical dialog
on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Ten American artists who have
contributed articles and illustrations to Matrix will be featured,
as well as English and European artists who have written and illustrated
books for the Whittington Press ... more
If you are interested in the Whittington
Press but unable to visit, you can watch an original short
video produced by the Center for Book Arts in conjunction with
this exhibition.
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£1m banknote
auctioned for £78K
A £1m Bank of
England note has fetched £78,300, twice the expected price, at an
auction in London ... more
Fans unite
in auction to save Superman's house
Cincinnati (Reuters)
- Superman's home planet Krypton was destroyed, but his house on
Earth will live on thanks to loyal fans and an online auction that
raised $100,000 to restore the rotting home where the Man of Steel
was created ... more
Bookshops
unbowed by Jewel attack
UK bookshops
have said they remain committed to stocking The Jewel of Medina
if and when it is published in the UK, after an attack on the office
and home of the publisher Gibson Square over the weekend ... more
Book ban
ends rare Arab-Israeli cultural exchange
For 15 years
Israeli Saleh Abbasi has traded books between the Jewish state and
its Arab neighbors, fostering a rare cultural link. But in August
Israeli authorities suddenly refused to renew his trading license
because he was trading with "enemy" states Lebanon and Syria, frustrating
both Abbasi's business and the Arab and Israeli readers he has helped
interest in each other's literary traditions ... more
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