TheBookGuide Home
I Home I Shops I Fairs I Auctions I Online I Binders I Links I
Art Books
See our art books
About 
TheBookGuide 
Privacy Policy 
Contact Us 
See our music books
Music Books

Essential software

See our cinema books
Cinema Books
Help Promote TheBookGuide
> Click Here <
 
 Home >> Shelf:Life <<

Shelf:Life - what's new in the world of books and book collecting, links to the news stories that matter, and occassional comments by TheBookGuide.  Archived Stories.

July 2005Skip Free Registration

30.07.05
'All You Need' is $1 million for Beatles manuscript

A handwritten manuscript of the Beatles' hit song, "All You Need Is Love," has sold for over $1 million at an auction in London. John Lennon used the song sheet during the Beatles' last live television appearance in 1967. Film of the performance shows the manuscript falling to the floor as the group finished playing...more  Add a comment

How Kremlin strove to block Dr Zhivago
The lengths to which the Soviet authorities were ready to go in their efforts to block publication of Boris Pasternak's epic novel about 20th-century Russia, Doctor Zhivago, was revealed by a letter published yesterday...more  Add a comment

Were treasured maps looted?
A dropped knife blade at Yale's rare book and map library was the tip-off that led to the arrest of well-known East Coast map dealer E. Forbes Smiley III , now charged with larceny...more  Add a comment

First edition novels by Ian Rankin to be auctioned
A complete collection of first editions of the crime novels by best-selling Scottish author Ian Rankin are to be sold at auction by Bonhams in Edinburgh on August 25....more  Add a comment

Return our Sindy book or we send the bailiffs
A six-year-old girl was threatened with bailiffs for forgetting to return a copy of a Sindy annual to a library. Breagh Hannan, from the village of Rowardennan, on the shores of Loch Lomond in Stirlingshire, borrowed the book 12 weeks ago when a mobile library visited her primary school...more  Add a comment

The birth of British art
It took £1.7m to save the Macclesfield Psalter for the nation. It's worth every penny, writes Jonathan Jones...more  Add a comment


No News today...
TheBookGuide is taking a short holiday but he and the news will return at the end of the July. However, desperate news junkies can find links to 1,000's of book related stories and articles in our archives.


15.07.05
Harry Potter and the stony broke authors

JK Rowling's fellow children's authors, a third of whom earn less than the national minimum wage of £8,827 a year have published a survey claiming that some work for 2p an hour...more  Add a comment

Rebuilding of Baghdad library speaks volumes on tenacity
Driven away by bombs, dispirited by shelves emptied by looters, visitors to the public library in Baghdad's Khadamiya district are now starting to return...more  Add a comment

Book theft 'mule' gets two years jail
A man who was paid to plunder rare books from libraries throughout New Zealand has been jailed for more than two years...more  Add a comment


14.07.05
Yeats’ work fetches over 100,000 Euros at auction

A valuable literary collection including letters and a manuscript by WB Yeats fetched £72,000 at auction in London on Tuesday...more  Add a comment

Library Gets Control of Items From Kennedy's Presidency
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum received all but one of the items through a settlement reached with the estate of a cleaning-supplies salesman who, thanks to a chance friendship with Mr. Kennedy's secretary, was able to amass a large piece of Camelot, squirrel it away in his mother's basement and sell some of it at auction, angering the Kennedy family and piquing the interest of federal lawyers...more  Add a comment

Library's plan to sell rare books opposed
A library's plan to sell 38 rare books is being opposed by relatives of the woman who donated them 107 years ago. "The basic objection is they feel this application is a breach of trust by Pequot Library," said Amy E. Todisco, attorney for Jim Biggs of Westport, during Monday's Probate Court hearing in Sullivan-Independence Hall. "We're objecting under any circumstances to the sale"...more  Add a comment

Iran MPs plan jailed writer visit
Five Iranian MPs say they want to meet the jailed dissident Akbar Ganji, who has been on hunger strike for a month. Saeed Abutaleb MP said the visit would take place soon as Mr Ganji's health was "a matter of concern"...more  Add a comment


13.07.05
'Lost' book is sold for £230,000

A unique sketch book dating back to the 1520s and linked to Renaissance artist Raphael has sold for £230,000...more  Add a comment

Braille library saved
Historic braille books kept by the National Library for the Blind have been rescued for future generations after the charity today scooped a major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund ...more  Add a comment

Anti-Islamic Italian author in new legal fight
One of Italy's best-known authors faces renewed legal action in a dispute that has raised fundamental questions about respect for religion and the right to free speech...more  Add a comment


12.07.05
Writer's ashes to be shot into air
Friends and family of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson are preparing to pepper the sky with the late writer's ashes. His cremated remains will be shot into the air August 20th from a cannon installed on a 150-foot tower behind his home in Woody Creek...more  Add a comment

Harry Potter and half-price prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has started a huge price war as shops sacrifice profit for market share. The two biggest price-cutters yesterday were Asda and Tesco’s online service, both of which offered the book for £8.96, a 47 per cent reduction on the recommended retail price of £16.99...more  Add a comment

Madonna's children books ghost-written?
Though Madonna claims she wrote the Kabbalah themed children's books as "Mr. Peabody's Apples", "Yakov and the Seven Thieves" and "Lotsa de Casha", it may not be completely true...more  Add a comment


11.07.05
Potter's magic spell turns boys into bookworms
JK Rowling's latest is launched as a new report shows that her books are inspiring children to read again, reports David Smith...more  Add a comment

Nine-year chapter ends for used-book store
Boston - Among the last items to go from Books & More was the hand-written ''Back in 15 minutes" sign taped to the inside of the door frame. After nine years of operating a used-book store on the edge of Roslindale Village, owner Brian Frawley will not be back...more  Add a comment

Police charge dealer with stealing rare maps from Yale
A once-respected New York dealer in antique maps and atlases is charged with stealing rare maps from Yale University, and the FBI says he may have targeted other libraries that have items missing from their collections...more  Add a comment

A tale of plunder
Rare books missing from Khalsa College Sikh History Research Department, even as intellectuals turn a blind eye...more  Add a comment


09.07.05
At manuscript sale, images prevail
Perhaps someone should write a history of European culture through its best sellers. A remarkable sale of "Western manuscripts and miniatures" held this week at Sotheby's yielded fascinating insights into what gripped the attention of the literate elites in Britain from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and beyond...more  Add a comment

Book aid
It's been difficult to judge what the well-read anarchist has been perusing this G8 week, as some of Edinburgh's major bookstores have had to, temporarily, close their doors because of skirmishes in the city of literature...more  Add a comment

Rare book store to close
New York - Twenty years ago, former teacher Martha Kelly bought Gutenberg Books on Monroe Avenue. It had been a dream of hers to own the store known for having a good selection of old and rare books. Kelly died earlier this year and now the store must close...more  Add a comment


08.07.05
Yeats letters and essay to be auctioned
A collection of letters and an essay penned by one of Ireland’s greatest poets, William Butler Yeats, is to be auctioned. The album, which includes an annotated, working manuscript of The Tragic Theatre and 18 signed letters written by Yeats, is expected to fetch between 90,000 and 120,000 Euros at the Sotheby’s sale in London...more  Add a comment

Ed McBain
Salvatore Lombino, who died on Wednesday aged 79, was a prolific American thriller writer best known under the pseudonyms Evan Hunter and Ed McBain, which was his personal preference...more  Add a comment


07.07.05
A bid for Harry Potter's green fans
Subplot to the adventures of Harry Potter: Will the muggles boycott the United States edition of his newest book, due out next week, and buy the Canadian version, which is printed on recycled paper, instead? ...more  Add a comment

Hitler sketches to be auctioned in Montreal
Four sketches by Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler and two greeting cards signed by him are for sale by a Montreal auction house...more  Add a comment

Legendary book goes to British Library
The British Library has just been presented with a legendary book, regarded by many bookbinders as one of the greatest modern bindings in the world - but haunted by tragedy and disaster...more  Add a comment

Return of Korean books
France should return the books it plundered during the invasion of Korea in 1866. Paris may say there are few such precedents, but that must be because the plunderers were from one of the most powerful countries in the world at that time. President Roh Moo-hyun, during his visit to Paris in December, expressed his respect for France as a country of freedom and culture. We hope France will prove it...more  Add a comment


06.07.05
Shrine and Shroud: Textiles in Illuminated Manuscripts
Los Angeles - The close relationship between textiles and manuscripts, two of the most venerated items in the medieval world, is examined in Shrine and Shroud: Textiles in Illuminated Manuscripts, at the Getty Center, through October 2, 2005. The exhibition is the first at the Getty Center to focus on this fascinating subject. It explores the great importance textiles held in secular and spiritual life, and their use in manuscripts as protective and decorative elements and as an integral part of the book’s imagery and message...more  Add a comment

Found treasure or false hope?
Paul Burks was cleaning out his workshop when he found what may be one of the earliest copies of the Declaration of Independence...more  Add a comment


05.07.05
China jails Muslim author
A Chinese Muslim author has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after authorities deemed one of his stories subversive...more  Add a comment

Browsing on roadside
A vast collection of books on varied subjects including architecture, archaeology, business studies, mathematics, medicine, mass media et al on a pavement, in Vadapalani, Chennai - a treasure trove by the roadside...more  Add a comment

New challenges for libraries outlined
An initiative was launched yesterday to nudge policymakers away from seeing successful book lending and the encouragement of reading as the prime goals of Britain's public library service...more  Add a comment

Newton's alchemy manuscript found
Sir Isaac Newton, famous for his revolutionary work in mathematics, optics, gravity and the laws of motion, had a secret hobby. A collection of his notes thought to have been lost 70 years ago reveal his passion for alchemy and fruitless attempts to turn lead into gold...more  Add a comment


TheBookGuide is away for a couple of days but he and the news will return on July 5th.


02.07.05
Russia votes to return books
Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed a library restitution bill after its first reading Friday. The bill provides for the return to Hungary of 134 theological books removed from the Hungarian Reformist Church's Sarospatak College during World War II...more  Add a comment

Historical document thieves go hi-tech
A researcher at the National Archives tucks valuable historical documents into his clothes and walks out. In Philadelphia, an archives employee strolls out with valuable historic material. A court docket sheet from Leon Czolgosz’s trial for the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley disappears from a dusty, oversized ledger in Buffalo, N.Y. In all three cases, some of the booty winds up posted for sale online...more  Add a comment

Godfather script sold for record price
It was a well-thumbed script from a film more than three decades old and it sold yesterday for $312,800 (£176,000). Marlon Brando's personal copy of the screenplay for The Godfather set a new world record at yesterday's auction of the actor's personal effects at Christie's in New York...more  Add a comment


01.07.05
Mailer savages 'kamikaze' critic who panned his books
Norman Mailer has demonstrated that neither age nor his status as one of the grand old men of American letters has withered his loathing of a bad review by savaging the most powerful book critic in America...more  Add a comment

Plot thickens in vanishing books mystery
This was not your average smash and grab. The High Street shop is one of Melbourne's oldest antiquarian book stores and the thief - who bypassed nearby stores selling jewellery and fine china - allegedly made off with two dozen of English literature's finest...more  Add a comment

Textbook case yields another arrest
University of Iowa police arrested a fifth man in an alleged scheme in which the suspects netted more than $50,000 by selling stolen textbooks for cash...more  Add a comment


Archived Stories

01.06.05 - 30.06.05
01.05.05 - 31.05.05
16.04.05 - 30.04.05
01.04.05 - 15.04.05
15.03.05 - 31.03.05
01.03.05 - 14.03.05
15.02.05 - 28.02.05
01.02.05 - 14.02.05
15.01.05 - 31.01.05
01.01.05 - 14.01.05
15.12.04 - 31.12.04
01.12.04 - 14.12.04

15.11.04 - 30.11.04
01.11.04 - 14.11.04
15.10.04 - 31.10.04
01.10.04 - 14.10.04
01.09.04 - 30.09.04
01.08.04 - 31.08.04

01.07.04 - 30-07-04

10.06.04 - 30.06.04

01.05.04 - 27.05.04
01.04.04 - 30.04.04
01.03.04 - 31.03.04

01.01.04 - 29.02.04
01.11.03 - 30.12.03

28.06.03 - 31.10.03

 
Children's Books
See our children's books
 Fun Stuff 
 Bookshop Skit 
 Bookworm  Droppings 
 Drif's Guide 
"A library is an arsenal of liberty."
UNKNOWN
Quote...Unquote
See our architecture books
Architecture Books

D&M Packaging

See our gardening books
Gardening Books
TheBookGuide is published by INPRINT  31 High Street  Stroud  England GL5 1AJ   + 44 (0)1453 759 731   Copyright © 2001-2004