30.09.06.
Rare copy of first book written on hockey
Does
the name Arthur Farrell mean anything to you? With few exceptions, probably not.
He is a former McGill and Montreal Shamrocks player, and what makes him truly
special is that he was the author of the first book written on hockey, published
in 1899. Its title: Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game ... more Add
a comment
How to snap up a Brassaï
A
landmark auction of more than 750 works from the estate of the renowned 20th-century
photographer Brassaï is to be held in Paris next month. Billed as "the most important
ensemble of Brassaï's work ever exhibited", it is expected to fetch around €4
million (£2.7 million). Some of his best-known images of Paris night-life in the
1930s will be included as well as minor works that were never published, together
with lesser-known drawings and sculptures. ... more Add
a comment Student
finds Frost poem lost for 88 years
A
poem by Robert Frost that has lain unpublished and forgotten for 88 years has
been rediscovered by a student in Virgina. The poem, War Thoughts at Home, casts
light on the development of Frost's first world war poetry. It was written in
1918, shortly after his good friend, Edward Thomas, died in the trenches of France
... more Add
a comment Europe’s
oldest manuscript
The
burnt remains of a 2,400-year-old scroll buried with an ancient Greek nobleman
might help unlock the secrets of early monotheistic religion -- using new digital
technology. A team of U.S., British and Greek experts is working on a new reading
of the enigmatic Derveni papyrus, a philosophical treatise on ancient faith that
is Europe’s oldest surviving manuscript ... more Add
a comment
28.09.06.
British Library fury over map thief's 'soft sentence'
The
British Library reacted angrily last night after a renowned American antique dealer
who stole historic maps was jailed for 3½ years and ordered to pay £1 million
compensation. Clive Field, the library’s scholarship and collections director,
said it was extremely disappointed by the leniency of the sentence imposed on
Edward Forbes Smiley III by a court in New Haven, Connecticut ... more Add
a comment Papermania
Plus celebrates 50th Show
For
more than 25 years, twice a year, collectors, dealers, dreamers and the merely
curious have been coming to the show affectionately and accurately called Papermania
Plus ... more Add
a comment New
Rochelle's Thomas Paine museum to reopen
The
Thomas Paine Museum on North Avenue is set to reopen after being closed last year
for renovations, and having been at the center of a controversy when key museum
holdings were sold off to pay for the work. The books were purchased by William
Reese, a rare-books dealer, who has held onto the books since buying them more
than a year ago, and had been willing to sell the items back to the association
at the same price he paid ... more Add
a comment Electronic
book opens new chapter for readers
It's
been described as the gadget that will do for reading what the iPod did for listening
to music. This week sees the American launch of the Sony Reader, a device capable
of storing hundreds of books in electronic form and displaying them with the same
clarity as real ink and paper ... more Add
a comment Clicks
and mortar
Waterstone's,
the country's largest bookseller, ditched a five-year association with online
retailer Amazon by relaunching its website. Customers will now be able to buy
books directly from the chain, as well as read staff recommendations and check
the stock of their local shop ... more Add
a comment
27.09.06.
Rare Kierkegaard book to be sold at auction
A
rare copy of Danish philosopher Soeren Kierkegaard's famed book "Either/Or" will
be sold at auction later this year, a Copenhagen auction house said Tuesday. The
book, a second edition from 1849 dedicated to Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian
Andersen, was offered to the Copenhagen-based Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine
Art by an unidentified Danish family earlier this year ... more Add
a comment Google
adds Spanish university to book scan plan
Google
Inc.'s bid to make every book in print searchable on the Internet has received
a boost with a top Spanish university library becoming the first in the non-English
speaking world to join the controversial project ... more Add
a comment Sendak
gnashes teeth over monster tag
U.S.
author and illustrator Maurice Sendak stomps his feet at being branded a monster
writer -- even though his latest work, a pop-up book called "Mommy?", overflows
with hordes of fearsome creatures. Sendak is best known for his 1963 classic "Where
The Wild Things Are" in which youngster Max heads to a land of gnashing, roaring,
stomping monsters, but he says only a few of the scores of books he has written
and illustrated have monsters ... more Add
a comment U2
fans eBay fury
Within
hours of the band holding an exclusive meet-and-greet in a Waterstones bookstore
for just 250 people last Friday (22.09.06) - autographed copies of their book
'U2 by U2' began to appear on the internet auction site ... more Add
a comment
26.09.06.
'Phallic Symbol' writer could face major fine
Calling
the Russian president a phallic symbol earned Vladimir Rakhmankov 15 minutes of
fame earlier this year. Now the Ivanovo journalist could face a fine equal to
several months of his wages. "I still treat the whole story as a joke," Rakhmankov,
42, said in a recent interview. "But prosecutors and the judge are deadly serious,
and I have a bad feeling I'll get the stiffest possible sentence" ... more Add
a comment Fascist
or forgery?
People
have been faking Hitler's paintings since he became chancellor of Germany in 1933.
In fact, there is a link between the paintings on sale today - apparently done
by the young Hitler to earn a little money when he was unemployed before 1914
- and one of the most notorious frauds of modern times ... more Add
a comment Banned
Books Week September 23-30 2006
"[I]t’s
not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never
be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship.
As always, young readers will be the real losers." -- Judy Blume ... more Add
a comment
25.09.06.
Chávez boosts Chomsky sales
Since
waving a copy during an address to the UN last week, the Venezuelan president
has made Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance a publishing
sensation. What was one of Professor Chomsky's lesser known works has surged to
No 1 on Amazon's bestseller list, with bookshops making bulk orders from the thousands
of extra copies being printed ... more Add
a comment British
Library calls for digital copyright action
The
British Library has called for a "serious updating" of current copyright law to
"unambiguously" include digital content and take technological advances into account
... more Add
a comment Own
a replica of the St. John's Bible-- just $115,000
The
abbey plans to publish just 360 Heritage Bibles, all facsimiles of the hand-lettered
and illuminated St. John's Bible still in progress ... more Add
a comment
23.09.06.
Now who's selling off Princess Margaret's sex book?
Princess
Margaret's book collection, including a lovers' guide, romantic novels and joke
books, is going up for auction. Among the 550 books for sale on 5 October is an
18th century sex guide called The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial [sic]
Love ... more Add
a comment Author
accused of literary fraud says: 'I am not a liar'
Don't
Ever Tell is a tale of almost unbelievable horror - rather too unbelievable, say
her critics. In her most revealing interview since the story broke, Kathy O'Beirne
insisted to the Guardian that her story was true, and produced documents that,
she said, would back up parts of it. She says her family are trying to discredit
her because of a property dispute. Her publishers, who say they went to great
lengths to verify her story, are also standing by the book ... more Add
a comment Homeless
woman sentenced for library fire
A
21-year-old Chicago woman was sentenced to 2 years probation today after pleading
guilty to setting a small fire in a Lakeview neighborhood library that damaged
100 books. Cook County Criminal Court Judge Dennis Porter also gave Erica Graham
94 days in jail, which she will not have to serve because she's been held in the
jail since her bond hearing ... more Add
a comment Former
bookseller's plea to save Camden's soul
It
is now a year since I closed the Regent Bookshop in Parkway. I have watched developments
in CamdenTown and have had time to reflect on the changes we are seeing and the
effect on the flavour of the area, once so vibrant and upbeat ... more Add
a comment
22.09.06.
Map thief resented prestigious libraries
Shedding
light into why Edward Forbes Smiley III stole 98 of the world's most precious
maps over seven years, papers filed in Connecticut's U.S. District Court said
he initially acted because he felt he had been wronged and slighted ... more Add
a comment Old
books only in European Digital Library
The
EU wants to digitalise and put online the vast volumes of cultural works in member
state libraries to make them accessible to all, but unless the issue of copyright
and intellectual property rights are solved, the European Digital Library may
consist only of books and journals published before the 1920s ... more Add
a comment Acquittal
for Turkish novelist
The
bestselling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was acquitted yesterday of the charges
of "insulting Turkishness" brought against her under Article 301 of Turkish law.
The charges were dropped at the prosecutor's request ... more Add
a comment University
of South Carolina acquires Milton collection
The
Robert J. Wickenheiser Collection of John Milton -- more than 6,000 volumes of
works by or about the 17th century English poet -- moved this summer from Wickenheiser’s
library in Olean, N.Y., to USC ... more Add
a comment
21.09.06.
Historic phone books go online
Phone
books dating back to 1880 have been made available online, making it easier to
trace family histories. Telecoms giant BT joined forces with ancestry.co.uk to
launch the new service, which will also help anyone wanting to explore the history
of previous residents of their homes ... more Add
a comment An
ode to the secondhand book
It’s
raining and muggy outside, but I’m in one of the most comforting places in the
world. Seated in a slightly uncomfortable rocking chair, I’m in Rivendell Used
Bookstore in Montpelier, Vermont ... more Add
a comment 700-year-old
sacred Hindu text restored
Scientists
who worked on the Archimedes Palimpsest are using modern imaging technologies
to digitally restore a 700-year-old palm-leaf manuscript containing the essence
of Hindu philosophy ... more Add
a comment Leonardo
notebook withdrawn from exhibition
Microsoft
founder Bill Gates refused to lend his Leonardo da Vinci manuscript to the Victoria
and Albert Museum after there was a disagreement over "display arrangements".
He had agreed in principle to the loan, but when his tough terms proved unacceptable,
the V&A’s request was dropped ... more Add
a comment
19.09.06.
Wise men may need a new fishing hole
The
Gotham Book Mart & Gallery -- the venerable Midtown New York bookshop with its
recognizable metal sign "Wise Men Fish Here"-- is facing choppy waters. A sign
posted on its door announces: "The landlord has legal possession of these premises
pursuant to warrant of Civil Court. Gotham is no ordinary bookstore. Many famous
writers have walked its charming aisles packed with new and used books ... more Add
a comment Author's
family say abuse memoir is cruel hoax
It
is a harrowing story of a young woman’s life destroyed by nuns and priests, and
it has raced to the top of the bestseller list. But now a chorus of voices, including
those of the author’s own family, claim that the ordeal described by Kathy O’Beirne
simply does not ring true and is nothing more than a cruel hoax ... more Add
a comment India's
literary elite call for anti-gay law to be scrapped
More
than 100 leading figures of literature, film and academia in India rallied this
weekend against a "colonial-era" law making homosexuality a criminal offence ...
more Add
a comment British
Library makes front page news
A
century of local scandals, international triumphs and global disasters as trumpeted
on the front pages of British newspapers is on display at London's British Library.
Taken from a private collection of more than 100,000 newspapers, the Front Page
exhibition offers a snapshot of the world as seen from the newsrooms ... more Add
a comment Following
thefts, libraries stay on guard
Although
the case of serial map thief Edward Forbes Smiley III will end this Wednesday
in New Haven with his sentencing, it has continued to prompt libraries across
the globe to take extra security measures to protect their rare collections ...
more Add
a comment
18.09.06.
Preparations for Timbuktu manuscript centre advance
Efforts
to conserve, store and expose the estimated 700,000 Timbuktu manuscripts, one
of Africa's principal cultural heritages, are going well ... more Add
a comment Is
a new look for an old book a bestselling idea?
Japans’s
hygiene-obsessed take on the humble second-hand bookshop will soon be arriving
in London, with Britain’s first branch of Book-off due to open its doors this
year. The department-style store, which the company said would be "in the Regent
Street and Piccadilly area", will test whether British book-buyers are as easily
converted to second-hand superstores as the Japanese have been ... more Add
a comment
Good
Luck Ms Hashimoto! This sounds like a wonderful enterprise. I am a second-hand
book-dealer but not feel threatened by this as I think it'll add to the staus
of second-hand books and will appeal to all types of reader's and book collectors
. I can't wait to come down to London next week and visit the store. - Jude Haslam.
Awful
author achieves acclaim again
An
obscure writer, whose works were enthusiastically devoured by C. S. Lewis, Aldous
Huxley and Mark Twain, is the subject of a revival celebrating her status as the
world's worst novelist ... more Add
a comment Bagdad
-- A silence has fallen upon Mutanabi Street
Now,
in the fourth year of war, Mutanabi Street is a shadow of its revered past. Many
of the original booksellers have been forced to shut down. Others have been arrested,
kidnapped or killed, or have fled Iraq. "We are walking with our coffins in our
hands," said Mohammad al-Hayawi, the owner of the Renaissance book store, one
of the street's oldest shops. "Nothing in Iraq is guaranteed anymore" ... more Add
a comment
16.09.06.
Dylan 'borrowed' from obscure Civil War poet
For
decades, music fans and critics have pondered over the inspiration behind Bob
Dylan's free-rolling words and music. Was it the dope, was it the dreaming or
was it simply the result of living in the Sixties? But now a much more unlikely
muse has been revealed behind the 65-year-old musician's latest collection of
songs: a long dead, little-known poet from the American Civil War ... more Add
a comment
I
think that's a rather "out there" comment. With no verification, no references
etc who was the poet? & so what? All music borrows & get up on the shoulders of
those who came before. - Stephen.
The full article
does answer these questions, but It seems that the Independent has introduced
a pay per view scheme for articles after the first day or so. Unfortunately, they
now want to £1 to read that rest of the story. I will try to find different
sources in future. - TBG. Stolen
Iraqi manuscript returned
Met
detectives have returned a valuable Iraqi manuscript worth £250,000 after it was
stolen almost 30 years ago. The book dates back to 1013AD and is one of the most
important books from the Al-AwQaf library in Mosul ... more Add
a comment Google
promotes Banned Books
Despite
America's reputation as a free society, the practice of banning books in schools
and even some libraries has happened through the years. Google and the American
Library Association will celebrate 25 years of Banned Books Week, September 23rd
- 30th ... more Add
a comment Bookseller
denied visa again
The
Directorate of Immigration has denied Shah Mohammad Rais, the real man behind
the title of Åsne Seierstad's international bestseller Bookseller of Kabul, a
tourist visa to Norway in connection with the launch of his own book ... more Add
a comment Blast
at Salt Lake City library
A
small explosion in a lounge area of the downtown public library Friday afternoon
blew out a window on the third floor, and forced 400 people inside the building
to evacuate, police said. No injuries were reported. The remnants of a bag believed
to have held the explosive were found on the third floor, near some desks and
tables, police Detective Kevin Joiner said ... more Add
a comment
15.09.06.
British Library acquires Coleridge family archive
The
British Library has acquired the archive of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's extended
family, a mass of papers and bound volumes dating from the middle of the 18th
century to the beginning of the 20th ... more
Add a comment 'Oldest'
New World writing found
Ancient
civilisations in Mexico developed a writing system as early as 900 BC, new evidence
suggests ... more
Add a comment Margaret
Mitchell papers in dispute
A
batch of purported business correspondence belonging to "Gone With the Wind" author
Margaret Mitchell is now the prize in a legal battle. There could be a lot of
money at stake. Just how much, though, also is unclear ... more
Add a comment Throw
book at thief, says library
Ahead
of Edward Forbes Smiley's sentencing on September 27, Robert Goldman, a lawyer
retained by the British Library, has called for the dealer to be imprisoned for
up to eight years - two to three more years than called for by US sentencing guidelines
... more
Add a comment Harry
Potter runs airline gauntlet
The
seventh and final volume of the Harry Potter series, most keenly awaited children's
book of all time, almost became collateral damage in the international security
panic ... more
Add a comment And
then there were none
Agatha
Christie reigns from beyond the grave as the queen of crime, bookshops and public
libraries - and now, unexpectedly, as a dame of the auction room. A sale of personal
items from one of her favourite homes, in the heartland of her upbringing and
from the era of her early novels and ill-starred first marriage outstripped all
estimates, ultimately raising more than £300,000 ... more
Add a comment
13.09.06.
Montreal Antiquarian Book Fair
The
23rd annual Montreal Antiquarian Book Fair takes place over the weekend of September
30th and October 1st, in the atrium of the J.W. McConnell Building at Concordia
University.
There will be approximately 10,000 collectible
books at this year’s fair, ranging from $25 to $25,000. The books will be primarily
in English and French, but there will also be books in German, Italian, Spanish
and Russian ... more
Add a comment Turkish
author says trial will test fiction’s role
Leading
Turkish novelist Elif Shafak goes on trial next week in a case she views as a
milestone for freedom of speech in Turkey because for the first time the words
of fictional characters are being judged ... more
Add a comment The
height of fancy
Incredible,
unforgettable and vengefully funny, Roald Dahl's tales continue to delight both
children and adults. Jeremy Treglown pays tribute to a master storyteller on the
eve of what would have been his 90th birthday ... more
Add a comment Roald
Dahl Day!
Today
would have been Roald Dahl's 90th birthday, so what better way to celebrate than
the UK's first ever Roald Dahl Day! ... more
Add a comment
12.09.06.
How I made it
Eamonn
de Burca has a shop in Dawson Street, Dublin, another at his home in Blackrock,
he sells over the internet, and has a turnover of about one million Euros ...
more
Add a comment Around
the houses with Sue Connors
In common with many booksellers, NONE of our
books were to be seen on ABE over the weekend. No explanation, no apology, no
sales! However, you can read a long interview with ABE's Director of
Sales, Sue Conners - in which she doesn't address any of these issues - here
Add a comment Book
on Nazi humour is a stress buster
Hitler may have been a fascist, but Germans
living under his iron fist made full use of humour as a stress buster, says a
new book. "Jokes reflect what really affects, amuses and angers people. They provide
an inner view of the Third Reich that possesses an authenticity one usually misses
when reviewing other literary texts" ... more
Add a comment Author
laments state of British libraries
Best-selling author and playwright Susan
Hill said British public library managers have abandoned their commitment to books.
The former host of BBC's "Bookshelf" and author of numerous novels and children's
books, Hill accused authorities of trying to turn libraries into social centers
... more
Add a comment
11.09.06.
A rare passion for print
Though the Salt Lake City store he owns
- Ken Sanders Rare Books - specializes in rare books, its entire back wall is
stocked with paperbacks. "We're never going to sell enough three-dollar paperbacks
to pay the rent," Sanders says. "And it's probably a waste of space, but there's
enough of the old, used bookman in me that if someone comes in here and wants
Moby Dick or [a book by novelist] Barbara Kingsolver, it irritates me if I don't
have it" ... more
Add a comment Cataloguers
sought by Bodleian Library
The Early Printed Books Project is seeking antiquarian
cataloguers to join a skilled and enthusiastic team cataloguing early printed
books in a number of libraries across the University. This is an outstanding opportunity
to gain expertise in cataloguing Western European printed books in many languages,
published from the 15th Century onwards ... more
Add a comment The
Thirteenth Tale
From the first few words of this novel it becomes apparent
that Diane Setterfield has created a remarkably compelling debut. Her narrator,
biographer Margaret Lee, receives a mysterious letter. The contents take her away
from her sedentary, bookish life in a dusty antiquarian bookshop where she writes
biographies of obscure figures ... more
Add a comment Turkey
torn over author's trial
Elif Shafak, one of Turkey's leading authors,
is about to have a baby -- and go on trial. The reason for this strange conjunction
of joy and foreboding is her new novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, which has exposed
her to a charge of "insulting Turkishness" because it touches on one of the most
disputed episodes of her country's history -- the massacres of Armenians during
the final years of the Ottoman Empire ... more
Add a comment
07.09.06.
The Booktown man vanishes
I'm sure it will come as no great surprise
to those who have followed the Atherstone
Booktown chronicles here, that James Hanna has done a bunk ... more
Add a comment
06.09.06.
Sleight
of hand conceals 16th-century book's theft
A 16th-century book has been
stolen from an exhibition in a castle in Upper Austria, but the crime went unnoticed
for days because the thieves left behind another book, police said on Tuesday
... more
Add a comment Rival
biographer admits hoax Betjeman love letter
One of the most spirited literary
feuds of recent times gained momentum yesterday as the author Bevis Hillier outed
himself as the writer of a fake letter published as part of a biography of John
Betjeman ... more
Add a comment Preservation
hoarders
Four years ago, the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Foundation set up
the endangered languages programme at London's School of Oriental and African
Studies and, following on from this, has now established the Endangered Archives
Programme (EAP) at the British Library to preserve written and photographic documents.
"We are not the first organisation to take an interest
in this," says Shaw, who is on the EAP's advisory panel. "Unesco's Memory of the
World Programme has done some fantastic work in this field, but there's always
more that needs to be done and we aim to fill in as many gaps as possible" ...
more
Add a comment Chance
to see rare books on the bard
Priceless books and documents about William
Shakespeare and Stratford's rich history will be on display when the Shakespeare
Centre opens free to the public. The centre, in Henley Street, is one of thousands
of historic buildings across England throwing its doors open as part of Heritage
Open Days 2006 ... more
Add a comment
02.09.06.
No
News today...
I know, I know, away again! But the truth is I've spent
more time in front of the computer or buried under books than in any summer I
can remember. So I'm of to enjoy a few days of late summer sun and will be back
on September 7th.
01.09.06.
Silence!
Author under threat
In the huge new online library, there is a danger that
the principle of copyright will be ignored ... more
Add a comment Google
Book Search driving surfers to booksellers
Google's controversial Book
Search is driving traffic to booksellers, new figures show. According to web monitoring
firm Hitwise, the top destination for surfers visiting Google's UK Book Search
was Amazon UK, accounting for 8.3 per cent of visits ... more
Add a comment Iraqis
burn books in culture protest
Several of Iraq's leading booksellers and
writers burned a pyre of books today to denounce a curfew which they said has
turned the centre of Baghdad's intellectual life into "a street of ghosts" ...
more
Add a comment Toad
writer's birthplace is up for sale
The Georgian birthplace of one of the
best-known children's authors of the 20th century has gone up for sale. The former
New Town home of Kenneth Grahame, who wrote about the adventures of Ratty, Mole
and Mr Toad in Wind in the Willows, has been put on the market by its current
owners, who run it as a luxury guest house ... more
Add a comment | 
