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.

November 2004

30.11.04  Kanda's secondhand bookstores adapt to digital age. Japan's best-known secondhand bookstores bazaar - in Tokyo's Jimbocho district - is thriving despite a loss of interest in the printed word that has hit book sales in many areas, because it has adapted to the digital age...more  Add a comment.

30.11.04  Rare American Color-Plate Books Featured in Exhibition. Fort Worth - One of the country’s finest private collections of rare illustrated books is the subject of a special exhibition opening at the Amon Carter Museum January 29, 2005.     Stamped with a National Character: Nineteenth-Century American Color-Plate Books will feature more than 120 items that trace the development of color illustration in 19th-century America, from its tentative beginnings when hand-colored engraving was most prevalent to the invention of photomechanical reproduction processes...more  Add a comment.

30.11.04  Capote manuscript on block. New York - A manuscript of Truman Capote's unpublished first novel has been found in a box of papers and will be auctioned Friday at Sotheby's...more  Add a comment.

29.11.04  Lost texts find new life. Timbuktu, Mali - There was a time, centuries ago, when the Sahara was arguably one of the best places on earth to buy a book. From West Africa's Atlantic coast across the sandy expanses to the White Nile in the east, camels laden with chests full of books and manuscripts trekked from one oasis to the next...more  Add a comment.

29.11.04  Race for Australia up for sale. Like the race to the moon, or to the poles, the fierce competition between England and France to claim Australia was one of history's most momentous. Rare documents and maps going under the hammer at Sotheby's in Melbourne tonight highlight just how close Australia was to being claimed by the French...more  Add a comment.

28.11.04  Estate sale buy yields a delicious treasure. Galveston - You never know what you may find at an estate sale. That’s something book dealer Louise Nichols of Yesterday’s Books learned with time. But even after 18 years in the business, she still gets surprises...more  Add a comment.

27.11.04  History has Dylan Thomas dying from drink. But now, a new theory. Dylan Thomas, the great lost Welsh poet of his century, was killed not by his heavy drinking but by the mistakes and oversights of his physician, according to new evidence in a biography to be published on Monday...more  Add a comment.

27.11.04  House of rare books. Shanghai - The heads of two generations of a local family collected and preserved part of China's precious literary heritage in their city garden villa, writes Michelle Qiao...more  Add a comment.

27.11.04  Bibliophiles find rare books on footpaths. Islamabad - Bibliophiles need not go far or spend much to obtain the books they want because both ordinary and rare books are available on the footpaths of Rawalpindi and Islamabad...more  Add a comment.

26.11.04  Hobbit fetches £6,000 at auction. A first edition of the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien - published in 1937 - has sold for £6,000 at an auction in Norfolk...more  Add a comment.

26.11.04  'They are my books'. Toronto -- 'They don't belong to Harbourfront. They are my books." So declared Greg Gatenby during a testy press conference at his Toronto home yesterday morning, hoping to end the questions surrounding his announcement that he was selling his book collection, about 28,000 volumes worth an estimated $2-million, amassed in part during his time as director of the Harbourfront Centre's literary programming...more  Add a comment.

26.11.04  Arthur Hailey, author of Airport, dies. Arthur Hailey, the British-born author whose novels about ordinary people facing extraordinary ordeals sold millions of copies in airports around the world, died in his home in the Bahamas yesterday. He was 84 ...more  Add a comment.

26.11.04  17th century British porn to be auctioned. London - The world's first known piece of printed pornography, described as the "quintessence of debauchery", is expected to reach up to 35,000 pounds when it is auctioned next month...more  Add a comment.

25.11.04  Rare book thief pleads guilty. A Christchurch man has pleaded guilty to 64 charges in relation to the theft of rare New Zealand books from university libraries...more  Add a comment.

25.11.04  A chance meeting, a rare find. The box arrived at the Boston Public Library yesterday in a brown UPS truck, its contents a priceless treasure once owned by John Adams.     Wrapped inside cardboard and bubble wrap, the 206-year-old three-volume set of books, "The life of Catherine II, Empress of Russia," is a long-missing piece of history that local curators are calling "the one that got away." It will be housed in the library's John Adams presidential collection...more  Add a comment.

25.11.04  Google launches new academic service. Google, the internet search engine, has launched a trial vesion of a new academic service called Google Scholar. Intended as an essential research tool for academics and students, it has been developed in collaboration with scientific and academic publishers. It will offer material not usually accessible via normal search engines because it is locked behind subscription barriers...more  Add a comment.

25.11.04  Cash crisis hits 'city of literature' project. Six weeks after Edinburgh was named the world’s first "city of literature", the project appears dangerously close to running out of money...more  Add a comment.

24.11.04  Peter Pan collection to aid children's hospital. A poignant photograph of a sturdy Edwardian boy, who would provide the inspiration for Peter Pan but would die himself in an apparent suicide pact at 20, will be a star item in the auction of archives of remarkable Peter Pan material...more  Add a comment.

24.11.04  Ebay faces global customer revolt. A global movement of disgruntled eBay customers has decided to rebel against the internet auction site, claiming that the company has failed to address users' concerns on security, fraud and service.     Forgeries are regularly offered on eBay. Last summer the publication of the fifth Harry Potter book drew much interest and the number of "signed copies" of J. K. Rowling's books offered on eBay soared.
    The amount of obvious forgeries bought by unsuspecting fans astounded James Allen, owner of Red Snapper Books, a rare book dealer. "Of the fifty or sixty items you expected to see at any one time, perhaps two or three were genuine," he said...more  Add a comment.

24.11.04  Book hurler escapes prison. Judge orders probation for man who hurled book that injured two cyclists...more  Add a comment.

23.11.04  Hobbit's birthplace wins official protection. It's not a deep, dark cave inhabited by Gollum, nor a hall of stone belonging to a Dwarf-lord -- it's just an ordinary house in the heart of suburbia. But authorities will defend it to the hilt as the historical birthplace of literary blockbusters "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit"...more  Add a comment.

23.11.04  Sedbergh Book Town Forum 28th November. The meeting is to finalise those booksellers who wish to join the Dales & Lakes Book Centre and become founders of the Book Town. There will also be information about properties for sale and to let, both commercial and residential. Before this you are invited to tour the town and to look at the premises of the Dales & Lakes Book Centre. Further details from Carole Nelson.  Add a comment.

23.11.04  Rare Abraham Lincoln collectables go under the hammer. An extremely rare lighthouse book first published in France in 1864 by the French Lighthouse Service has been acquired by the Museum of Lighthouse History in Wells, Maine...more  Add a comment.

23.11.04  Rare lighthouse book goes to museum. An extremely rare lighthouse book first published in France in 1864 by the French Lighthouse Service has been acquired by the Museum of Lighthouse History in Wells, Maine...more  Add a comment.

22.11.04  Protester climbs down from roof of adult bookshop. Other than a few women who made obscene gestures as they drove by, a week on the roof of an adult bookstore was mostly a positive experience, Ray Morris said Friday as he prepared to come down from his perch the next morning...more  Add a comment.

22.11.04  Collector has read thousands of books. Pages are constantly turning at Violet Buss' home in Free Soil. Buss loves to read and has the collection of books that proves it. A big collection of books. "Last time I counted, a few years ago, I had 12,000," she said. "Right now, I know my collection must be near 20,000"...more  Add a comment.

22.11.04  Funeral for Desecrated Torah Scroll. The Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem is to hold a burial ceremony today for a Torah scroll that was stolen and desecrated last week. In Jewish tradition, holy books and Torah scrolls that can no longer be used are buried, with similar ceremony as that of a funeral for a person...more  Add a comment.

22.11.04  Letter by Lincoln's assassin sells for $68,000. A letter written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln's assassin two months before the 1865 slaying sold at auction yesterday for a record price...more  Add a comment.

21.11.04  'It's incredibly moving to have the piece of paper that Leonardo drew and wrote upon himself'. The Honourable Lady Roberts whisks the black shroud off a display of drawings in the velvety silence of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, revealing a tall stand on which a breathtaking collection of Old Masters can be viewed. This, whispers Her Ladyship, is where Her Majesty the Queen brings her most distinguished dinner guests for their postprandial entertainment...more  Add a comment.

20.11.04  The power of pictures. On the front page of The Plain Dealer's world exclusive on Nov. 20, 1969, 35 years ago today, the caption under a large black-and-white photo read: "A clump of bodies on a road in South Vietnam"...more  Add a comment.

20.11.04  Painted treasures of the Moghul rulers. Few stories are quite as strange in mankind's cultural history as the birth of an art school that blended the principles of Iranian painting with motifs borrowed from Northern Europe.
     As a further complication, this improbable marriage took place in India, ruled by the emperors of Turcic-Mongol ancestry, "the Moghuls."
    Recounting it is a tricky business. Several manuscripts that would serve as landmarks if they were intact were dismembered in the West - their painted pages sold piecemeal...more  Add a comment.

20.11.04  Autographed copy of famed Christmas poem to be auctioned. An autographed copy of the classic poem that begins with the familiar line "'Twas the night before Christmas" will be auctioned at Sotheby's this holiday season.
     The handwritten manuscript, signed by author Clement Clarke Moore, is one of just four known autographed copies. It is expected to sell for between $200,000 and $300,000 when auctioned on Dec. 3...more  Add a comment.

20.11.04  Blackwell's up for sale? Struggling against Amazon.com and the growing use of the internet, Blackwell’s yesterday said it had commissioned City accountants BDO Stoy Harvard to conduct a review of its retail arm to be completed in early 2005...more  Add a comment.

20.11.04  'The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books'. When Aaron Lansky was studying Yiddish literature in Montreal, finding books was a problem. One lucky student might find the assigned text in the library. But others would have to go to the old Jewish neighborhoods, knock on doors, and ask to borrow from someone's private library...more  Add a comment.

20.11.04  US Critics throw the book at national award panel. Who says people don't care about books? For the second year in a row, controversy has swirled around the National Book Awards.
    Last year literary lions were scandalized when horror novelist Stephen King received the medal for outstanding contribution to American letters.
     This year eyebrows rose among some critics, authors, and publishers over the five finalists in fiction...more  Add a comment.

19.11.04  National Trust attempts to stop auction of Patrick White's house. The house where White lived for a quarter of a century is today being placed on the New South Wales Heritage Register, to save it from any future development, but it's still due to go under the auction hammer next Wednesday night...more  Add a comment.

19.11.04  £860,000 boost to save ancient psalter. The campaign to keep a magnificent illuminated medieval manuscript in Britain received a huge boost yesterday when the National Heritage Memorial Fund agreed to give £860,000 towards purchasing the Macclesfield Psalter...more  Add a comment.

18.11.04  Literary awards are killing literature. Literary awards like the Booker and the French Goncourt Prize are destroying literature in the post-modern world where the concept of high culture was fast disappearing, Nobel laureate literateur Sir V S Naipaul said today...more  Add a comment.

18.11.04  UCLA Library Acquires Papers of Television Pioneer. The UCLA Library has acquired the papers of Harry Crane (1914–99), creator of "The Honeymooners" and a prolific writer of radio, television and film comedy. The collection encompasses scripts, correspondence, photographs, topical humor publications and awards spanning his career from the 1940s through the 1990s...more  Add a comment.

18.11.04  Forget fines - overdue library books could lead to jail time. Frustrated librarians want to begin a crackdown on chronic offenders that could lead to criminal charges and up to 90 days in jail...more  Add a comment.

18.11.04  Clinton due to open his library. Former US president Bill Clinton is to open his futuristic glass-and-steel presidential library on Thursday...more  Add a comment.

18.11.04  Bookseller to turn a page in store's life. After 30 years as the proprietor of Fort Lauderdale's premier used-book store, Rob Hittel realized a few months ago it was at last time to devise a business model. Being a book lover no longer seemed enough. Since the late 1990s, pressure from chain stores and the Internet had gradually eroded his sales...more  Add a comment.

17.11.04 ChooseBooks sold. It was announced today that on November 16th ChooseBooks was acquired by mediatins AG, an independent German multimedia corporation and a parent company of ZVAB.com, Antiquarian Book Listing service, a European market leader with a dominant position in Central Europe.
    According to Choosebooks, it's all good news, but it remains to be seen how much their business model and fees will change under new ownership.

17.11.04  Harry Potter cast support book auction for charity. Cast members from the Harry Potter movies are lending their support to LEPRA, a leading UK medical charity which supports fighting Leprosy, HIV, and AIDS world-wide.
    Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Zoë Wanamaker as well as Harry Potter narrator Stephen Fry all donated signed books for "The Big Book Auction," which begins today on eBay and ends on November 27th...more  Add a comment.

17.11.04  Celebrities back appeal to save historic book. TV star Michael Palin and historian Dr David Starkey are backing a national public appeal to save the Macclesfield Psalter. "Python" Michael Palin said: "The Macclesfield Psalter is one of the richest and most beautiful examples of an early English illustrated book. It is a rare and very special insight into our medieval cultural life, and if anything deserves to stay in its country of its origin, this is it"...more  Add a comment.

17.11.04  British Library goes wireless. The British Library claims to have built the largest indoor wireless network in the London. The network, which will cover 11 reading room, the Library auditorium, its café and restaurant as well as the famous indoor Piazza will be available to 3,000 visitors a day...more  Add a comment.

17.11.04  Executive urged to help fund city of literature. An MSP has criticised the Scottish Executive for failing to allocate funds for the development of the World City of Literature status of Edinburgh...more  Add a comment.

16.11.04  Music in Bookshops. I've read a number of negative comments about music in bookshops recently, so I shall confess my gilt here. We play all sorts of music at Inprint, and I encourage the staff to bring in their own choice. On any one day you could hear western classical, blues, jazz, reggae, hip hop, trip hop, r&b, soul, world, folk...
    This is partly because of my own broad interest in the history and development of popular music, and partly because we sell books on the subject. The music often prompts comment, some of it negative, but it does lead to book sales and business for the independent record store up the road.
    Hancock's in Cheltenham used to play an endless stream of (in my view) rather bland classical stuff, which lead Driff to comment that it was ' like being at a classical concert in a library'. I found it a bit debilitating. Add a comment.

16.11.04  At this bookstore, browsers can read the arms on the man. Some people go to Pazzo Books to buy secondhand books, some for a quiet place to read, and some to check out Brian Nealon's arms...more  Add a comment.

16.11.04  EBay to ban 'Racially Derogatory' search terms. The Internet auction giant eBay plans to implement a "pop-up" notification when "racially derogatory" search terms are entered on the website...more  Add a comment.

16.11.04  Comic book jazzes up music history. Following last year's runaway success of "Jazz It Up!" a comic book that draws up the century old history of jazz in chronological order, is "Jazz It Up! Vol. Two." The sequel of the two part series takes readers on a deeper journey into the world of jazz by introducing the more complex sub-genres and paying tribute to jazz greats...more  Add a comment.