|
20.12.10.
See
you next year ...
Writer Jilly
Cooper was kind enough to mention our bookshop
in a recent Telegraph interview entitled: "Jilly
Cooper's Stroud". Jilly is a long-time fan of the town and was
supporting its independent shops long before it became fashionable
to do so. Worth reading if only for commenter, James Rogers, whose
list of those he says have ruined the town includes "the coffee
drinkers" :)
I'm signing-off until the New Year, so keep
warm and enjoy whatever you choose to celibrate. Add
a comment
A Royale
success for James Bond auction sales
A 1953 rare first
edition of Casino Royale has sold for £19,000 at an auction in Gloucester
this week ... more
Add
a comment
Books with
color illustrations coming to e-readers
Millions of consumers
have embraced black-and-white e-readers like the Kindle for reading
simple novels or nonfiction -- but books with color illustrations
have generally remained better read in print. Now publishers are
making headway in converting their enormous libraries of illustrated
titles to e-books, hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity
of the Apple iPad and the Nook Color and their ability to showcase
books with color photographs and illustrations ... more
Add
a comment
Book trade
could be facing worst Xmas since 2005
Poor weather,
a sluggish economy and higher levels of discounting than in 2009
could lead to this Christmas being the worst festive period for
booksellers since the middle of the last decade, short of a last-minute
flurry of sales ... more
Add
a comment
16.12.10.
Sophie
Dahl to front BBC2 Mrs Beeton documentary
Sophie Dahl is
returning to BBC2 for a documentary about the pioneering cookery
book author Mrs Beeton.In the hour-long programme, called Sophie
Dahl on Mrs Beeton, Dahl will make some of Beeton's recipes such
as carrot jam and pigeon pie to see if they appeal to modern palates
... more
Add
a comment
$1,000,000
comic book collection to be auctioned
Heritage Auctions
has announced that a newly discovered collection of more than 40,000
comic books, “The Savannah Collection,” spanning from 1958 to the
present and valued in total at more than $1 million, will be sold
by the firm beginning February 24th 2011 ... more
Add
a comment
Treasure
trove of medieval manuscripts published
The largest surviving
family-owned library of medieval manuscripts in Britain can now
be enjoyed by everyone thanks to the publication of a new book telling
its fascinating story ... more
Add
a comment
15.12.10.
Quentin
Blake on the art of illustration
Ahead of an auction
of works by some of the world's best-known illustrators, Quentin
Blake talks about his work with Roald Dahl, and how he is taking
art into hospitals ... more
Add
a comment
Lost Roald
Dahl manuscript sells on eBay
The original
typed manuscript of a previously unseen children's short story fragment
by Roald Dahl was sold last night on the auction website eBay. The
highest bidder paid $1,900 (£1,200) for the two-page, 400-word piece,
titled The Eyes of Mr Croaker ... more
Add
a comment
Taking stock
of rare book catalogues
It's hard to
make a rational case for publishing these expensive print showcases,
but they are a defining aspect of my strange trade ... more
Add
a comment
Joyce poem
fetches €22,000
One of the few
known copies of James Joyce’s earliest surviving published work
was sold at auction in Dublin yesterday for €22,000 ... more
Add
a comment
14.12.10.
Quentin
Blake drawings to be auctioned
Original drawings
from the creators of some of the best loved children's books of
all time, including Quentin Blake and Eric Carle, have gone on public
display for the first time before an auction at Sotheby's on Thursday
to raise funds for a permanent £6.5m museum of illustration in London
... more
Add
a comment
Stolen Durham
University Shakespeare folio on display
A folio written
by Shakespeare is to go on show at Durham University for the first
time since it was stolen ... more
Add
a comment
Handwritten
Dylan lyrics fetch $422K
A sheet of Bob
Dylan's handwritten lyrics to The Times They Are A-Changin' was
the highlight of a New York auction of rare books and manuscripts,
with the folk anthem lyrics earning more than $400,000 US ... more
Add
a comment
Why are books
on ethics so likely to be stolen?
A surprising
study shows that classic (pre-1900) ethics books are twice as likely
to go missing as other philosophy books ... more
Add
a comment
13.12.10.
Autographed
'Wizard of Oz' book up for auction
A vintage clothbound
copy of "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, up for auction at Profiles
in History, was signed by all the stars of the film's cast -- including
Toto. According to the auction house, the book was a gift for Jack
Haley Jr., then 5 years old. His father, Jack Haley, portrayed the
Tin Man, and brought the book to the set to be signed by cast and
crew ... more
Add
a comment
Major Islamic
Art Exhibition in Amsterdam
"Passion for
Perfection", the latest exhibition at De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam,
showcases approximately 500 pieces from the collection of Professor
Nasser D Khalili. The exhibition features illuminated Qur'ans, manuscripts,
paintings, textiles, ceramics, lacquerware and fine metalwork. Also
on display are gold jewellery, carpets, glassware and stone and
wood sculptures ... more
Add
a comment
11.12.10.
Collecting
literary treasures
Collecting books
is about passion, not words. "There is nothing at all like the frisson
one gets opening a book catalog and paging through, looking for
treasures," says Annette Campbell-White, a prominent book collector
and venture capitalist from New Zealand ... more
Add
a comment
10.12.10.
What
makes a book of birds worth £7 million?
Perhaps the most
astonishing thing about the sale of a copy of Audubon's Birds of
America on Tuesday at Sotheby's for £7,321,250 is that it is not
an especially rare book ... more
Add
a comment
Murdered
bookseller unknowingly bought stolen books
Sherry Black
was found stabbed to death last week in South Salt Lake. Black had
an outstanding reputation as a book dealer and was known for her
honesty and integrity. Friends say she was shocked to learn some
books she had purchased had been stolen and the source she purchased
them from, according to police, is a gang member ... more
Add
a comment
If Lorin Nielsen walked into my shop,
I find it hard to imagine buying anything from him, and certainly
not $45K worth of books - TBG 10.12.10
'Responsible'
book seller opens UK online shop
Better World
Books, which collects and sells books to generate funds for literacy
causes, offers free shipping in the UK and has over a million new
and used books for purchase ... more
Add
a comment
Big hearted bibliophiles should be a
little wary of this company. Not only do they clutter the internet
bookselling sites with their stuff, often without descriptions,
but they also play the charity angle bigtime. As you will see from
the remarks below even Oxfam, generally held to be the world's most
inefficient fundraiser from books, do better than this lot. ( Audited
Oxfam book turnover shows that about 20% of the proceeds actually
go to doing something beneficial. The rest goes on wages, rents,
offices, cars etc etc )
From Wikipedia ( ie not my opinions, although
I think these remarks are accurate ). "Some complaints have
arisen that the Better World Book business model relies on the confusion
created by "book drives" and "book donation boxes." The act of asking
for "donations" has led many to believe that the company is in fact
a charity. In reality, according to the Better World website, around
7% of net revenue goes to literacy initiatives.[5] Some have complained
that this is not unlike many corporations that make donations to
charity and that the company should be careful not to confuse donors
into believing that they are donating to a good cause even though
a small portion is purportedly given to charity."
Anyone can see, after a little scrutiny,
that Betterworld's running costs must be on the large side of large.
But 7% of net revenue does not seem to sit comfortably with the
public image that they are actively promoting. - Steve Liddle 11.12.10.
Desert island
cookbooks: Sir Terence Conran
Sir Terence Conran,
the man who changed the face of London dining, shows us the cookbooks
he can't live without ... more
Add
a comment
08.12.10.
Students
occupy Goldsmiths library
Students from
Goldsmiths University have occupied the library in a protest over
tuition fees for a second night ... more
Add
a comment
World's most
expensive book sells for £7.3m
John James Audubon's
Birds of America broke the world record for a single book when it
was sold at Sotheby's last night ... more
Add
a comment
It didn't sell to a 'private collector',
at least not directly. It sold to Michael Tollemache, a Duke Street
art dealer and about as Mayfair as they come, friend of Chaz n'
Camilla etc etc etc. Some things never change! - Steve Liddle 10.12.10.
14th-century
King Arthur tale sells for £2.4m
An illuminated
14th-century manuscript containing what is believed to be the oldest
surviving account of the legend of King Arthur and the knights of
the round table was sold for £2.39m yesterday ... more
Add
a comment
Postcards
from early New Zealand sell for $28,000
The nearly-2000
cards from late-19th century and early 20th-century were collected
by Dr Bruce Gamble, a civil engineer who was heavily involved with
Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology ... more
Add
a comment
07.12.10.
Unknown
Philip Larkin poem found in shoebox
A missing piece
in the portrait drawn by Philip Larkin of his secretary and lover,
Betty Mackereth, has been filled in with the discovery of a previously
unpublished poem, "Dear Jake" ... more
Add
a comment
French find
Leonardo da Vinci manuscript
A coded manuscript
by Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in a public library in
the French city of Nantes ... more
Add
a comment
06.12.10.
Writers
protest at 'vandalism' to library services
A roster of leading
authors including Carol Ann Duffy, Philip Pullman, Sarah Waters,
Michael Holroyd, Malorie Blackman, Kate Mosse and Jackie Kay are
among 1,000 people who have signed an open letter to culture secretary
Jeremy Hunt and minister Ed Vaizey, asking them to intervene over
library cuts amounting to "cultural vandalism" ... more
Add
a comment
Cult pulp
fiction
Sick of mainstream
literature? Had enough of being told what to read by endless literary
supplements? Then let me take you deep into the world of cult pulp
fiction. Take a deep breath now ... more
Add
a comment
Restoring
the world's oldest book, the Diamond Sutra
Writer and historian,
Frances Wood, is head of the Chinese section at the British Library,
where restoration work has been taking place on an edition of the
world's oldest printed book - the Diamond Sutra which dates back
to 868 AD ... more
Add
a comment
02.12.10.
One
million books to be given away
One million books
will be given away free in the UK and Ireland on 5 March for the
inaugural World Book Night ... more
Add
a comment
"Times They
Are A-Changin" lyrics headed to Sotheby’s
Later this month
Sotheby's will auction the original handwritten lyrics to Bob Dylan's
"The Times They Are A-Changin'." The song, one of Dylan's earlier
originals, is written on unruled notebook paper, and is expected
to sell for between $200,000 and $300,000 ... more
Add
a comment
Composers'
scores a winner for charity
Musicians such
as Birtwistle and Adès put handwritten manuscripts up for sale at
Sotheby's to help an arts foundation ... more
Add
a comment
01.12.10.
Massive
library service cuts 'may be illegal'
Far-reaching
cuts to the library service planned for Oxfordshire may be illegal,
according to protesters who have contacted culture minister Ed Vaizey,
whose constituency of Didcot and Wantage is within the county. The
local authority is proposing to stop funding 20 out of its 43 libraries
and instead throw them open to local communities to run ... more
Add
a comment
Robert Burns
museum opens
A major new museum
celebrating the birthplace, life and poetry of Robert Burns has
opened at his former home in Ayrshire, after a two-year delay and
a series of controversies about its handling ... more
Add
a comment
|
