29.07.06.
Chapter
of shame for librarian who stole
Norman Buckley, 44, has admitted stealing
more than 400 ancient books, posters and other items from Manchester's Central
Library where he worked. His haul included a 16th-century edition of the works
of Geoffrey Chaucer worth £35,000 and a 1654 publication of romantic poet John
Donne's elegies … more
Add a comment Laid
back in Cornwall
The Port Eliot Lit Fest is a world away from blue-rinse
Cheltenham or slick Hay-on-Wye … more
Add a comment Rare
Bible found in dump bin
Electrician Michael Hoskins is not averse to browsing
when he drops off trash at the Route 41 dump bin, and a recent visit rewarded
his curiosity. Hoskins discoverey was a sheepskin-covered Bible, printed in Pittsburgh
in 1818 and, according to Hoskins' research, one of less than half dozen copies
in existence. Now he's fending off offers approaching $1,000 for the find. … more
Add a comment
27.07.06.
Got
to have it! ... Oops, already have it
Library and Archives Canada came
embarrassingly close to buying a valuable historic map they already had in their
collection. Shouldn't the information collectors get their information straight?
… more
Add a comment Rock-solid
humor in a world of words
Stephanie Beckel displays a rock at her store,
Tampa Antiquarian Books and Collectibles in Old Seminole Heights. It's the one
burglars used to break into her shop July 10. She keeps it as reminder that she
can't be beaten. She also uses it to show her unbreakable sense of humor - she
put a price tag on the rock of $663.67, the amount she lost during the burglary
… more
Add a comment Turkish
court acquits author
In a ruling sure to please the European Union and
human rights groups, a Turkish court on Thursday acquitted an author and journalist
of charges that she tried to deter people from doing their military service …
more
Add a comment
27.07.06.
Charity
bookshops feeling the pinch?
The Bishop's Stortford Royal National Institute
of the Blind bookstore in Devoils Lane closed on Saturday amid concerns that it
is not financially viable to the charity's long-term plans. However Steve Gutteridge,
one of 20 shop volunteers, said the closure made no sense … more
Add a comment Lux
Mentis rant
Ian Kahn's ever-readable (and recently reactivated) blog has
his take on American book fairs as its 24th July entry. "I feel strongly that
book fairs need to bring more to the table to draw people in the door...I do not
think such efforts need to add much to the cost, but they do require more back
office/organizational time" … more
Add a comment
26.07.06.
Bog
discovery hailed as Ireland's Dead Sea scrolls
Irish archaeologists are
celebrating the discovery of their own Dead Sea scrolls after a bulldozer unearthed
fragments of a psalter that may have lain in a bog for more than 1,000 years.
The book of psalms was found last Thursday when an engineer
excavating bogland in the midlands noticed a bundle near his digger's scoop. It
turned out to be the animal skin pages of an early Christian psalter that appears
to date back as far as AD800. One psalm - number 89 - was still legible … more
Add a comment Bookseller
fights for home
A bookseller is protesting to save his home and business
from being bulldozed to make way for a development. The Greenwich Bookplace at
258 Creek Road, and David Herbert's home next door have become a landmark as they
have been partly obscured by heavy scaffolding for nearly three years … more
Add a comment Manuscript
lands Tibetan youth 10 years in prison
According to confirmed information
received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), a 29-year
old Tibetan youth, Dolma Kyab, has been sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment term
for writing and maintaining a commentary manuscript about Tibet … more
Add a comment Alleged
library foot kisser indicted
A grand jury charged a man with gross sexual
imposition after he asked a woman if he could kiss her feet in a library and then
started sucking on her toe. Joseph Colella, 28, said he wanted to see the woman's
reaction as part of a sociology project … more
Add a comment
24.07.06.
100-year-old
librarian ‘keeps dust off the floor’
For the last eight decades, Martha
Cutter Kelley Smith has tended to the books at the Coal Creek Library. But not
because she’s an avid reader. "I don’t read ’em," Smith says. But just as she
has for the past 80 years, the 100-year-old Smith toils away at the state’s oldest
library, keeping herself busy and keeping a monument to the small community of
Vinland up and running … more
Add a comment Stolen
rare maps will find their way home
Eight maps purloined from the Houghton
Library at Harvard University will be returned to the institution in September
, when E. Forbes Smiley III is sentenced for their thefts, according to a US Justice
Department spokesman … more
Add a comment In
Istanbul, a writer awaits her day in court
Bestselling novelist Elif Shafak
is the latest writer to face trial for "insulting Turkishness". She tells Richard
Lea about her work, the charges that have been brought against her, and how the
Turkish language has become a battleground … more
Add a comment Stores
thinking outside the book
As independent bookstores scramble to compete
with chain stores and online retailers, one small Marin County bookseller found
a way to survive. He got rid of the books … more
Add a comment
20.07.06.
India
government to promote "Manuscript Tourism"
In order to conserve our ancient
manuscripts and showcasing them to national and international travellers, the
ministry of culture and tourism is working on promoting manuscript tourism in
the country. The ministry is working on aspects like marketing, budget, etc to
promote manuscripts as a niche tourism product and will also be participating
in a seminar and book fair to be held in Germany later this year … more
Add a comment Comic
Con returns to San Diego
California's governor has been there. So have
Frank Capra and Francis Coppola. And of course there are always plenty of Klingons
and Stormtroopers. It's Comic-Con, an event that draws thousands of comic book,
film, television and gaming professionals to San Diego's Convention Center … more
Add a comment Yale
posts list of missing maps
An early map of Boston that strategically highlighted
the military positions of the Americans during the Revolutionary War is one of
the great rarities that Yale University has discovered missing from its map collection
in a long-awaited inventory released this week … more
Add a comment The
end of the story
As with many treasures, the 44-year-old Apollo Book Shop
is buried in its background, overlooked by the masses and left behind by the times.
It is believed to be Orange County's last used-only bookstore. Next year, there
may be none … more
Add a comment Young
writers' £60,000 prize hope
A long-list of 14 books being considered for
the first Dylan Thomas literary prize have been announced in the late poet's home
city of Swansea … more
Add a comment
20.07.06
Bookdealer
Fortnightly
Hot on the heels of the news that Bookdealer,
the UK trade magazine is to close, comes an announcement from Norwich bookdealer,
John Debbage that he is to launch Bookdealer Fortnightly.
The
A4 magazine will initially contain For Sale and Wants ads, with a reply slip service.
Advertising rates will be about half the current Bookdealer rates and it's hoped
to add events, letters and editorial, in due course. John says that 100's of people
have contacted him and hopes that the first issue will be published on August
18th.
The first four issues will be free, and you can
order your copy by calling John on 01603 488015. Add a comment
Books
Wanted
In another response to Bookdealer's closure, Stan
Dolphin of Giltedge Books has set up a Books Wanted Yahoo Group. Primarily for
UK booksearch services and bookdealers, but also for private collectors to post
their book wants lists, which will be circulated to all group members and also
visible to anyone who visits the site … more
Add a comment Katrina
exhibit opening in New Orleans
Historic photographs, prints, maps and books
on display trace New Orleans' perseverance through 300 years of periodic flooding
and natural disasters, while contemporary photographs, oral histories, video footage
and ephemera explore Hurricane Katrina's impact and the city's will to survive
and rebuild against all odds … more
Add a comment Technology
rewrites the book
The print-on-demand business is gradually moving toward
the center of the marketplace. What began as a way for publishers to reduce their
inventory and stop wasting paper is becoming a tool for anyone who needs a bound
document. Short-run presses can turn out books economically in small quantities
or singly, and new software simplifies the process of designing a book … more
Add a comment 9/11:
the comic book
The 600-page official inquiry into the 9/11 attacks are
to be compressed into a comic strip version aimed at younger readers and others
who might have be put off by the small print of the densely written report … more
Add a comment Endangered
shelf life
I have a vested interest in the story of the demise of libraries:
for one thing, I am co-writing a comedy set in a crumbling and dysfunctional library,
and have had a niggling worry that this might in some way contribute to the rot
besetting the service as a whole; and for another, our own local library - which
is neither crumbling nor dysfunctional - is one of those whose funding is being
steadily eroded by the council … more
Add a comment
18.07.06.
Detective
novelist Spillane dies
Mickey Spillane, the creator of Mike Hammer, the
heroic but frequently sadistic private detective who blasted his way through some
of the most violent novels of the 1940’s and 50’s, died yesterday at his home.
He was 88 … more
Add a comment Revenge
of the Book Eaters
A U.S. non-profit group has employed some top pop and
rock stars for its nationwide campaign to raise money to promote children's literacy.
Participants in "The Revenge of the Book Eaters" tour include David Byrne, Sufjan
Stevens, Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard, Aimee Mann and Mark Kozelek, The Book
Standard reported on its Web site … more
Add a comment Barking
up a wonderful tree
In the second of her exhibitions on materials and techniques
at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, curator Hannah Mathews has selected
a group of eight artists. Nicholas Jones cuts into hardback books or erodes them
with an industrial sander to create landscapes of text and paper. Kate Cotching
summons urban landscapes from delicately cut silhouettes, and Annabel Dixon excavates
new meanings by cutting through layers of comic-book illustrations and compiling
an assortment of printed ephemera … more
Add a comment Blistering
barnacles! He's a literary icon
I have always felt that there is more to
Tintin than mere picture stories for kids. Reading Tom McCarthy's lively take
on Le Petit Vingtieme's finest, I had this belief not only confirmed but stretched
to breaking point. I also wanted to sit down once more and pore over every Tintin
book I could lay my hands on … more
Add a comment
17.07.06.
Blue
plaque unveiled for Sherlock author
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's link with
a North Norfolk pub that inspired one of his Sherlock Holmes adventures has been
marked with a blue plaque. The author often visited the centuries-old Hill House
in Happisburgh and in 1903 wrote The Adventure of the Dancing Men while staying
there … more
Add a comment Orientalist
imagery reveals roots of American views of Middle East
A collection of
Orientalist imagery reflecting an American fantasy of the exotic and the erotic
is about to debut as an on-line data base. The imagery has long been appropriated
for use in American film posters, cigarette packs, pulp fiction and popular music:
scantily clad harem girls, tyrannical despots and turbaned mystics have personified
an imagined Middle East in the popular culture … more
Add a comment Ibn
Sina’s ancient manuscript preserved in Azerbaijan
"UNESCO has included
our ancient manuscripts, cultural and scientific heritage into its list. One of
them is Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna) one of the ancient manuscripts, which is preserved
at the ANAS Institute of Manuscripts. This manuscript copied in 1143 is about
medical laws, different details of medical science, drug plants, and it describes
over 1,000 drug plants. Besides, Abdul Gasim Zahrabi’s manuscript on surgery dating
to the 13th century is also preserved at our Institute" … more
Add a comment
15.07.06.
New
role for Marx's old haunt
The room where Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital is
to be transformed into a blockbuster exhibition of Chinese treasures, including
the famous terracotta army. The circular Reading Room at the British Museum in
London was used by writers from Virginia Woolf to George Bernard Shaw until the
British Library moved 10 years ago to St Pancras. It is now the centrepiece of
the British Museum's Great Court and exists as a space for visitors to consult
books on its collections … more
Add a comment Ulysses
first edition sells for £30,000
A first edition of James Joyce's masterpiece
'Ulysses' sold at auction at Sotheby's on Thursday for £30,000, far below the
guide price of between £36,000 and £50,000 … more
Add a comment Shakespeare's
First Folio fetches £2.8m
The most important book in English literature
was sold on Thursday at Sotheby's for £2,808,000. The successful bid for a copy
of Shakespeare's First Folio of plays was made by Simon Finch, a London book dealer
based in Mayfair … more
Add a comment Book
naming Ripper loaned to museum
A book in which a Victorian detective recorded
his conviction that he knew the real identity of Jack the Ripper, but would go
to his grave unable to prove it, was loaned yesterday by his great grandson to
Scotland Yard's infamous Black Museum … more
Add a comment Where
have you gone?
For nearly 60 years Ladybird was a powerhouse in publishing,
the most recognisable children's publisher on the planet, producing the iconic
Ladybird book, all seven by four-and-three-quarter inches and 56 pages long of
it, cherished by parents and children alike … more
Add a comment
13.07.06.
Tome
sensitive
David Mason has been an antiquarian bookseller in Toronto for
40 years, and he has the insider knowledge, juicy gossip and melancholy tales
of woe to prove it … more
Add a comment Missing
Shelley poem found after 200 years
A 20-page pamphlet with a 172-line poem
by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which no-one has read since 1811, has come to light.
The extraordinary discovery has excited scholars who have been searching in vain
for it for nearly two centuries … more
Add a comment The
book's the thing
It's full of errors, has scribbles in the margins and
isn't even complete. But imagine a world without Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar
or Macbeth and you'll understand why a copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare's
plays may fetch £3.5m at Sotheby's today, says John Mullan … more
Add a comment Declaration
of independence
Independent bookshops are supposedly on their knees -
so what would drive a lawyer with no retail experience to open one? Introducing
a regular blog on the trials and tribulations of the book trade, Nic Bottomley,
proud co-proprietor of Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, explains his decision
… more
Add a comment
11.07.06.
Author
of the first major Indian novel in English dies
Raja Rao was best known
for his novels "Kanthapura," published in 1938 and widely regarded as the first
major Indian novel in English, and "The Serpent and the Rope," which was published
in 1960 and won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988 … more
Add a comment Peru
prevents illegal shipment of historic manuscripts
Peruvian customs officials
prevented that 53 historical manuscripts of incalculable value were illegally
sent to England for commercial purposes. According to a spokesperson of the National
Cultural Institute, the documents belong to Peru's national archives and were
drafted between the years 1782 and 1850 … more
Add a comment New
Poet for Wales named
Professor Gwyn Thomas, who translated the Mabinogion
into English has been unveiled as the new National Poet for Wales … more
Add a comment
10.07.06.
Book
search takes a surreal turn in New Hampshire
Last week I stopped by an
overlooked Portsmouth bookstore, Antiquarian Books, on a whim. I was greeted at
the door by the clerk and let him know I just wanted to look around. That was
fine with him, he said, before informing me they charge $5 for browsing. Having
never been charged an admission fee to enter Borders, I looked at him to gauge
whether he was being serious. He was … more
Add a comment
I
too called there two years ago: it was right next to our hotel: my partner couldn't
believe it (being a "book widow") that we had hit upon this place by chance, and
I managed to get a pass for a couple of hours. However I wouldn't pay the $5.00.
Don't know why, there were enough books there. The proprietor was sure clever:
I said that I'd spent about US2000 on books that week in second hand stores, and
had never been asked to pay to browse; his reply was that if I could afford that
sort of money then I could afford $5.00............ Anyway stalemate, and I went
back and had double lobster salad (for only £10!). Maybe next time I won't be
so proud! - Robert Brown, The Winchester Bookshop.
I
believe this policy is not confined to the USA.....On my last visit to Undercover
Books in Stamford (admittedly a couple of years ago) I was asked to pay a 'Browsing
Fee' - £1.00 from memory - refundable on any purchase. Intrigued by this curious
approach to customer relations, I paid up. Needless to say I was so determined
to recoup my fee that I bought a book. So the system works. Haven't been back
though ... - Steve Archer.
Undercover
Books are indeed still attempting to charge browsers - a sign on the back
of the door reads: 'We expect non-buyers to pay £1.00 towards the costs
of running of the shop. TBG. 'Modest'
£250,000 for Beckett works
The finest private collection of Samuel Beckett's
work is to be sold by the family of an eccentric bibliophile who devoted much
of his life to cultivating a friendship with the reclusive playwright … more
Add a comment Judge
orders library to reinstate librarian
A northwest Missouri librarian fired
for refusing to work Sundays has won another round in a lawsuit claiming religious
discrimination … more
Add a comment Le
Mans book races to £400 in bidding battle
A rare book signed by the Edinburgh
man behind one of Scotland's greatest sporting triumphs has fetched more than
three times the amount expected for charity … more
Add a comment
08.07.06.
Comic
books enrich their character mix
POW! Take that, racism. And - WHACK!
- take that, homophobia. And - THOOM! KER-THWACK! KRUMMMMM! -- take that, gender
stereotyping, cultural bias and religious intolerance. Identity - and not just
the secret kind - has become the increasing focus of the masked heroes, mutants
and super beings of the comic book world … more
Add a comment The
patron saint of the bookshop
A room full of ghosts at the Calder Bookshop,
Waterloo, as Michael Horovitz, assisted by actors Leonard Fenton and Karin Fernald,
"cantered through" the lives and works of a dozen poet friends, "all now dead,
but all who will remain immortal through their work". The reading began and ended
with Beckett, but this was no opportunistic centenary event. Horovitz described
him as "the patron saint of the bookshop". John Calder was his publisher and friend
for many years, and the tiny backroom of the shop is the venue for twice-weekly
performances of his shorter works throughout the summer … more
Add a comment Declaration
of independents
Andrew Franklin explains how a new alliance could save
small booksellers … more
Add a comment The
big draw
David Roberts travelled through the Middle East in the 1830s
when such journeys were virtually unknown, sketching as he went. He published
his work, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, in six immense,
folio-sized volumes. Three of these volumes, covering the Holy Land and the surrounding
area, bound in two magnificent books, will be auctioned at Lyon & Turnbull in
Edinburgh on Tuesday … more
Add a comment Treehuggers
and wandering poets
Treehugger Dan's secondhand bookshop in Budapest is
just a few steps away from the admirable and by now well-known deli on Hunyadi
tér, and, just like the foodstore, Dan's shop also has attractions other than
its core business … more
Add a comment
06.07.06.
Waterproof
kama-sutra book
There are 25 sex positions in all for the bath tub, shower,
pool, lake, hot tub, sprinkler and ocean. A handy guide at the beginning of the
book provides icons that correspond to the aqua environment … more
Add a comment Library
Convention helps New Orleans recover
With the eyes of America on New Orleans’
recovery from Hurricane Katrina, nearly 17,000 librarians, exhibitors and library
supporters attended the first citywide convention held in the Big Easy since the
storm. Widespread news coverage praised ALA members for their "intrepid" spirit
and impact on the local economy by going to New Orleans … more
Add a comment Welsh
poet invented an 'S' in his initials
RS Thomas has one of the most famous
sets of initials in Welsh literature, but he only invented the "S" because he
did not want to be known as Ron, it has been revealed … more
Add a comment £1.3m
to honour poet John Clare
A £1.3 million lottery grant has guaranteed
the future of the historic home of poet John Clare as a major education and tourist
centre. The massive cash windfall will allow the 18th-century cottage in Helpston,
near Peterborough, to teach thousands of children each year about the incredible
life of the city's greatest poet … more
Add a comment
05.07.06.
Turkey’s
first ephemera museum opens
Collector Hüseyin Keles,'s passion for ephemera,
collecting small and trivial documents of no lasting significance to daily life,
will gain Turkey its first Ephemera Museum … more
Add a comment Cervantes
Institute hosts Moleiro editions
The Instituto Cervantes in New York City
will host until July 12 a breathtaking display of facsimile editions of medieval
illuminated manuscripts produced by Spain’s Manuel Moleiro Editores. M. Moleiro
produces copies of illustrated medieval psalters, bibles, breviaries, atlases
and medical texts that are bound with the same techniques and materials used in
medieval scriptoria. Their editions are unique, unrepeatable, and in limited editions
… more
Add a comment "Bookdealer"
to cease publication
Bookdealer, the UK "trade weekly
for books wanted and for sale", will cease publication with the issue dated July
27th. In today's editorial, Barry Shaw writes that the June 8th issue with only
24 pages was the smallest since it was first published in 1971, and that it barely
covered its costs. Although diminished by the internet the magazine has continued
to provided news and comentary, and will be particularly missed by older members
of the trade. Add a comment
It
won't be missed by this grumpy old bookseller. Barry Shaw must have have made
a f***ing fortune out of the used book trade. And how did he thank us? By allowing
any Tom, Dick and Harriet to subscribe. He has singlehandedly turned more amateurs
into crap book dealers than even the 'early retirement scheme' for teachers did
in the 70s/80s. AND the PBFA/ABA encouraged him by allowing the timid rag to be
doled out free at evey major bookfair. And yes I did complain, several times.
And who listened? F***ing nobody, that's who! One of the few good things you can
say about ABE is that at least it killed off the limping remains of Bookdealer.
Enjoy your golf Barry, just remember who's paying the green fees. - Steve Liddle.
04.07.06.
University
to look after Sudan’s literary treasures
The Sudanese businessman Mahmoud
Salih has collected almost 2000 books about Sudan, some of which date back to
the 18th century. The Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University
of Bergen is to store the rare collection of books for five years before they
return to Sudan … more
Add a comment Seminal
bird book on display
Birds of a Feather: Audubon's Adventures in Edinburgh
tells the story of 19th-century American artist and adventurer John James Audubon
and his links with Scotland. The first ten plates of a copy of Audubon's Birds
of America, which sold for $8.8m (£4.8m) at auction in 2000, were engraved in
Edinburgh by William Home Lizars following his arrival in the city in 1826 … more
Add a comment Broadway
poster gallery moves
Triton Gallery - which carries framed and unframed
posters of all sizes from shows both past and present, famous and obscure - is
moving to a new location in the Film Center, at 630 Ninth Avenue, where it will
inhabit Suite 808 on the eighth floor. It will reopen on July 18th … more
Add a comment Libraries
turn a new leaf to avert extinction
It may seem a small thing - a Victorian
public library with a Welcome banner across its front, extra books and a touch
of Starbucks inside. Yet it is being seen as the last best hope of stopping Britain's
154-year tradition of free libraries from becoming extinct … more
Add a comment
03.07.06.
In
the books' de-fence
Cairo's biggest second-hand book market -- originally
held along the Azbakia Park fence -- is one of the city's enduring landmarks.
After being relocated three times, it now occupies one small corner of the park,
itself fenced off with a gateway jam-packed full of street vendors and cars …
more
Add a comment Supermarkets
may be library 'outlets'
Readers may soon be ordering books over the internet
- and receiving them at home or other local outlets the following day. The use
of supermarket techniques such as uncluttered displays and lively marketing, are
also being considered by Lancashire County Council as part of a long-term solution
to the problem of falling borrowing figures … more
Add a comment Mallorca
honours Robert Graves
The Spanish holiday island of Mallorca has honoured
its most illustrious British expatriate resident, the novelist, poet and scholar
Robert Graves. The hilltop stone country home in the once bucolic town of Deya
where the novelist lived on and off from 1931 until his death in 1985 opened as
a museum yesterday … more
Add a comment
01.07.06.
Last
chapter?
Since 1995, the New Hampshire Antiquarian Booksellers Association
has lost 17 members, down from 80 to 63, said President Robert Kenney. Kenney,
who owns Homestead Bookshop in Marlborough, said his sales have declined 30 percent
since 1995, which he believes is typical for the industry … more
Add a comment Hauck
collection sale tops $12.4 million
New York - On June 27 and 28, Christie’s
New York sold the extraordinary single-owner collection brought together by Cornelius
J. Hauck, which featured over 700 lots and documents the history of the book around
the world. The sale totaled $12,401,780 almost tripling its pre-sale estimate
… more
Add a comment Author
Forsyth backs bookshop's campaign
Frederick Forsyth needed no introduction
when he paid a visit to a Hoddesdon bookshop. The Hertfordshire-based writer,
who penned such bestsellers as The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, dropped
into Books@Hoddesdon in High Street to lend his support to the business's ongoing
campaign to save local bookshops from extinction … more
Add a comment Last
of the bohemians
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was named the first poet laureate
of San Francisco in 1998; his radical bookshop, City Lights, opened there in 1958,
has since become a national institution … more
Add a comment Martin
Luther King's private papers saved from auction
Under an extraordinary
deal championed by the mayor of Atlanta, the papers of the late Martin Luther
King have been saved from the auctioneer's gavel.
The
four children of the civil rights leader are to receive $32m (£17.5m) for a collection
of some 7,000 items, from a fund raised within a matter of days from local businesses
and philanthropists, and the papers of Atlanta's most famous son are to be consigned
to Morehouse College, the black liberal arts university that was King's alma mater
… more
Add a comment | 
