Reading Copy

More Harry. We missed this story from the weekend about the translations of Harry Potter and the immense power actually wielded by the translator. Bookninja spotted this one.

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That previous post was rather downbeat, so, for a laugh, let’s take a look at Daniel Radcliffe - aka Harry Potter in the movies. Looks like he’s ditching the bespectacled boy-wizard image for the stage play he’s going to be appearing in next month.

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Some of the most gruesome murder novels are written by women and loved by women, according to The Guardian. I don’t think anyone should be surprised by this article - women are capable of committing atrocities so they are certainly capable of writing about them and reading them.

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Since we’re a roll with the sf&f posts these days … I found this link while we were working on developing the new “rooms” (science fiction and fantasy - in case you missed them).

Over at the Fantastic Metropolis site they have put together a list of 50 science fiction and fantasy books one should read if a socialist. It’s an interesting list for those but I’ve only read a handful of them (does that make me a poor socialist or poor sf&f reader?)

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If you have visted an AbeBooks website before you know we have some areas of the site dedicated to specific bookish interests (we call them “rooms”).  We’ve had rooms for New Books, Rare Books and Textbooks for some time now, however we now have some very special news.  Today, we have opened the Science Fiction Room and the Fantasy Book Room.

Inside these rooms we have various articles, lists and features that we hope will appeal to fans of science fiction and fantasy but also to people with a passing interest in these two genres. Look for an interview with Barry Levin, one of the top sellers of rare and collectible science fiction, fantasy and horror books in the US, there are interviews with authors, Elizabeth Bear and George R.R. Martin, the top 10 most expensive SF & F books sold on AbeBooks in 2006, bestseller lists, events and more.

Also take a look at a brand new science fiction book - 1985 by George Orwell. Yes, that’s right - 1985 and apparently this one isn’t all authoritarian doom and gloom. It’s the latest not-book from AbeBooks and you can send e-card version to friends and colleagues.

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None of today’s book news catches my eye this morning so I’m going to recommend a book. They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Book seems rather apt with Valentine’s Day closing fast.

I’ve seen a couple of reviews now and it seems very funny.

The LRB’s personal ads column began in 1998 but there were none of the run-of-the-mill ads. Personal advertisers used wit to find true love. I wonder if any of the ads actually worked.

Here are some examples culled from this morning’s review in the Shelf Awareness e-newsletter:

Ladies: naturally apologetic man, 42, predisposed to accepting the blame. Whatever it was, it was my fault. Sorry. Sound like heaven?

 

67-year-old disaffiliated flaneur picking my toothless way through the urban sprawl, self-destructive, sliding towards pathos, jacked up on Viagra and on the lookout for a contortionist who plays the trumpet.

 

I like my women the way I like my kebab. Found by surprise after a drunken night out and covered in too much tahini. Before long I’ll have discarded you on the pavement of life, but until then you’re the perfect complement to a perfect evening. Man, 32. Rarely produces winning metaphors.

 

Know your thermocouple accuracy table, then love me like the fool you are. Geo-sex daddy of the rhodium-defining world (M, 62) seeks practically anyone. Anyone at all. I mean it. Please. Anyone.

 

Slut in the kitchen, chef in the bedroom. Woman with mixed priorities (37) seeks man who can toss a good salad.

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According to the NY Times and an oddly similar article in The Guardian several days later, copies of the 1978 book Russian Thinkers is flying off bookstore shelves in New York. The Times says the book is hard to find even on the Internet.

AbeBooks has copies!!

Anyway, so what’s the cause of interest in this 29-year-old volume?  The book has been included as additional reading for the audience in the program notes of Tom Stoppard’s play “The Coast of Utopia” which opened at the Lincoln Center November 27.  Thanks to George at Bookninja for the spotting this one.

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Oprah has another book club pick, a pretty safe one. It’s Sidney Poitier’s autobiography published in 2000 The Measure of a Man. He also wrote another book in 1987 - This Life.

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On this day in 1921, a play with the first usage of the word Robot opened. Science fiction was never the same.

(Yes, we’re on a sci-fi / fantasy kick these days.)

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It’s still only January but here’s another Harry Potter story - the BBC is going to broadcast a reality TV show where kids learn how to be real Harry Potters while staying at a boarding school.

“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which will air later this year, will show the children learning card tricks, Latin spells and illusions. Each week, they will perform for ‘magic mentors’ who will judge their performances and decide who must leave.”

Of course, AbeBooks.com discovered a number of real Harry Potters in 2005 when we searched for people sharing the wizard’s name.

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The Internet is a wonderful thing. In the UK, Dirk Benedict - better known as Faceman from the A-Team and Starbuck in the 1970s version of Battlestar Galactica - turns up on a major reality TV show called Celebrity Big Brother.  Along with other celebrities looking for another 15 minutes in the limelight, he is filmed 24 hours a day and Britain is obsessed with the show.

Now, Dirk wrote a book back in 1987 called Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy about how he was diagnosed with cancer but cured himself by adopting a macrobiotic diet. This book has been gathering dust in secondhand bookstores around North America for the past 20 years…. until he mentioned the book on Big Brother and people in the UK flocked to the Internet to try and find copies.

Last week, the book was No.3 on AbeBooks.co.uk’s bestseller list with Brits picking up copies from booksellers in North America.

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A few of links of note I came across in the last couple of days:

• Google moving towards e-book service
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery
• iPhone as e-book reader?

Digital books and content. It seems everytime you turn around these days someone is wanting to revolutionise the way we read books. Each new piece of technology promises to be the one that changes the game forever. It’s kind of like those flying cars and robots that would make our lives easier … ever promised, never delivered. On the good side of the digital book world, the NYPL Digital Gallery is an excellent resource and use of technology allowing access to resources most people would never see in their lifetimes.

Perhaps working at a book company that primarily deals with “analogue” books has pre-disposed me towards the traditional format. I’ve always felt the adoption of new ways (or technologies) should be as straightforward as the old way. E-books should be as easy as “analogue” books to get, read, use, carry, lend, borrow, buy, sell, store, display etc. Don’t saddle us with bad technology, cumbersome DRM, poor interface, weak legibility, vendor lock-in and so on.

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A crazy article about a unique bookshop.

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AbeBooks.com is looking for booklovers who have a rare science fiction book they would like to get valued. We have a partnership with an NPR radio show called the Book Guys and each week they take callers from AbeBooks customers who have a rare book they want valued. On Tuesday February 6, they are recording a science fiction special so if you’ve got a rare sci-fi book and want it valued, this is your chance.

The book can be famous or obscure and from any time period. You will just need to describe the book over the telephone and the show’s resident ABAA expert, Allan Stypeck of Second Story Books in Washington DC, will put a price on it. The show is recorded between 7pm and 9pm (EST in the US). It’s easy and takes just five minutes of your time.

If you are interested, then send an email to me - Richard Davies on rdavies@abebooks.com.

Don’t forget to include details about the book such as title, author, publisher, date of publication, condition and extra information like whether it is signed and where you found it.

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Bookslut points out an interesting article about a book called The Gospel of Food by Barry Glassner - a sociologist at the University of Southern California. The book examines the average American’s fears about food.

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