Reading Copy

Once again, we’re looking for people who have science fiction and fantasy books that they wanted valued? A few weeks ago, the Book Guys NPR show hosted a special on collecting sci-fi and fantasy books and several of our customers had books valued.

Well, the show was so successful that the Book Guys will be recording another show on Tuesday March 13 dedicated to sci-fi and fantasy so they can go even further into these two genres. So if you have a book that you want valued, please contact my colleague Scott Laming on slaming@abebooks.com

Include your name, phone number, and the book details. The show is recorded between 7pm and 9pm EST and you spend five minutes on the phone describing the book and where you found it before hearing how much it’s worth. It’s like the Antiques Roadshow for books on the radio and you don’t even have to leave home to get a book appraised.

Popularity: 16% [?]

With the recent declaration of “Carbon Neutral” as the Oxford Word of the Year, Exxon admitting climate change is real, the British Columbia government announcing a reasonably aggressive plan to address climate change, and the unexpected popularity (success) of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth it would seem that the time for ‘green’ has come.

So here are 10 titles to help celebrate the new shade (this isn’t a top 10, or the best all-time books, just a 10 interesting and thought-provoking books):

1. Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century - Alex Steffan
2. Weather Makers - Tim Flannery
3. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things - William McDonough & Michael Braungart (Author)
4. The Ecology of Commerce - Paul Hawken
5. Massive Change - Bruce Mau
6. The Revenge of Gaia - James Lovelock
7. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change - Elizabeth Kolbert
8. Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning - George Monbiot
9. The End of Nature - Bill Mckibben
10. The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

I am about halfway through the list (The Lorax was easy), while some of the others are proving a heavier read.

Please add your favourites…

Popularity: 14% [?]

Hillel Italie, the Associated Press’ books reporter, writes about Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise and explains why this book continues to sell.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Former African child soldier Ismael Beah is packing out Starbucks on his promotional tour to support A Long Way Gone, says the Los Angeles Times this morning. The report says….

….It was a surreal scene on a wintry afternoon last week in Manhattan, as more than 150 people jammed into a room that normally holds 30 to 40 customers. When Beah approached a microphone to read several passages from his book, espresso makers were noisily steaming away in the back of the cafe. A few customers, oblivious, continued private conversations.

“I’m going to read a section about when I was trying to run away from the war,” the author said, getting ready to read passages filled with graphic, stomach-turning violence. “And then, perhaps, you can all finish your food.” The crowd laughed, but fell silent as Beah began.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Another AbeBooks bookseller is profiled by a local newspaper today - this time it is Vic Linoff who runs the Those Were The Days! Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona. From antiques to be a disc jockey to teaching, it sounds like Vic is an interesting character.

Popularity: 7% [?]

The Times of London celebrates the work of Philip K Dick, who died 25 years ago.

 ”When I met Phil Dick in the spring of 1974, he was living in a small, rented apartment in Fullerton, California, with his fifth wife and their baby, desperately broke and worried that the Internal Revenue Service was out to get him. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said – his 28th novel – had just been published to great acclaim, he was one of the greatest science-fiction writers alive, yet he had no money.”

Popularity: 8% [?]

A major blow this morning for horticulturalists everywhere - all gardening books are now out of date thanks to climate change.

“Books that were written in the 1980s and early 1990s, such as Geoff Hamilton’s The First Time Garden from 1988, no longer accurately reflect the fact that many plants that would normally be killed off by cold weather are now surviving longer through the winter.”

Popularity: 14% [?]

I got a huge feeling of deja vu when I saw this story about Jesus’ tomb being put on show in New York this morning. The Da Vinci Code all over again. This story is probably going to sell a lot of copies of The Jesus Family Tomb and make plenty of people watch James Cameron’s documentary.

Best or worst headline? James Cameron to Terminate Christianity or perhaps Jesus Family Tomb Discovery is a Titanic Fraud. Experts seem to be lining up to shoot down the theory.

Popularity: 7% [?]

While Meg Gardiner continues to tear up the North American bestseller charts on AbeBooks.com (netting her second week at the #1 spot for China Lake),  Alaa Al Aswany has broken into the Top Ten Bestsellers in the UK with The Yacoubian Building.  The book was a huge hit in the Arab world becoming the bestselling Arabic novel in recent history and has now been translated into English.  The fact that the book engages with the issues of corruption, homophobia, sexism, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism made it too interesting for western publishers to pass up.  There are good reviews in The Independent, The Guardian, and The Scotsman.

Popularity: 8% [?]

AbeBooks will be at the Spring Book Show this year in Atlanta, GA. I’ll be walking the floor March 24th and 25th. It’s an exciting visit, as it’s our first time attending, and it will be interesting to see how SBS compares to CIROBE, the other major US fair dedicated to the bargain and remainder book business.

AbeBooks has some big products on the way, and this will be an excellent opportunity to talk with sellers about how these will affect them. FillZ.com, an AbeBooks company, made a good impression at CIROBE last year. I’m sure I’ll hear more FillZ.com questions this year, and I’ll do my best to field them.

 I hope to see you there!

Jordan, Accounts Manager

Popularity: 9% [?]

Thriller writer Robert Crais is profiled by the LA Times. I saw him speak at the LA Times Festival of Books two years ago and he was very funny - he spoke at length about life on the road during a booktour and how bizarre the whole thing was, especially when no one comes to your signing. His latest novel is The Watchman. (Spotted at Galleycat)

Popularity: 8% [?]

More than $65,000 worth of rare books have been stolen from a collector’s library in New Hampshire.

The news report says “The stolen books include hundreds-of-years-old editions like one by philosopher Thomas Aquinas dating from 1643.”

Popularity: 7% [?]

Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, the German author of Das Boot, has died.

Popularity: 8% [?]

The student paper at John Hopkins University profiles Clayton Fine Books in Baltimore. Clayton Fine Books have been with AbeBooks since 1997 and they’ve got over 20,000 books on the site. Here’s a selection of their high-end books.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Although not a vegan, this little (in size only) book, is a useful addition to my ever-growing roster of cookbooks.

The Candle Cafe is a well known cafe in New York, and this book is a collection of recipes from its menu. Like most restaurant inspired cookbooks, some of the recipes can be involved and presumes a certain level of competence in the kitchen. That being said, nothing in the book approaches anything that would be considered haute cuisine — it’s delicious comfort food style cooking. It runs the range of pastas, noodle dishes, soups, rice dishes, breakfasts, desserts - a bit of everything. The favourite recipe in it has to be the savory pot pie — sublime.

And while I am not a vegan (I am vegetarian), the recipes in it are balanced for flavour and work to the strengths of the ingredients, so it’s easy to forgot the lack of animal products. Worth checking out if you are thinking of going vegan (or vegetarian), or if you want something a little different in your repertoire.

Popularity: 18% [?]