Reading Copy Book Blog

The Observer has another story about literary tourism in Edinburgh with the haunts of Ian Rankin and JK Rowling overtaking the traditional book-related sites in popularity.

The Commonwealth Writers Prize has gone to a Kiwi author Lloyd Jones. The book, Mister Pip, is set in Papua New Guinea during civil unrest in the 1990s. It tells of a man who educates a small village by reading them Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, and of a girl who is enchanted by the story. The [...]

There was an interesting book-burning event at Prospero’s Books in Kansas City yesterday until red-tape put an end to it. The Kansas City Star reports… “This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today,” (owner Tom) Wayne told spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books. The fire blazed for about 50 [...]

An 1823 atlas that was stolen last month has been recovered, reports the AP. The atlas, titled “A New American Atlas” and published in 1823 by Henry Tanner, is about two feet tall and is bound in red leather. It was half-inched from the Historical Society of Rockland County in Pennslyvania. There’s a similar copy on sale at [...]

Librarything just announced the winners of their cookbook pile contest. The object of the game was to take the most interesting photo of your pile of cookbooks for fabulous cash and prizes. You can take a look at the winners and runners up here

NPR talks to Khaled Hosseini about his follow up to The Kite Runner – A Thousand Splendid Suns. There’s also an excerpt.

Soon-to-be-jailbird Paris Hilton has visited a Buddhist bookstore…. she appears to have bought a Bible and copy of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.

Librarything has announced a neat new feature where users can sign up to receive advance copies of books in exchange for writing reviews.

By time I saw this story yesterday it was nearly over. The 87 year old New York institution, Gotham Book Mart, was auctioned away yesterday via the city marshal to the buildings landlord.

While we’re still getting lots of entries daily in our Harry Potter poetry contest, BookNinja has posted some of the entries they have in their office/work Haiku contest My personal favourite thus far…. Orthopedic chair essentially useless since I slouch, chin in hand.