Reading Copy

I have a fascination with tattoos. I find myself interested in what people get applied to their bodies, where on their bodies they get them and most importantly the story behind why they get them.

Body Type explores the world of tattooing, but it looks specifically at typographic tattoos.

From Shakespeare to Radiohead, from Dante to James Joyce, from celebrations of love to homage and memorial, the wide breadth of messages captured provides insight into the human condition.

There is something more potent and mildly voyeuristic in reading a message on someone’s body versus a small image or icon - almost like overhearing a private phone call.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Ah, fonts! They are little tiny pieces of art, each letterform painstakingly crafted. And just like art there is the good (Fabiol) and the bad (Comic Sans) — all of which is highly personal and subjective.

So, if you love spending your time staring at fonts, this is the book for you. Stephen Coles - who worked on the most recent edition - is interviewed about the book and his efforts while working on FontBook.

Popularity: 19% [?]

A French publisher has produced a manual to help prepare parents for homework tutoring. On the top of the bestsellers with over 90,000 copies sold
Le Cahier de Vacances Pour Adultes (Holiday Revision Guide for Adults) may just be translated to English and put (by your children) on your reading list next summer.

Popularity: 10% [?]

The novel adaptation of Snakes on a Plane has won a Scribe Award, given for the best adaptations and licensed spin-off books linked to media properties.

Other winners included Superman Returns, The most recent Buffy novel, and Donald Bain won the grandmaster award for keeping the Murder, she Wrote hit machine chugging along!

The awards were given out at this past weekends San Diego Comic Con.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Your wildest fantasies come to life in the pages of… your favourite cookbook?

Popularity: 11% [?]

Over the weekend in the Philadelphia Inquirer, a staffer went on a rant about epilogues being the thorn in a good story’s side.

It’s funny because my fiancé was complaining about the new Harry Potter epilogue this weekend as well.

Thanks to Bookninja for showing me the article!

Popularity: 13% [?]

The Book Guys recently interviewed Pasco Gasbarro of Fine Books Magazine about his Books into Film feature. As you can see it’s a popular topic.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The BookTour site launch earlier this summer - which hopes to help authors and audiences meet. Authors create a profile and put in their events and appearances, and then book lovers can search for an event (by book, author or location). It’s only for the US at the moment, but looks like it could be a good idea.

(side note: there must be a way to mash this LibraryThing - the tour schedules of my favourite books / authors show up on LT)

Popularity: 19% [?]

If you need a break from Harry Potter (and who doesn’t at this point?), Cover Browser is a large collection of comic book covers. Relive your youth or hunt for a missing issue. A fun time waster.

Popularity: 25% [?]

The Guardian has the 10 best cycling books as the Tour de France draws to a conclusion. As usual this year’s Tour de France has been about the cheating rather than the cycling.

Popularity: 8% [?]

The Guardian asks why do kids love Thomas the Tank Engine?

This week the National Autistic Society (NAS) published a survey concluding that Thomas and his friends’ adventures are educationally valuable to autistic children - helping them distinguish emotions, as well as colours, numbers and words.

Popularity: 7% [?]

In another ‘if you can’t beat ‘em then join ‘em’ move, the Chicago Tribune has launched a book blog. It doesn’t compare to Dwight Garner’s Paper Cuts but it’s early days yet. By the way, Paper Cuts links to an interview with 88-year-old Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Time magazine interviews Neil Gaiman. It starts like this….

Like all good fairy tales, this one starts with Claudia Schiffer. Once upon a time a fireplace fell on Schiffer’s foot. She was pregnant at the time. “When a marble fireplace falls on your foot,” Neil Gaiman explains, “and you’re 7½ months pregnant, you stop going places. You sit around, and you read.” Schiffer read Gaiman’s novel Stardust and told her husband that it was the best book she’d ever read. Schiffer’s husband is the director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake). And thus it was that Gaiman finally made his big Hollywood movie.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Sorry that we’re late with blogging today. The US college textbook season is almost upon us and we’re preparing for our busiest time of the year. One of our tech folks informed me a few months ago that at the very peak of the Fall back-to-school season (last week of August), AbeBooks.com experiences 90 book searches per second.

Yesterday, we were recommended for offering cheap textbooks by Gerri Willis, CNN’s personal finance guru, and we always see a flurry of articles about the high price of US college textbooks in August.

I went to college in the UK more years ago than I can remember but was astounded by the list prices of textbooks when I came over here.

Popularity: 19% [?]

The BBC reports on the death of Chris Whiting - a war thriller writer who penned more than 350 books under various names. He served as a 16-year-old in World War II, and became a university lecturer and then a journalist with The Times and Playboy magazine.

Popularity: 7% [?]