AbeBooks' Reading Copy

The annual AbeBooks’ charity book auction ended earlier this week and we raised (USD) $2,081. The money is split between the United Way, BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, and the Royal Marsden Hospital in the UK. The headline lot of the six Penguin leather-bound novels and leather carrying case was sold for $1,350. Thanks to [...]

Momentum is building for the Revolutionary Road movie. Leo and Kate back together for the first time since that nightmare boat movie with the Celine Dion soundtrack. Richard Price in The Guardian throws in his two pence of memories about Richard Yates’ acclaimed novel.

Playwright William Gibson, who wrote The Miracle Worker about the story of deaf-blind student Helen Keller, has died at 94. The BBC reports.

The Oprah site tells me about David Wroblewski’s favorite books, including Gatsby and Moby Dick.

<Envelope opens> Juan Marsé! Marsé  is the 2008 winner of the Cervantes Prize, one of the most prestigious and prominent literary awards in the Spanish-speaking world. The 75-year-old author is best known for writing about life after the Spanish Civil War, particularly in his home region, Catalonia. Marsé will have to wait another 5 months [...]

I read this news headline this morning and just tried to imagine the changes in the world that this woman had seen. Mass production of cars, two world wars, women’s suffrage, equal rights movement and so much more. The same year she was born Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Catriona and Jules Verne wrote The Castle [...]

Earlier this week I was contacted by Mac Macdonald, who told me about FLOW for ALL. It is a new not-for-profit organisation set up to help to those who have suffered from the affects of war, including family members and friends. The organisation helps anyone to read writing by people who may have also had [...]

The Guardian revisits The Arabian Nights in honour of the fact that Penguin has just published a new translation of these classic stories. It’s an interesting article but my wonderful friends at Penguin are giving us a set of these books as a competition prize for AbeBooks.co.uk. There were only 3,000 limited edition copies printed [...]

The New York Times has released its list of the 100 notable books of 2008. Notable? Doesn’t necessarily mean the best.

Want to know what’s so great about living on Vancouver Island, and working at AbeBooks in particular? Check out this video, made by AbeBooks employees, that highlights what makes us stay, and makes us smile.