Reading Copy Book Blog

Geoff Nicholson rifs on drinking advice in literature in Sunday’s NY Times book review and leads off with The Hour by Bernard DeVoto – a classic cocktail book from 1951 recently bought back into print by Tin House Books. There are only two cocktails: “a slug of whiskey” and a martini. This isn’t my opinion, [...]

American novelist Anne Rice has “quit being a Christian.” Using her Facebook page, she said: I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. [...]

Those English whippersnappers – Barnes, Rushdie and McEwan – simply do not compare to the old-timers like Melville, Kafka, or Proust, says the former Weidenfeld professor of comparative literature at Oxford University. He also says Roth is rubbish too. Apparently, the English novel is “in a very fallow period.”

The ILAB site has an interview with rare book dealer Edward Bayntun-Coward of George Bayntun, who sell through AbeBooks. One of my friends at Oxford was a certain David Cameron. When I told him that I was going to be a book dealer, he replied that he was going to be Prime Minister. After graduating [...]

This year’s longlist for the Man Booker Prize includes some surprising and exciting inclusions. Get reading!

Apparently all the mums over at Mumsnet, a UK website for parenting, love AbeBooks. Justine Roberts, the site’s co-founder, just did a little interview with The Good Web Guide and gave us some very nice kudos. Abe Books – So once the tea and biscuits bit is sorted, you obviously need a good read. Mumsnetters [...]

There is, of course, only one true Stieg. Not that dead Swede, but Stig of the Dump – Clive King’s wonderful literary creation and one of the best children’s novels ever written. My other half returned from a trip abroad last week and brought a present for our eight-year-old – lo and behold, it was [...]

Some of you may remember an old story about someone finding Ansel Adams’ negatives at a garage sale and buying them for $45. Now an appraiser has confirmed the find is kosher and worth $200 million. However, Ansel’s grandson, Matthew, says it’s all cobblers.

Over the weekend AbeBooks was mentioned in the New York Times Magazine’s “The Medium” column. The article goes off about finding platonic relationships on Craigslist, where it seems man of the sites users could benefit from an education in Plato’s definition of love. As such the writer recommends “Apanta ta tou Platonos. Omnia Platonis Opera,” [...]

There is absolutely b*gger all going on of interest in the world of books this sunny Monday unless you are interested in the endless debate about ebooks. So here’s a silly video to start to the week – Jane Austen’s Fight Club.