AbeBooks' Reading Copy

The BBC considers how things have changed over the past 50 years since the publication of Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown in 1961. Being unmarried and childless is so common now that no-one bats an eyelid, but things were very different at the start of the 1960s. I know AbeBooks has [...]

Nielsen Bookscan has published its annual list of the top 10 bestsellers from the past year (Jan 3. through Dec. 11). These lists are based on sales data from about 75% of total print sales so doesn’t include a few shops like Wal-Mart. It’s also worth noting that each edition of a book is tracked [...]

Do you know what the term ‘Incunabula’ means?

Congratulations to Vancouver resident Fred Wah, the latest Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Wah is the 5th poet to be appointed to the position. He has been publishing poetry since the sixties, and during his career has won the Governor General’s Award, Alberta’s Stephanson Award, and the Dorothy Livesay Prize for his poetry, the Howard O’Hagan [...]

John F Kennedy had Profiles in Courage, Barack Obama had Dreams From my Father and then The Audacity of Hope. Newt Gingrich has written, or co-written, …well….a small library of books, including six novels and at least 15 non-fiction books. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives and Republican frontrunner for the 2012 presidential [...]

Have you ever tried keeping a list of all the books you read or all the movies you watch in a year? For the past few years I’ve done both, and have been pleased at how satisfying it’s been to see the list as winter winds down. For someone who finds value in reading, it [...]

Our latest feature is a tribute to Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), one of the greatest names in literature. Can anyone really go through life without reading one of his books? Even if you reject his writing, how can you not be fascinated by his life? A hunter, a drinker, a womaniser, an adventurer, a war hero, [...]

Welcome to AbeBooks’ Book Collecting Guide – a new educational section of the website dedicated to helping you understand the basic elements of book collecting and the terminology of booksellers. Our guide covers everything from what to collect to caring for your book collection. The guide includes an in-depth glossary of book terms (full of [...]

Daniel Kalder offers a review of Kim Jong-il’s Our Socialism Centered On the Masses Shall Not Perish.

This cat looks like Voldemort. Aww…WHO’S AN EVIL WIZARD.