AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Our literary-themed March Madness has reached its second semi-final – Animals and Objects In and Out of Water by Jay Ryan versus The Crow’s Vow by Susan Briscoe. Cast your vote now. The book that wins will face The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian in the grand final on Monday.

Harry Crews was born June 7 1935 at the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp in rural Georgia. He had a hard childhood in one of the poorest areas of America, which if you were familiar with his writing would make sense. Crews’ novels were dark, violent, satirical and yet strangely comic. His New York Times [...]

For centuries, illegitimacy was a thorny issue for everyone except authors and dramatists. The shame of a child born outside wedlock was a gift for writers requiring drama. As a result, there are oodles of books with illegitimate children in them. Explore the strife and hard times of illegitimate folk in Peyton Place, Bleak House, [...]

An interesting article from Commentary Magazine yesterday. In 1929, two psychologists proposed a plan to survey literary critics, having them answer a questionnaire and rank living American novelists according to various points of merit. 65 critics took part, and the results were ranked and compiled, based on how many of the critics listed each name, [...]

Lots of interest, including an appearance on the John Stewart Show, in a book called Soldier Dogs by Maria Goodavage that was published a couple of weeks ago. The book details canines in the military. Apparently, there was a dog on the team when the US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. I [...]

Rare book of the day is Masterpieces of Japanese Puppetry. Sculptured Heads of the Bunraku Theater by Saito Seijiro. Bunraku is traditional Japanese puppet theater and I bizarrely learned about this 400-year-old art while reading a Japanese-themed Thea Stilton adventure book to my daughter who was five at the time. The puppets are very elaborate [...]

I’m probably going to have to read some of Ed Smith’s books sooner rather than later. The Guardian reviews his latest book, Luck: What It Means and Why It Matters – a key element for anyone who has made a living in professional sport. One of Smith’s aims is to challenge the view popularised by [...]

Ever wondered what the AbeBooks HQ looks like? Probably not, but here’s a video tour of our office in Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, in Canada for anyone who is interested. As I sit here writing this blog post, I can see float planes taking off, ships and yachts going past, and the Olympic [...]

Classics Illustrated was a comic book series that took famous literary works and adapted their storylines into the comic format for young readers, making legendary literature more accessible to younger minds. Famous for cover art depicting action-packed scenes, Classics Illustrated were loved by youngsters for three decades and now they are loved by collectors. See [...]

Thomas Cary is a collector who lives in New York. He is also one of our sellers. I say collector and not “book collector”, because while both would be true, there is much more to Cary’s collection than one pigeonhole could possibly hope to encapsulate. You’ll find rare books (which are his main specialty), fine [...]