AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Some authors churn out books nearly at the pace one would read them, but Khaled Hosseini takes his time with his craft.  It has been six years, less a day, since Khaled Hosseini published  A Thousand Splendid Suns; and  it is one week shy of the 10th anniversary of  his debut novel, The Kite Runner, [...]

Our friends at English PEN, an organization devoted to literary freedom, are staging an exciting event later this month when 50 modern first editions are to be auctioned. However, these are no ordinary first editions. All the books have been annotated, usually at length and in great detail, by their authors specially for the ‘First [...]

AbeBooks Top 10 Signed books from April 2013 1. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 2. The Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher 3. Life after Life by Kate Atkinson 4. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks 5. Wool by Hugh Howey 6. The Path to Power by Margaret Thatcher 7. The Steep Approach [...]

Last week I was in New York for the ABAA New York Antiquarian Book Fair and also the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Show. As always, New York offered amazing bookstores and a buzzing city. I had some spare time, and in keeping with the book theme, decided to visit the main branch of the [...]

I’m loving this idea over on kickstarter (and fortunately, it has already met its initial fundraising effort!): Literary Lots. It’s simple – find a city (in this case, Cleveland, OH). Gather artists and designers and volunteers and together, transform vacant city lots into beautiful, fun literary spaces for kids. Imagine making a Secret Garden, with [...]

According to the World Health Organization, over 450 million people worldwide suffer from mental illness of some variety. From depression and mood disorders to paranoid schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder, countless books have been written about the subject in an effort to explore, understand or cope with it. From informational texts like the Diagnostic and [...]

We love the BC Book Prizes here at AbeBooks. Granted, we’re a bit biased, given that we make our headquarters in British Columbia’s capital city (Victoria). But the prizes really are something special, highlighting the best written talent this beautiful province has to offer in seven categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, regional, children’s literature, illustrated children’s [...]

February’s top 10 most expensive sales on AbeBooks included a ultra-rare $7,500 limited edition of The Moment by American poet Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972). The book was sold by Kim Herzinger of Left Bank Books from New York and Kim was kind enough to explain further why book collectors are fascinated with this enigmatic poet. Kim [...]

In the publishing world, pelicans are related to penguins. Famous for affordable paperbacks, Penguin launched a non-fiction imprint called Pelican and published thousands of titles between 1937 and 1984. The first Pelican was George Bernard Shaw’s The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism & Fascism, and today you will find these books in used [...]

Louis Wain was a British artist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, best known for his whimsical and chaotic drawings of cats. If you’ve come across any of Wain’s art, you know it’s memorable. The cats and kittens are depicted with large, wide eyes, often with crazy, spiky fur, and with psychedelic patterns [...]