AbeBooks' Reading Copy

My colleague Richard and I had a bit of fun on the blog a while ago talking about author photos. I wrote a post talking about how difficult it must be to come up with an appealing, natural author photo that isn’t cliched (ask Mary Roach for tips, if you like), and Richard weighed in [...]

Our latest AbeBooks Video Book Review explores the seven-volume work from German portrait photographer August Sander, called People of the 20th Century (or Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts). Sander, whose work spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was one of the most influential and well-respected photographers of his time in Germany and beyond. The [...]

I love this photograph from retronaut of Albert Einstein, holding a marionette puppet of himself. Einstein with Einstein puppet. How delightful (although, full disclosure: I actually think the puppet’s face, from what I can see, bears an even stronger resemblance to Mark Twain than to Einstein). About the image: “Attributed to Harry Burnett while Yale [...]

There was a lovely book-themed wedding in Seattle last month. Take a gander at the amazing book arch that the happy couple were married beneath.  You can see more amazing images at the Rubin Photography website (and thanks for allowing us to post the images). I wonder what they did with it after the wedding?

Assouline publishes big, bold and beautiful books about art, architecture, design, fashion, food, travel, photography and much more. This publishing house was only founded in 1994 but it is already famous for producing luxury books that would grace any coffee table. This selection from Assouline Publishing ranges from Cecil Beaton to Penthouse and from Rene [...]

Over on Bookorithms, the AbeBooks Tumblr, my colleague Richard posted about Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton. In her adolescence, the author was an Olympic-quality swimmer and trained toward the goal of swimming in the games. She was good – very good – and so close she could taste it. But she never made it. Now [...]

Have you heard of Harry Whittier Frees? Born in 1879, Frees was an American photographer who became well-known for his recognizable and unusual style of photography. Specifically, he posed animals in human scenarios – riding bicycles, painting on easels, sitting in a ferris wheel at the fair. Real, live animals, which he also dressed in [...]

Nothing is better than seeing folks relax, cut loose and have a good time – especially when they are the serious minds behind some of literature’s greatest triumphs. Flavorwire has a marvelous post of photographs of serious writers enjoying themselves in various wacky ways – Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Proust, Eudora Welty and more. My personal [...]

I’m drawn to this photobook, Dancing with Cats by Burton Silver and Heather Busch, in the way that I have to look at a car crash on the side of the road as I’m driving by. Clearly that cat has some sweet moves but as for the ginger-haired woman…. what dance move is she actually [...]

Japanese photography is one of the most vibrant genres in the rare book world.