AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Perhaps it’s mean and base of me, but I really enjoyed this article that I found on The Examiner. It lists 50 examples of authors trash talking each other’s works.  Reading a highly articulate slam from one of the century’s greatest authors against another literary titan is something I find very amusing – perhaps because [...]

A fantastic profile on Collectors Weekly about Theodor Geisel’s AKA Dr. Seuss’s secret hat collection. It comes as little surprise, when one really stops to think about it, that Geisel might have a thing for hats. I remember reading The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (which just celebrated its 75th anniversary) as a child and [...]

Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist credited with helping to develop African literature, has died at 82. Achebe wrote novels, poetry and essays, and is most famous for his first novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. Things Fall Apart has sold more than 10 million copies and is one of the great novels of the [...]

Matt Haig is a writer in his 30s who fell into the profession after writing a number of business books on marketing.  His first novel, The Last Family in England, (which  depicts Shakespeare’s Henry IV, from the point of view of dogs) was a bestseller in the UK and the young author hasn’t looked back [...]

Fans of George R.R. Martin love the author for his amazing attention to detail within his vast storylines; what they don’t love, is having to wait several years between books.  This isn’t to say his fans are unappreciative – I assume most understand that quality craftsmanship takes time.  It’s more that they’ve been accustomed to [...]

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 [...]

Rudyard Kipling is one of those authors who are timeless; even though many of his stories were written over a hundred years ago his work is still sought after, and cherished, today with great zeal. Which is this is why the discovery, and imminent publication, of 50 of his previously unpublished poems has become such [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

As of now in 2013, Doris Lessing is 93. She was born in 1919 and her second novel, published in 1956, was titled Retreat to Innocence. All of this, coupled with her round, sweetly wrinkled face and penchant for wearing her white hair parted at the middle and pulled back into a bun, might give [...]