Reading Copy

Nicole Peterson was inspired by Dante’s metaphorical use of mathematics and architecture when she designed this series of covers for The Divine Comedy. Hell has never looked better.

Popularity: 2% [?]

We have a new feature on AbeBooks to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nazi book burnings on 10 May 1933. We’re not celebrating this anniversary, we’re simply remembering that it happened and examining its impact. Aside from revealing some of the books and authors who were banned and burnt by the Nazis, we have interviewed three experts on book burning.

Matt Fishburn is a rare bookseller in Sydney, Australia - he’s also the author of a soon-to-be published book called Book Burning. Rebecca Knuth is a professor at the University of Hawaii and the author of two books on book burning. The third interviewee is Shaun Bythell, who runs The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland’s Book Town. I got to know Shaun a couple of years ago when he conducted a book burning to promote Wigtown’s festival - it worked as he walked into several major UK papers. Shaun has a completely different perspective on book burning - he’s a dealer and looks at books rather differently because they become inventory and have a monetary value.

Have you ever tried to burn a book? I’ve tried to burn an old telephone directory and it didn’t burn easily. You’d think it would go up in flames very quickly but oxygen can’t fuel the fire unless you start ripping out chunks of pages. It’s a beautiful irony that books, paper-based objects, are tough to burn.

You can watch Shaun’s Wigtown book burning on YouTube. They clearly put a lot of work and thought into the event.

A few books about book burning…..
Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History, Lucien X. Polastron
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century, Rebecca Knuth
Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction, Rebecca Knuth
They Burned The Books, Stephen Vincent Benet

Popularity: 6% [?]

Several things catch my eye this morning….

The AP reports how a children’s book about a two-dad penguin family is still making conservatives very angry in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee etc. Not even worth a sarcastic comment….

Nasty body-builder picture book showcased by The Independent. Yuck - check out the slide show for one particuarly horrid shot.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Blimey, Bonds are everywhere. Michael Bond, still around at 82, wrote Paddington Bear but The Guardian has a James Bond quiz to celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Collectors of ‘designer’ books might be interested in a special edition of the new 007 book, Devil May Care written by Sebastian Faulks, that will be published by Penguin and the luxury car firm Bentley.

Published on May 28, each Bentley edition of Devil May Care will cost £750 and only 300 copies have been printed. I expect them to sell within 24 hours and then fetch handy sums on the rare book market. James Bond owned three Bentleys in the 14 novels penned by Fleming so it’s a clever partnership from the folks at Penguin who know the true value of special editions.

Inside the book is a specially designed model pewter Bentley.

According to the blurb, the special edition is “finished in burnt oak leather sourced from the tannery in Italy which provides the hides for Bentley’s interiors. The iconic Bentley diamond pattern found on the radiator grille and upholstery of modern Bentley’s, is hand-stitched on the leather casing and the front cover and spine is finished with the silver Bentley ‘Flying B’ – the radiator cap of the Bentley’s of Bond’s time.

“The inside of the casing is trimmed in deep red hotspur leather and has the striking fluting used on the 1950’s and 1960’s Bentley interior upholstery. Each book has a unique edition number embossed on a black aluminium plate produced the same company that makes the Bentley engine plates.”

Sounds great.

The miniature car, described by Fleming in Thunderball, is inserted into the book in a car-shaped hole and is numbered to match the plate on the inside cover. Each book is protected by a custom-made Plexiglass slip case, which will be sealed in protective wrapping.

More details on Devil May Care here and the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth here.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Do you have dreams of a personal jet whisking you from city to city on a whirl-wind book tour? Barbara Walters is living the dream but she’s paying for it out of her own pocket.

Walters’ new memoir is called Audition

Popularity: 13% [?]

Batten down the hatches, Ginger Spice wants to be a children’s author.

The book is called Ugenia Lavender, and is about a red haired little girl. Apparently Geri’s imagination is as good as her singing.

Popularity: 13% [?]

The Guardian on why Ian Fleming might be a bit low brow but is still a brilliant read

As the 100th anniversary of his birth approaches, it’s tempting to characterise Ian Fleming as The Man With The Golden Pen, as a calculatingly commercial author of absurd misogynistic fantasies. Even his own wife Ann icily described him as “hammering out pornography” when he spent his disciplined three-hours a day writing the books in their Jamaican home.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Ten most expensive AbeBooks sales for April 2008 across all sites

1) Autographed Letter by Edward Lear - $11,491.31
A two-page illustrated autograph letter by the nonsense poet Edward Lear, most renowned for writing The Owl and the Pussycat, dated 9th September 1867. The letter contains detailed self-caricature sketch showing Lear with outstretched limbs, as well as a comedic request to visit the recipient.

2) Biblia Latina Printed by Johannes Herbort de Seligenstadt - $11,491.31
Printed in 1484, these bibles were the first to use the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts to improve the common Latin Vulgate bible text. The first “Fontibus Ex Graecis” Biblia Latina was published 1479 by Amerbach and was named after the first line of three distichs (couplets) that were included in the texts. Johannes Herbort de Seligenstadt used Amerbach’s revised second edition for this Biblia Latina.

3) Historia Plantarum Universalis by Johann Bauhin - $10,255.66
Botanist Johann Bauhin’s great work, Printed at Yverdun in 1650-1651. These famous volumes contain botanical data for thousands of species with considerable attention paid to different varieties of the same plant.

4) Primo Tentativo di un Catalogo Generale delle Monete Medievali e Moderne Coniate in Italia o da Italiani in Altri Paesi by Corpus Nummorum Italicorum - $7500
Twenty volumes, 1910-1943. The standard reference on Italian coins from the middle Ages down to the early 20th century, an outstanding set.

5) Viaggio Negle Stati Uniti Dell`America Settentrio by Luigi Castiglioni - $7500
Account of the travels of the young count Castiglioni (1757-1832); who was the first Italian to travel the American South. His narrative is an important overview of the United States for the time, especially for agricultural and botanical information. Two volumes.

6) AMBIX by Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry - $5688.57
53 Volumes of the official journal for the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 1937/38-2006

7) Comedias Verdaderas by Tirso de Molina - $5300
Three volumes printed from 1734-1736. A beautiful third edition of the Truth Comedies by the Spanish Baroque poet and playwright who gave the world Don Juan.

8) The Works of Samuel Beckett by Samuel Beckett – $5182.85
Complete set of this very rare limited edition of the works of Samuel Beckett, published in 1970 to celebrate the award of the Nobel Prize to him. This is No. 195 of only 200 sets. “Waiting for Godot” is signed by Beckett under the limitation notice.

9) Mémoire pour le Sieur de de Boishebert by Charles Deschamps of Boishebert - $4719.88
Charles Deschamps of Boishebert born in Quebec in 1727, as a Marine officer he played an important role in various command posts, between 1746 and 1760. This book gives detailed descriptions of several historical events in this period and the role played by Boishebert.

10) Histoire de l’oeil by Lord Auch - $4566.15
The Story of the Eye, written by Georges Bataille (1897–1962), details the sexual experimentation of two teenage lovers, and their increasing perversion. The book is widely considered not only the best surrealist work of fiction but also the most important erotic novel written since 1900

Popularity: 17% [?]

Top 10 bestselling books for AbeBooks.co.uk for April 2008

Ernest Thompson Seton continues to ride on the wave created by the BBC2 feature titled Lobo: The Wolf that Changed America. Its amazing what a little media attention can do for your book, even if its 110 years after you wrote it.

1) Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Seton Thompson
2) Beyond Good Company: Next Generation Corporate Citizenship by Bradley Googins
3) Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson
4) A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
5) Messiah by George Frederic Handel
6) Tom Cruise by Andrew Morton
7) The Accrington Pals by Peter Whelan
8) Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
9) Simply Perfect by Mary Balogh
10) The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Popularity: 15% [?]

Top 10 bestselling titles on AbeBooks.com for April 2008

1) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2) A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
3) The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren
4) Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
5) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
7) Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
8) The Shack by William P. Young
9) The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
10) Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Popularity: 15% [?]

In The Independent…..writers who cannot write and Salman Rushdie (who can write) admits the fatwa made him into a nicer person (and helped him get to know some really nice bodyguards.)

Popularity: 14% [?]

The Washington Post is quick to stick the knife into JK after revealing that American school children read books by American authors. Green Eggs and Ham is the top choice of first-graders etc etc.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Sir Thomas Phillipps - a baronet and a world class bibliomaniac, The Observer tells us.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Or at least building with assistance from a book. The Independent lists the 10 Best Architecture Books.

1. Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas
Koolhaas is known around the world for his pioneering designs, such as Beijing’s CCTV building, and this tome is one of the most insightful and intelligent books on cities.

2. Did Someone Say Participate? by Basar, Miessen
This anthology is essential reading for those caught up in architectural research and practice – or, indeed, anyone with a keen eye for current forms of cultural inquiry and debate.

3. Thinking Architecture by Peter Zumthor
The “architect’s architect” discusses his motivation for designing buildings in this cult classic – one of the most beautifully written and influential books on architecture.

4. Learning From Las Vegas by Venturi, Izenour et al
An insightful rake over the architecture of Las Vegas’s Strip, examining urban sprawl, advertising and commercial iconography in the city and in modern building design in general.

5. The Fall of Public Man by Richard Sennett
Focusing on human behaviour in the public realm, this is a classic text by an acclaimed anthropologist that has direct relevance to today’s theoretical debates about architecture.

6. Privacy and Publicity by Beatriz Colomina
In this vital addition to any aficionado’s library, Colomina argues that architecture is more than just “buildings” – it also exists through its representation in art, film or advertising.

7. A Critic Writes by Reyner Banham
The godfather of critics, Banham’s interests ranged from Pop Art to industrial design. This fascinating book discusses such architects as Frank Gehry and Norman Foster.

8. Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius
Dating from the 1st century BC, this treatise on the profession of architecture includes early Roman aesthetics, technology, Classical orders, site selection and much more.

9. The Destruction of Memory by Robert Bevan
In this timely study of the effects of war on architecture, Bevan pores over the relationship between design and planning and conflicts, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

10. Planet of Slums by Mike Davis
Less well-known than his treatise on LA, City of Quartz, here Davis tackles the compelling problem of the world’s slums, which are growing exponentially from Caracas to Lagos.

Popularity: 22% [?]