Reading Copy Book Blog

There are truly some fantastic vintage book gems out there, in some unexpected places. What about self-defence (or self-defense, depending which side of the pond you call home)? People have, sadly, always attacked one another like big creeps, and there have been books written for ages on how to protect yourself from those creeps. But [...]

Enjoy my colleague Richard’s review of The Blind Side and Moneyball, both by Michael Lewis – the writing is interesting enough to keep even a non-sports fan interested.

May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada, and the CBC has a selection of excellent Asian-Canadian novels, compiled by CBC producer and Asian-Canadian history enthusiast Adrian Ma. His list includes a few I’ve read and many I haven’t, and one of my favourite books of all time, The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy. Tales from [...]

I just finished reading E.L. James’ wildly-buzzed-about-and-speculated-upon erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Look, don’t judge me, it was for book club. And I only reread a few specific passages. No more than three or four times. The truth is, the book is completely, almost inarguably ridiculous. The main male character is a perpetually-single, unattainable, [...]

Louis “Studs” Terkel died in 2008, but today would have been his 100th birthday. Born to Russian-Jewish parents in the Bronx, Terkel spent the bulk of his life in Chicago. He married his wife, Ida in 1939, and the couple remained together until her death in 1999. Terkel was interested in oral history, and jazz, [...]

We have a guest writer today – bookseller Peter Thackeray describes the legacy of the author who helped launch the espionage fiction genre with The Thirty-Nine Steps. John Buchan published more than 25 novels and yet he had a remarkable life away from writing that included being a Member of Parliament and Governor-General of Canada. [...]

In 2008 Orhan Pamuk published The Museum of Innocence, a book about a wealthy businessman , Kemal, who becomes infatuated with a lower class shop girl, Füsun, who is 12 years his junior.  Despite Füsun being the love of his life Kemal refuses to give up his relationship with his fiancée to be with her, [...]

The American Guide Series is a collection of books, magazines and pamphlets published between 1937 and 1941. Meant to educate and attract, the series was put together by The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) which provided government funding towards writing and publishing initiatives during the Great Depression. Each publication in the American Guide Series included background [...]

I love when booksellers take advantage of this feature on the site that allows users to supply multiple images for one listing. It’s an excellent way to better showcase a book – not only the cover, but also details of any damage, the copyright page, any special features of the book, illustrations, and of course, [...]

We urge fans of AbeBooks, and books in general, to take a look at the AbeBooks’ Tumblr – Bookorithms. It is devoted to beautiful, notable and rare books. Bookorithms is a very visual journey through our sort of books – famous first editions, memorable dust jackets, beautiful bindings, eye-catching illustration and obscure but interesting books [...]