AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Last week I was in New York. The purpose of the visit was to attend two antiquarian book fairs, but I always try to make time to visit booksellers in their stores. Nothing can replace the touch and feel of a beautiful book and talking to someone that is passionate about what they do. Walking [...]

Our latest video is brought to you by the letter P: Penguin, Puffin, Ptarmigan, Peacock and Pelican – apparently not even all of the “P-birds” in the Penguin pantheon. It also sheds some light on the different colored covers on the vintage Penguin paperbacks you no doubt come across in bookstores. Orange, cerise, dark blue, [...]

It’s been 70 years this month since Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s masterpiece of innocence, simplicity and wonder Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) was first published. Few books or stories have managed to capture the sense of joy and honesty of children, of mystery in the universe, and of the beauty of simple acceptance, nearly as [...]

Each year The Alcuin Society (who are a fantastic association of bibliophiles out of Vancouver) give out their Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, which are awarded for various categories.  The winning books will be presented at exhibitions across the country and at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, and at the Canadian [...]

Among the staff here at AbeBooks we’re always gushing over great cover art when we see it.  We like bizarre covers, classic covers, minimalist covers, and we have even bought books for the cover alone; which, perhaps, is why I love this project so much (and thanks to GalleyCat for pointing it out for me)… [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It will be no surprise to regular readers of our blog that I am a big fan of Edward Gorey – I have written many a blog post about him, including the Edward Gorey Google doodle, The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer, and 11 Book Covers by Edward Gorey. You may notice [...]

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 [...]

The memoir is a tricky beast of a book to write, not only do you have to be a great wordsmith (a requirement for any good book) but you also have to be rather interesting, or at least had a series somewhat extraordinary things happen to you, otherwise what’s the point?  Last year I read [...]