Reading Copy Book Blog

Tonight’s US Openings at the theaters includes Savage Grace and the long awaited Sex and the City. Fans of these movies will be pleased to know that both these films are originally based upon novels (ok… Sex and the City is based on a TV show which was based on a novel). While the movies themselves have been subject to reviews that are, at best, mixed, the general impression of the books they were based upon are overwhelmingly more positive.

Most people are already well aware of Candace Bushnell’s immensely popular collection of essays that has been published numerous times and is the basis of the now massive Sex and the City franchise, Savage Grace may be more of an unknown quantity to many readers. The 1985 novel by Natalie Robins and Steven M L Aronson tells the true story of Barbara Daly, who marries the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune, and details the sorrow of raising a child who is seen by his own child as a failure.  Even if the movie fails to live up to lofty expectations, this novel of excess and moral decay of the ultra rich will always be a worthy read.

Be sure to read Books to Film for the full list of this Summer’s feature films that were originally based on books.

All the hype for Sebastian Faulks James Bond novel - Devil May Care - seems to be paying off. Copies are flying of the shelves and avid Bond collectors are also getting into the act by seeking out the limited edition Signed Devil May Care hardbacks as well as the ultra rare velvet slipcase signed editions.

I don’t know about the rest of you in the Northern Hemisphere but summer took it’s sweet time to get to us in here in Victoria, but now that it’s here there are a good number of hours that must be passed in a hammock with a good book.

Some of my colleagues have put together some nice suggestions for summer reading, and so have the NPR, USA Today, New York Post and the Wall Street Journal.

There is a new exhibition in the UK dedicated to 100 years of Mills & Boon. The Independent reports.

You may remember that we told you about the Bentley edition of Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care - the limited edition of 300 books produced by Penguin and designed by the car manufacturer. Each copy cost £750 or $1500. It appears Penguin sold out in a couple of hours. We’ll let you know when copies appear on AbeBooks.com.

In the meantime, signed copies of Devil May Care are already on the site. The most expensive one is $1020 for a signed boxed limited edition.

We did good business in Devil May Cares yesterday.

The embargo has lifted and we are now seeing reviews for Devil May Care, the new James Bond novel. According to Mark Lawson on The Guardian, Sebastian Faulks has done his best to channel the Ian Fleming’s style through his own pen.

Developments frequently follow the famous template. Faulks’s Bond encounters an enemy who uses a scientific honorific and wears a glove at all times: not Fleming’s Dr No, but Faulks’s Dr Julius Gorner, a chemist.

The reason Gorner hides his hand, however, is different and striking - a birth abnormality gave him a monkey’s paw in place of fingers and opposable thumb. A tense tennis game against Gorner is deliberately twinned to Bond’s golf with Auric Goldfinger. There is even a sinister Asian manservant - Chagrin, nodding across literary time to Oddjob - who helps his boss to cheat.

The thug’s name, which leads to Bond getting an elegant lesson in the two French meanings of the word “chagrin”, is an example of Faulks’s cleverness in keeping the book as close as possible to the comfort zone of his own work, which includes several novels set in France. Apart from a diversion to the Middle East, the key locations in Devil May Care are Paris and, in flashback, French Indochina.

James Bond hype reaches new levels

Seven copies of Devil May Care, written by Sebastian Faulks, were brought along the River Thames on a Royal Navy sea boat escorted by two Lynx helicopters. They were then signed by the author in the presence of Fleming’s nieces, Lucy Fleming and Kate Grimond.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s birth Penguin UK is releasing a set of hardbacks with stylized bond girl covers…

Robert McCrum is stepping down after 10 years as The Observer’s book editor. And what a 10 years it has been….you’ll need to put aside a few minutes to read this one.

You rarely see the word ‘cagoules’ used these days - The Guardian reports on the opening of the Hay-on-Wye festival.

William Grimes writes in the New York Times book section about a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Within a few sentences, he utters….

The book is British. Of course. The British love literary lists and the fights they provoke, so much so that they divide candidates for the Man Booker Prize into shortlist books and longlist books.

Grimes, who be nicknamed Grimo or Grimey in the UK, thinks Americans are above lists. Has he never looked at the sports pages of the US papers where there are endless lists of baseball statistics and lists of leaders in football rushing yardage. What would the New York Times book section be without its bestseller lists? Any form of written word media uses lists because they convey information at speed and cause debate. Lists are good. We make shopping lists, lists of things to do, lists of favourite songs, Christmas card lists, and lists of newspaper columnists to avoid. Nick Hornby wrote an entire book (High Fidelity) about a man who’d rather make a list than get his life sorted out. Grimes would, of course, point out Hornby is a list-obsessed Brit but the Americans were quick enough to turn High Fidelity into a movie and transport the whole storyline to Chicago.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die does the trick since Grimes can’t resist debating the merits of books on the list…even though lists are beneath him. Long live lists.

Today, we are announcing the winners of our Win A Bookseller contests. Huge thanks to everyone who entered the two contests. Congratulations to Stephen M Matyas from Virginia, who won our AbeBooks.com contest. Stephen collects books containing the Declaration of Independence and his collection has been put together with passion and care. You can read his essay here.

Alan Hewer from Sussex who won our UK competition. Alan collects books about the Great War and illustrated Victorian books from 1860s. We’ll put Alan’s essay online soon. The runners up for the AbeBooks.com contest were Wayne Valero, Albert Romkema, Glen Goodknight, Lyric Ajero, and Joanne Thompson - they will all receive a year-long subscription to Fine Books & Collections magazine. The runners up for the AbeBooks.co.uk contest were Ray Wenden, David Green, Steve Rudge, John Riddle and Robert Bevan-Jones. They will all receive a year-long subscription to Rare Book Review magazine. We’ll be putting more profiles online next week.

Both Stephen and Alan win a one-day appraisal of their collection by an AbeBooks seller. I spent many long hours reading the entries. There were many incredible essays and it was tough to process to whittle down the entries to the contenders. Once again, thanks to everyone who entered.

The whole Win a Bookseller thing has inspired us to launch a new section dedicated to collectors. Here are four great profiles of collectors who entered the contest.

If you’d like to be profiled, then we’d love to hear about your collection.

The San Francisco Chronicle tells about the latest grilling cookbooks as barbecue season opens (and also swiftly closes again here in British Columbia where rain has returned after a sunny long weekend.)

I’m sure this one will sell….

“Italian Grill” New York chef-restaurateur and TV celeb Mario Batali not only offers 80 recipes to sample, but also includes useful information on grilling methods, equipment and ingredients. Batali also displays his knowledge of all things Italian in the introductions to the chapters - each a witty, brief overview of the culinary uses for the ingredients he employs. Recipes like Warm Shrimp Salad with Green Beans and Chiles are easy to follow, delicious and really do feed a crowd - just as Batali says they would.

What’s Barack Obama reading as the Democratic nomination campaign goes on and on and on?…..The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria according to this picture in the NY Times.

This is a great podcast. It explains how to make a handbag out of an old hardcover.

Follow the instructions and you are left with… this