AbeBooks' Reading Copy

I love this vintage 1941 poster from the WPA Statewide Library Project, which issues a directive to literature lovers: “In March, read the books you’ve always meant to read!” And it reminds me of the article I wrote lamenting the books that sit upon my shelf, often for years, causing me guilt, dismay and extra [...]

In the publishing world, pelicans are related to penguins. Famous for affordable paperbacks, Penguin launched a non-fiction imprint called Pelican and published thousands of titles between 1937 and 1984. The first Pelican was George Bernard Shaw’s The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism & Fascism, and today you will find these books in used [...]

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 [...]

Happy birthday to Jules Verne, born 185 years ago today, on February 8th, 1828. Verne was a French science fiction author, most famous for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. His imagination ran just as deep, and throughout his career he contributed immeasurably to the genre of science fiction. He is often called the father [...]

The book at bedtime is just part of the daily routine for many families, but choosing the right titles to read aloud to an inquisitive six-year-old can be difficult. Can’t be boring, can’t be too slow and can’t be too simplistic. Put together by a father with two daughters, this list comes from experience. It [...]

I am a sucker for a good pun. I know, I know, it’s a loathsome and vile pastime, and one I manage to keep to myself (and a few very close, unlucky loved ones). I rarely pun in public. But I definitely enjoy the art of punnery. So it is with equal parts shame and [...]

Two hundred years ago today, on January 28th, 1813, Pride and Prejudice was published. The author, Jane Austen, was 38 when it was published, and 41 when she died, but had written the bulk of it in her early twenties. It was her second published work (first was Sense and Sensibility). Two centuries later, Pride [...]

Publishers Weekly has a list of the 10 most anticipated 2013 movies from books. Here are my thoughts on each. 10. Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin I confess, I know little about this, as I’ve never read the book. It has a promising cast including Colin Farrell and Jennifer Connelly (something for everyone, then…!), but [...]

When I was in Atlanta, Georgia in October, our friends took us for dinner at Pizzeria Vesuvius (damn fine pizza). When I went to the bathroom towards the back of the restaurant, I saw there was a bookcase against one wall – which then swung open, and a guy emerged. Behind the bookshelf was a [...]

The latest AbeBooks video offering is a review and peek inside of the book Le Corbusier Le Grand, a stunning visual biography of the work and life of Swiss-French architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, more commonly known as Le Corbusier (an altered version of his maternal grandfather’s name).  Le Corbusier specialized in building solutions for exploding populations [...]