We’re pretty excited about our most recent sale. This time we have Bookfever.com, who specialize in modern first editions and signed books, who have discounted their entire inventory, and by a margin of 20%. If you are getting a jump on your Christmas shopping they have some fantastic books listed including the lots from Trixie Belden series (including No. 1 seen here), signed Invasion by Aaron Wolfe (aka Dean Koontz), and the highly sought after Ticket to Ride by Dennis Potter.
Archive for the ‘business’ Category
AbeBooks sale - 20% off books from Bookfever
Monday, November 16th, 2009
John Maynard Keynes back in fashion
Monday, November 2nd, 2009Economics and I do not mix. The New York Times tells me that economist John Maynard Keynes is back in fashion again. Maynard Keynes preached that government intervention could spark a sluggish economy - eg he invented the bail out so the folks at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley should be mighty grateful for his efforts.
The only thing I know about Maynard Keynes is he’s mentioned in the Deacon Blue song, A Ship Called Dignity so I’m probably not an expert on economic theory although my knowledge of popular culture trivia is second to none. First editions of Maynard Keynes’ most famous book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, would make a very nice bonus for someone at AIG or one of those other slimeball banks.
Bookshops suffering in the UK
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Next week, I’m heading home to the UK for the first time in a year and a half and high streets might look a little different from my last visit. According to a very scary business story in The Times, one in 10 of all shops in Britain have closed in the past nine months and independent bookshops have been hit particularly hard.
UK’s top 10 secondhand bookshops
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
The Guardian has the top 10 secondhand bookshops (in the UK). Some amazing booksellers on this list.
1. Any Amount of Books on Charing Cross Road, London
2. Barter Books, Alnwick Station, Northumberland
3. Bath Old Books in Bath, Somerset
4. Gresham Books, Crewkerne, Somerset
5. Scarthin Books in Cromford, Derbyshire
6. Scriveners in Buxton, Derbyshire
7. The Book Shop in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
8. The Haunted Bookshop in Cambridge
9. Wenlock Books in Much Wenlock, Shropshire
10. Westwood Books in Sedbergh, Cumbria
I’ve driven past Gresham Books in Crewkerne so many times… and never stopped to go in. Shame on me!
History of the paperback
Monday, September 28th, 2009Nicholas Clee recounts the history of the paperback in The Times. He explains how Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin, didn’t invent them but popularised the format in the face of disbelief from the rest of the publishing industry. Back in 1935, publishers was resistant to change and stuck in the mud. And in 2009, it’s….oh.
Analysing the market for secondhand goods
Friday, September 25th, 2009Marketing Week Magazine in the UK analyses the market for secondhand goods - a market that, frankly, is dominated by books. The writer doesn’t truly understand what makes the used book market tick - there is no mention about how secondhand booksellers often supply products (books) that are not available in new condition. To understand the used book business, you need to grasp how books go out-of-print and they are going out of print very quickly these days because publishers are not keen to hold on to ‘backlist’ titles for too long.
If you wanted to go deeper into the secondhand book market, you’d analyse the food chain of booksellers - $1 booksellers with huge warehouses (all online), remainder sellers (online & wholesale), charity sellers (online and bricks and mortar), general used bookstores (who are mostly online too), specialist used bookshops (nearly always online as well), purely online sellers often operating from home and sometimes with a storage facility, and high-end rare and antiquarian sellers with upmarket shops (usually online too). And I’m just skimming over the surface here.
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal - Author Defends Book
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
It’s no accident! My book is a non-fiction narrative in my own unique style! That could be what author Ben Mezrich’s FaceBook status message states.
Mezrich is facing criticism for his book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal which details the creation and rise of the popular social networking site. Reviewers of the book are saying that it’s a fictionalized account of the founding of FaceBook and not a non-fiction work.
Mezrich defends himself saying, “It’s a non-fiction book. It’s a true story. I am a narrative non-fiction writer in a way that other people don’t write. I’m trying to create my own genre of non- fiction.”
FaceBook’s spokesman counters, “Ben Mezrich clearly aspires to be the Jackie Collins or Danielle Steele of Silicon Valley.”
Mezrich is insistant that he followed standard journalistic practice yet he apparently didn’t interview Mark Zukerberg, the founder of FaceBook. Critics also say thta Mezrich doesn’t properly explain how Zuckerberg transformed from a somewhat anti-social student to a huge internet success.
Ben Mezrich speaks with Bloomberg about The Accidental Billionaires:
Facing the Challenges of Asperger’s Syndrome in a Bookshop
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009Yesterday’s Telegraph ran a great article about Brian Rafferty who runs the Broughton Street Book Shop in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Brian presents customers with a pamphlet that reads:
“With the help of my family and friends I have opened this second-hand bookshop and intend to support myself, and give a purpose to my life. I don’t think I am unemployable.”
You see, Brian suffers from Aspberger’s syndrome and cerebral palsy which, despite qualifications and good a good work ethic, seems to have prevented Brian from getting a job, or even an interview for that matter.
To set Brian up in the bookshop, his family sent out requests to friends for donations of books. The family was deluged with books and the shop opened in March of this year. (A portion of the profits from the bookshop is donated to the National Autistic Society.)
“The shop means a lot to me,” Brian says. “I can’t get a job but I want to do something useful with my time. I love it when people come in to buy a book and stop for a chat, I’ve made quite a few new friends.“
The Final Chapter for Thomas Hardy’s Ale?
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009The loss of a great beer is a tragedy - and it’s even more tragic that I haven’t tried Thomas Hardy’s Ale and soon it could be no more. Damn this economy!
Beer devotees have hailed the ale as one of the world’s best but English brewery O’Hanlon has had to plug the keg citing the time and money it took to produce the liquid gold made it a necessary decision. The packaging itself is time consuming as each bottle is individually numbered, is topped with gold foil and has a hand-hung gold medallion.
Thomas Hardy’s Ale was created 41 years ago by brewer Eldridge Pope as a tribute to the author.
A quest is on to find another brewery to produce the beer so it’s not a hopeless situation yet. But just in case, grab a bottle of Thomas Hardy’s Ale for one hand and a copy of Tess of the d’Urbervilles for the other and toast good old Hardy himself.
Jeff Rubin interview
Monday, June 1st, 2009
The latest writer to be interviewed by AbeBooks is Jeff Rubin - author of Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller. Rubin, one of North America’s leading economists, explains how globalization is coming to an end as the world faces up to a dwindling and increasingly expensive supply of oil. He explains how the modern world has been built on cheap oil and how it’s going to change radically under high priced oil.
I initially feared this book would be very boring, but it’s extremely readable. Like most people, I equate the price of oil to the price I pay at the pump when I fill up my car. In reality, the price of almost everything in our global economy is influenced by oil and its price. We’ve spent three decades marvelling at global business and now, according to Rubin, it’s going to implode.
If you are American, buy British
Friday, May 22nd, 2009Hello, my American cousins - the British pound is struggling against the US dollar so we have put together a page to help our Stateside buyers take advantage of this situation. Of course, we have the UK’s finest rare booksellers listing with us so the selection is fantastic.
Behind Ontario’s Used Books Shops
Monday, May 11th, 2009An article in The London Free Press takes a look at the people behind some of the bookstores in London, Ontario and how far some of them go to get books into the hands of book lovers. (Featured bookshops include AbeBooks booksellers H Sommers Books and Attic Books!)
Margaret Atwood Book About Debt Coming to Film
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
The National Film Board of Canada will be making Margaret Atwood’s non-fiction book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth into a film documentary.
The book, which won Silver in the 2008 Axiom Business Book Awards — Business Ethics category and is a finalist for the 2009 National Business Book Award, takes a look at the concept of debt as a thematic element of religion, literature and human society.
January’s Bestselling Political Books
Monday, January 26th, 2009From The New York Times Politics Blog The Caucus comes a list of bestselling political books based on sales for Dec. 27 through Jan. 17, 2009. No prizes for guessing who dominates the list!
- The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.
- Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
- American Lion by Jon Meacham
- Guilty by Ann Coulter
- Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
- The Return of Depression Economics and The Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman
- The American Journey of Barack Obama by The editors of Life Magazine
- The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson
- Do the Right Thing by Mike Huckabee
- Time President Obama edited by Adi Ignatius
- Fleeced by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
- The 10 Big Lies About America by Michael Medved
- The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
- Michelle by Liza Mundy
- Yes We Can by Scout Tufankjian