Reading Copy

Yesterday’s Observer had three authors talking about their Christmases. Lionel Shriver clearly loves her pies….

I bake splendid pies. Lest that sound boastful, the sole reason I bake splendid pies is that my mother bakes splendid pies. I do not mean, either, those thin, photogenic European creations called tarts. Thick, deep-dish, homey and rumpled, proper American pies. The rest of the year our family dug into coconut-custard, rhubarb-cream, lemon meringue, peach, cherry, blueberry, and apple. But for Christmas dinner we were reliably treated to two pies: one pumpkin, the other pecan. The smooth, dense pumpkin custard would be aromatically spiced with cinnamon, clove, and ginger. Sweet enough to set your teeth on edge, the pecan (which my Iowan mother pronounced pi-kahn, my Virginian father pee-kan) was topped with nuts arranged in concentric circles that would toast during baking, while beneath them a corn-syrup-and-butter confection set into a rich, gelatinous glop with enough calories to keep the entire family alive through most of January. Any self-respecting kid always asked for a small slice of both, with ice cream as well, thank you.

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Today’s recommendation for Christmas is a gift for Daddy….(assuming he was a rocker in the 1970s and a lot of them were - they just don’t talk about that part of their lives anymore) is Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga by Stephen Davis. Check out the signed copy signed by Robert Plant. This is an old book, written in the 1980s, but no-one cares what they did after the band broke up following the death of John Bonham. Last night’s reunion concert in London has got huge press - everyone has carried some sort of retrospective. Back home in the UK, I probably didn’t hear a Led Zeppelin record played on a major radio station from about 1983 onwards. Here in North America, they are played every day.

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Today’s recommendation for something for Christmas is…..well, actually it is getting harder and harder to find something newish that might appeal to lots of people. So let’s look at one non-fiction author who writes super books on interesting events - Simon Winchester.

I recommend any number of his books, including A Crack in The Edge of the World for anyone who lives in San Francisco or intends to visit soon. I also recommend Krakatoa: The Day For World Exploded. Two great books on two events that shook the world.

Did you know Winchester, while working as a journalist, was captured by the Argentinian forces during the war for the Falkland Islands?

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Today’s recommendation for Christmas gifts is…..well, I was going to start with any book about the history of censorship because I’m getting increasingly angry with the all nonsense around The Golden Compass novel and how it’s encouraging atheism. Rubbish. Don’t censor books or movies. AbeBooks doesn’t censor books - any book that can be legally sold is available through AbeBooks. We let the reader make the choice and usually you need to read stuff to make an informed decision any way….so don’t censor books and don’t censor movies based on books.

So my real recommendation is a boxed set of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Yes, read these books and then decide if they are evil. Plus you could read these books over the Christmas (Christian) holidays - oh the irony!

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While we are on the subject, here is today’s recommendation for Christmas…..A Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Search For Culinary Extremes by Tom Parker-Bowles. This book is a year old but still worth considering even though the author has two last names and is the son of Camilla.

Parker-Bowles is a food journalist in the UK. He travels the world and eats weird stuff - you know the formula. Actually, you’d probably also want to consider anything written by Anthony Bourdain, who is a seriously good writer. Here’s our interview with him from last year.

And if you want something really weird about food - here’s our list of the world’s weirdest cookbooks. How can anyone ignore Cooking On Your Car Engine?

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Surfing through the Web this morning, I came across a blog at The Guardian about ‘concept’ books published for the Christmas market. The top book in the UK at the moment is Do Ants Have Arseholes? And 101 Bloody Ridiculous Questions, Now, I’m in Canada and haven’t seen this book so I can’t really comment on a train thought that it is utterly rubbish.

However, scroll through the article until you get to the comments underneath.

This is the first one….

“I specifically tell people that wish to keep me as a friend to never, never, never buy me books like that or so-called “humour” books for Christmas. It’s all for stupid thickos that probably don’t even read books anyway.”

A good point well made….

About half way down you get this comment….

“I’ve read some of Do Ants… - it’s not actually that terrible. There’s quite a good joke about Martin Amis, which suggests it’s not for the completely illiterate.”

And then someone comes up with a football team consisting entirely of Russian authors - God knows where that came from but I’m sure they’d be a pretty effective outfit. A lot of experience but those huge Russian beards might slow them down?

“This would be my Russian team, using a 4-3-1-2:
G: Bulgakov
CB: Solzhenitsyn, Tolstoy
LB/RB: Pasternak, Gorky
CM: Turgenev, Gogol, Dostoevsky
CF: Pushkin, Nabokov
Subs: Saltykov-Shchedrin, Lermontov, Goncharov, Bely, Sologub.
I think they would take the English no problem.”

God bless the Internet!!!

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Today’s recommendation for Christmas giving is….. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which is a translation of the French memoir Le scaphandre et le papillon by Jean-Dominique Bauby. This book is getting plenty of attention at the moment because an American movie version has been released.

The book describes Bauby’s life after he suffered a stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid. He used a frequency-ordered alphabet and he had to blink multiple times to select each letter. The book took about 200,000 blinks to complete and each word took approximately two minutes. Bauby died two days after the book was published in France.

This is no ordinary book - if you want to humble and inspire someone, give them this book.

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Today’s recommendation for Christmas….. is Yann Martel’s illustrated version of Life of Pi. I interviewed the author a week or so ago and we have a signed copy in the office for our charity signed books auction. It is, indeed, a lovely book with quite stunning images - all which are painted from the perpsective of Pi Patel, who is never shown. This would be an excellent gift for anyone who loved the book and might enjoy revisiting the story of a boy, a really big tiger and some other critters stuck in a lifeboat after a shipwreck.

I had the distinct feeling that Martel had moved on from Life of Pi and that, to an extent, it really wasn’t a subject he wanted to talk about anymore. It was published five years ago so I don’t blame him. He’s probably been asked the same questions over and over again. His next book will be about the Holocaust and some animals living on a shirt so…. who knows what that will be like?

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Today’s recommendation for Christmas giving is…. The $64 Tomato by William Alexander. Published by the wonderful Algonquin press, this is a great non-fiction book for all would-be gardeners. I read this book in the summer and it’s definitely worth a look if you are thinking about getting serious in the vegetable patch.

Hey, it should be simple… and cheap too. Middle-aged Bill Alexander battles deer, groundhogs, webworms, weeds, and weather, and his neighbours, while his wife and kids look on in pity. Can you put a price on something that you’ve grown from a seed? Bill’s price is $64 for each of his Brandywine tomatoes. Some how, I am not surprised.

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Today’s recommendation for Christmas is for those of you with young children….Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson. Firstly, Donaldson is an excellent writer of kids’ books. I have several at home and they can be read out loud at bedtime again and again. Room on the Broom is a particular favourite in my household and The Gruffalo is loved around the world.

Children love dinosaurs and there seems to be an unending appetite for books about them. Kids seem to love the fact that dinosaurs were huge animals that once ruled the Earth. This book tells the story of a placid duckbill dinosaur’s egg that ends up in the wrong nest and, after hatching, the dinosaur is nicknamed Tyrannosaurus Drip by his new scary family.

I’d also recommend Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp as another great present.

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We have a third charity auction coming up in December and this time we have some very, very special signed books for sale. A signed copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and a wonderful boxed limited copy of Margaret Atwood’s poetry book, The Door, are the headline items.

More details here.

Two AbeBooks.com employees went to Toronto in October and attended JK Rowling’s signing event where they obtained the signed copy, which comes with all the memorabilia from the event.

The Atwood book is, frankly, stunning. Everyone who has seen the book has commented that it’s something special - it’s housed in a beautiful box, there’s a signed block print and the book is beautiful with remarkable marbled endpapers. Only 150 hand-numbered copies were produced - this one is No.4.

Also up for grabs is a signed copy of the illustrated edition of Life of Pi and also two signed Kiran Desai books.

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There are certain people who are always more difficult when it comes to finding a good thoughtful gift that they will enjoy. Generally teenagers, especially boys, are a tough lot, and if you’re trying to think outside of the electronics box doubly so.

When I was in high school I was pretty much married to my CD player so here are a couple ideas, and if these aren’t exactly right just spy on his or her mp3 collection and see what’s out there:

From Pieces to Weight - 50 Cent’s memoir recounting the story of one of today’s hottest rap artists and his rise from the streets to fame.

Keep Your Eyes Open - A photographic history of Fugazi, one of the most influential bands in indie rock / post punk.

Get In The Van - Tour Diaries from 1980-1984 written by Black Flag front man Henry Rollins.

The Vibe History of Hip Hop - From the Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash all the way to the turn of the century.

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Today’s recommendation for a Christmas gift is Helen Mirren’s Snapshots of my Life. Helen Mirren has been around for as long as I can remember and she’s surely one of the best actresses treading the boards. I watched The Queen in the summer and, frankly, it’s a great film and should be watched by anyone from outside the UK who wants to understand the Royal Family. She was stunning in the Prime Suspect series, particularly the first one.

I find it hard to beleive that she’s been acting for more than 40 years now. This illustrated memoir documents her acting but much more as well. Her Russian grandfather, Pyotr Vasielivich Mironov, was sent to London by the Tsar and was left stranded and penniless by the Russian revolution. The book includes evocative pictures of Helen’s Russian ancestry as well as her family life, childhood, teenage and early acting years.

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Today’s recommendation for a Christmas gift is Gonzo - an ideal present if you know anyone who is unhinged. Published by Ammo Books (surely the best name in publishing), Gonzo salutes the life of Hunter S Thompson - the creator of Gonzo journalist, a great writer and also, in my opinion, a very funny man.

Gonzo has lots of photos, some taken by Hunter himself, and begins with an introduction by Thompson’s friend Johnny Depp. It looks at his misadventures, his early days as a foreign correspondent in Puerto Rico, his stint in Big Sur in the 1960s, and also his campaign to become Sheriff of Pitkin County in 1970.

This is also a limited edition so it will appeal to collectors. Only 3000 numbered copies have been printed and each one comes in a box with a photography by Thompson.

Let’s face it, most authors are as dull as ditch water while Thompson loved to stir things up.

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For the next month, we’re going to be suggesting a book a day that might make an ideal Christmas present. We’re going to touch on almost every genre and go from the serious to the silly. So let’s start with a book that doesn’t have many laughs - Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, but hang on, this is the pop-up version.

The book features the work of artist Sam Ita, who trained under Robert Sabuda - one of the world’s master paper engineers. You’ll find several pop-ups on each spread and they’re surrounded by comic book-style panels that convey the whale-hunting drama. Some of the pops-ups are large and very detailed, such as the Pequod, which rises from the page, complete with rigging.

I started my Christmas shopping last week as I have to send presents from Canada to Britain so starting early pays dividends.

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