AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Each year, the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest challenges writers to craft the stinkiest, most appallingly god-awful opening sentence they can imagine. The contest is named for Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose novel Paul Clifford is the origin of the famous line “It was a dark and stormy night.” This year’s winner was Cathy Bryant from Manchester, England, [...]

Congratulations to Samuel Jang of Victoria, BC, who was the first place winner in the 2011-2012 National Book Collecting Contest for Young Canadians Under 30, of which AbeBooks was a proud sponsor. The requirements for the contest were simple – be Canadian, be under 30, and write an essay about your book collection – what [...]

Congratulations to Sheila Turner, who recently won BC Transit’s Transit Hero contest and earned a big pile of British Columbia-themed books (donated by AbeBooks) for her efforts. Sheila wrote a very interesting essay about her bus reading club where a small group of like-minded bibliophiles talk books on the morning commute. Our bus has a [...]

Are you thinking of becoming a rare bookseller? Or have you just started to sell collectible books? The 2012 Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar is a week-long educational event held in Colorado Springs in August, 2012 for booksellers, librarians and collectors that offers expert discussion about rare books. This is your opportunity to enter for a [...]

Our literary-themed March Madness has reached its second semi-final – Animals and Objects In and Out of Water by Jay Ryan versus The Crow’s Vow by Susan Briscoe. Cast your vote now. The book that wins will face The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian in the grand final on Monday.

Our friends at BC Transit have just launched an interesting initiative around Transit Heroes – they are looking for engaging stories from people who ride public transport around British Columbia. You can write something, make a video submission or record an audio file. If you do submit a story, then you will have a chance [...]

Welcome to the 5th HEAD TO HEAD bout between two beautiful books in our March Madness event. Today’s heavyweight match is between Animals and Objects In and Out of Water by Jay Ryan and American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent. Remember, this contest is all about aesthetics, so click through, look [...]

Attention Canada’s young book collectors – there is still time left to enter the 2011-2012 National Book Collecting Contest for Young Canadians Under 30. We are one of the contest’s sponsors and this is a great opportunity for young bibliophiles to show their passion for rare books. The winner takes home $1,000 (CAD) with the [...]

Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy of crime novels has sold millions of copies and has been one of the most successful literary franchises since Harry Potter graduated from Hogwarts. Larsson died in 2004 so the success of his books is even more remarkable considering there has been no author to promote them. Word of mouth from [...]

Listen up Canada’s young book collectors. The 2011-2012 National Book Collecting Contest for Young Canadians Under 30 is now open and accepting entries. This year AbeBooks is one of the contest’s sponsors and we are urging Canada’s young bibliophiles to show their passion for rare books. If you have a collection of books then we [...]