The Guardian previews this weekend’s London Antiquarian Book Fair and focuses on some poor Hemingway poetry.
There is probably a good reason Ernest Hemingway is known for his novels, short stories and journalism rather than his poetry, and it can be found in a remarkable first edition of his first American book. Clearly, he was not a great poet.
What really happened at the Hay-on-Wye book festival over the weekend where the hippies and lefties were in charge.
You rarely see the word ‘cagoules’ used these days - The Guardian reports on the opening of the Hay-on-Wye festival.
A big thanks to everyone who visited the AbeBooks and Story Laboratory booths at the LA Times Festival of Books over the past weekend. We met buyers, collectors, booksellers, librarians, teachers, authors, researchers, publishers, mums, dads, kids and many more bookloving folk on Saturday and Sunday. It was blazing hot on Saturday (almost 100 degrees) - seven days earlier we had experienced snow in Victoria, British Columbia, where AbeBooks is headquartered.
The nice thing about the festival is that it pulls in a broad range of book people - people who are happy reading Danielle Steel wandering about alongside those who adore Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy.
LA Times Festival of the Book occurred this past weekend in LA. The AbeBooks staffers who were at the fair will probably talk about it in tomorrows blog posts but today, to tide you over, here are the winners of the LA Times Book Awards:
Fiction: Andrew O’Hagan - Be Near Me
Current Interest: Elizabeth D. Samet - Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Dinaw Mengestu - The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Science & Technology: Douglas Hofstadter - I Am A Strange Loop
Young Adult Fiction: Philip Reeve - A Darkling Plain
Poetry: Stanley Plumly - Old Heart: Poems
Mystery/Thriller: Karin Fossum - The Indian Bride
History: Tim Weiner - Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Biography: Simon Sebag Montefiore - Young Stalin
This weekend AbeBooks.com will be at the LA Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus. We’re going to have two booths - one for Abe and one for Story Laboratory, our book-making workshop for kids.
Myself, Jordan and Shauna will be on the main AbeBooks.com booth (No 654 in zone F), which is actually close the big LA Times stage. Look out for some incredibly red t-shirts - you can’t miss us. We’ll be giving out free stuff and telling everyone about AbeBooks.com. We’ll also be staging some literary quizzes at 11am, 12 noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday - come along and show your knowledge of books and authors, and you could win some books.
Story Laboratory - staffed by Anna and Andrea - can be found in the vast children’s section of the event. As usual, we’ll be helping kids put together their own books, including writing, illustrating and binding. I’ve seen Story Lab in action several times and children love it, and parents love it too (because they get a break!). If you’ve got children, then stop by.
If you will be in NYC this weekend you can attend…
The Manhattan Antiquarian Jewish Book Sale
This Sunday, January 27, 2008
10am-4pm
Workman’s Circle Building
45 E. 33rd St.
New York, NY 10016
(Between Park & Madison)
Perhaps you can pick up a rare Tanakh, or something like this lovely travel guide to the city of Jerusalem. It was published in 1844 in Jerusalem, about Jerusalem for thoes living outside the holy city but wishing to learn more about it.
Recently AbeBooks has been sponsoring a series of book making events for children around Victoria and now Vancouver. A webpage for these events has now been created and you can see some of the books the children have made. Check out the Story Laboratory
My personal favourite is “Sheep’s on a Plane”
Anyone living in or around Vancouver BC has the chance to meet a number of our charming staff this Sunday (Sept. 30) at the Word on the Street Festival.
AbeBooks will have two booths set up at the event. One for our website and the other for our Story Laboratory program where we teach kids to make their own book.
The festival is persevering though a continuing civic strike which was threatening this year’s event.
Your last chance to win a pair (2) weekend passports to the Steinbeck Festival and two night’s accommodation at a hotel just a stone’s throw from the action. The contest closes on Thursday so enter now!
The couple who won our last weekend getaway to the Nebula Awards had a great time, this could be your turn!
Just a note for anyone in the southwest corner of the US this weekend.
July 26-July 29th will be the 2007 edition of the San Diego Comic Con.
Looks like a good event again this year with some neat author appearances including the likes of Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Laurell K. Hamilton and George A. Romero.
If you end up attending leave us a comment letting us know how it goes!
From July 26-29, Byron Bay will become the centre of the Australian book and writing community as it hosts the 11th annual Byron Bay Writers Festival.
We had a little chat with the Festival director Jeni Caffin where she told us a little bit of what goes on at this great event.
Any Aussies that want to attend this three day event can enter our competition to win a three-day pass.
Keeping with the theme of the event, all you have to do to win is write book review for your favourite Australian author.