AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Thanks to everyone who came up and chatted at the Vancouver Antiquarian Book Fair. We met many customers and booksellers over the two days. Charles Purpora and Richard Hopkins, of the Alcuin Society, deserve a special mention for helping to bring back this fair after 20 years in the wilderness. The Alcuin Society also provided [...]

I will be attending the Vancouver Antiquarian Book Fair on Friday afternoon/evening and all day on Saturday along with some other colleagues from AbeBooks. I’m looking forward to meeting some interesting booksellers and book-buyers, and also the folks from the Alcuin Society. AbeBooks has a booth at the event – come up and say hello, [...]

Some JK Rowling hand-written manuscripts are on display at the Wigtown book festival, which started today and continues until October 2, reports the Telegraph. The two framed pages, signed by the author, were originally written as part of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. They feature The Ballad of Nearly Headless Nick, which was [...]

I’m thrilled to hear that Oxford is bidding to become UNESCO World Book Capital in 2014. I lived in the town from 1990 to 1996 and again from 1999 until I came to Canada in 2004. It truly is a bookish place. Yes, it’s a world famous university town but it’s also packed full of [...]

One of British Columbia’s leading book collectors, Jim Rainer, will be speaking at the University of Victoria’s library on Tuesday, October 5. Rainer has collected press books, the book arts, books on gardening, books on baseball and also mechanical pencils over the years. He also served as president of the Alcuin Society and is a [...]

Wigtown Book Festival is coming up so booklovers in Scotland (and England too) may wish bookmark these dates – 24 Sept to 3 Oct. The festival features more than 170 events over 10 days and visitors will have the chance to meet the likes of Ian Rankin, Iain M Banks and Val McDermid. Wigtown is [...]

Hurray, Laredo in Texas – a city of 233,000 people, once again has a bookstore. Sadly, elsewhere in Texas, there is a major row at a Teen Lit festival after an author was uninvited by the organisers.

Good news from our neck of the woods, the Vancouver Antiquarian Book Fair is set for a comeback in October. This Fair hasn’t been staged since the early 1990s even though British Columbia is a stronghold for bibliophiles and rare book collectors. The event is presented by the Alcuin Society, who work tirelessly to promote [...]

Wimbledon has appointed its own championship poet. Matt Harvey will create a poem a day on “all things Wimbledon”, including ball girls and boys, the weather, strawberries and the umpires, as well as the matches and players. They will be made viewable on the Wimbledon and Poetry Trust websites, alongside audio podcasts featuring Harvey reading [...]

We popped into the Times Colonist book sale on Saturday afternoon. The kids were in tow so it was a short visit. The haul included: Four of Marc Brown’s Arthur books The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster Another Harry Potter book Another kids book I cannot recall A big book about tigers, leopards and other [...]