Reading Copy

The Guardian posted a set of cocktails inspired by Dickens. That should help spread the Christmas cheer out until the New Year.

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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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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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The Guardian offers some suggested reads for ex-pats feeling a little homesick on Thanksgiving.

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Tis the season to be scared out of your tree. If you want to sleep poorly this weekend AbeBooks.com Avid Readers have voted on the 10 scariest characters in literature of all time.

Is there anyone YOU would have put on the list instead?

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The holiday season is upon us weather you are ready or not and I don’t just mean the “C” word, there’s Halloween and Thanksgiving for our American readers. To help you get ready for all of the parties and hordes of guests we’ve put together a special section of craft and cooking books to help inspire you.

And in the spirit of holiday giving we have a contest to win four fabulous crafting books. Remember it’s free to enter =).

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Fall is in the air. It’s getting colder, leaves are turning, this weekend is Thanksgiving for us Canucks (Nov.22 for our southern neighbors), and Halloween is just around the corner.

What’s all this mean? PUMPKINS!

Other then the obvious jack-o-lanterns and pie, there is a lot you can do with a pumpkin. We’ve selected the ten best pumpkin cookbooks for your gastronomical enjoyment.

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The Times has the summer reading list of Gordon Brown - the UK’s prime minister-in-waiting.

The first two choices are fairly predictable: The Assault on Reason by Al Gore, the former US Vice-President; and The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board.  His third choice, Engleby by Sebastian Faulks, is a more intriguing choice.

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The Observer has another story about literary tourism in Edinburgh with the haunts of Ian Rankin and JK Rowling overtaking the traditional book-related sites in popularity.

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Harry Potter news is coming thick and fast now. The latest…. Scotland’s tourism industry is being boosted by Pottermania, according to the Edinburgh Evening News.

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March 1st is the 10th Anniversary of World Book Day. The Web site says the event is intended to promote “the enjoyment of books and reading.” One of the fun promotions they’re doing is for the Ten Books You Can’t Live Without. Participating is easy - you just enter a few demographic details and then your 10 favourite books. (Signing in to your LibraryThing account and sorting your books by top-rated makes this even easier.) They’re announcing the compiled list of Top 10 Books on March 1st - I wonder how many Harry Potters make the list?

Here are the books I added, in no particular order:

• Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent
• Gregory David Robert’s Shantaram
• Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business
• Stephen King’s The Stand
• Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha
• Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea
• Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula
• Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day
• Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex

Of course, as soon as I submitted my 10 I thought of about five others I love even more.

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It’s near the end of the last work day of 2006 here in the AbeBooks offices, so it’s time to call it a day.

We’ll see you all next week (year). Have a safe and happy New Year’s everyone.

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We’re back at it after having a couple days away from the blog. Hope everyone had a great holiday and got all the books they asked for. And if not, now is the perfect time to do that “I-didn’t-get-what-I-wanted” shopping.

I received the recently released Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Looks like a great collection from this Japanese manga master, I can’t wait to dive into the stark drawings.

What books did you get?

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If your singing along at home this is the point where you really wish you had never started singing this song in the first place, your eggnog is long gone, you notice the cookie tray you were eyeing up at “Seven Swans a swimming” is now mostly crumbs, everyone is off tempo and you really wish you had gotten someone in your family the following book to help keep the rhythm….

Buddy Rich’s Modern Interpretation of Snare Drum Rudiments by Buddy Rich & Henry Adler

Learn the rudiments from Buddy Rich, arguably better than any 12 drummers you can name. Written in 1942, this is a classic drumming guide. Happy Holidays from everyone at AbeBooks!

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