AbeBooks' Reading Copy

The book that could become the world’s most expensive book is going on tour. Rather like a rock star except the gigs are in libraries rather than stadiums. However, the Bay Psalm Book actually does have celebrity status within the rare book world and Sotheby’s will auction a very rare copy on November 26. In […]

Here’s some Monday morning fun to put a smile on your face – the librarians at the New York Public Library have re-enacted the Beastie Boys’ epic 1994 music video, directed by Spike Jonze, for their song Sabotage.

Last week I was in New York for the ABAA New York Antiquarian Book Fair and also the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Show. As always, New York offered amazing bookstores and a buzzing city. I had some spare time, and in keeping with the book theme, decided to visit the main branch of the […]

This is a unique reading list – these books were all written by librarians and most of them were recommended to us by librarians. If any profession is well qualified to write books then librarians truly fit the bill. Librarians are loyal customers of AbeBooks and we tend to listen when they speak. But it […]

To describe this video in only one word would never do it justice, but if I had to: bizarre. Featuring a stern, turtlenecked librarian named Betty Glover, this is nearly five minutes of surreal, spoof workout advice for librarians, made in 1987 by an Arizona State University student. While disturbingly sizeist and focused on the […]

A treat for the fine booklover, or anyone who enjoys the excellent artistry of bookbinding: The Kelliegram Binding. Kelliegram bindings often involved intricate leather work, such as leather inlays or onlays to create an image, a scene, or a mosaic effect. It was common for the Kelliegram binders to choose an engraving from the body […]

The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles Public Library has become the beneficiary of massive map donation courtesy of a real estate agent’s recent find.  The agent was put in charge of clearing out the belongings of a man who had occupied the building but was not the owner.  He had been living in […]

The Library of Congress have compiled a list of 88 books that shaped America, which will be an exhibition to begin a multiyear “Celebration of the Book”. “This list is a starting point,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “It is not a register of the ‘best’ American books – although many of them […]

In what is among the most genius uses of social media I’ve recently seen, the city of Troy Michigan saved their public library by leveraging people’s love of books (and intense loathing of censorship and book burning). Watch the video for more – it gave me goosebumps.

Belgian royalties association SABAM is demanding that libraries pay a royalty fee every time a volunteer reads books to children.