Reading Copy

Collectors of ‘designer’ books might be interested in a special edition of the new 007 book, Devil May Care written by Sebastian Faulks, that will be published by Penguin and the luxury car firm Bentley.

Published on May 28, each Bentley edition of Devil May Care will cost £750 and only 300 copies have been printed. I expect them to sell within 24 hours and then fetch handy sums on the rare book market. James Bond owned three Bentleys in the 14 novels penned by Fleming so it’s a clever partnership from the folks at Penguin who know the true value of special editions.

Inside the book is a specially designed model pewter Bentley.

According to the blurb, the special edition is “finished in burnt oak leather sourced from the tannery in Italy which provides the hides for Bentley’s interiors. The iconic Bentley diamond pattern found on the radiator grille and upholstery of modern Bentley’s, is hand-stitched on the leather casing and the front cover and spine is finished with the silver Bentley ‘Flying B’ – the radiator cap of the Bentley’s of Bond’s time.

“The inside of the casing is trimmed in deep red hotspur leather and has the striking fluting used on the 1950’s and 1960’s Bentley interior upholstery. Each book has a unique edition number embossed on a black aluminium plate produced the same company that makes the Bentley engine plates.”

Sounds great.

The miniature car, described by Fleming in Thunderball, is inserted into the book in a car-shaped hole and is numbered to match the plate on the inside cover. Each book is protected by a custom-made Plexiglass slip case, which will be sealed in protective wrapping.

More details on Devil May Care here and the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth here.

Popularity: 15% [?]

In downtown Toronto

Thanks to Book Ninja

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The Hitler Diaries, one of the greatest literary hoaxes of all time, was printed 25 years ago.

There are things you wish you’d never done. One of mine was to have held up the front page to the newsroom, saying: “Look at that. You’ll never see another front page like that as long as you live.”

Popularity: 13% [?]

Some British authors and historians have stopped complaining about the declining number of readers and the death of the book just long enough to draw a breath and start complaining about something new. The British Library has put a real cramp in their life by, and please try to contain your anger upon hearing this, allowing students to use the libraries services.

What gall!

Imagine the horror of having to queue for a service, and in England of all places. Students using libraries, I have never heard of such a preposterous notion.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Andrew Morton’s latest book, An Unauthorized Biography of Tom Cruise, has been selling like hotcakes in the US but has not yet been published in the UK due to fears of Libel.

As reported in the Independent:
“Since its release in America earlier this year, Andrew Morton’s unauthorised biography of the Hollywood actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise jumped to the top of virtually every single bestseller list in the United States.

But as the American public lapped up the series of lurid accusations contained within, British readers were forced to wait while the book’s UK publishers removed any passages that might be deemed anything approaching libellous. Now it appears that Morton’s latest offering, Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, may never be printed this side of the Atlantic. Sources at Macmillan told a Sunday newspaper that by the time lawyers had finished deleting any potentially libellous passages there was “not enough left to make a good read”.

When Morton’s book was printed by St Martin’s Press in the US in January, it contained a number of accusations about Cruise, including his association with the Church of Scientology. The Church rejected Morton’s claims and threatened a $50m (£25m) lawsuit, but has yet to take the publishers to an American court.”

Popularity: 34% [?]

Phillip M. Parker has “written” over 200,000 books, however some might say he cheated. The New York Times interviews the author who has taken The Long Tail to a whole new level.

Parker has a computer program which compiles the books based on search criteria. In the interview Parker agrees that his books don’t really have any new insight but help take the leg work out of the research process.

Popularity: 25% [?]

It seems Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has pulled The Simpsons from the nation’s airwaves. Citing The Simpsons’ poor morals as the reason for the hook, Chavez replaced the cartoon with a show of exemplary taste and a solid moral foundation…. Baywatch?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Popularity: 19% [?]

In recent years, Charlton Heston was more well known for his role with the National Rifle Association than his Oscar-winning acting performances. It is interesting to look at his career from several points in time, just to see how opinions have changed.

Heston himself has written a few books about his life and times:

From 1978 The Actor’s Life: Journals, 1956-1976 by Charlton Heston
From 1990 Beijing Diary: The personal story of a remarkable theatrical and political event by Charlton Heston
From 1995 In the Arena: An Autobiography

I think this weekend I am going to rent Ben Hur. Fans of the film should take a look at this, it’s a pretty amazing collector’s piece.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Movie star Nicholas Cage can now carry on with the rest of his life… after dog stealing slurs were revealed to be unfounded. Kathleen Turner says sorry for getting it wrong in her autobiography - Send Yourself Roses: My Life, Love and Leading Roles.

I simply can’t imagine life as a celebrity.

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I’m going to create a crazy blog and then wait for the megabucks book deal. Cue article in the NY Times. Stuff White People Like is a very clever blog - as a middle-class white person, I think it is very funny. The amazing thing is that this blog has only been around since January. Someone told me about it three weeks ago and here they are getting the $300,000 advance from a publisher.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Over in the UK, there are several stories this morning….the Orange Prize for Fiction is paying a price for recruiting a flakey celeb as a judge. While at The Bookseller magazine, If You Want Closure in your Relationship, Start with your Legs has won the oddest book title of the year award - I don’t think its an odd title. And in Harrogate in the Republic of Yorkshire, a rare Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, has turned up at a charity shop reports the local paper.

Popularity: 41% [?]

More madness! Disney has cast its evil, evil spell on Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. Walt has made them all look like Bratz.

But the Famous Five’s offspring are now multicultural; their enemies include a DVD bootlegger and they sport modern gadgets like iPods and mobile phones.

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AbeBooks.co.uk has finished joint top of a online retailer customer satisfaction survey conducted by UK consumer protection magazine Which? Congratulations to the AbeBooks.co.uk team and the booksellers who keep satisfying our customers in the UK.

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For sale - one gently used bookstore chain.

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This is a wonderful example of the kettle calling the pot black in the New York Times. The US of A refuses entry to British memoirist Sebastian Horsley, the author of Dandy in the Underworld, because he’s a former druggie and used prostitutes. Interesting! The still warm Eliot Spitzer nonsense is generating acres of newspaper print but US customs and immigration is making sure a sicko Brit doesn’t taint any God fearing Americans.

Here what he would have outlined to America….

Sounds like a regular memoir to me - I wonder if he made it up?

Popularity: 33% [?]