Speaking of Bond, the next story comes from The Independent (care of Moby Lives) and relates to an early draft of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale that was made public this weekend as part of the book’s 60^th anniversary. It was ‘discovered’ that Fleming initially had his protagonist introduce himself as James Secretan to those outside of the secret service.  It’s a good thing he changed it because “The name’s  Secretan, James Secretan” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.  Could have been a multi-million dollar mistake there; also we never would have seen all these great covers.

And lastly, the Fine Books Blog points out that a set of Victorian vampire-killing tools is coming to auction. How great a conversation piece would this be? The blog explains that “Some believe that kits like these were sold to European travelers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to protect themselves from the undead, while others view them as souvenirs that cashed in on the popularity of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, first published in 1897.”

*I apologize for their being two Justin Bieber references in consecutive days on this blog. We will try to never let it happen again.

Castle Schloss Mondsee, now an upmarket hotel, began life as a Benedictine abbey and was founded in 748. This guest book is packed with famous signatures, including Burt Lancaster, Greta Garbo, Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The book belonged to an Austrian aristocrat, Countess Micheline Almeida (1911-2000), whose family used to own the property and she clearly hosted the rich and famous when they visited the area.

Bound in red leather, the guest book  even features some bars of music for the song, The Hills are Alive, from The Sound of Music, which was filmed in and around Salzburg in 1964. The book has been signed by the movie’s director Robert Wise, and the stars, Plummer and Andrews, and dated April and May 1964.

Other signatures in the guest book include the Prince of Liechtenstein Franz Josef II, actor Tony Curtis, socialite Brooke Astor, boxer Gene Tunney, actress Natalie Wood, actor Jack Lemmon, poet W. H. Auden, comedian Peter Sellers, British politician Harold Wilson, fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent (who added a sketch), opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa, motor racing driver Niki Lauda, the Aga Khan, pianist Arthur Rubinstein, Looney Tunes artist Chuck Jones, many opera and ballet performers, numerous European aristocrats and other notable people.

The Almeida family sold the property in 1985 and it became a hotel in 2001. The guest book was sold by longtime AbeBooks seller Kurt Gippert from Chicago.

See the list.

Now, in what could be described as a tiny case of one-downmanship, Toppan Printing of Japan have produced a 22-page volume called Shiki no Kusabana (flowers of seasons) which measures just 0.75mm.  The book theoretically contains names and monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers such as the cherry and the plum – but unless you have a high powered microscope you are just going to have to take their word on that.

Via The Telegraph

Later next month the new poems will be published, along with 1,300 other Kipling poems, in Cambridge Edition of The Poems of Rudyard Kipling; and according to the recent Guardian article, this may not be the last round of Kipling Discoveries. The poems span over a number of years and date back to before the First World War covering a wide array of topics including travel, effects of the media, and The Great War itself.

“Kipling has long been neglected by scholars probably for political reasons,” said Pinney, emeritus professor of English at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Despite winning the Nobel prize, Kipling’s reputation has suffered over his association with British imperialism – he was described as a “jingo imperialist” by George Orwell, who also called him “the prophet of British Imperialism”.

“His texts have never properly been studied but things are starting to change,” said Pinney. “There is a treasure trove of uncollected, unpublished and unidentified work out there. I discovered another unrecorded item only recently and that sort of thing will keep happening. It is a tremendously exciting time for scholars and for fans of Kipling.”

You can find more about Rudyard Kipling here, including his stories and biographies about the author.

Perhaps the most entertaining thing about the award is that the books themselves are not necessarily wacky, it is often the case the books content is quite serious.  Case in point is the 1992 winner How to Avoid Huge Ships, which describes proper tactics for small water craft captains who wish to learn improved evasive action tactics.

Which brings us to the 2013 Diagram Prize Shortlist

• Was Hitler Ill? by Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann
• How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants by David Rees
• God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman
• Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley
• How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior
• Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne

His defeat in battle and death in 1485 heralded the end of England’s Middle Ages, and he has been the subject of many legends and tales including The Princes in the Tower (which details the long-held suspicion by many that Richard III murdered his two nephews) and of course William Shakespeare’s play about him, titled simply Richard III.

To verify the findings, experts used a combination of carbon dating (which pinpointed the remains’ ages to a certain timeframe), wound examination, skeletal examination (Richard III was known to have been stooped by Scoliosis) and eventually, DNA analysis:

However, a team of enthusiasts and historians managed to trace the likely area – and, crucially, after painstaking genealogical research, they found a 17th-generation descendant of Richard’s sister with whose DNA they could compare any remains.

They claim the findings confirm beyond a reasonable doubt. I still doubt (reasonably!), but DNA is a marvelous and fascinating thing. Imagine identifying the remains of someone who has been dead more than five centuries.

More at the BBC.

The period that Fitzgerald lived in this home was a hard one for him and his family: his father had just died, Zelda was institutionalized for schizophrenia, he as suffering more than ever with his alcoholism, and he was even more broke than usual. It was during this period that, however, that F. Scott wrote a number of his most acclaimed works including Tender is the Night.

The students estimated the size of the peach, described by Dahl as being tall and wide like a small house, and derived that it would take 4,890,579 Newton’s of force to lift the massive fruit into the air. They then sorted out the carrying capacity of a seagull (based on its wingspan, the density of air around it and the speed it would travel) and derived that James would have required nearly 2.5 million seagulls.

For shame Mr. Dahl, factual inaccuracies in children`s stories is just something I cannot abide. I had better not find out about an Oxford student’s discovery that Foxes are incapable of stealing cider from deranged farmers.

I also have a soft spot for famous people who are noted collectors, such as Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Johnny Depp.  Since these folks are usually so private I feel like this is a somewhat less intrusive way to get to know what they are like. Which is why I found the story in todays LA Times so facinating; it seems that Bernie Madoff was a book collector of sorts.  After being convicted for heading up a Ponzi scheme which defrauded investors of millions of dollars, Madoff was sent to prison and had many of his belongings sized and auctioned off in lots by U.S. Marshalls, and now a number of books from those lots are finding their way to online auction sites allowing us to see the books he owned.

Apparently Madoff had lots of fiction by authors like Philip Roth,  E.L. Doctorow, Norman Mailer, Elie Wiesel,  Jhumpa Lahiri, and Margaret Atwood as well as poetry collections by Emily Dickinson, Lord Byron and Edna St. Vincent Millay.  But as always a little irony goes a long way to create some good humor, Madoff also owned:

Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard
Black Money by Michael Thomas
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
Original Sin by  P.D. James
The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
Disclosure by Michael Crichton
Deception by Philip Roth
and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

How are they doing this? For every bookstore and library event added to LibraryThing Local from now until January 1, LibraryThing will donate up to 15 cents to put books in the hands of the needy.

Who gets helped? Your local bookstore or library gets the word out about their events (for free), and LibraryThing will donate to a literary charity… the exact charity is still being discussed by LibraryThing members and you can join in on this discussion here

How do I list an event? Simply go to LibraryThing Local and choose “Add event” there or under a specific venue (bookstore or library). You need to have an account on LibraryThing to add an event but this is free to try, and highly recommended.

Why should I list an event? Because it’s free, easy, and everyone wins; bookstores, libraries, readers, authors, and charities.

The whole process is VERY easy, I just submitted a book signing for an old friend Andrian Chamberlain who is launching his new book Ollie with a signing at Munro’s Books here in Victoria in a couple weeks. You can list any event happening at any bookstore or library around the world.

For more information about LibraryThing and this local project you can check out their blog post, hopefully you all submit an event and help get some more folks out to our local bookstores and libraries.

Now go list some events