Call of the Wild first edition
The journalist fails to point out the irony of alias - there was also much controversy and debate about London’s death. Was it suicide? Was it an overdose of morphine?
A first edition of this classic book isn’t cheap - I wonder if Michael owned one. I suspect he did.
The banning of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye by J.D. California reflects very badly on J.D. Salinger (not that he cares). This unauthorized sequel of The Catcher in the Rye is a bad book and would have sunk like a stone without any legal intervention. The big-hitting literary critics would have savaged it – they’d have done Salinger’s dirty work for free and probably in a very entertaining way. Most readers would have ignored it. The book is harmless but rubbish. Banning books is never a good thing and being a bad book is not a crime.
I’m sure Coming Through the Rye IS a sorry attempt to cash in on the fame of Catcher in the Rye but is that illegal, especially in America where cashing in is a way of life? The actual author, a Swede called Fredrik Colting, will probably keep pushing to get his book published because the publicity surrounding the book will make his efforts worthwhile. The curiosity factor surrounding this book is now very high, and all because America’s No.1 recluse went through the courts. In the meantime, the book has been published in Sweden and the UK. In today’s world of global bookselling, people will get their hands on copies so this storm in a tea cup will continue.
I believe Salinger lost control of his famous creation, Holden Caulfield, four decades ago. Holden Caulfield, the world’s first alienated teenager, became public property when Catcher in the Rye became required reading for all readers, and that happened a long time ago. How can some badly written book by a bloke from Sweden remotely damage the legacy of Salinger and his famous novel from 1951?
Desperate times call for desperate measures…I guess.
A Wellington School in New Zealand has resorted to bribing its students to read. Read two books and you get a can of Coke. Reading five earns a coupon for Subway. Reach the great total of ten books and the prize is a movie ticket.
Would today’s teenagers think that Holden Caulfield is weird, asks the New York Times. I’m sure they would think he’s a complete ‘phoney.’
Editor of O Magazine Gayle King revealed their top4 picks from Oprah’s Summer Reading List:
Provenance is the extraordinary narrative of one of the most far-reaching and elaborate deceptions in art history. Investigative reporters Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo brilliantly recount the tale of a great con man and unforgettable villain, John Drewe, and his sometimes unwitting accomplices.
Provenance reads like a well-plotted thriller, filled with unforgettable characters and told at a breakneck pace. But this is most certainly not fiction;Provenance is the meticulously researched and captivating account of one of the greatest cons in the history of art forgery.
Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.
Gavin has gotten closer than any other writer to the celebrity who has lived in reclusion since 1998. From the Cotton Club’s glory days and the back lots of Hollywood’s biggest studios to the glitzy but bigoted hotels of Las Vegas’s heyday, this behind-the-scenes look at an American icon is as much a story of the limits of the American dream as it is a masterful, ground-breaking biography.
In ongoing efforts to promote literature and reading around the world, the UNESCO selection committee has chosen Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires as the 2011 World Book Capital.
The Committee said Buenos Aires was selected “for the quality and variety of its proposed programme as well as for the consolidated strategy on which it is based“.
Beirut is this year’s World Book Captial and Ljubljana holds the honor for 2010.
Alas Twilight fans, Stephenie Meyer’s MySpace page is no more.
In a June 4 post on her official web site, Meyer’s said, “A quick fyi: I am taking down my bloated myspace page. It was a lot of fun while it lasted, and I really miss the early days when I could hang out with people online. Many of you are hilarious and insightful, and I wish it was easier for me to talk to everyone the way I used to.“
Ah, the price of fame.
In the same post Meyer recommends Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for beach reading.
Bonkbusters aren’t as good as they used to be. I don’t know what to say.
On May 19 student jurors chose Canadian author, Mélanie Watt’s Chester’s Back! as the picture book category winner of the 2009 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards.
As a tribute, Tales for Tots this week looks back at the first Chester book (published in 2007).
Chester is really a story within a story. Chester, an egomaniacal cat (go figure), attempts to take over Mélanie Watt’s tale of a mouse that lives in the country. (I guess he succeeds since the book is called Chester. ) The two battle for control as Chester scribbles his own ideas down in red marker. The mouse exclaims that he can’t work under such conditions and Watts brings out her ultimate weapon - you’ll have to read the book to find out what that is! :)
Chester is a clever book, full of humor, gentle sarcasm and an entertaining battle-of-the-wills. Both parents and cat-people will relate to the difficulties Watts faces throughout the story. :) Watt’s illustrations are priceless (I especially love the wet cat image!) and there’s lots of “little things” that can be seen outside of the main images.
I highly recommend Chester and I can’t wait to take a look at Chester’s Back!
Sales of romance novels are on the rise despite the economic downturn. The increase is attibuted in part to the low book prices (approx. $5.00) and the fact that the books always have a happy ending.
We have a new feature in our Rare Book Room this morning and it should appeal to fans of the surreal and the strange. It’s all about Une Semaine de Bonté (A Week of Kindness) by German artist Max Ernst.
Created in just three weeks in 1934, Une Semaine de Bonté is a very bizarre collection of 182 collages where humanity is mixed with mythology and the animal kingdom. There are ladies with serpent wings and gentlemen with lion heads. Many of the dramatic scenes display death, distress, bondage, nudity and violence. Discover more about Une Semaine de Bonté.
I liked the dreamy, awestruck quality of this narrated video demonstrating the vastness of Chamblin BookMine in Jacksonville, FL.
Drat. Another bookstore I might want to see as much as Powell’s. One day, I’m going to have to take a North American bookstore road trip.
….and I’m going to need a really big van for souvenirs.
….would be intolerable, according to the BBC’s Andrew Marr. Check out the comment section.