This week the auction of the library of Frank Streeter at Christie's reeled in over $16 million.This weekend there are three different book fairs for non-new books taking place in New York including the New York Antiquarian Book Fair were you will find many of the best collectible books available for sale in the world.This is strong evidence of the staying power of the book and a confirmation of its value to our culture or should I say a segment of our culture.Sam Jordison's piece for the Gaurdian "What are first editions worth? There's is plenty of money to be...
Signs of Hope For the Book and the Trade
Word comes via Scott Brown at Fine Books blog that the hole left in the antiquarian book world by the announced closure of Heritage Book Shop will be partially filled by "LA businessman, philanthropist, and bibliophile" Michael Sharpe. The new venture Michael Sharpe Rare and Antiquarian Books will employ former Heritage staffers (the story was leaked to Brown by one of the former Heritage employees who will be involved in this new entity) and carry a $10 million inventory. The shop will be open to the public and will reside in an historic Craftsman home.The inventory will be consist largely...
Bookstore Robbery Tomorrow at 9
Luckily this takes place across the street from Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers at the Central Saloon where a new band from Seattle called Bookstore Robbery will play. We will have extra security on hand.Self-described as a "shotgun marriage of power pop and alt-country for the twilight era." To hear some of their songs and watch a video visit their myspace page.Where did they get the name from?The Wes Anderson film "Bottle Rocket". The film's tagline: "They're not really criminals, but everybody's got to have a dream."The following dialog comes from the bookstore robbery scene:Digan: A bigger bag you idiot!Bookstore manager:...
"Digitize or Die? What is the Future of the Author"
That's the title of a seminar that took place yesterday at the London Book Fair.Tania Kindersley has the recap over at the Guardian. Her aptly titled story "The Death of the Book, Again" conveys the almost monotonous battle of print vs. digital that has been hovering over the book industry for years. As Kindersley says "It is an immutable law that the Death of the Book must be debated at least once a year". Actually once a year would be refreshing. The drone seems constant nowadays."The old pro-book arguments are so rehearsed as to fade almost to background noise".Feeding off...
The Illustration Divide
The study was called "Gender Stereotyping and Under-representation of Female Characters in 200 Popular Picture Books: A Twenty-first Century Update."The authors looked at the top-selling books in 2001 and a seven-year sample of Caldecott Award-winning books.What did they find:That "images of men continue to dominate children's picture books."-There were nearly twice as many male as female title and main characterswith male characters appearing in 53 percent more illustrations than females-Female main characters were more nurturing-Men were shown outdoors more often and women were seen indoors more -More women than men appeared to have no paid occupationIn 2005 the same team...