Here is one that gets into the Bookbinding Hall of Shame on the first ballot.The title of the book is:Laws of Washington Territory Enacted by the Legislative Assembly, Tenth Biennial Session, 1885-86The spine says:Image courtesy of Michael's Books Bellingham, Washington
Build It Where You Burned Them
One of the highlights of hosting a major global event is the money that pours into the city. Beside the huge investment in infrastructure sometimes there is some money invested in the arts. The World Cup was held in Germany this past summer and here is one of the treasures that was created. "Modern Book Printing" to commemorate Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of Modern Book Printing around 1450 in Mainz This sculpture resides less than 200 feet from where this Nazi book burning took place in 1933 Rising from the ashes...
Daily Book Dose
All this week in the New York Times "Talk to the Newsroom" feature is a Q& A with the Book Review editor Sam Tanemnhaus.The questions asked and the answers provided offer some good insight into how the Book Review section operates.Topics include:-explaining the process of how a book gets reviewed- from its arrival in the office to it being included in paper-bias in book reviews-reviewing books in translation and books from small independent publishersWhile we are with Times. They also have a great story on finding a home for the amazing African-American History and literature collection built by Mayme Agnew...
The Problem with Commission Reports Becoming Best Sellers
The Iraq Study Group Report is fast on its way to becoming a bestseller. It has already gone into a third printing with about 250,000 copies in print and the report has also been downloaded for free over 700,000 times.Like the "The 9-11 Commission Report", which was released two years ago and sold more than 1 million copies and received a National Book Award nomination, the Iraq report is a government document. Historically, government documents where printed, published and distributed by the government. It is only recently that these reports have started being published by mainstream publishers. Yes, each publisher...
Emerald City is a Wiz at Reading
That is part of the headline from USA Today's article on Seattle claiming the top spot as America's most literate city for the second year in a row. USA Today presenting an article on literacy and using the word 'wiz' in the title really opens the door for some fun but we will leave that for another time. Here are some highlights: Seattle's remains #1 overall in the Bookstore category which uses the following three variables- 1. Number of retail bookstores per 10,000 population2. Number of rare and used bookstores per 10,000 population3. Number of members of the American Booksellers...