While down in San Francisco recently for a book fair the folks at Bridge Brand Chocolates were handing out this flyer promoting their line of Book Lover's Chocolate.Here's the pitch:"Bridge Brands Chocolate's Book Lover's Chocolate Collection is our line of chocolate dedicated to the great combination of chocolate and literature.Packaged in a recycled paper container that evokes the beautiful elegance of an old-world hardcover book, our Book Lover's Chocolate Three Box Gift Set contains one of each Milk, Dark and Dark Espresso Chocolate boxes."Though a little late for Valentine's Day this year, no worries, for there are still a couple...
43d California Book Fair and the State of the Trade
Last weekend’s 43d California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Los Angeles, the first major book fair of the year, provided an excellent overview of where the rare book trade now stands and where it may be headed.As reported here at the Fair’s beginning, the market has stabilized; the panic of ‘09 is over. Dealers have lowered posted prices and there is movement, albeit limited. Cash remains tight for collectors as well as dealers but seems to be loosening; collectors are returning to the market but only for fresh material, in certain areas, at certain price points.Trade sales, sluggish at the...
Writers Helping Writers. Or Not. Cheever, Bradbury, Salinger and Vonnegut
In 2004, Nicola Nikolov, an émigré to the U.S. in 1976 from communist Bulgaria, walked into William Dailey Rare Books in Los Angeles with a small archive of letters.Briefly recounting a dark biography past and reduced, if freer, circumstances present, he told of his life as a published Bulgarian author and his difficulty establishing a writing career for himself in the United States. It was extremely important to him that his writing be accepted.In August of 1978, he wrote, heart in hand, two-page long, well-written, typed letters to a small number of American novelists, with full, dire biographical details, limning...
A "Great Wave" Hits Montreal Archives
400 Books Combine to Form The Great Wave Or Saltwater Memories. (Mixed Media Installation By Marc Lincourt, 2008. All Photos by Barbara Laborde.)400 names, 400 journeys, 400 stories, 400 books: all are connected to form the foundation of a great city. That is the theme of The Great Wave or Saltwater Memories, a monumental art piece created from 400 hardcover volumes to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city of Quebec. Conceived and constructed by artist Marc Lincourt, the piece has been washing ashore throughout Canada since 2008 and is on display at the Centre d'archives de Montréal from February...
Sit and Read: The chair bookcase bookcase chair
Talk about killing two birds with one stone. This gem was "developed as a chair and a bookcase simultaneously, the intention was to provide both the storage for and a seat in which to read."It was designed by Gail Peter Borden. Borden is the Borden of the architecture firm Borden Partnership and is a professor at the University of Southern California School of Architecture.The design of the chair bookcase bookcase chair "focused on sustainability", with each chair using over 90% of a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. It is "based on the hybrid dimensions of Le Corbusier's infamous leather and metal...