In 1922, Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey was the toast of Paris. He was feted and fawned over, the women obliging, the men in awe.Champion for three years, he was used to celebrities wanting to put the gloves on and spend a fantasy few minutes sparring with him. A fighter who took all that occurred within the ring with extreme seriousness – it is not a playground1 - he nonetheless indulged many: he allowed silent film star Douglas Fairbanks to throw jabs and rights at him, knowing that Fairbanks’ smaller frame and lesser weight would not put much power behind his...
"The Library, The Library": This Brit Hit Just Won’t Quit
We all know that annoyingly awful auditory head trip. The brain is stuck in a loop. A terrifyingly relentless tune is played by our own mental deejay over, and over, and over again. And more often than not it's something we can't stand, the musical equivalent of the sharp squeaks of sneaker soles on a basketball court.So I warn you in advance that like a Kenny G smooth jazz riff or Katy Perry singing the praises of her girlfriend's Cherry Chapstick, once you hear the siren song in this video you can't unring that bell. This tune will remain on...
Book Domino
It was billed as the "World's Longest Children's Book Domino Rally"The folks at HarperCollins Children's Books decided to line up and knock down some books. A lot of books.I'm not sure what it says about the state of the publishing industry but it sure looked like fun. And, to boot, they executed flawlessly.Just imagine all the book domino possibilities; the potential settings, using particular titles, authors, etc.This could be the start of something.
Reading On The Go
The New York Times is conducting a survey of reading habits while riding the subway, the results to be published tomorrow.For those, however, who live in areas without subterranean transit, we at Book Patrol seek your solutions to the reading à go-go issue.Books (novels, non-fiction, serious or popular), magazines, newspapers, scripts, poetry, crossword puzzles, laundry lists, the Lord’s Prayer – whatever you need to make it from point A to point B, we’d like to hear about it and your mode of transportation while doing so: bus, car, bicycle, ferry, skateboard, kayak, jitney, taxi, rickshaw, surrey-with-the-fringe-on-top, whatever.Post your responses to...
Top Ten Most Expensive Books Sold on ABE, July, 2009
ABE (Advanced Book Exchange) has just released its list of the top ten prices obtained amongst hundreds of thousands of books bought through them during the month of July. They are the rarest or most collectible of books offered and sold.10. Sefer Tehilim by Sebastian Munster, a Basel printing of this 16th century work by the German Hebrew scholar. $3,464.9. The Bible, an edition limited to 75 copies, printed by the Nonesuch Press of London in 1927. $3,7508. Histoire de la mesure du temps par les horloges by Ferdinand Berthoud, a book on time measurement by the Swiss watchmaker, published...