2010 Havana Book Fair Open To U.S. Librarians

The 19th Annual Havana International Book Fair - Feria Internacional del Libro de La Habana - considered by some to be the most important in Latin America, is scheduled for February 13-20, 2010.The entire island becomes a festival for books. Beginning in Havana's San Carlos de la Cabaña fortress overlooking Havana Bay, the fortress becomes a fairground with numerous expo pavilions and several halls where authors present their books throughout the day. There are also poetry readings, children’s activities, art exhibitions, museum events, and evening concerts. The Book Fair then extends to other cities throughout all fourteen provinces, ending in...

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ABC’s of Book Collecting : Americana

AMERICANABooks, etc., about, connected with or printed in America, often, but not exclusively, the United States of North America; or relating to individual Americans: as distinct (properly, though nowadays not invariably) from books by American writers. The Columbus Letter is a piece ofAmericana, as describing the discovery of the continent; the Bay Psalm Book, as the first known book printed in what is now U.S.A.; and Thomas Paine ’s Common Sense, as one of the influential documents of the War of Independence. Poe ’s The Raven, on the other hand, is not Americana, nor is Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms....

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Birth Of The Slow Reading Movement (The Longest Story Ever Told)

A shortage of oddities has compelled Ripley Entertainment, parent of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, to send great weird hunters across the land in search of strangeness. Seems Ripley’s has been opening so many new museums of curiosities that their collection of bizarreness is being spread thin and needs to be beefed up, according to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal.They need look no further than Opium magazine, Issue 00, The Infinity Issue, featuring The Longest Story Ever Told: Estimated Reading Time: 1,000 Years.The story is nine words long.Before you sign up for a master class at Evelyn...

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ABC’s of Book Collecting : American Book Prices Current

AMERICAN BOOK PRICES CURRENTPublished annually since 1895: first edited by Luther S. Livingston, for many years afterwards by Edward Lazare and now by Katharine Kyes and Daniel J. Leab. Now divided into two sections: (1) printed books, maps, charts and broadsides, (2) autograph letters and manuscripts. Each volume (published in January every year – ABPC is the most punctual, as well as accurate, of such records) contains an entry for every lot in all recorded sales. Nothing is included which sold for less than $50.00.Since 1958 ABPC, as it is commonly called, has included (without feeling the need, as yet,...

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