click to enlargeA librarian digging through the archives at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford has found the earliest known example of a publisher's dust jacket. The dust jacket, which had been separated from the book it was created for, was found bound with other booktrade ephemera.It belonged to:Friendship's Offering for 1830. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1829Mark Godburn has more on this historic discovery at his website, 19th Century Dust Jackets.The previous record holder, discovered by John Carter in 1934, was a jacket issued in 1832 on the English annual, The Keepsake for 1833.Image courtesy of Bodleian Library, University...
Obama and Sendak on the South Lawn
Storytime was part of this year's White House Easter Egg Roll festivities. Here's a 5 minute video of President Barack Obama reading Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are" on the South Lawn of the White House.The first lady and children followed by reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond.C-Span has more video here.Event doubles as a tremendous plug for the upcoming film adaptation of "Where The Wild Things Are"Here's the trailer for that:Thanks to the LibraryThing blog for the lead
#amazonfail or how Amazon finally eclipsed Jesus
By now most of us have heard of the Great Amazon GLBT caper of 09. A herculean act of censorship that exploded in the Twittersphere and was subsequently blamed on a mere technical malfunction.Above are the top 5 trending topics on Twitter as they appeared at one point on Easter evening.Here's the anticipated Amazon PR spin:amazonfailsJesus summonedAmazon rebornMasters once againWhat a great EasterThis one is just getting started.More:Edward Champion Amazonfail : A Call to Boycot AmazonPeter Kafka Did Amazon Really Fail this Weekend?Jeff Rutherford Using Twitter to Respond to a PR Crisis - Amazon.com Failed To ActKate Harding at Salon.com's...
Is the Glass Really Half Full at the Book Store
Is it to much of leap to assume that Amazon believes the Kindle will do to books what Amazon has done to the bookstore?Irene Sege piece in the Boston Globe Unchained Success Independent bookstores holding up vs. big rivalsScott Esposito's response at Conversational Reading Indie Bookstores Holding Up?"the continued parroting of this tired "corporate vs indy" storyline prevents deeper thinking about how exactly both models can coexist"similar to the "buy local" mantra
The Ultimate Twitter Book Challenge
Ulysses has been Twittered. Moby Dick is being Twittered. Numerous other writers have taken to Twitter to try their hand. Picador recently launched a Twitter book club and James Bridle just published a book of his Tweets.Where does that leave us?Might it be time for The Ultimate Twitter Book Challenge?Here are the rules:140 characters2 x a day, submitted at 1:40must be completed in 140 daysWinning entry will be published in an edition of 140 signed and numbered hardback copies and 1400 paperbacks. There will be a 140 second book trailer and the author will undertake a 14 city book tour....