Welcome to Castle Arkdale the home of Happy Tales Bookshop in Wisconsin. Complete with moat, drawbridge and an armored Sir Kevin inside the front door.And from where hath such a fine castle of books originate from?A manure storage tank!Yep, Lenore Dickmann's husband "Lloyd, cleaned out a manure storage tank on their farm to make room for her expanding Happy Tales Bookshop.""Leonore Dickmann was surprised and delighted," when she saw her husband's handiwork which took took him 3 weeks to excavate, wax and polish it.Why the castle motif? Dickmann was researching a book on King Arthur when her husband came up...
Another TexFake? Davy Crockett Letter Questioned
No, TexFake isn't a new term coining George W. Bush's attempt at being a President it is the title of a book written in 1994 by a rare book dealer that dealt with the "scandal surrounding the 1988 discovery of forged copies of the Texas Declaration of Independence."Now almost 20 years later a recent purchase by the Texas Historical Commission has all the makings of TexFake redux.Here's what happened:-Recently, the THC paid $490, 000 for a letter written by Davey Crockett to his family days before he was killed at the Battle of the Alamo.-The state bought the letter from...
Kindle Good, Kindle Bad: Amazon’s New E-Book Reader
Next month Amazon will throw its hat in the e-book reader ring with the release of Kindle.Here is the good part:Kindle is clearly a cut above the existing e-book readers.-Its wireless capabilities allow the user to download content without having to connect to a computer.-It has a keyboard which allows the user to take notes and navigate the web.-It will come loaded with a few freebies like reference books.Now the bad part:With all this great e-book reader 2.0 functionality Amazon shoots itself in the foot by not supporting the open e-book standard that is used by most publishers. Using a...
The Patron Saint of Booksellers and My Vote For The Patron Saint of Bibles
St John of God From Patrons and Protectors: More OccupationsArt and Commentary by Michael O'Neil McGrath, OSFS. 2002Yep we got one too. I am not sure if we are all covered, I'll have to ask my rabbi, but St. John of God is our man.Like many of us he had no trouble "taking part in the gambling, drinking, and pillaging that his comrades enjoyed." He eventually cleaned up his act and then "A vision at age 41 brought him to Granada where he sold books from a little shop."And here is my vote for the Patron Saint of Bibles.Dan "Southpaw"Smith....
The Book Painting of Mike Stilkey
The piece is titled When The Animals Rebel. It occupies a 16 X 44 foot wall and consists of thousands of books LA artist Mike Stilkey has accumulated over the last few years via thrift stores and yard sales."Using pen and ink and acrylics, Stilkey has painted the books’ spines to depict a scene where wild and domestic animals are, as he puts it, “taking back their land,” while humans with detached expressions continue their daily routines, seemingly oblivious to the animals’ presence." The books became his paper.He is attracted to them “ sometimes by the title, or more the...