The new sleep-aid for students and bibliophiles.Available here in 3 colors at 12,000 yen.Can't wait for the e-book version.Thanks to Neatorama for the lead
When You Lose Your Heritage
Probably the biggest event in the antiquarian bookselling community since the internet arrived was announced a couple of weeks ago.Heritage Book Shop, one of the leading antiquarian bookshops of the world, has announced a major downsizing that is sure to affect the trade for years to come.Founded in Los Angeles in 1963 by brothers Louis and Benjamin Weinstein, Heritage has blossomed into a pillar of the antiquarian bookselling trade in this country and abroad.The Weinstein's have created one of the most beautiful high profile shops in the world and their inventory consists of some of the finest material available in...
Ben Schott Down
The NYT has gone on record to say it "regrets publishing" a recent essay, "Confessions of a Book Abuser", by Ben Schott due to "certain resemblances to passages in someone else's essay". That is the gentle way to say plagiarism.That someone else is Anne Fadiman whose essay "Never Do That to a Book" appeared in her 1998 book and soon to be bestseller "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader".I had read Schott's essay when it came out and had begun a post on it titled “Sir, that is no way to treat a book!” which is one of the...
The Prince of the Literati: Glenn Horowitz and Bookselling
There is no one like Glenn Horowitz. He is the loose cannon of the bookselling world.He is not a member of the most prestigious organization of Antiquarian Booksellers, the ABAA, yet he handles some of the choicest literary material that appears on the market.Rachel Donadio profiles Horowitz in this Sunday's NYT Book Review section.What makes Horowitz so successful?He is a businessman and a bookseller. It is not a question of whether he loves or appreciates books it is the fact that he can negotiate and seal the deal that makes everyone happy. He understands that these days it is simply...
Technology is slow to reach the world of books?
"The web revolution that is turning whole industries from music to television upside down has been slow to reach the cosy world of books - apart, that is, from the pioneering bookseller Amazon."This is how Victor Keegan begins his article for the Guardian "A New Chapter for Books on the Web"Really? Slow to reach the world of books? I am not sure where Mr. Keegan has been or what forces are behind the publication of this article but I think he has it all backwards.The book industry has been at the bleeding edge of the cataclysmic changes of technology and...