With so many professional and personal reading responsibilities and desires it’s a wonder that any of us ever get through the pile of reading material we have to or wish to read.Evelyn Woods Speed Reading techniques don’t work for me; I’m not much for scanning text with a finger or any other body part. But I still have to read an enormous amount of material each week.What to do?1. Listen to appropriately tempo’d music while reading. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is, and how effective it can be. I once read War and Peace likity-split while Flight of...
Winslow Homer and the Women of “The New Novel”
The New Novel. Watercolor, 1877.In 1877, Winslow Homer exhibited his watercolor, The New Novel, at an exhibition of the American Watercolor Society.It is an image that below its surface of innocent, leisurely repose churns a contemporary cultural scene fraught with change and fear; the culture-war in the U.S. had begun.“...Avoid also all those miserable sensational...novels and illustrated papers which are so profusely scattered around on every side. The demand which exists for such garbage speaks badly for the moral sense and intellectual training of those who read them...The extent to which the press is used in the publication of romance...
Used and Rare Book Shop Anchors Downtown Trenton Revival
Eric Maywar of Classic Book Shop in downtown Trenton, NJ.Reversing the trend of book shop closings in general and in downtown urban districts in particular that Book Patrol has been following, the Classic Book Shop, on Warren Street in downtown Trenton, NJ, is playing an important role in the area’s renaissance.Classic owner, Eric Maywar, who owned another book shop in a nearby town, was approached by the Trenton Downtown Association with the idea.It was something of a leap of faith to make the move. When he arrived four years ago there were still buildings across the street that were not...
The Riddle of Arthur Rackham’s "Faithful Friends" Solved?
The Deluxe Two-Shilling true first edition of 1901 with all edges gilt.Every now and then a book lands on my desk that none of the usual sources agree upon, a volume that is a bibliographical nightmare with few copies in institutional holdings, each, apparently, a different edition but all of them issued without a date of publication, and with few details in the records to help sort things out.Such a book is Faithful Friends, a children's book illustrated by, amongst others, Arthur Rackham. Latimore & Haskell and Derek Hudson declare 1913 as the year of this book's first publication, yet...
Rare Book Trading Cards On Santa’s Top Shelf
I’ll trade ya a Tarzan 1st for a Moby Dick 1st.What’ya crazy? S’like asking me to trade a Mickey Mantle fora Whitey Ford. Take a long walk off a short pier, pal.When book collectors congregate they like to trade stories about the book that got away, their latest acquisition, one-up each other, relate bibliographical points, how many hairs did Hemingway have in his beard while writing whatever and what percentage were grey, etc., etc.Now collectors can trade classic rare book cards. They're like baseball cards for bibliophiles who want to know the score.ABAA modern firsts specialists, Between the Covers (BTC),...