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The Rumpus Book Club chats with Eva Jurczyk about her debut novel, Department of Rare Books & Special Collections (Poisoned Pen Press, January 2022), and its structure, art capers, and more. This is an edited transcript of the book club discussion. To join the Rumpus Book Club, click here. Upcoming authors include Suzanne Roberts, Laura Stanfill, Yuvi […]
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Indie bookstore news from across the country and around the world!
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Indie bookstore news from across the country and around the world!
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...moreIndie bookstore news from across the country and around the world!
...moreIndie bookstore news from across the country and around the world!
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Allyson McCabe talks with Arthur Fournier, an independent dealer of books, serials, manuscripts, and archives, about how he developed his niche, and how digital access has both enriched and complicated the work of archiving and collecting.
...moreThe rare book business turned deadly for a British book dealer, who was stabbed and killed for his first-edition copy of The Wind in the Willows (worth about $64,000) in April, Michael Schaub reports at the Los Angeles Times. The suspect, in calculating crime novel fashion, was planning a robbing-spree among more celebrities and keepers of […]
...moreMonkey’s Paw in Toronto sells random books from a biblio-mat machine. A manhunt is on for a thief who stole two rare books in New York City. The last bookstore in Peshawar, Pakistan is closing. A Dallas, Texas bookstore is tricking people into buying books by making them sound like clickbait.
...moreAlice in Wonderland remains one of the most beloved pieces of children’s literature, leaving its first editions truly a treasure for book collectors everywhere. Now, a first edition is going up to auction, and it’s expected to sell for an astounding two to three million dollars.
...moreChicago’s Wicker Park has been gentrifying, but Quimby’s, a quirky indie bookstore, remains a haven for alt lit. Amazon probably doesn’t care whether customers buy anything from its physical stores. The New Yorker takes a look at why China is cracking down on dissidents, including Hong Kong booksellers that disappeared late last year.
...moreBook collecting of antique and rare books remains big business. For example, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the original British version of the first book in the Harry Potter series, could be worth as much as $40,000—only five hundred were printed. The Observer explores the strange and expensive world of book collecting.
...moreRare books are harder to find than many amateur collectors think, and its more probable that buying old books leads to hoarding rather than a big payday. Its highly unlikely, for instance, for a library to accidentally sell off an expensive treasure, since most institutions check books against databases before selling off their stock. Most […]
...moreIt was also a costly endeavor, especially if a photographer wished to create multiple copies of a book. According to Kathrin Schönegg, a GRI fellow working on the project, most books had between just 20 to a few hundred editions — making some copies incredibly rare. At Hyperallergic, Claire Voon takes a look at the brief […]
...moreCaring for aging books is a specialty task, but there are fewer qualified craftspeople even as demand for preserving nostalgia grows. Customers are often looking to save heirlooms that are not easily replaced. Go Skagit takes a look at this trade in the Pacific Northwest.
...moreColonial era books are old by any standard, and that means they may not be in the best condition. Rare books are treasures, and with delicate care can be restored, like one botanical guide in University of Virgina’s rare book collection. The book’s pages are separated, washed, and eventually rebound. UVA Today looks at the complicated […]
...moreIn 1983, Terry Belanger created a curriculum for librarians to learn how to deal with rare books at Columbia University. Nine years later, the University of Virginia hired him and the Rare Book School moved to Charlottesville. The school now has 80,000 rare volumes and runs highly competitive five-day session where students are taught the ins and […]
...moreJennifer Lopez’s latest film, The Boy Next Door, has inspired a sudden surge in interest in “first editions” of The Iliad. AbeBooks has more details.
...moreIf you liked learning about fore-edge paintings, you’ll love the New York Public Library’s Tumblr. And the Smithsonian Libraries’ Tumblr. And the University of Iowa’s Special Collections & University Archives Tumblr. And all the other library blogs linked in this MetaFilter post, which upload pictures of all kinds of nifty stuff from their stacks, from “the original […]
...moreWho says librarians can’t also be the leaders of organized crime rings? The very man charged with protecting these treasures, Marino Massimo De Caro, a politically connected former director of the library, is accused of being at the center of a network of middlemen, book dealers and possibly crooked conservators — all part of what […]
...moreLook, I know we missed the boat by a couple days, but check out this sweet article on where ghosts come from. Spanish architecture porn of the week. On a similar note: beautiful avant-garde soviet era architecture. November 18th is International Science Fiction Reshelving Day. Trick spy planes with fake weaponry! NY Times looks at […]
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