Halloween

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

Ah, Boston in November. The surf, the sun, the palm trees...oops, wrong mental image. Let's start over.

Ah, Boston in November. Cold winds off the harbor, brittle leaves leaves sweeping down historic streets, books waiting to be bought by eager bookies. Next month the 32nd Annual Boston Book Fair will be held at the Hynes Convention Center for any of you bookies who figure rare books are a better investment that stocks right now. A huge book fair, what's not to love?

http://www.news-antique.com/?id=785393&keys=antiquarian-books-boston-literary

*** Yesterday we here at BBG headquarters brought you the news of the oldest Hebrew text ever discovered. (Hundreds of you wrote in wondering what that has to do with books. Well, written text is written text, where it's five lines or five hundred pages) This was and will remain major news and today's link has some really nice photos from AOL.

http://news.aol.com/article/israeli-archaeologists-find-ancient-text/233027?icid=100214839x1212506023x1200749390

*** Anne Rice is furthering her efforts to promote Christianity with a new memoir. For those who closely read her vampire novels her background in Christian beliefs is obvious, even if she has back-burnered it for a while. I strongly suspect this will be a very interesting read.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081030/ap_en_ot/books_anne_rice

*** Dutton has just signed crime writer Harlan Coben to a three book deal, no doubt for enough money to retire the national debt. (And that's great, by the way. Authors are almost always underpaid) Now, for those who don't know the story, I no longer read this author. For one thing, I'm just not into reading the same book over and over again, although if that's the sort of thing you like Coben does it as well as it can be done. But there is another reason I will not read this writer and my friends on AOL know the story. I won't go into that here except to give some advice: never, ever tell this writer that you don't like one of his books. Or even write that on a message board, where a snitch is waiting to tattle. It doesn't matter if you love every other book he has written (and of the dozen or so I did read, I loved 11 of them), you are not allowed to dislike even one. So beware, lest the wrath fall upon you.

*** Reuters reports that Sandra Brown has just finished her 71st novel. While not up to Robert J. Randisi type numbers, that's still awfully prolific.

*** Obituary: The New York Times reports that William Wharton, author of the critically acclaimed Birdy, has died at age 82, in Encenitas, CA.

As October comes to an end, it reminds me that I forgot to re-read one of my all-time favorite novels, A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. If you haven't read this one, dig up a copy and do so. The protagonist is Jack the Ripper's dog and it's Zelazny at his finest. Sure, I love his classics as much (or more) than anyone, Amber, of course, Lord of Light, et al. But for sheer fun none of that compares to October. Do yourself a favor and read it. Or re-read it.

Back in action

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

First, on a personal level, I'm sorry that I haven't been on top of this blog for the last week or so. My last uncle died Thursday and we have been saying goodbye. He was of that generation that won World War II and served his country for 34 years, was a gourmet cook, grew his own vegetables, fished...well, the Greatest Generation. We're going to miss men such as he.

*** And now, on to book news! If you own a Brick & Mortar bookstore, beware. Who knew it was such a dangerous occupation? I mean, come on. The British are supposed to be known for their polite reserve, somebody needs to tell this clod.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/7696215.stm

*** ABEbooks is once again having issues with some of its features that are used by sellers. In particular, sellers are unable to print shipping manifests, making it impossible at the moment to ship their orders. This has happened many times in the past and never lasts long, but is another indication for customers that sometimes a bookseller is dealing with things behind the scenes that cause their orders to ship late.

*** With our never-ending fascination with all things Nazi, in an effort to understand how such a regime could come to power, we have examinations of just about everything that happened before, during and after the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. But new topics are still coming to light and intrepid authors are digging up forgotten but important subjects.

In 1931 Hans Litten prosecuted four Brown Shirts (SA men) for assault and attempted murder. The Weimar Republic may have been a weak democracy but it did have the gears and machinery in place to protect all of its citizens, and there were brave men who stood against the rising tide of violence and tried to impose law and order. Few survived the coming years. This book seems to overplay the actual threat that Hans Litten posed to Hitler and the Nazis, a forgiveable stance that many non-fiction authors take.

http://blog.oup.com/2008/10/crossing-hitler-who-was-hans-litten/

And, since we're talking Nazis again, surely fans of films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (Nazis in 1935 chasing about jungles and looking for artifacts) and The Boys From Brazil (Nazis building an empire in South America) will read this story and understand where the concepts for those movies (and the book of The Boys From Brazil) came from. There really were Nazis mucking about the Amazon basin and promoting its use as a place for expansion.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1080071/The-Boys-Brazil-Nazi-graveyard-discovered-deep-Amazon-rainforest.html

*** Another bookstore is passing into history, this time in Amherst. Your friendly neighborhood BBG never had the pleasure of visiting the store, but he would have if he could have.

http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-16/122518048565920.xml&coll=1

*** Obituaries: Last Thursday, photo-journalist Alex Rivera, famous for his work covering the Civil Rights Movement, died at age 95 in Durham, N.C. Hal Roth, author of 12 books and an avid sailor who circumnavigated the world three times, died in Easton, MD., after a 2 1/2 year battle with lung cancer. He was 81.

*** I find it very encouraging that in this age of aesthetically bereft non-art such as ebooks, there are still people who go about lovingly making books the way that books have been made for centuries, as crafted objects that are not only beautiful but will stand the test of time. That's just one small part of the 3rd annual New York Art Book Fair, held last weekend, but to me it's quite an important part. Humans in general are losing our ability to make things, to actually construct something the way it has always been done, something with endurance. I find this whole Art Fair most satisfactory.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/56456

*** Remember Joe Eszterhas, screenplay writer for 'Basic Instinct', 'Showgirls' and many other movies? In 2001 he was diagnosed with throat cancer and has been battling the disease ever since. But not alone. His new book, Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith, tells of his re-connection with his Catholic faith and subsequent survival. Living now in Ohio, if you see him watching his kids play Little League, don't be surprised.

*** Yes, like billions of others, I'm a James Bond fan. Not in every shape and form, mind you, Sean Connery has no equal (not even a pretender to the throne) until now, but while I didn't particularly love Roger Moore or the other Bonds, I didn't hate them, either. So if I had the time I think I probably would read Sir Roger's new Bond biography My Word is My Bond. Stuff like this might be thought of as trashy, but then, who cares?

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/10/30/2008-10-30_roger_moore_to_bond_with_readers.html

*** And who knew that the next big thing would be business books? Not me, but such appears to be the case in the wake of the credit crisis/Congressional mis-management of their duties/Bailout/recession. Personally, I like it. Somebody makes money no matter what the economy does, might as well be authors.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1854426,00.html

*** This just in: archaeologists have found the oldest Hebrew text ever unearthed on a pottery shard near the valley where David slew Goliath. preliminary dating puts the age at 3,000 years old and, while it has yet to be fully translated, a few words can be made out.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE49T52620081030?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&rpc=22&sp=true

A little news for a Monday

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

*** I hate author obituaries but seem them as part of the job. Not only do you lose the essence of what that person is in their private life, but with writers you also lose their public life, that part of their creativity they share with us. Death ends that once and for all. And so today we say goodbye to Tony Hillerman, master of the modern western detective story and creator of Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. I never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Hillerman but I did correspond with him briefly and he was very kind in his letters. I know I'm saddened today.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obit_tony_hillerman

*** In her latest newsletter, veteran novelist Joan Wolf lets her fans know that her next novel is something quite different, for her, a story of Mary Magdalene, and seemingly a bit less ostentatious treatment than Mary received in The Da Vinci Code. As Joan says in her newsletter, it's interesting how much influence this woman has had, considering she is mentioned only three times in the Bible.

www.joanwolf.com

A note

Bookies, I'll be away for a day or two attending to some family business, but your friendly neighborhood bookseller won't be gone long! Please keep checking back for more thrilling book news and comment.

BBG

Beginning the long fall into Fall

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

Today is gloomy, wet and chilly, the first cold day of this season here in West Tennessee, the type of weather that clogs the old blogging juices and channel's your friendly neighborhood bookseller's already sluggish brain into new culverts and drains, diverting it from its normal obsession with books. So today we start with a story on another obsession, autographs.

*** Dorothy Phillips lost her suit against the Avon & Somerset Police. It seems that her signed photograph of Adolf Hitler was seized in 2006 during a police raid (an illegal one, by the way. She was later award 7500 pounds in compensation) and she claims that it faded while in police custody and lost half its value. Well, maybe, maybe not. Certainly fading could cause that much harm, but without before and after photos how could you know? Anyway, I bring this up because I, too, am an autograph collector and this story brings up the old rule that autograph collectors must be non-political in their hobby. Hitler may have been in the handful of most evil men of the 20th century, but there is no denying his influence on history. To me, however, a much more interesting story would have been how Ms. Phillips came to have the autograph in the first place. Hitler signed photos have never been cheap.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1079707/Pensioner-sues-police-damage-signed-picture-Hitler.html

*** Since BBG is also a baseball fan from way back, he remembers Jose Canseco from his playing days. A big, strong home run hitter with a Barry Bonds complex. Yawn. So when Canseco wrote Juiced, accusing just about every baseball player within living memory of using steroids, it was unimpressive on several levels. First, coming from a washed-up under-achiever it seemed like sour grapes. Second, is sounded mostly untrue. Thirdly, who cared? (Yes, I know much of the world did care, just not me. However, writing about it gave me the chance to switch from third to first person in the same paragraph) Indeed, had the book not been so successful, it would not have made today's blog. But it was, it made huge changes to baseball, thus today's follow up.

So with Juiced a fading memory, the also fading Canseco needed to feed his ego some more and is now publicly regretting the effects of his book. Poor Jose seems to have been mis-understood by his fellow ball-players. Boo-hoo.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportsprose/2008/10/jose_canseco_regrets_writing_j.html

*** In the season for book awards comes a new Canadian prize for historical writing, cut down to three entries. It goes almost without saying that one will be on Economics, although I like that it's Economics during the Dutch Golden Age (did you know there WAS a Dutch Golden Age?), and one must be about either WW2, Hitler or the Third Reich. In this case, the latter.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/10/22/cundill-shortlist.html

*** On the list of 'books-I've-never-heard-of-but-now-want-to-read' comes John Birmingham's Without Warning. The setup is fairly simple: on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a freak energy wave wipes out the United States homeland, but leaves the army intact in the Middle East. If this were the typical (and boring) 'it's-America's-fault' (what does 'it' mean? Fill in the blank) fantasy I would not be mentioning it. But that does not appear to be the case. The scenario sounds like fun in a brutal, end of the world sort of way.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24495166-5001986,00.html

Poets, Dons and Burros

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

*** Roberto Saviano, whose tale I have been following for a few days now, is leaving Italy. Marked for death by the Neopolitan Mafia for his expose Gomorrah, Saviano has been under 24 hour police protection for 2 years now and apparently enough is enough.

*** As Paul Harvey would say, its' not one world. A Jordanian poet is in jail for insulting Islam by incorporating quotes from the Koran into his poetry. The poet, Islam Samhan, did not have approval of the Jordanian government to publish his book, which appears to be a big no-no in that part of the world. And Jordan is one of the more progressive regimes. On the other hand, there are certain subjects in the West that are equally taboo and can have just as harsh a consequence.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/10/21/jordan-poet-arrest.html

*** And since you are reading the news and comments of your friendly neighborhood bookseller via the internet, here's a timely book from Mafiaboy, the one time hacker who tells us all how to stay safer while doing exactly what you are doing right now. And he should know. In his day, Michael Calce was about as good (or bad) as you can get at your craft, namely, hacking websites.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/10/20/mtl-mafiaboy-cp-1020.html

*** If I had a burro...well, probably not even then. I'm just not that good handling animals with hooves. But I must applaud Luis Soriano for being one good guy!

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/19/world/20081020BURRO_index.html

*** The Woman Who Censored Churchill by Ruth Ive. I have to admit that I had never before considered that during World War II the transatlantic cable connecting the USA and the UK needed to be monitored, but obviously that would, in fact, be necessary, to make sure no intelligence was given away, that no one had tapped the cable (pretty unlikely, I admit) and to record what was said. And, since I had never considered the need for this to be done, I had never considered the need for a Ruth Ive. But there she was here she is.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1079389/Churchills-secret-girl-THE-WOMAN-WHO-CENSORED-CHURCHILL-Ruth-Ive.html

Of battleships and DeathStars

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

*** In the category of both 'I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it' and 'now-I've-heard-everything', it appears there is a movement afoot to re-float the largest battleship ever built, Imperial Japanese Navy Musashi, and turn it into a tourist attraction. Uh-huh. Now, I'll be the first to admit that if such a thing were ever done I'd be all over seeing it, damn the cost. But come on! Musashi went down on Oct. 24, 1944, in a blizzard of bombs and a school of torpedoes during attacks from Admiral Bill Halsey's mammoth fleet of aircraft carriers. Aside from weighing more than 70,000 tons, how are they going to plug all of the holes and get them much weight to the surface? Are the turrets still attached? Because if you don't lift the main batteries to the surface you won't have much of an attraction. The whole thing sounds like a scam to me. But you be the judge.

And yes, I know it's not book related.

http://www.mb.com.ph/PROV20081021138571.html

*** The Tales of Beetle the Bard, J.K. Rowling's latest book, will be released in Scotland on December 4, with all sorts of special editions, collector's editions, non-collector's editions, you name it, scheduled for every nook and cranny in the known world. And one hopes that books such as this will continue spurring young people to read, even if one gets a bit cynical about the marketing end of things.

*** Support is pouring in for Italian anti-Mafia author Robert Saviano, whose expose of organized crime in the Naples area has left him marked for death. It seems the Italian government hasn't been all that excited about protecting him, leading 6 Noble prize winners to sign a petition drive urging the Italian government to keep him alive. Good luck with that. Salman Rushdie says Saviano is in far more danger than he ever was. All he had to endure was a fatwah from some barbarians, Saviano is up against the Mob. My thoughts are that as long as he's in Italy, he's in deep doo-doo.

*** Never let it be said that your friendly neighborhood bookguy isn't constantly on the lookout for new, innovative and terminally yummy products to compliment your book addiction. Think about it, the winter winds are curling and swirling outside, a light freezing mist is falling, a fire is crackling in the hearth and you're comfortable in your favorite chair with a terrific book and a chocolate covered bacon bar. How could life be better?

http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/product/bacon_exotic_candy_bar/exotic_candy_bars#

*** I Like 'Star Wars' as much as any non-fanatic-general-public kind of guy, I like Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, I have nothing against her. And, since tell-all Hollywood biographies aren't really my reading matter of choice, I doubt I'll ever read Ms. Fisher's apparently very gossipy biography. But if I did want to read something trashy this certainly sounds like it would do the trick.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10202008/gossip/pagesix/princess_carrie_settles_scores_134343.htm

*** As the financial markets tanked people turned to the one thing that reminded them the world was not, in fact, coming to an end: books. Yep, people are reading more now that they can't afford the latest gizmo (or the electricity to run it). Good news. Gizmos come and go but books are forever. The snots in their ivory towers will intone about the masses reading drivel and what a shame it is that serious writers can't get noticed (by serious writers, they mean them) for all of the drek, the science fiction, the witches and goblins and comic books and other opiates for the under-educated. I know they will say this because they always say this as way of explanation for why nobody wants to read anything they write.

But your friendly neighborhood bookseller has a different view of things: if you like it, read it. Who gives a damn what anybody else thinks about it?

http://www.reuters.com/article/artsNews/idUSTRE49J81Q20081020

Monday October 20

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news!

64 years ago today Gen. Douglas MacArthur's invasion to liberate the Philippines began with an attack on the island of Leyte, which prompted a Japanese counter-offensive that lead to the largest naval battle of all time, The Battle of Leyte Gulf.

*** Following up the continuing story of the fire-bombing attack in England on the home of the publisher for The Jewel of Medina, it seems three men were in court at the Old Bailey in the case. (Aside: whenever I hear of someone going to the Old Bailey, I wonder if perhaps Horace Rumpole will be their barrister)

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/69210-jewel-of-medina-three-in-court.html

*** Sunday, October 19, saw the demise of Acres of Books in Long Beach, CA. Founded in Cincinnati in the 1920's, legendary bookseller Bertrand L. Smith moved the store to Long Beach in 1934. It seems that such classic buildings are no longer wanted in 21st century California, probably too much history, not enough glass, and so the store is now gone. I never had a chance to visit this mythic oasis and now I never will. Had I been there, I would have taken a sleeping bag and slept in the aisles for the last week or so.

http://www.acresofbooks.com/

*** It seems that ABEbooks is having difficulty keeping staff. As an ABE seller, it makes you wonder what they are doing with the fees they charge their sellers. We have known for some time that they encourage workers to take frequent breaks for company supplied diversions such as foosball, but Wii? Seriously? I'm paying fees so these people can play Wii? No doubt there is some logic behind this. No doubt. Okay, there is some doubt.

The Vancouver Sun had a long article about this, which had drawn some pretty sarcastic comments, and it was mysteriously pulled down after a day. Interesting. Perhaps ABE's notoriously thin skin for criticism came into play?


*** William Christopher, aka Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H*, is 76 today. Gack!

*** Historian Nicholas Rankin has a new book that is right up my alley, Churchill's Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945. To date it seems the only edition is the English from Faber & Faber. I'm not sure exactly how you justify Churchill in the title, since of that 31 year period he was only PM for 5 years, but I'm sure it helps sell the books.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article4954406.ece

*** I've laid off of Ebay for a while, but since it is a legitimate venue for new and used books, both buying and selling, it seems appropriate to follow its continuing demise. On July 26, 2008, I wrote this: "Ebay stock this week is trading around $24.30 or so. I think it was around $32 when they started this idiocy of wiping out their customer base. Maybe their strategy will work. Maybe they will bounce back to become dominant again. And maybe not. And the Motley Fool has declared it their stock to dump. Good. I'm always glad to see Corporate Arrogance rewarded."

As of today, Monday, October 20th, 10:11 am CDT, Ebay is trading around $15.30. More and more articles are appearing in the financial sectors publications about the company not responding to the market and having serious underlying issues. In other words, these financial gurus are beginning to figure out what we peasants in the trenches have known for 6 months, that Ebay's declaration of war on sellers was not just bad business, it was suicidal. And until they reverse direction, assuming at some point that they do reverse direction, it will not get better. Indeed, it may already be too late.

Saturday, despite the date

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

This is Saturday's update, regardless of the weirdness of Googleland time.

*** Paul Brickhill wrote a book about a heroic event of WW2, The Great Escape, in which a large group of mostly British POWs escape from Stalag Luft III, a German prisoner of war camp. I remember reading this book as a kid and that copy is still in a box somewhere around here. The book was then made into a terrific film, a British film, which was then made into a thrilling American film (in which Americans played a much bigger part than in reality.) The US film starred James Garner, Sir Richard Attenborough, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson...and was written by two of our great novelists, James Clavell and W.R. Burnett.

The last survivor of the actual Great Escape had died in Portugal. Wing Commander Tim Thomas has suffered from a long illness. For my part the most encouraging thing is that he was living in such a lovely country as Portugal, hopefully making his final years happy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1078662/Last-survivor-Great-Escape-camp-dies-87.html

*** Yesterday in the Memphis Commercial Appeal there was a nice article about US troops supplying books to the children of Baghdad. I was going to link to it and make some nice comments about our local paper doing something right for a change, but, of course, this front page story wasn't on their website. So instead let me link to a very worthy project that I learned about while searching the net for the afore-mentioned article.

Books for Baghdad is exactly the sort of thing the USA is known for, generosity not only of wallet but of spirit. I am mightily impressed.

http://www.booksforbaghdad.org/

*** The Memphis Commercial Appeal today had a nice write-up on one of our very own bookies, Karin Morley, who recently opened The English Major Book Store in midtown. Karin has the official BBG stamp of approval, whether she wanted it or not, but the ink is washable.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/oct/18/it-speaks-volumes/

Falling into Fall

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

The morning dawned bright, cool and crisp here in West Tennessee, the air washed clean by yesterday's rain, the sun refracting from the wet grass in rainbows of color. And your friendly neighborhood bookseller wishes he had a winter home where it's hot in January and has a nice white beach. Remember, you can decorate a palm tree for Christmas.

*** The story below fascinates me. Essentially, it's a nice little piece about the Bishop of Wrexham visiting a Welsh school and holding a copy of a very rare book, Catholic Mirror, produced in 1586-87. Now, I love old books as much as anybody else, but what really interested me was the realization that if you were caught with this book by the Queen's agent, Elizabeth, that is, then you were dead, Catholicism being illegal. Earlier this year I listened to an impressive audio of Will in the World, How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and gained a new understanding of this era in English history, just how gory and vicious it was, how the slightest slip could lead to a brutal death at the hands of the Queen's men. A book such as this is a relic of that era.
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/Bishop-of-Wrexham-impressed-by.4597763.jp

*** Time is rolling forward and once again the Miami Book Fair is almost here and once again I'm not going. Some day, maybe. The festival is so enormous that mentioning any sort of author list is pointless. I do note that personal favorites Greg Iles and James W. Hall will be there, and that Gore Vidal is listed, the status of his recent injury apparently being healed enough to let him attend. I wouldn't bank on that one until it happens.

http://www.miamibookfair.com/

*** Did you know that Starbucks is in the book business? I didn't. I knew they sell expensive coffee that I don't like, I knew they sometimes give away coffee grounds for gardeners and composters (like me), I knew they sold CDs and just closed a bunch of stores. But books? Apparently so. And apparently it's a big deal to be selected to grace their stores, and so I'm certain that Daniel and Daren Simkin, co-authors of The Traveler, the book Starbucks is pushing this Christmas season, are pretty happy about the extra attention and sales this will bring. Starbucks spokeswoman, Nikkole Denson, thinks the book will "inspire and awe our customers... a perfect gift for family and friends this holiday season." Maybe it's just me, but I'm fairly hard to awe, so I'll chalk that one up to hyperbole.