How Should an Author Respond When a Student Complains About His Book?
Here’s what happened when one did!
Reading about Reading
I read these. You can too!
Believe it or not, Generation Y might just be the most bibliophilic generation alive, according to a new consumer study. Gen Y – those born between 1979 and 1989 – spent the most money on books in 2011, knocking the longtime book-buying leaders, baby boomers, from the top spot, according to the 2012 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors Annual Review.
(via bookuse)
Here’s a little perspective: In 1939, gas cost 10 cents a gallon at the pump. A movie ticket set you back 20 cents. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the year’s bestselling hardcover book, was $2.75. For a nation suffering 20 percent unemployment, books were an impossible expense.
(via bookriot)
Quick Survey on Book Collecting
Out of curiosity I’m posting a quick, 8 question form about the book collecting habits of tumblr users. If you’re bored and want to spend a minute clicking boxes, please click here.
And please reblog! I’ll release the results when I get enough entries.
Every generation rewrites the book’s epitaph; all that changes is the whodunit.
(via bookriot)
At Root of Italy Library’s Plunder, a Tale of Entrenched Practices
The unraveling of Mr. De Caro was precipitated by a chance visit to the library in March by Tomaso Montanari, a professor of art history at the University of Naples and a regular contributor to the daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. What he saw there — books piled haphazardly throughout and empty shelves, soda cans and garbage strewed about — immediately went into print, and that prompted a petition signed by hundreds of Italian intellectuals questioning Mr. De Caro’s appointment as director.
More important, Italian prosecutors took note and weeks later Mr. De Caro was in prison, accused of — but not yet formally charged with — embezzlement and conspiracy. Prosecutors say that in the 11 months during which he managed the library, Mr. De Caro stole hundreds of its volumes. Investigators found boxes of valuable books, many with the library’s stamp, in garages and private homes in several cities as well as in auction houses abroad. Four people said to have conspired with Mr. De Caro were also jailed.
The theft is crazy enough, but it’s the forgeries that are really interesting.
One in particular, a copy of “Sidereus Nuncius,” Galileo’s novel observations of the cosmos first published in Venice in 1610 and now owned by a New York rare-book dealer, is clearly a forgery, Mr. Wilding says.
The book in question — supposedly containing an inscription by Galileo, along with five of his watercolors — was presented with much fanfare (and some doubts about its authenticity) in Padua five years ago. A two-volume study published last year concluded that it was Galileo’s autographed proof copy.
…
The breakthrough came when he discovered photographs of a copy of “Sidereus Nuncius” published in a 2005 catalog from Sotheby’s. Looking at the photograph of the title page, he noticed that what should have been random ink blots were identical to deeply impressed marks in the New York “Sidereus Nuncius.”
…
“If they hadn’t been greedy enough to make two copies, I wouldn’t have been able to prove the forgery,” he said.
700-year-old letter belonging to William Wallace to go on display
In January, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop announced the precious document’s return to Scotland.
Ms Hyslop said: “It is one of the few surviving artefacts with a direct link to William Wallace and a fascinating fragment of our nation’s history. To have it here in Scotland, where it can be viewed by the Scottish public, is very significant indeed.”
Also on show is the Lubeck letter, the only surviving document which was issued by Wallace.
The letter, written in Latin, was written after his victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge to inform European trading partners that Scottish ports were open for business again.
Both documents are part of the free exhibition, Special Delivery: The William Wallace Letters, on at Holyrood until the end of August.
According to Per Wästberg, Anita Theorell, and Hans Hammarskiöld’s book, Resa i tysta rum: Okända svenska slottsbibliotek, Bishop Celsius married Andreetta von Stiernman in 1766 mainly for access to her father’s library collection, reputed to be the finest in Sweden at the time.
(via archivalia)
British Armorial Bindings Database
This site is the real deal. Not only is it “a comprehensive catalogue of all the coats of arms, crests, and other heraldic devices that have been stamped by British owners on the outer covers of their books,” but it allows for search by “charges” (elements on the shield), provides owner’s bibliographies and variations, and cites books carrying particular stamps.
(via booksnbuildings)
I would say to friends, “Meet me at six in the German sci-fi section of the HB.” Then we’d side-by-side browse. Picking through art books that smelled of cream and were too expensive to ever buy, or saying things like “early Calvino is the best.” If I was browsing with a gentleman, it would be a date; for instance, in the cookbook section of the Harvard Bookstore with my future husband, I read about lasagna.
(via bookriot)
