- Over at The Bibliothecary, Ed's got a number of interesting things for us: his review of John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things, an excellent "omnigatherum" filled with goodies (including Nicholas Basbanes' "Smithsonian" essay on the bicentennial of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's birth (coming up at the end of the month) and a nice post on Walking Stewart, another of those literary oddities that piques the interest of people like us (mine is Psalmanazar at the moment, a fixation also caused by Paul Collins ... although Stewart seems awfully fascinating too).
- Speaking of Paul Collins, don't miss his posts from this weekend: "Night of the Living Doughnut," "The Chamber-Horsemen of the Apocalypse." The latter is hysterical.
- At Upward Departure, Travis comments on the most recent Smiley revelations. He notes "... while missing and unaccounted for maps keep rolling in (that makes four since the sentencing), we’ll continue to get closer to the time when Smiley is out of 'prison' while much of his damage remains unrepaired."
- BibliOdyssey has some great posts as usual, including this one of some Danse Macabre illustrations and this one of some woodcuts of Aldini's scientific experiments. Book Patrol has more on Aldini and the influence his work had on Mary Shelley.
- Forrest at FoggyGates posts a hilarious parody of Carroll's "Jabberwocky" featuring various publisher names. Read the whole thing, but I have to share my favorite verse:
Beware Jovanovich, my son!
The knopfs that crown, the platts that munk!
Beware the doubleday, and shun
The grolier wagnallfunk!
- Ian reports that Portland, Maine is already preparing for PotterMania on July 21 with huge celebration plans, "including using the narrow gauge railroad as the Hogwarts Express and 'building' a facsimile of Diagon Alley at the routes end in a huge turn of the century warehouse complex." I think that's the week I'll be up in Maine for vacation - might have to check out Portland's festivities! Over at eNotes Book Blog, Mark notes the coming of "Pottermagedon" (I like it!) and comments on the $65 "deluxe" edition of Deathly Hallows that will be available: "Sixty-five bucks? That is wild. What could possibly be more deluxe about a book? Is it actually magic?" One can hope!
- Via Bibliophile Bullpen, Victor Hugo's great-great-grandson is peeved after losing a six-year battle to stop a modern sequel to Les Miserables from being published. Cosette ou le Temps des Illusions (Cosette or the Time of Illusions), by journalist François Cérésa, may now be published by Plon. I say let the book be published and allow the court of public opinion to decide; the guy resurrects Javert, how good can the book be?
- Our friend at Book World has re-read David Copperfield and has some thoughts on it.
