- Joyce points us to the "Mini-Bookshop," a kind of bestseller vending machine. Not sure how I feel about this one.
- Via fade theory, I give you Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly, which bills itself as "the lively quarterly book review for non-conformists – people who don’t want to read only what the big publishers are hyping and the newspapers are reviewing." Good name, as ft notes, and a good idea too.
- In the London Review of Books, Michael Dobson has a fascinating essay on the new Royal Shakespeare Company edition of the Bard's complete works.
- Reading Copy notes a Northumberland Today report about a stolen book which made its way home after more than two years missing. An alert Alabama bookseller thought the guy trying to sell it to him was a little suspicious, and thankfully the original owner had thought to post a description on the ABA site. The thief, who was caught, received a year of probation for his crime, since we all know how seriously book theft is taken by the courts.
- The LA Daily News reports that a missing John Steinbeck draft of "Sweet Thursday" was discovered - along with a draft of "The Bear Flag Cafe," an "unperformed musical comedy collaboration," an unpublished short story, and some additional Steinbeckiana - among the possessions of the late producer Ernest H. Martin. The materials will be auctioned on 24 May in San Francisco, in what a PBA official says "might well be the Steinbeck sale of the century." [h/t Rare Book News].
- In the Telegraph, Malcolm Gaskill reviews The Noble Revolt: The Overthrow of Charles I by John Adamson, which he seems to have liked quite well; also in the Telegraph, Noel Malcolm reviews Heather Ewing's The Lost World of James Smithson.
- Hugh Hollowell wants to know: anyone out there blogging about their search for particular titles? I wrote briefly about one such hunt (here), but if you've got other stories, do pass them along to Hugh.
- GalleyCat notes that the new Tolkien title is selling like hotcakes, and points out that we shouldn't be all that surprised. I think it helps that the book's not bad at all (I'm nearly through, and will have a review up soon).
- Almost forgot, Smithsonian this month has a piece by David Damrosch about the Epic of Gilgamesh which is very much worth reading. His book, The Buried Book, is - ironically - buried somewhere amongst the piles waiting for me to read it.
