- Ed's got the cover story in the Philadelphia City Paper's fall books issue, "We're Taking Poe Back." Today marks the 158th anniversary of Poe's death, and Ed proposes a literary grave-robbery. Baltimore's Laura Lippman responds.
- Terry Belanger passes along word via ExLibris that James Mosley has presented an index to John Smith's Printer's Manual, a 1755 text. Mosley's blog, Typefoundry, is one I wasn't familiar with, but I quite like it. I've added a link on the sidebar.
- The rare books section at the Library of the University of Seville has started a blog, Fondo Antiguo. They'll be documenting new acquisitions and cataloging efforts.
- Speaking of cataloging, there's an article in the Baptist News profiling Ellen Middlebrook Herron, a rare book cataloguer/curator who recently spent four months working with the collections at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's John T. Christian Library.
- Tim notes the annual awarding of the Ig Nobel Prizes, which "honor achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology." Of particular interest is the Literature Award, which went to Glenda Browne "for her study of the word 'the' - and of the many ways it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order." Browne's article, from The Indexer, is here [PDF].
- From BibliOdyssey, colored insect illustrations from John Obadiah Westwood's Arcana Entomologica; or, Illustrations of Rare, and Interesting Exotic Insects (1841-1845), and a selection of prints and sketches from the Atlas van Stolk, described as "a large collection of prints, drawings and photographs documenting the history of the Netherlands, brought together by the Rotterdam timber merchant Abraham van Stolk (1814-1896)" and others.
- Over at Book Patrol, Michael Lieberman notes a neat tradition in the small Swiss town on Romainmôtier, where artist Jean Reymond creates a book-related installation piece after the town's annual book fair.
- Anirvan at Bookfinder.com comments on the ad campaign for Sony's new ebook Reader, which features as one tagline "Sexier than a librarian. The Reader. From Sony" (images here, here). I noticed these ads plastered all over Boston's South Station when I traveled a couple weeks ago, and I admit I laughed: being a decidedly unsexy librarian, I was amused. Anirvan was not: "Yuck. Does Sony’s marketing team really think that they can open up our pocketbooks by reinforcing negative stereotypes of the superheroes who serve our communities and help keep book culture alive?" I don't feel the need to go after Sony, because I think we can all rest assured that their Reader will almost certainly go the way of every ebook reader, while librarians - sexy or otherwise - aren't going anywhere.
- Joyce offers up some excellent conservation resources from the University of Syracuse.
- At Off the Shelf, Jan Gardner notes a new book from Vintage, -Isms & -Ologies: All the Movements, Ideologies and Doctrines That Have Shaped Our World. She writes: "Owenism, Donatism, Occam's Razor -- it's all here. The alphabetical entries are arranged into seven chapters including science, religion, economics, and sexual perversions. Not too many reference books are as fun to browse. That said, I'm heading for the hills with a big bag of books and will resurface by the middle of the month with a book(s) report."
- Michael Dirda reviews Alan Bennett's new novella, The Uncommon Reader, in which the Queen of England takes up reading in a big way.
- Travis' book, The Book Thief, is reviewed in The Hindu.
- In the NYTimes, David Waldstreicher reviews the latest offering from Eve LaPlante, Salem Witch Judge (about Samuel Sewell).
- From today's Boston Globe, an interesting "What Writers are Reading" sidebar.
