- Bookseller Lorne Blair recently wrote a letter to ABE about the lack of a data filter on their want list feature, and Ian's posted the note. I could not agree more. It used to be that the want emails I got would contain interesting and useful listings. Now a fair majority of them tell me I can get a POD reprint, which I generally don't want (and certainly not for the ridiculous prices people charge for them). I hope the ABE folks will take the steps Blair suggests - it would be an easy thing to do, and make the want list feature much more useful again.
- Well, it had to happen - on Friday Travis McDade and I were talking about how (blessedly) quiet it's been lately on the book theft front; word now that a New York man has entered a not guilty plea to charges that he stole more than fifty books from the collection of the late Carter Burden while working for Burden's widow. Timothy Smith maintains that Mrs. Burden had been unable to sell the books and had placed them in the basement of the building, "discarded as not valuable." So, another one to watch!
- Cambridge University has received a £1.5 million donation to digitize rare books and manuscripts on religion and science.
- An update on the Dictionary of American Regional English from the WSJ; the final volume (covering Slab-Z) is due to appear next year.
- From the NYTimes yesterday, word that the British Museum is collaborating with Wikipedia to ensure that the museum's collections are well covered by their wikipedia pages.
- Over at the Book Bench, word of a new book about the writing habits of writers. Certainly has the potential to be fascinating.
- There's been an interesting exchange on SHARP-L about the teaching of bibliography; Eleanor Shevlin weighs in with her thoughts at EMOB.
- We'll soon be able to use iBooks on our iPhones, according to Apple. I don't know that I necessarily will, but it is nice to have the option.
- The Library Juice Press 2010 catalog is out (here). As usual, some important new titles to watch for and read.
Reviews
- Nathaniel Philbrick's The Last Stand and S.C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon; review by Bruce Barcott in the NYTimes.
- Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; review by Mark Henderson in the Times.
