Sunday, February 11, 2007

Links &c.

- BookFinder.com turned ten last weekend, and its employees have been posting a series of posts (here are those from Anirvan, Charlie, Wendy and Giovanni) about the website, its growth and what's coming next.

- Over at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie, Lew's posted some science fiction bookplates for your viewing pleasure.

- The Book Depository notes that if you'll be in Abu Dhabi at the end of next month, you could check out the 17th Annual Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

- Joyce's got the funniest version (YouTube clip) I've seen yet of the "book helpdesk" theme. I'm going to have to send this to the IT folks I know, they'll love it.

- There's a very good and thoughtful post at Fine Books Blog commenting on a Caxtonian essay [pdf] by printer Michael Russem, "The Failure of Fine Printing." Scott suggests - and I agree - that the main reason that fine press books may be purchased but are rarely read is their fragility.

- Michael at Book Patrol disagrees slightly with Scott, saying "I don't believe for a minute that fine printing is failing, if anything it is alive and well and prospering." He also reports that someone has swiped the "Author Signature Book" from Seattle Mystery Books. Full description at the second link. Shame on them.

- GalleyCat points out the recent debut of The Great American Book Giveaway, where you can sign up for a chance to receive a pre-publication copy of one of five books each week. So far the choices are, eh, lackluster, but I suppose if this catches on with publishers it might someday be worthwhile.

- Ed posts on Zittaw Press, a small outfit in California which prints some great gothic novel reprints. I wasn't aware (shame on me) that forger William Henry Ireland also wrote novels; I'll definitely be adding them to my list.

- Over at Lux Mentis, Lux Orbis, Ian's got a post on the launch of Biblioexpeditions, which hopes to become a for-profit "book tourism" company. Something to watch!

- Reading Copy, which is quickly becoming one of the best blogs for book news and information out there (a true testament to ABE's staff) has a number of good posts this week, including a link to this key "Publishing News" essay by London bookseller Bill Samuel and a point-out to the Guardian's recent writeup of LibraryThing. There's also a link to this interesting interview with author Richard Adams (who wrote Watership Down, one of my very favorites). I'd meant to post that a week ago but forgot. Better late than never, right?