Sunday, June 03, 2007

Links & Reviews

- NPR's "Day to Day" ran a segment this week with Salon critic Laura Miller, litblogger Maud Newton, and author ZZ Packer. They, and listeners, suggest some good books for summer reading.

- At Brookline Blogsmith, Lori notes the PW profile of the state of independent bookselling in Massachusetts (they're doing a weekly state-by-state roundup).

- Another glowing review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in the Boston Globe today, this one by Alison Arnett.

- Michael Lieberman comments on a new colloborative project between London's Great Eastern Hotel and the design department of the Royal College of Art. Basically it's sheets with bedtime stories printed on them. Pictures here.

- Scott Brown reports that Bloomsbury Auctions, the world's largest auction house specializing in books, is going to open a saleroom in New York this fall. He's also got some more links and reminiscences on the Gotham Book Mart sale.

- Michael Kenney reviews Nancy Isenberg's new biography of Aaron Burr in the Boston Globe, Kate Colquhoun reviews The Lost World of James Smithson over in the Telegraph, and Candice Millard writes up three of the new pirate books in the NYTimes.

- Some upcoming auctions: Rare Book Review notes that Christies will auction Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts on 6 June: highlights include a first English edition of Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four and a 1613 King James Bible. Luxist reports that PBA Galleries will sell a four-volume set of Johann Wilhelm Weinmann's Duidelyke Vertoning (Phytanthoza Iconographia), printed 1736-48 and considered to be the " first successful use of color printing in a botanical work."

- Joyce links to Invisible Inkling's post "10 Obvious Things about the Future of Newspapers You Need to Get Through Your Head."

- Paul Collins has a blog post about his new Believer article on the Birotron, a 1970s keyboard constructed from eight-track car radios.

- Biblio-Technician's B.N. Guffey finds some holes in the story of the St. Louis bookburner (mentioned here). As I said last week, the whole thing seemed more of a publicity stunt to me than anything else, and it seems to have worked in a big way.