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› Find signed collectible books: '84, Charing Cross Road'
84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.
Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much." [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'ABC for Book-Collectors'
This seventh edition of John Carter's classic text contains in-depth descriptions of every aspect of antique and modern book collecting from A to Z. All terms are alphabetized for quick reference, including how to take care of pigskin, morocco, or Russian leather, how to tell japon vellum from India proof paper and how to determine "very good copy" in a collectible volume. For first edition collectors, Carter's definition of "follow the flag" explains the historical issues surrounding first and native first texts. The book's pages are charmingly labeled, showing you exactly where the half-title and tailpiece are located and what a printer's imprint page looks like. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Among the Gently Mad : Perspectives and Strategies for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century'
More editions of Among the Gently Mad : Perspectives and Strategies for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Among the Gently Mad : Strategies and Perspectives for the Book Hunter in the 21st Century'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason'
The response to Nancy Pearls surprise bestseller Book Lust was astounding: the Seattle librarian even became the model for the now-famous Librarian Action Figure. Readers everywhere welcomed Pearls encyclopedic but discerning filter on books worth reading, and her Rule of 50 (give a book 50 pages before deciding whether to continue; but readers over 50 must read the same number of pages as their age) became a standard MO. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Book on the Bookshelf'
Consider the book. Though Goodnight Moon and Finnegans Wake differ considerably in content and intended audience, they do share some basic characteristics. They have pages, they're roughly the same shape, and whether in a bookstore, library, or private home, they are generally stored vertically on shelves. Indeed, this is so much the norm that in these days of high-tech printing presses and chain bookstores, it's easy to believe that the book, like the cockroach, remains much the same as it ever was. But as Henry Petroski makes abundantly clear in Book on the Bookshelf, books as we know them have had a long and complex evolution. Indeed, he takes us from the scroll to the codex to the hand-lettered illuminated texts that were so rare and valuable they were chained to lecterns to prevent theft. Along the way he provides plenty of amusing anecdotes about libraries (according to one possibly apocryphal account, the library at Alexandria borrowed the works of the great Greek authors from Athens, had them copied, and then sent the copies back, keeping the originals), book collectors, and the care of books.
Book-lover though he may be, however, Henry Petroski is, first and foremost, an engineer and so, in the end, it is the evolution of bookshelves even more than of books that fascinates him. Pigeonholes for scrolls, book presses containing thousands of chained volumes, rotating lecterns that allowed scholars to peruse more than one book at a time--these are just a few of the ingenious methods readers have devised over the centuries for storing their books: "in cabinets beneath the desks, on shelves in front of them, in triangular attic-like spaces formed under the back-to-back sloped surfaces of desktops or small tabletop lecterns that rested upon a horizontal surface." Placing books vertically on shelves, spines facing outward, is a fairly recent invention, it would seem. Well written as it is, if Book on the Bookshelf were only about books-as-furniture, it would have little appeal to the general reader. Petroski, however, uses this treatise on design to examine the very human motivations that lie behind it. From the example of Samuel Pepys, who refused to have more titles than his library could hold (about 3,000), to an appendix detailing all the ways people organize their collections (by sentimental value, by size, by color, and by price, to name a few of the more unconventional methods), Petroski peppers his account with enough human interest to keep his audience reading from cover to cover. --Alix Wilber [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Booked to Die'
Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he is an avid collector of rare and first editions. After a local bookscout is killed on his turf, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect's spine. But the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway's wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge.
Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop -- all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. But when prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now, Janeway's life is about to start a precarious new chapter as he attempts to find out who's dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains.
Includes information on John Dunning's new Cliff Janeway novel, The Bookman's Promise, coming soon in hardcover from Scribner [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Child That Books Built'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Club Dumas'
Fallen angels, satanic manuals, and a passion for the works of Raphael Sabatini and Alexandre Dumas among others--this is the stuff of Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte's engrossing novel The Club Dumas. Set in a world of antiquarian booksellers where dealers would gladly betray their own mothers to get their hands on a rare volume, The Club Dumas is a thinking person's thriller: in addition to a riveting plot, the book is full of intriguing details that range from the working habits of Alexandre Dumas to how one might go about forging a 17th-century text. Woven through these meditations is enough murder, sex, and the occult to keep both the hero, Lucas Corso, and the reader hopping.
As in his previous novel, The Flanders Panel, set in the world of art restoration, Mr. Pérez-Reverte has written a literary thriller to tease both the intellect and adrenaline gland. Lucas Corso makes a complex, ultimately sympathetic hero, and there's plenty to delight in the intricate twists and turns the story takes before the mystery of The Club Dumas is finally solved. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Club Dumas'
Fallen angels, satanic manuals, and a passion for the works of Raphael Sabatini and Alexandre Dumas among others--this is the stuff of Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte's engrossing novel The Club Dumas. Set in a world of antiquarian booksellers where dealers would gladly betray their own mothers to get their hands on a rare volume, The Club Dumas is a thinking person's thriller: in addition to a riveting plot, the book is full of intriguing details that range from the working habits of Alexandre Dumas to how one might go about forging a 17th-century text. Woven through these meditations is enough murder, sex, and the occult to keep both the hero, Lucas Corso, and the reader hopping.
As in his previous novel, The Flanders Panel, set in the world of art restoration, Mr. Pérez-Reverte has written a literary thriller to tease both the intellect and adrenaline gland. Lucas Corso makes a complex, ultimately sympathetic hero, and there's plenty to delight in the intricate twists and turns the story takes before the mystery of The Club Dumas is finally solved. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Club Dumas'
Lucas Corso is a bibliophilic mercenary in the middle to two searches. He needs to prove if a manuscript of The Three Musketeers is genuine. He must also find the solution to the enigma of a diabolic book, burned with the printer in 1667, and of which only two other copies are known. The mystery leads him from the Holy Office to books condemned by the Vatican; from dusty old bookstores to the most select libraries owned by important international collectors.
Description in Spanish: Descifrar el misterio de un libro que invoca al demonio, del que sólo quedan tres ejemplares en el mundo, se convirtió para Lucas Corso, comprador de libros antiguos por encargo, en peligrosa aventura. Pero por si esto fuera poco, un capítulo manuscrito de los tres mosqueteros de Alejandro Dumas entra en escena y se entremezclan historias para dar origen a un apasionante thriller al mejor estilo de Arturo Pérez-Reverte. "El club Dumas" (1993), una de las novelas más emblemáticas del autor, constituye un modelo ejemplar de utilización de los más genuinos ingredientes de la novela de intriga, de investigación criminal, ambientación histórica y ficción culturalista, además de ser un homenaje al maestro del folletín decimonónico, Alejandro Dumas. Esta novela ha sido llevada a la gran pantalla por Roman Polanski con el título "La novena puerta". [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader'
The subtitle of Anne Fadiman's slim collection of essays is Confessions of a Common Reader, but if there is one thing Fadiman is not, it's common. In her previous work of nonfiction, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, she brought both skill and empathy to her balanced exploration of clashing cultures and medical tragedy. The subject matter here is lighter, but imbued with the same fine prose and big heart. Ex Libris is an extended love letter to language and to the wonders it performs. Fadiman is a woman who loves words; in "The Joy of Sesquipedalians" (very long words), she describes an entire family besotted with them: "When I was growing up, not only did my family walk around spouting sesquipedalians, but we viewed all forms of intellectual competition as a sacrament, a kind of holy water as it were, to be slathered on at every opportunity." From very long words it's just a short jump to literature, and Fadiman speaks joyfully of books, book collecting, and book ownership ("In my view, nineteen pounds of old books are at least nineteen times as delicious as one pound of fresh caviar"). In "Marrying Libraries" Fadiman describes the emotionally fraught task of merging her collection with her husband's: "After five years of marriage and a child, George and I finally resolved that we were ready for the more profound intimacy of library consolidation. It was unclear, however, how we were to find a meeting point between his English-garden approach and my French-garden one." Perhaps some marriages could not have stood the strain of such an ordeal, but for this one, the merging of books becomes a metaphor for the solidity of their relationship.
Over the course of 18 charming essays Fadiman ranges from the "odd shelf" ("a small, mysterious corpus of volumes whose subject matter is completely unrelated to the rest of the library, yet which, upon closer inspection reveals a good deal about its owner") to plagiarism ("the more I've read about plagiarism, the more I've come to think that literature is one big recycling bin") to the pleasures of reading aloud ("When you read silently, only the writer performs. When you read aloud, the performance is collaborative"). Fadiman delivers these essays with the expectation that her readers will love and appreciate good books and the power of language as much as she does. Indeed, reading Ex Libris is likely to bring up warm memories of old favorites and a powerful urge to revisit one's own "odd shelf" pronto. --Alix Wilber [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eyre Affair'
Penzler Pick, January 2002: When I first heard the premise of this unique mystery, I doubted that a first-time author could pull off a complicated caper involving so many assumptions, not the least of which is a complete suspension of disbelief. Jasper Fforde is not only up to the task, he exceeds all expectations.
Imagine this. Great Britain in 1985 is close to being a police state. The Crimean War has dragged on for more than 130 years and Wales is self-governing. The only recognizable thing about this England is her citizens' enduring love of literature. And the Third Most Wanted criminal, Acheron Hades, is stealing characters from England's cherished literary heritage and holding them for ransom.
Bibliophiles will be enchanted, but not surprised, to learn that stealing a character from a book only changes that one book, but Hades has escalated his thievery. He has begun attacking the original manuscripts, thus changing all copies in print and enraging the reading public. That's why Special Operations Network has a Literary Division, and it is why one of its operatives, Thursday Next, is on the case.
Thursday is utterly delightful. She is vulnerable, smart, and, above all, literate. She has been trying to trace Hades ever since he stole Mr. Quaverley from the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and killed him. You will only remember Mr. Quaverley if you read Martin Chuzzlewit prior to 1985. But now Hades has set his sights on one of the plums of literature, Jane Eyre, and he must be stopped.
How Thursday achieves this and manages to preserve one of the great books of the Western canon makes for delightfully hilarious reading. You do not have to be an English major to be pulled into this story. You'll be rooting for Thursday, Jane, Mr. Rochester--and a familiar ending. --Otto Penzler [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fencing Master'
In The Club Dumas, Arturo Pérez-Reverte explored the labyrinthine world of antiquarian book dealers, spicing his tale of mystery and murder with characters straight out of Paradise Lost and The Three Musketeers. Next came The Flanders Panel, a brilliant puzzle comprised of art, chess, and untimely death whose resolution lies in a painting by a Flemish master. In The Seville Communion, Pérez-Reverte turned his sights on the tangled politics of the Roman Catholic Church as an appropriate backdrop--for murder. In his fourth novel translated into English, the Spanish writer changes centuries (if not his focus on homicide), returning to the mid-1800s to follow the exploits of Don Jaime Astarloa, the eponymous fencing master.
The year is 1866 and revolution is brewing in Spain. The corrupt Bourbon queen, Isabella II, is slowly losing her grip on power as equally corrupt exiled politicians vie to be her successor in a new republic. Against this background of political upheaval, Don Jaime goes about his business, teaching a dying art to a dwindling number of students. This is a man who resists changing times; to a friend he explains, "I have spent my whole life trying to preserve a certain idea of myself, and that is all. You have to cling to a set of values that do not depreciate with time. Everything else is the fashion of the moment, fleeting, mutable. In a word, nonsense." But then Adela de Otero--a woman with a mysterious past and an amazing talent for swordplay--comes into his life, and Don Jaime's world is turned upside down. As always, Pérez-Reverte offers literary excellence, a thumping good mystery, and fascinating insight into an arcane practice, in this case, fencing. Though the 19th-century politics in the book may resonate more with a Spanish audience than with English readers, the moral at the heart of The Fencing Master is universal: "to be honest, or at least honorable--anything, indeed, that has its roots in the word honor." In this, Don Jaime and Arturo Pérez-Reverte both succeed. --Alix Wilber [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books'
What a delightful book about books and people who love books! As a second generation bibliophile, a possible bibliomane who had several people move out of my house a year ago because they erroneously believed that my books were taking over the household, and a devout employee of "Earth's Biggest Bookstore," I can vouch that Basbanes accurately describes the glorious role of book collectors as archivists of human knowledge, and -- in continual counterpoint -- sometimes pathologically obsessed book junkies. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Haunted Bookshop'
Comparison Of Cultures Of England And America By English Lad Who Emigrates To Maryland. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A History of Reading'
A history of reading presents tales of book thieves, book burners, censors, anarchists, women of eleventh century Japan who had to invent their own reading material, and African-American slaves who were forbidden to read under penalty of death. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The strife of love in a dream) is generally considered to be the finest illustrated book of the Renaissance. Its splendid woodcuts can stand on their own, the printing (by Aldus Manutius) is remarkably handsome, and the texta unique compound of Italian and Latinremains open to fascinating interpretations, both worldly and esoteric. The author is thought to be Francesco Colonna, a Dominican monk whose name appears in an acrostic formed by the initial letters of each section. The Hypnerotomachia achieved fame as the quintessential illustrated book, having perhaps the longest continuous history of bibliophilic reverence of any printed work. This Octavo Edition features detailed images of the entire book, an essay on its architecture, and complete bibliographical details. Commentary by Nicolas Barker. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Into the Looking-Glass Wood'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'LA Habitacion De Los Reptiles'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Sombra Del Viento/ the Shadow of the Wind'
Un amanecer de 1945, un muchacho es conducido por su padre a un misterioso lugar oculto en el corazón de la ciudad vieja: el Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. Allí encuentra La Sombra del Viento, un libro maldito que cambiará el rumbo de su vida y le arrastrará a un laberinto de intrigas y secretos enterrados en el alma oscura de la ciudad. Ambientada en la enigmática Barcelona de principios del siglo XX, este misterio literario mezcla técnicas de relato de intriga, de novela histórica y de comedia de costumbres, pero es, sobre todo, una tragedia histórica de amor cuyo eco se proyecta a través del tiempo. Con gran fuerza narrativa, el autor entrelaza tramas y enigmas a modo de muñecas rusas en un inolvidable relato sobre los secretos del corazón y el embrujo de los libros, manteniendo la intriga hasta la última página. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lost in a Good Book'
Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible? Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan. But whose? and why? [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Patience & Fortitude'
In his national bestseller, A Gentle Madness, Nicholas Basbanes explored the sweet obsession people feel to possess books. Now, Basbanes continues his adventures among the "gently mad" on an irresistible journey to the great libraries of the past -- from Alexandria to Glastonbury -- and to contemporary collections at the Vatican, Wolfenbüttel, and erudite universities. Along the way, he drops in on eccentric book dealers and regales us with stories about unforgettable collectors, such as the gentleman who bought a rare book in 1939 "by selling bottles of his own blood."
Taking the book's grand title from the marble lions guarding the New York Public Library at 42nd Street, Basbanes both entertains and delights. And once again, as Scott Turow aptly noted, "Basbanes makes you love books, the collections he writes about, and the volume in your hand."
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Patience & Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture'
A roving chronicle of book people, book places and book culture. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Polysyllabic Spree'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Por Que Leer Los Clasicos?'
Los clasicos son, para Italo Calvino (1923-1985), aquellos libros que nunca terminan de decir lo que tienen que decir, textos que «cuanto mas cree uno conocerlos de oidas, tanto mas nuevos, inesperados, ineditos resultan al leerlos de verdad». Y ese es el convencimiento que anima a Italo Calvino a comentar los «suyos», segun su criterio de que el clasico de cada uno «es aquel que no puede serte indiferente y que te sirve para definirte a ti mismo en relacion y quizas en contraste con el». Asi, mezclados en el tiempo y en la historia de la literatura universal, el lector descubre las lecturas de Italo Calvino. El resultado de todo ello es una obra que se ha convertido, a su vez, en un clasico. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Reading Diary'
Subtitled "A Year of Favourite Books," this small volume combines ruminations by Alberto Manguel on 12 novels, memories of childhood (when he first read many of these books), shards of poetry, events in the daily news that link to the books, visits of friends and neighbours, and the turn of the seasons in his garden, as well as numerous apt quotes from a variety of sources. Manguel is a voracious, generous, and astute reader and he includes works from across the globe: Don Quixote, Kim, The Pillow Book, Margaret Atwood's Surfacing, novels by H.G. Wells and Goethe. His astonishing literary range is evidenced by the inclusion of works from lesser-known South American writers (Bioy Casares and Machado de Assis), children's literature (The Wind in the Willows), and detective fiction (The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). His comments on the works are always intelligent, insightful, original, and engaging.
Manguel maintains a contemplative tone throughout, as befits a book written for the most part in a medieval presbytery, now his home (after a longtime residence in Canada) in southern France. In this reflective tone, he states: "I, of course, will disappear ... the books will be scattered.... As in the eye of a sculptor chiselling away at a stone, the whole will be all the more beautiful for our absence." Manguel's enthusiasms encourage the reader to visit or re-visit many of these literary worlds, but he is especially convincing in his discussions of Cervantes, Kipling, and Sherlock Holmes. There is no doubt Manguel loves libraries and books: "I explore my library like someone returning to his native land after an absence of decades." His gift is the ability to foster that same love in his readers. --Mark Frutkin [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Shadow of the Wind: A Novel'
Barcelona, 1945just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mothers face. To console his only child, Daniels widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelonas guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniels father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Caraxs work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelonas darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesnt find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.
As with all astounding novels, The Shadow of the Wind sends the mind groping for comparisons The Crimson Petal and the White? The novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte? Of Victor Hugo? Love in the Time of Cholera?but in the end, as with all astounding novels, no comparison can suffice. As one leading Spanish reviewer wrote, The originality of Ruiz Zafóns voice is bombproof and displays a diabolical talent. The Shadow of the Wind announces a phenomenon in Spanish literature. An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storytellers art.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Shadow of the Wind'
The Shadow of the Wind [Paperback] by Carlos Ruiz Zaf_n; Lucia Graves [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Slightly Chipped : Footnotes in Booklore'
Who would have guessed that an innocent search for an inexpensive edition of War and Peace could lead to an all-consuming obsession? Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone's romance with rare books arose from just such a search and led them to a world they had never encountered before: the world of antiquarian books. They quickly found themselves infatuated with this quaint and curious world, and scoured the East Coast in search of first editions and rare books. This search, and the curious people they met along the way, is chronicled in their book Used and Rare. Their second book, Slightly Chipped, continues this exploration, taking us on tours of book fairs, libraries, and auctions. No longer the wide-eyed innocents, the Goldstones delve a little deeper into the book world: they explore facets such as fine printing and literary movements, pour over Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula, and puzzle over the incredible markup of hypermoderns. (Never heard of hypermoderns? They are collectible books recently published. A first edition of Sue Grafton's A Is for Alibi sold for $1,250 in 1998. Better check your shelves.)
Both the avid bibliophile and the casual reader will find things to enjoy in Slightly Chipped. For the collector, the Goldstones' discussion of the Internet's impact on collecting is illuminating, and their look at the hypermodern market is positively eye-opening. Plus, visits to such places as the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia and the Pequot Library in Connecticut will get any bibliophile's salivary glands going. For the casual reader, Slightly Chipped is as warm and engaging as Used and Rare; although the Goldstones have become sophisticated book collectors, there is still plenty of the ingenuous surprise and delight that made Used and Rare such a joy to read. They balance out the serious aspects of book collecting with a liberal peppering of literary anecdotes, ranging from William Morris's tyrannical leadership of the Kelmscott Press to the sexual proclivities of Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, keeping the tone light and the pace lively. All this packed into one volume makes Slightly Chipped a rare treat for book lovers of all types. --Perry Atterberry [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore'
Who would have guessed that an innocent search for an inexpensive edition of War and Peace could lead to an all-consuming obsession? Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone's romance with rare books arose from just such a search and led them to a world they had never encountered before: the world of antiquarian books. They quickly found themselves infatuated with this quaint and curious world, and scoured the East Coast in search of first editions and rare books. This search, and the curious people they met along the way, is chronicled in their book Used and Rare. Their second book, Slightly Chipped, continues this exploration, taking us on tours of book fairs, libraries, and auctions. No longer the wide-eyed innocents, the Goldstones delve a little deeper into the book world: they explore facets such as fine printing and literary movements, pour over Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula, and puzzle over the incredible markup of hypermoderns. (Never heard of hypermoderns? They are collectible books recently published. A first edition of Sue Grafton's A Is for Alibi sold for $1,250 in 1998. Better check your shelves.)
Both the avid bibliophile and the casual reader will find things to enjoy in Slightly Chipped. For the collector, the Goldstones' discussion of the Internet's impact on collecting is illuminating, and their look at the hypermodern market is positively eye-opening. Plus, visits to such places as the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia and the Pequot Library in Connecticut will get any bibliophile's salivary glands going. For the casual reader, Slightly Chipped is as warm and engaging as Used and Rare; although the Goldstones have become sophisticated book collectors, there is still plenty of the ingenuous surprise and delight that made Used and Rare such a joy to read. They balance out the serious aspects of book collecting with a liberal peppering of literary anecdotes, ranging from William Morris's tyrannical leadership of the Kelmscott Press to the sexual proclivities of Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, keeping the tone light and the pace lively. All this packed into one volume makes Slightly Chipped a rare treat for book lovers of all types. --Perry Atterberry [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance'
"Reading liberates the reader and transports him from his book to a reading of himself and all of life. It leads him to participate in conversations, and in some cases to arrange them . . . It could even be said that to publish a book is to insert it into the middle of a conversation." (from So Many Books)
Join the conversation! In So Many Books, Gabriel Zaid offers his observations on the literary condition: a highly original analysis of the predicament that readers, authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and teachers find themselves in today--when there are simply more books than any of us can contemplate.
"...Zaid traces the preoccupation with reading back through Dr. Johnson, Seneca, and even the Bible ('Of making many books there is no end'). He emerges as a playful celebrant of literary proliferation, noting that there is a new book published every thirty seconds, and optimistically points out that publishers who moan about low sales 'see as a failure what is actually a blessing: The book business, unlike newspapers, films, or television, is viable on a small scale.' Zaid, who claims to own more than ten thousand books, says he has sometimes thought that 'a chastity glove for authors who cant contain themselves' would be a good idea. Nonetheless, he cheerfully opines that 'the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.'"--The New Yorker
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Something Rotten'
Detective Thursday Next has had her fill of her responsibilities as the Bellman in Jurisfiction, enough with Emperor Zharks pointlessly dramatic entrances, outbreaks of slapstick raging across pulp genres, and hacking her hair off to fill in for Joan of Arc. Packing up her son, Friday, Thursday returns to Swindon accompanied by none other than the dithering Danish prince Hamlet. Caring for both is more than a full- time job and Thursday decides it is definitely time to get her husband Landen back, if only to babysit. Luckily, those responsible for Landens eradication, The Goliath Corporation formerly an oppressive multinational conglomerate, now an oppressive multinational religion have pledged to right the wrong.
But returning to SpecOps isnt a snap. When outlaw fictioneer Yorrick Kaine seeks to get himself elected dictator, he whips up a frenzy of anti-Danish sentiment and demands mass book burnings. The return of Swindons patron saint bearing divine prophecies could spell the end of the world within five years, possibly faster if the laughably terrible Swindon Mallets dont win the Superhoop, the most important croquet tournament in the land. And if thats not bad enough, The Merry Wives of Windsor is becoming entangled with Hamlet. Can Thursday find a Shakespeare clone to stop this hostile takeover? Can she prevent the world from plunging into war? Can she vanquish Kaine before he realizes his dream of absolute power? And, most important, will she ever find reliable child care? Find out in this totally original, action-packed romp, sure to be another escapist thrill for Jasper Ffordes growing legion of fans. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Thursday Next in the Well Of Lost Plots'
The third installment in Jasper Fforde's New York Times bestselling series follows literary detective Thursday Next on another adventure in her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England Jasper Fforde has done it again in this genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment. After two rollicking New York Times bestselling adventures through Western literature, resourceful BookWorld literary detective Thursday Next definitely needs some downtime. And what better place for a respite than in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books-like the one she has taken up residence in-are scrapped for salvage. To make matters worse, a murderer is stalking the personnel of Jurisfiction and it's up to Thursday to save the day. A brilliant feat of literary showmanship filled with wit, fantasy, and effervescent originality, this Ffordian tour de force will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse. Thursday's zany investigations continue with Something Rotten. Look for the five other bestselling Thursday Next novels, including One of Our Thursdays is Missing and Jasper Fforde's latest bestseller, The Woman Who Died A Lot. Visit jasperfforde.com for a ffull window into the Ffordian world! [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Un Mal Principio'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Warmly Inscribed : The New England Forger and Other Book Tales'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Well of Lost Plots'
Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the Well of Lost Plots (the place where all fiction is created), Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled 'Caversham Heights'. Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday's memory, and Miss Havisham - when not sewing up plot-holes in 'Mill on the Floss' - is trying to break the land-speed record on the A409. But something is rotten in the state of Jurisfiction. Perkins is 'accidentally' eaten by the minotaur, and Snell succumbs to the Mispeling Vyrus. As a shadow looms over popular fiction, Thursday must keep her wits about her and discover not only what is going on, but also who she can trust to tell about it ...With grammasites, holesmiths, trainee characters, pagerunners, baby dodos and an adopted home scheduled for demolition, 'The Well of Lost Plots' is at once an addictively exciting adventure and an insight into how books are made, who makes them - and why there is no singular for 'scampi'. In the words of one critic: 'Don't ask. Just read it.' [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Why Read the Classics?'
Why read Italo Calvino's book on the classics? Because it passes his own test for what a classic is, and its brisk prose can blast your concept of the word clean of the dusty associations that cling to it. Calvino gives 14 offbeat definitions of classic, my favorite being "a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off." His sharp essays on Conrad, Dickens, Diderot, Flaubert, Ovid, and others constitute an act of self-criticism too, a novelist's imaginative autobiography. In 1955, when rave-reviewing Robinson Crusoe, he called Daniel Defoe the "inventor of modern journalism." In 1954, he overcame his disgust with Hemingway's life "of violent tourism," coolly assessed his dry heights and sodden depths, and called himself Papa's apprentice. And the 1984 piece on Borges shows who influenced Calvino most once he'd become a master himself.
From both the American and the Argentinian, Calvino learned to be concise, and his quick sketches of books like the "unqualified masterpiece" Our Mutual Friend provide a contact high--one wants to drop everything and head straight to a library, so infectious is his enthusiasm. "How many young people will be smitten" by Stendhal's recently, brilliantly retranslated Waterloo-era adventure The Charterhouse of Parma, he writes, "recognizing it as the novel they had always wanted to read... the benchmark for all the other novels they will read in later life." Like a great teacher, Italo Calvino distills a writer's essence in a vivid phrase: money, for instance, serves as "the motive force of Balzac's narrative, the true test of feeling in Dickens; but in Mark Twain money is a game of mirrors, causing vertigo over a void." --Tim Appelo [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'El Club Dumas'
Lucas Corso is a bibliophilic mercenary in the middle to two searches. He needs to prove if a manuscript of The Three Musketeers is genuine. He must also find the solution to the enigma of a diabolic book, burned with the printer in 1667, and of which only two other copies are known. The mystery leads him from the Holy Office to books condemned by the Vatican; from dusty old bookstores to the most select libraries owned by important international collectors.
Description in Spanish: Descifrar el misterio de un libro que invoca al demonio, del que sólo quedan tres ejemplares en el mundo, se convirtió para Lucas Corso, comprador de libros antiguos por encargo, en peligrosa aventura. Pero por si esto fuera poco, un capítulo manuscrito de los tres mosqueteros de Alejandro Dumas entra en escena y se entremezclan historias para dar origen a un apasionante thriller al mejor estilo de Arturo Pérez-Reverte. "El club Dumas" (1993), una de las novelas más emblemáticas del autor, constituye un modelo ejemplar de utilización de los más genuinos ingredientes de la novela de intriga, de investigación criminal, ambientación histórica y ficción culturalista, además de ser un homenaje al maestro del folletín decimonónico, Alejandro Dumas. Esta novela ha sido llevada a la gran pantalla por Roman Polanski con el título "La novena puerta". [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Club Dumas/the Club Dumas: O Lasombra De Richelieu'
Lucas Corso is a bibliophile mercenary in the middle of two searches. He needs to prove if a manuscript of The Three Musketeers is genuine. He must also find the solution to the enigma of a diabolic book, burned at the printers in 1667 by the Holy office and condemned by the Vatican; only two other copies are known. The stories intermingle and result in a page-turning thriller distinctive of Perez Reverte s writing. The book was taken to the big screen in a movie titled The Ninth Gate by renowned director Roman Polanski.
Description in Spanish
Descifrar el misterio de un libro que invoca al demonio, del que solo quedan tres ejemplares en el mundo, se convirtio para Lucas Corso, comprador de libros antiguos por encargo, en peligrosa aventura. Pero por si esto fuera poco, un capitulo manuscrito de los tres mosqueteros de Alejandro Dumas entra en escena y se entremezclan historias para dar origen a un apasionante thriller al mejor estilo de Arturo Perez-Reverte. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code'
Nº 1 en USA
¿ Qué misterio se oculta tras la sonrisa de Mona Lisa? Durante siglos, la Iglesia ha conseguido mantener oculta la verdad& hasta ahora.
Antes de morir asesinado, Jacques Saunière, el último Gran Maestre de una sociedad secreta que se remonta a la fundación de los Templarios, transmite a su nieta Sofía una misteriosa clave. Saunière y sus predecesores, entre los que se encontraban hombres como Isaac Newton o Leonardo Da Vinci, han conservado durante siglos un conocimiento que puede cambiar completamente la historia de la humanidad. Ahora Sofía, con la ayuda del experto en simbología Robert Langdon, comienza la búsqueda de ese secreto, en una trepidante carrera que les lleva de una clave a otra, descifrando mensajes ocultos en los más famosos cuadros del genial pintor y en las paredes de antiguas catedrales. Un rompecabezas que deberán resolver pronto, ya que no están solos en el juego: una poderosa e influyente organización católica está dispuesta a emplear todos los medios para evitar que el secreto salga a la luz.
Un apasionante juego de claves escondidas, sorprendentes revelaciones, acertijos ingeniosos, verdades, mentiras, realidades históricas, mitos, símbolos, ritos, misterios y suposiciones en una trama llena de giros inesperados narrada con un ritmo imparable que conduce al lector hasta el secreto más celosamente guardado del inicio de nuestra era.
" Intriga y amenaza se mezclan en una de las mejores novelas de suspense que he leído jamás. Un sorprendente relato donde los enigmas se suceden a los secretos y éstos a las adivinanzas."
Clive Cussler.
" Un inteligente thriller lleno de enigmas y códigos que, sin duda, puede recomendarse con rotundo entusiasmo."
The New York Times
[via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code: El Illustrado / Illustraded'
¿Qué misterio se oculta tras la sonrisa de la celebre Mona Lisa? Durante siglos, la Iglesia ha conseguido mantener oculta la verdad& hasta ahora.
Uno de los libros con mas tiempo en el tope de la lista de los Best Sellers del New York Times!.... El Código Da Vinci, ahora en un audiolibro narrado en español del bestseller internacional de Dan Brown, producido exclusivamente por FONOLIBRO, el cual no podrá dejar de escuchar hasta que llegue al inesperado final.
Mientras se encontraba en un viaje de negocios en Paris, Robert Langdon, experto en simbologia de la universidad de Harvard, recibe una llamada urgente a media noche. Jacques Saunière, el último Gran Maestre de una sociedad secreta que se remonta a la fundación de los Templarios, ha sido asesinado en el museo del Louvre. Saunière antes de morir transmite a su nieta Sofía una misteriosa clave. Saunière y sus predecesores, entre los que se encontraban hombres como Isaac Newton o Leonardo Da Vinci, han conservado durante siglos un conocimiento que puede cambiar completamente la historia de la humanidad. Ahora Sofía, con la ayuda Robert Langdon, comienza la búsqueda de ese secreto, en una trepidante carrera que les lleva de una clave a otra, descifrando mensajes ocultos en los más famosos cuadros del genial pintor y en las paredes de antiguas catedrales. Un rompecabezas que deberán resolver pronto, ya que no están solos en el juego: una poderosa e influyente organización católica está dispuesta a emplear todos los medios para evitar que el secreto salga a la luz.
FonoLibro, lider en audiolibros en espanol, les trae una afamada historia sobre un apasionante juego de claves escondidas, sorprendentes revelaciones, acertijos ingeniosos, verdades, mentiras, realidades históricas, mitos, símbolos, ritos, misterios y suposiciones en una trama llena de giros inesperados narrada con un ritmo imparable que conduce al oyente hasta el secreto más celosamente guardado del inicio de nuestra era.
VERSION RESUMIDA: 7 CDs (APROX 8 HRS) [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Como Una Novela'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'LA Habitacion De Los Reptiles'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La habitacion de los Reptiles / The Reptiles Room'
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Historiadora / The Historian'
Elizabeth Kostova; La Historiadora: This edition published by arrangement with Little, Brown and Company (Inc.), New York, New York, USA. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Leer 'Lolita' En Teheran / Reading Lolita In Teheran'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Leer Lolita En Teheran'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Misteriosa Llama De La Reina Loana / The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana'
La misteriosa llama de la Reina Loana / Umberto Ecco. Editorial Lumen. Primera edicion Febrero 2005. Colombia, Edicion Limitada [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Sombra Del Viento'
Un amanecer de 1945, un muchacho es conducido por su padre a un misterioso lugar oculto en el corazón de la ciudad vieja: el Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. Allí encuentra La Sombra del Viento, un libro maldito que cambiará el rumbo de su vida y le arrastrará a un laberinto de intrigas y secretos enterrados en el alma oscura de la ciudad. Ambientada en la enigmática Barcelona de principios del siglo XX, este misterio literario mezcla técnicas de relato de intriga, de novela histórica y de comedia de costumbres, pero es, sobre todo, una tragedia histórica de amor cuyo eco se proyecta a través del tiempo. Con gran fuerza narrativa, el autor entrelaza tramas y enigmas a modo de muñecas rusas en un inolvidable relato sobre los secretos del corazón y el embrujo de los libros, manteniendo la intriga hasta la última página. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'La Sombra Del Viento / The Shadow Of The Wind'
Un amanecer de 1945, un muchacho es conducido por su padre a un misterioso lugar oculto en el corazón de la ciudad vieja: el Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. Allí encuentra La Sombra del Viento, un libro maldito que cambiará el rumbo de su vida y le arrastrará a un laberinto de intrigas y secretos enterrados en el alma oscura de la ciudad. Ambientada en la enigmática Barcelona de principios del siglo XX, este misterio literario mezcla técnicas de relato de intriga, de novela histórica y de comedia de costumbres, pero es, sobre todo, una tragedia histórica de amor cuyo eco se proyecta a través del tiempo. Con gran fuerza narrativa, el autor entrelaza tramas y enigmas a modo de muñecas rusas en un inolvidable relato sobre los secretos del corazón y el embrujo de los libros, manteniendo la intriga hasta la última página. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Sombra Del Viento/ the Shadow of the Wind'
Un amanecer de 1945, un muchacho es conducido por su padre a un misterioso lugar oculto en el corazón de la ciudad vieja: el Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. Allí encuentra La Sombra del Viento, un libro maldito que cambiará el rumbo de su vida y le arrastrará a un laberinto de intrigas y secretos enterrados en el alma oscura de la ciudad. Ambientada en la enigmática Barcelona de principios del siglo XX, este misterio literario mezcla técnicas de relato de intriga, de novela histórica y de comedia de costumbres, pero es, sobre todo, una tragedia histórica de amor cuyo eco se proyecta a través del tiempo. Con gran fuerza narrativa, el autor entrelaza tramas y enigmas a modo de muñecas rusas en un inolvidable relato sobre los secretos del corazón y el embrujo de los libros, manteniendo la intriga hasta la última página. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, (Venetiis, Aldo Manuzio, 1499)'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Misteriosa Fiamma Della Regina Loana: Romanzo Illustrato'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Uma Vida Entre Livros: Reencontros Com O Tempo'
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