BookFinder.com Journal

Book Sale in Washington DC this weekend

I have a bit of a PSA today, one of our readers emailed us to let us know that they are involved with a school fundraising project this weekend just outside Washington D.C.   Bethesda–Chevy Chase High School is hosting an annual book sale over 20,000 used books to raise funds to support various programs run by the Parent-Teacher-Student Association which include Extracurricular clubs, after-school tutoring, student publications and other quality endevaours. 

All hardbacks are $3, paperbacks are $2 and on Sunday you can pick up a full bag of books for $10.  The sale runs Saturday March 26th from 10am-4pm and Sunday March 27th from 10am-2pm.

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is located at 4301 East-West Hwy. in Bethesda. Free parking is available at the school; it is also accessible by Metro Red line, Bethesda stop.

If anyone makes it to the sale drop us a comment and let us know how it went. 

In the stacks

A great photo of a Boston area book store that made it's rounds on Boing Boing yesterday!

Edward Tufte's library going up for auction

It appears that Edward Tufte's personal library is going to be going under the hammer on December 2nd via Christie's.  The auction catalogue is available online and viewings have been arranged for the week prior to the sale.  There will be some amazing items in this auction and a must see for any serious science and maths collectors.

 

Would ebooks spell the end of Marginalia?

The Guardian had a neat article which asked the question "What will become of the marginalia and forgotten mementoes" that are often stashed and scribbled into book if we ever became a fully electronic society.

Most of us BookFinder.com advocates are what I would call "serious bibliophiles" and for us I do not see this becoming an issue, we won't give up the printed word.  But will future generations have the joy of things found in books?  And what of inscriptions and signed books?  These joys are not found in the writing but the physical object of the book itself, and that is something that electronic copy of a book can never have.

Or maybe we will just change the way we do things.

I read a story some time ago about David Sedaris being asked to sign an eReader at a book signing and at the time I thought it pretty ridiculous, Sedaris did end up signing the reader but somehow I feel that fan just has a defaced reader now.  

Lastly I'm sorry that I have been the blog here, I'm going to try and make an effort to begin posting here again, I've been neglecting the blog a bit too long I think.

Your personal book buyer

This weeks Essay in the NY Times Book Review struck a chord with me, in it the author talks about his youth when he would go to a yearly church book sale and stock up on cheap paperbacks to get him though the year. 

This is exactly what I do every year with a local charity book sale sponsored by our local daily newspaper.  Each year I go and pick up a bag full of books to help limp my reading habit though the year on budget, but there are always extras.  This year I picked up the entire Foundation series to go along with a number of other gems that I have sitting in my to be read pile.  Apparently I am not alone, the author also had many, many, extras.  So many extras that he is still reading his selections thirty years on

As the author looks back at his youthful self I see my future self in his words, I foresee the day that I too will be forced to institute "the First Law of Literary Thermodynamics, otherwise known as the conservation of libraries. No book can come into our household without another book leaving it."

I dread that day, I better get reading.

Brilliant Bookshelves

I just stumbled over this cool blog posting which features some amazing bookshelves, here are a few of my favorites.

The Platzhalter Expanding Bookshelf... because a real bibliophile never has enough space

The Inverted Bookshelf                                                      The Bookmarkshelf

                       

and my personal favorite which brings a whole new meaning to bedtime reading

Herta Müller translations in high demand

This morning, or evening if you happen to be in Europe,Herta Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.  Müller originally published in Romanian and German however her works have been translated into several languages, including English.  Most of these translations have been though small presses and now an increase in demand for her work is causing some temporary shortages in supply.

I just checked Amazon, and they appeared to be out of stock with many of her English translations but you can still find used copies from various booksellers.  So I thought I would post some links for people looking for Herta Müller translations.

Herta Müller English Translations

Herta Müller Deutsch Übersetzungen

Herta Müller Nederlandse vertalingen

Herta Müller une traduction en français

Herta Müller las traducciones al español

*edit* - I also just checked on AbeBooks.com and it seems that copies are flying off the virtual shelves there as well.  If you don't want to wait for the reprints I would pick one up sooner than later.

Books that should not have been written

This morning Wired listed the top 5 Science Fiction/Fantasy books which were written by great authors but were awful books.  You can check out Wired's reasoning by clicking though but the general theme seems to be that these are the books where each author lost sight of what made their writing or their series great.

1. To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert Heinlein
2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
3. Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton
4. Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman
5. MasterHarper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

So have you ever come across a great author that you loved, except for that one absolute turkey of a book they wrote.  Either email me (my name at bookfinder dot com) or add a comment with your thoughts.  This can be any genre, and doesn't necessarily have to just be science fiction or fantasy but you have to like the author, just not this book(s).

[Now Reading: The Van by Roddy Doyle]

Booker prize betting baffles bookies

Having just gotten back to the office after a week away I'm catching up on my news, so my apologies if this is old hat for you. 

When the Booker Prize long list was announced the other week the usual guessing on who would win started to take place.  The bookmakers all posted their odds and the punters began dropping their bets like usual.  However, as the Telegraph reported last week, betting patterns have been anything but ordinary with 95% of all bets being placed on Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.

"It's almost like an unspoken psychic rumour has gone round that this will be Hilary Mantel's year," spokesman Graham Sharpe said, as the odds were cut from 12/1 to make it the clear 2/1 favourite.

"We'll lose a five figure sum if the support continues. It is as though a tip has gone around the literary world telling everyone that Mantel is a certainty.

In the last couple years the odds on favorite has not won, however there has not been this level of interest in Booker Betting since 2002 when Yan Martel's Life of Pi was bet on as if it were a shoe in. 

"Quite a lot of them (people placing the bets) are what we would describe as literary insiders," he said.

"Nobody quite seems to know why."

But he ruled out the notion of any foul play, saying: "It would be unusual for the judges to know who they were picking as the eventual winner already. I would be very, very surprised if the judges had already decided.

"It's not in the realms of crying foul or anything like that, it may be just a case of a lot of people deciding on the same one at the same time."

He added it was "very, very rare to see this type of gamble" and said it was "definitely the biggest Booker gamble since Life of Pi was backed as though defeat was out of the question a few years ago".

William Hill's latest 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction odds are:

:: 2/1 Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall;

:: 4/1 Colm Toibin - Brooklyn;

:: 4/1 Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger;

:: 6/1 JM Coetzee - Summertime;

:: 6/1 James Lever - Me Cheeta;

:: 10/1 AS Byatt - The Children's Book;

:: 12/1 William Trevor - Love and Summer;

:: 14/1 Ed O'Loughlin - Not Untrue & Not Unkind;

:: 14/1 Simon Mawer - The Glass Room;

:: 16/1 Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze,

:: 16/1 Sarah Hall - How to Paint a Dead Man,

:: 16/1 Samantha Harvey - The Wilderness;

:: 16/1 James Scudamore - Heliopolis.

I'm not a betting man but if I were I would put my money down on AS Byatt, I think she's the dark horse in this race (it should be known I have failed to call every booker I have atempted).  How about the rest of you Journal readers, who do you think will win this years Booker?

Sony's new ebook readers

There are so many ebook readers out these days it's hard to keep track. There's no doubt though, that Amazon's Kindle has garnered the most attention. Sony though, is fighting back with two new ereaders.

In fact, both actually rather remind me of an ipod in terms of design. The pocket edition looks like an traditional ipod, the touch...well...looks like sortof like an ipod touch. Styling aside though, the pocket edition seems to be trading on it's low price, it's only $199, while the touch is able to highlight and save notes. As hothardware notes, this seems to aim directly at the college crowd. Now, both still lack any built in networking like the Kindle (no wifi or cellphone), but oooh..they come in pretty colors.