The Bookseller's Tale by Martin Latham review – a literary celebration

Latham, a bookseller for 35 years, has put together a heady mix of history, philosophy, anecdotes and entertaining factsWhat most people know about the American librarian Melvil Dewey is his phenomenal classification technique, the Dewey decimal system, which is still used in 135 countries. Less well known is how he liked to classify people, too. In a chapter entitled “Dubious Dewey”, Martin Latham describes how the great librarian created groups from A to D, banning all in the D group – Jews, African-Americans, Cubans and the “new rich” – from his Lake Placid resort. He was also a prolific groper of women. Latham speculates that Dewey’s hypocrisy, and his “obsessively domineering persona”, were what caused his lifelong constipation and piles.This is a book that is down on banning, rigidity, abuse of power and all kinds of snobbery, bookish and otherwise. It celebrates stories, scribbling in margins and the collecting, cherishing and even kissing of books – something done with surprising frequency, apparently. Latham, a bookseller for 35 years, currently runs Waterstones Canterbury, where he proudly filed the biggest petty cash claim in the chain’s history to pay for the excavation of a Roman bath house under its floor. But this is not one of those funny “anecdotes from a bookshop” books that have recently been popular – though anecdotes there are aplenty. It is rather a history and celebration of all things bookish, from Alexander the Great’s unusual habit of reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-12-19 09:00:45 UTC ]
News tagged with: #heady mix #bookseller

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The Bookseller's Tale by Martin Latham review – a literary celebration

Latham, a bookseller for 35 years, has put together a heady mix of history, philosophy, anecdotes and entertaining factsWhat most people know about the American librarian Melvil Dewey is his phenomenal classification technique, the Dewey decimal system, which is still used in 135 countries. Less... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-12-19 09:00:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #heady mix #bookseller


Heartland Fall Forum 2023: Honoring Booksellers, Celebrating Bookselling

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing review – did tech change literary style?

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First US Anthology Celebrates Literary Translators’ Work from Nineteen Languages, by The Editors of WLT

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[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-08 19:33:31 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2024-02-02 10:00:17 UTC ]
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Telling tales: Zimbabwe’s Weaver Press celebrates 25 years of championing truth-telling fiction

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[ The Guardian | 2023-12-07 07:00:02 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2023-10-02 14:15:47 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Collision of Power,’ by Martin Baron

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[ The New York Times | 2023-09-30 09:00:50 UTC ]
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The White Review literary magazine ceases publishing

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[ The Guardian | 2023-09-26 09:06:39 UTC ]
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The Paris Review Wins 2023 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize

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[ The Paris Review | 2023-09-13 14:10:36 UTC ]
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On Literary Celebrity

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[ Granta | 2023-04-06 11:41:47 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2023-03-26 09:00:11 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Canada Post unveils stamp celebrating literary luminary Margaret Atwood

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[ CBC | 2021-11-25 20:33:03 UTC ]
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Mountains & Plains Booksellers Celebrate In-Person Show, Return to Denver

The Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Assocation's annual trade show, its first in-person gathering since 2019 was a celebration of a community's resilience, as new booksellers were welcomed to the gathering. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-10-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Celebrate the Book Review's 125th Anniversary: A Times Event

On Oct. 25, join The New York Times Book Review and special guests for performances of favorite letters and reviews from the archives, trivia and more. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-07 16:09:57 UTC ]
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Quercus unveils new logo and celebrates with bookseller tour

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[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-15 22:54:54 UTC ]
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New York Times's Book Review Podcast Celebrates 15 Years

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[ The New York Times | 2021-04-15 13:38:51 UTC ]
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Octavia Butler's legacy celebrated at Barbican feminist literary festival

The legacy of science fiction author Octavia Butler is to be explored at the Barbican's New Suns feminist literary festival this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-04 07:24:31 UTC ]
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