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 ]
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Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's classic 'Where the Wild Things Are' still tops polls as a favorite picture book and was adapted into a film in 2009. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pitchfork, the web's most established voice in music criticism, offers an exclusive look inside its new print magazine--and explains why it'll be the one to (finally) get print right.When Pitchfork launched in 1996, Internet music criticism (or Internet anything) was virtually non-existent, and... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new public art project will see benches shaped as open books. The benches - to be placed... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penelope Lively's recent short ebook for Penguin drew criticism for its brevity – but readers should not be put off the genre as a whole"Overpriced", "ridiculous", I feel cheated". Amazon reviewers haven't been wholly positive about a digital short Penelope Lively has written for Penguin... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To support Indies First, scores of authors will be working in indie bookstores on Small Business Saturday. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Lawson finds authorial controversy and romantic scrawl in an imitation library bookCreators of popular television have often invoked comparisons with written fiction: Dennis Potter and Steve Bochco both used the term "TV novel" to describe series such as Potter's The Singing Detective and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent booksellers have chosen the 10 "less ordinary" books they think will become... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The literary magazines at a Barnes & Noble include Tin House, The Paris Review, Mad Magazine and comics, while a New York Times renewal offers a year for $1099. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"I find way too many inaccuracies," MacKenzie Bezos writes in a critical Amazon.com review of a new book about the company her husband founded.The vast majority of the 45 Amazon.com customers who have reviewed Bloomberg Businessweek writer Brad Stone's new book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Library campaigners in Scotland are taking legal action in an attempt to keep libraries in Moray... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lenovo is known for building notebooks with exquisite keyboards, but the company is also no stranger to the tablet game. It has also introduced pioneering convertibles, such as the Yoga 11s and the newer Flex 14. The Miix 10 should be the culmination of that experience, but this hybrid falls... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Asus has been in the tablet and keyboard dock game for a while now. After several generations of Android based tablet and keyboard dock combinations, the T100 brings the sometimes schizophrenic interface of Windows 8 to its logical home on a hybrid tablet/notebook. The tablet looks and feels... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You just know Amazon's been waiting forever for this cheeky product discount. But heck, if it means not having to buy a $20 Dan Brown book before rushing to catch a flight, we'll take it. In celebration of the FAA easing its personal electronic device restrictions (not to mention Delta and... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mashing up the places, characters and events of various works into one shared universe isn't exactly a new idea. Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton universe imagines that most of the great fictionalized characters of the last few hundred years – including Tarzan, Doc Savage, Dracula, James Bond,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Classic horror films have been remade for the digital media world: Prepare for a trio of digital marketing horrors stories to make brands and publishers scream.The post Tales From the Digital Media Crypt appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2013-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s no longer enough just to be constantly connected to the cloud. These days you must also be constantly connected to a slew of different devices. When I’m using my laptop, I’m also monitoring my phone. When I’m on my phone, I still like to view websites on my laptop. Websites are more... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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McLean, Va. – USA TODAY celebrates the 20th anniversary of the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list, crowning not one, but three No.1 books for three different eras that reflect the changes in publishing over the past two decades. Given ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.com has launched two new initiatives for its US customers – a digital literary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The winner of the UK's leading award for non-fiction books, the Samuel Johnson Prize, will be announced next week, here Nick Higham speaks to nominated author Dave Goulson Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The intriguing 007 story isn't beholden to the Bond mystique, both its main strength and biggest weakness.There is no big set piece to open "Solo," the new James Bond novel by British author William Boyd. The secret agent best known as 007 doesn't launch the story with an extravagant car chase,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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