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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Printed book sales soared by 10% (£6.9m) week-on-week during the week before Christmas Day... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Bookseller is launching its annual survey of how independent bookshops have fared with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sussex-based independent publisher Myriad Editions is launching a series of events to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Booksellers Association has welcomed Mary Portas report into the future of the high... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fourth Estate has acquired the story of a young Irish traveller after a four-way auction. Claire... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Andrew Martins First World War novel The Somme Stations (Faber) has won this years... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Doncaster campaigners are considering applying for judicial review over library closures,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The top three fiction titles in Germany were all debuts in October, led by In Times of Fading Light, which recently won the 2011 German Book Prize and is set for publication in the U.S. by Graywolf Press in fall 2013. Umberto Ecos newest book, The Prague Cemetery, which debuted at #3, is newly... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 17/11/2011 - 07:30 Illustrated publisher Redstone Press is celebrating its 25th anniversary by launching its first Christmas pop-up shop, open for 12 days between 12th and 24th December, on west London's Portobello Road. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 17/11/2011 - 10:01 Waterstone's m.d. James Daunt has said booksellers are facing the same crisis" as libraries as he called on the public to lobby politicians to protect the library service. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Kindle Fire is really a distant relation of the handheld portable TV that was popular about 20 years ago--you can consume lots of things fairly effortlessly on the Fire--movies, music, magazines, some kinds of apps, and, more importantly for us, books; but the Fire's real innovation is how... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazons Kindle may have launched the ebook boom were seeing today, but Barnes & Nobles NookColor brought on a new generation of 7-in. multimedia tablet devices priced to undercut the 9.7-in. iPad. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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THE ebook revolution has gathered pace with Sydney's independent bookstores introducing ebook kiosks from today and Dymocks announcing a partnership with Google to deliver ebooks online. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 26/10/2011 - 09:04 Publishers Association chief executive Richard Mollet will be among the panel giving evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee next week on the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 20/10/2011 - 08:30 Publishers and booksellers will soon be able to swap a working day in the life of each others businesses in a new joint initiative soon to be launched by the Booksellers Association and the Publisher Association. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 19/10/2011 - 15:01 Tim Godfray, chief executive of The Booksellers Association, has asked British Library c.e.o. Dame Lynne Brindley to review the Librarys relationship with Amazon as a matter of urgency, following the furore over links to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 17/10/2011 - 14:00 Wednesday (17th October) is the last day for entries to The Bookseller's Reader Survey. The survey aims to discover what readers expect of The Bookseller's coverage of trade issues across news, features and profiles, both... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 17/10/2011 - 10:14 Camden library campaigners have become the latest group to apply for judicial review over library closures. The Camden Public Library User Group has instructed solicitors Bindmans to lodge an application for judicial review,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Wed, 21/09/2011 - 09:10 This years Bookseller Childrens Conference will focus on the range of digital opportunities now available to publishers for developing book brands into online spaces and for engaging with readers online. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 20/09/2011 - 13:00 Pan Macmillan has pre-empted rights in a debut novel about a young black hairdresser called Dorrie in present-day Texas, for a five-figure sum. Editorial director for fiction Jenny Geras bought UK and Commonwealth rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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