Pages & Proofs

All the concern about government surveillance inspired us to revisit 1984 by George Orwell. It’s been 20 years at least since I read that novel and I’d forgotten about just how scary and how relevant that book is. On Reddit, I saw an interesting debate where people were discussing whether the ending matters. It does [...]

The Hobbit bandwagon rolls on. The Desolation of Smaug is set to open on December 13.

Two first editions of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four have sold this week on AbeBooks as surveillance by our governments continues to be the No.1 news story around the world. A first edition, first printing in a green dust jacket sold for $3,000 (about £1,913) and a first edition, first printing in the red dust jacket sold [...]

Like many British avid readers, I read a lot of Iain Banks’ books during the late 1990s. I cannot remember if I read The Wasp Factory or The Crow Road first. I think I watched the 1992 BBC adaptation of Crow Road and that put me on to his books. Both are very good reads for [...]

The BBC Horrible Histories children’s TV show does Charles Dickens in style of The Smiths. Very funny. Surely, this gag is for the parents?

The Seattle Public Library is one of the great modern libraries. Take a look at its world record attempt at a book domino chain. And while we are talking about dominoes, take a look at this lovely book from 1913 that describes everything you need to know about playing the game.

  AbeBooks has sold a rare 1931 book filled with paintings of shop signs in Peking. The Shop Signs of Peking, with a preface in English by H.K. Fung and produced by the Chinese Painting Association, sold for £3,615 ( $5,500) earlier in May.  It contains 101 hand-coloured illustrations of the merchant signs with captions in [...]

Locus is reporting the death of fantasy, science fiction and mystery writer Jack Vance. The author was 96 and died earlier this week in Oakland, California. He is well known for producing series of novels, including the Dying Earth, the Demon Princes books, the Planet of Adventure series, the Durdane trilogy and the Lyonesse fantasy [...]

Liberace Cooks! Of course, he did. Every celebrity worth their salt has a cookbook and Liberace was no exception. Enjoy this gem from 1970 – Liberace Cooks! Hundreds of Delicious Recipes for You from His Seven Dining Rooms. The cookery book is illustrated with pictures of the great man’s home.

Food and music – a good combination. Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand is a former kitchen porter, chef and kitchen washer upper from Glasgow. In 2004, his rock band Franz Ferdinand enjoyed a series of hits and embarked on a world tour. As Kapronos toured the world, he toured the world’s restaurants and wrote about [...]