Pages & Proofs

Book collecting is most often a lone pursuit and, much like reading, is mostly done by oneself for oneself. That is not to say you don’t ever see people, I mean you do interact with booksellers, binders, appraisers, and what not but as far as hobbies go it doesn’t exactly rate on the top end […]

My how time flies, I meant to indulge you with this a week ago.  Here are the top 10 bestsellers on AbeBooks.co.uk from last month. 1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 2.There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar 3. The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal 4. Frankenstein by Mary […]

Here is a lovely example of an Ace Double from 1970. On one side we have Flower of Doradil by John Rackham and then flip it over, and we have A Promising Planet by Jeremy Strike. Read our feature to learn more about vintage copies of Ace Books.

Patrick Ness has scored a remarkable double triumph by winning the 2012 Carnegie Medal for his novel, A Monster Calls, with the book also winning the Carnegie’s sister prize for illustration – the Kate Greenaway Medal. The BBC has the full story. A Monster Calls tells the story of a boy coming to terms with […]

Jon McGregor has pocketed £80,000 after winning the IMPAC literary award for his book, Even the Dogs, reports The Guardian. It sounds rather downbeat – McGregor’s third novel is the story of an alcoholic who dies between Christmas and New Year, and the drug addicts and lowlifes who knew him. (Why do some many people die […]

The Bookseller Magazine reports that Phaidon Press is up for sale. This publisher brings out lovely books. They were one of the pioneers of the art book format and have been publishing gorgeous books on artists in the mid 1930s. Originally founded in Vienna in 1923, this company relocated to London to avoid the Nazis […]

Bloomsday looms and The Sun has a bluffer’s guide to Ulysses by James Joyce. Blooming heck…. it’s one of the most famous books of all time – but few have managed to read the literary masterpiece that is Ulysses…. (Leopold) Bloom’s wife Molly is a singer — and she is having an affair with her […]

The Telegraph reports today the AA is to stop commissioning any new travel guides. The Automobile Association has a long heritage of publishing travel books but it’s obvious that drivers now turn to the Internet when planning a route or researching a destination. The first AA travel guides were published in 1910 and AA Publishing […]

Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka has won the Commonwealth Book Prize for his debut novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, reports The Guardian. Following in the footsteps of Netherland by Joseph O’Neill, Chinaman is a cricket-themed novel. The book is about the quest to discover what happened to a talented Sri Lankan spin bowler who […]

Wise words from Ray Bradbury.