Pages & Proofs

What a year. It’s never dull in the book world – here’s our literary review of 2012. It was the year that J.K. Rowling returned and yet was completely overshadowed by E.L. James and her Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. Putting the bondage aside for a minute, we also saw books from Salman Rushdie (a […]

Penguin’s brightest star is not an author but an illustrator called Coralie Bickford-Smith. She is setting new standards for bookish artwork in the modern era of publishing and her books are must-haves for anyone who loves the combination of art and literature. You might not be familiar with her name but you have probably seen […]

Here’s something for everyone who will receive an Apple product on Christmas Day – the February 1996 issue of Wired Magazine. Apple boss Steve Jobs is the cover boy and is hailed as “The Next Insanely Great Thing.”

I bought this book at a charity sale for a few pennies. The First Country Life Picture Book of Britain, this is the second edition from 1961.  The cover shot shows Corfe Castle in Dorset. The photos are beautiful but some of them really illustrate how things have changed. Look at the shot of Stonehenge […]

Our friends at BookFinder compile one of the most interesting lists in the book business – the top 100 most searched for out-of-print books in the United States. Sadly, books fall out-of-print when publishers decide that there isn’t enough demand. That’s when the used book market becomes important for ensuring that these hard-to-find titles can […]

I found this lovely book at a charity book sale. The Big Budget for Girls was a series of books published annually during the 1930s.  Published by Blackie, the book is full of stories for girls but it was the cover artwork that attracted me. There also some lovely illustrations inside. The stories are called […]

Birds of Britain by John D Green is a highly sought after out-of-print photobook from 1967 that details many of the famous British women from the Swinging Sixties in lavish photographs.  The photos include Charlotte Rampling (strangely sitting in a fruit bowl), Pattie Boyd, Susannah York, Ingrid Boulting, Julie Christie, Sarah Miles, Jane Asher, Mary […]

Lakin & Marley Rare Books, located in Mill Valley, California, has listed 26 Erle Stanley Gardner novels for sale on AbeBooks – all inscribed by the mystery author to a single mystery lady, Tee Rose. The seller writes that little is known of Tee Rose’s identity “other than she did write a story for Argosy […]

Forgotten book of the day is Everyday Swindles and How to Avoid Them by John Laurence from 1921. Peter Harrington is listing the book for sale and the description reads  “Foolishness is largely a matter of ignorance, and the man who is gulled by the wiles of the swindler is usually the man who has […]

With part one of the Hobbit movie set to be released later this week the sheer quantity of middle earth related paraphernalia being released is mind numbing.  That said, I think this kickstarter project is in good fun.  Dillicious blogger Heath Dill wants to produce a 30 recipe cookbook based on the food of the […]