Pages & Proofs

Last Sunday, an interview with author Alain de Botton was printed in the New York Times book review. NYT: What was last book that made you cry? AdB: I’m always close to tears reading Judith Kerr’s delightful The Tiger Who Came to Tea. It tells of a tiger who turns up, quite unexpectedly, at teatime […]

The AbeBooks office is surrounded by thick fog. A random AbeBooks search on the word ‘fog’ delivers a lot of James Herbert books and this gem from GE (George Edward) Farrow – Wallypug in Fog-land from 1904. Farrow (1862-1919) was a children’s book author and it appears his background is, indeed, shrouded in fog. Born […]

A little ereader humour from the New Yorker Magazine.

Happy Burns Night to the Scots and lovers of Robbie Burns’ writing. As usual, there is always something to read about Burns – the Daily Telegraph has Burns in popular culture (check out the Coke bottles), The Guardian blogs about Burns Night food, the Daily Express offers tips on how to host a Burns Night […]

Over at Publishers Weekly, the trade magazine for the American side of the publishing industry, you will find an article on book collecting penned by moi. It’s aimed at people who are thinking of starting a collection and are looking for tips to get going.

My latest video review is for Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton – another food memoir that I’ve added to my growing collection. Don’t read this book if you are already disturbed by the food you receive at weddings and other large events where catering companies supply the grub.

It’s a shame that authors don’t pose with their pipes anymore. Pipes are such a useful accessory when you need something to occupy your hands while some tiresome photographer is trying to take your picture. Dan Brown, who seems to wear tweedy sports jackets, would perhaps be a good pipe smoker. Our little gallery of […]

It was sad to hear about Michael Winner’s death. The movie director, famous for directing Charles Bronson’s Death Wish, was also a restaurant critic and, for someone who loved food, he had some ill-luck while eating in his later years. The director had experienced a run of ill-health since eating a bad oyster on holiday […]

Every now and again, you will see a news story like this one from 2012 where a rare book has been discovered and sold for a high price at auction – £40,630 for an Agatha Christie book is a decent price, but so often with collectable modern first editions the price is defined by the dust […]

Michael Palin from Monty Python takes a crack at reading Walter Scott’s Redgauntlet – my six-year-old, in the early stages of learning to read, could relate to this clip.