Category Archives: Book Talk

Book Collecting, Book Column, Book Talk, library, News, On the TV

Rare Print Discovered in Library Book

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I love stories like this… The NY Times published the recent account of a Brown University archivist finding, what is believed to be one of only five copies of a print done by revolutionary heavyweight Paul Revere himself. No doubt the chance of this happening increases if your job is handling books from the 1700’s. But it’s still pretty cool to think that such a unique rarity was just stuck in the back of a book on physics. Revere was quite the engraver and printer, flooding the colonies with pamphlets and political information. He’s certainly not known for any kind of iconic or religious art, which ups the “cool factor” of the find. Be sure to click through to read the article on the library archivist and see the photos.

If nifty old archives of historical significance interest you then you should tune into Book TV (on CSPAN2) this weekend. At noon, on Saturday, they will be touring old bookstores and the Nichols Collection at the University of Oklahoma. They have books going back as far as the 15th century! They also have a History of Science Collection with papers and books from Galileo, Copernicus and other famous people in white lab coats. I think it’ll be fun to watch.

Book Column, Book Talk

Book Recommendations

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Three times this week I have been asked about book recommendations (I hope you have as cool and bookish friends as I do). Anyway, each time I found myself repeating the same titles, so I thought I’d share here as well.

Tonight, I finished Pearl’s The Technologists which left me a little flat. It was fantastic in the sense of time, place and setting, but just lacked some of the “thrill” part that was there when I read his “The Dante Club”.

The last really well written book I read was, Towles’ The Rules of Civility.
I enjoyed Holmqvist’s The Unit as well, but for different reasons.

I also recommend reading Justin Cronin’s The Passage, to get ready for The Twelve which comes out later this year. It is so so good. I mean like REALLY good.

I recently went through quite a run of fiction, so I am thinking about picking up Bryson’s At Home. But I may go sci-fi with Russell’s The Sparrow. We’ll see.

How about you?

What are you recommending to friends?

Book Column, Book Covers, Book Talk, Upcoming Titles

Michael Chabon’s New Book

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Chabon’s next book Telegraph Avenue doesn’t come out until September of this year, but Harper Collins did release the final cover a couple of days ago, via their catalog site. I wonder how many revisions they went through before everyone agreed on the red and the label was just retro enough… very cool! The blurb they offered up on the site:

The fictional world of Telegraph Avenue is grounded in Chabon’s deeply researched, lovingly painted pop culture of Kung Fu, Blaxploitation films of the ’70s, Jazz, and Soul.

This is one book that I can not wait to read this year.

Telegraph Avenue Cover

 

 

Book Column, Book Talk, Movies, News

Movie Based on a Bill Bryson Book

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Last week, novelist Richard Russo mentioned that he is working on a screenplay based on Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. This very cool… if Hollywood doesn’t mess it up (I mean c’mon what are the chances of that?). A Walk in the Woods, which logs Bryson’s travels and experiences along the Appalachian Trail, was my first introduction to Bryson and I have now read every book of his except At Home, which is currently sitting about half-way in my TBR pile. So maybe by 2016… at the rate I’m going… anyway…

I did some digging and found out that Robert Redford is slated to play Bryson and *maybe* Nick Nolte as Bryon’s buddy Stephen Katz. Seems this project has been in the works since 2005 and has dragged on so long that no one is really paying attention. I hope they keep moving though. I think Russo could do well with it.