Wishing book lovers everywhere a
safe, warm & peaceful New Year!
Happy New Year!
31 Thursday Dec 2009
Posted in Ephemera, Literary calendar, Postcards
Monthly Archives: December 2009
A Confession…
29 Tuesday Dec 2009
Well, I could lay the blame on my husband [or maybe even Santa?] - he did it without my really asking, though I may have been musing one day about the advantages of a kindle and ebooks for traveling times. So there it was sitting under the Christmas tree, in its Amazon box, a KINDLE and its cover… I confess it loud and clear – I, lover of BOOKS, a bookseller of collectible BOOKS, an avid collector of BOOKS and the resulting ever-ongoing need for more BOOKshelves, proponent of READING, a librarian and Library Trustee who believes that BOOKS can change lives – I am all these things, but now also the proud owner of a KINDLE… though I also confess it is still in its box – with no time to figure out yet another technological piece of equipment, just having gotten an iphone and still struggling with that user manual, also mostly a matter of time. I am working on a talk on carriages in Jane Austen’s time, and heaven forbid, I am using BOOKS for research! [though one must confess again the use of several Google BOOKS for this reading adventure...]
So I feel better telling everyone about this new shift in my life – there is an article from yesterday’s Guardian announcing that Amazon’s e-book sales have overtaken the real thing this holiday season – how this plays out with publishers and authors, I have yet to fully understand - the average book today costs at least $24.99 – but you can get it for your kindle for $9.99. Then there is the Barnes & Noble Nook, which is on backorder until February because sales vastly surpassed their expectations.
So, as my lovely little gift sits in its box waiting for a moment for me to figure it out, I have been musing again [this time to myself] about how many books I listen to on tape, how many books I read on the computer because it is the only way to access the information without an expensive trip to the British Library, how all this technology has only opened a much wider world of the book to me and everyone else, that perhaps this latest addition will only enhance reading and knowledge and not undermine the future of the book as we know it. How many books will I get on my Kindle that I would not have actually BOUGHT ? – I think there will be many – time will tell … and travel will be so much easier now that airlines forbid bags full of weighty books [books or shoes has been my latest dilemma...] - but alas! what about all the BOOKS I will buy when traveling from wandering into used book stores??
So, am I just trying to justify this new toy, or is it just another reading adventure, and I will still need to build new bookshelves? And the tactile / senses piece? I do hear that there is a book spray you can buy to enhance the air around you with that smell of a real book, just in case… [now will that be moldy-basement or Granny's-attic?!]
A Merry Christmas to Everyone!
24 Thursday Dec 2009
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
From Bygone Books
A Christmas Tree of Books
22 Tuesday Dec 2009
Posted in Books
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From the New Yorker:
“A Christmas Carol”
20 Sunday Dec 2009
Posted in Authors, Books, Literature, News
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol remains one of everyone’s favorite holiday reads, even after the 165 years since it was published. I wrote a previous post on the publication history here – so I do repeat myself about my childhood memory of watching the 1951 Alastair Sim movie adaptation on a VERY small B&W television [I am dating myself here!] – I can still hear those dragging chains of Jacob Marley’s ghost haunting the mind of the miserly Scrooge. It was a scary, yet heart-warming show for a small child to see – and I think it has shaped my life in unseen ways. There were a number of other movie adaptations through the years [go to IMDB to peruse them all - under a Christmas Carol, Scrooge, etc!] – but it was this first encounter that stays with me. Sort of like Miracle on 34th Street – no matter how many new movies are made, it is really only the Maureen O’Hara / John Payne / Natalie Wood version that shines.
[But I digress - this reminds me of my book group that try as we may to talk about the BOOK, we always end up talking about the MOVIE...]
A Christmas Carol was first published on December 19, 1843 – you can read all this in my previous post, but today I just wanted to add that the Morgan Library & Museum has the manuscript on display [until January 10, 2010]. I was at the Morgan to see the current Jane Austen exhibit but also was anxious to see this special Dickens treat on display. I confess my heart skipped several beats looking into the case that houses the manuscript – here was Dickens’s own handwriting, his corrections, elaborate cross-outs, a speedy re-working of his imagination, and the words ”Tiny Tim will die…” And again, I realize how much a part of our culture is this story…
[John Leech, Mr. Fezziwig's Ball (detail), original watercolor illustration for Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol, first edition, 1843. Purchased by J.P. Morgan Jr., 1934; PML 30615]
From the Morgan website:
Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Mr. Fezziwig, Bob Cratchit, the Ghost of Christmas Past—in the age of film and television these characters from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol are universally familiar. The story has been told as a stage musical, a serious dramatic film, and a modern comedy.
But, in the end, it all comes back to a magical book written by Dickens in a six-week flurry of activity in late 1843. Greeted with universal acclaim at the time of publication, A Christmas Carol might rightfully be called an “instant masterpiece.” William Makepeace Thackeray called it a “national benefit” and an American factory owner gave his workers an extra day’s holiday when he had finished reading it.
When the manuscript was returned after printing Dickens arranged for it to be finely bound in red morocco leather and presented it as a gift to his solicitor. It was purchased by Pierpont Morgan in the 1890s. Visitors to The Morgan Library & Museum can view the original manuscript by Dickens in a special presentation in the museum’s famed McKim Building.
The manuscript reveals the author’s method of composition: the pace of writing and revision, apparently contiguous, is rapid and boldly confident. Revisions are inserted for vividness and immediacy of effect. Deleted text is struck out with a cursive and continuous looping movement of the pen, and replaced with more active verbs and fewer words to achieve greater concision. Dickens’s manuscript shows vividly his efforts to create the highest-quality literary work in the shortest possible time.
Further reading:
- A sample of Dickens handwriting
- Bygone Books post on A Christmas Carol
- An article at Fine Books & Collections “On Stage with Charles Dickens”
- The Morgan Library & Museum website for more information, an audio discussion of the manuscript and additional links
and just added: Marley and Me by Morgan Meis at The Smart Set of Drexel University
A Website snafu…
02 Wednesday Dec 2009
Posted in News
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[Note that all is now in proper working order!]
Please note that my Bygone Books website has a malfunction in the shopping cart – if you see something you would like to order, please call me [information is on the website] - I will process the order right away by either charging your card directly or invoicing you through PayPal – my apologies for the inconvenience – this hopefully will be remedied shortly.
