tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-359085 2008-12-06T12:13:04-08:00 Notes on book collecting from the editors and writers of Fine Books & Collections magazine. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-59600192 2008-12-06T12:13:04-08:00 2008-12-06T12:13:04-08:00 Scott Brown So once again, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is teetering on the brink and has turned to selling off rare books to make ends meet (or more accurately, pay their **creditors** 30 cents on the dollar). On December 11, at Sotheby's,...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=NfKvVMTtH0Y:CVL8vlHLWIo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/12/botanical-atrocities.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58722222 2008-11-19T06:04:38-08:00 2008-11-19T06:04:38-08:00 Scott Brown The bookseller Steven Schuyler reports (in English) on the Boston book fairs for a German book magazine.<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=75iLGrs9_Ko:ew1bKVJ7OHo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/11/a-cloud-of-caut.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57086211 2008-10-16T09:35:29-07:00 2008-10-16T09:35:29-07:00 Scott Brown The Harvard Book Store, a Cambridge institution since 1932, has been acquired by an Internet pioneer. You may remember that a few years ago a group of technology executives took over Kepler's, near the Stanford campus. It's funny how the...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=XV-EO_qBkk4:Zx9q3fFW_bE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/tech-mogul-goes.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57032875 2008-10-16T08:11:00-07:00 2008-10-16T08:11:00-07:00 Scott Brown A reader comments: Maybe I am wrong ... but you and your magazine seem continuously fascinated with the works of artists that are cutting up books and 'creating' art (I use the term loosly). And in sharing your interest with...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=PxOSsWE1Srs:qeupTyd5uwE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/guilty-as-charg.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57032983 2008-10-15T10:14:14-07:00 2008-10-15T10:14:14-07:00 Scott Brown A post on the Foreword Magazine blog, in which I pontificate again about the need to promote book collecting.<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=1x7MRP05aGU:m9bAKHpt3_4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/hearts-and-mind.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56768405 2008-10-10T08:52:00-07:00 2008-10-10T08:52:00-07:00 Scott Brown I asked one of the owners of Booklegger, the shop down the block from mine, what--based on her many years' of experience--she thought the current economic mess would mean for our businesses. She replied that the woman who started Booklegger...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=yESiThPhHLs:KAfy42j_Y4A:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/econ-101.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56653889 2008-10-08T23:36:00-07:00 2008-10-08T23:36:00-07:00 Scott Brown Why buy books when you can draw them? Tip: Bad Banana Blog. Drawing by Charlie Kratzer.<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=9U1n7gfhYyE:CkHK1kEs2B0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/compact-shelvin.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56652887 2008-10-08T15:47:00-07:00 2008-10-08T15:47:00-07:00 Scott Brown While neglecting my own blog recently, I have signed on as a guess blogger at Foreword Magazine. I wrote about a recent theft at my bookstore, and the lesson I'm taking from it. Philobiblos isn't impressed.<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=NWZAW6TwA5c:2nEEgQwcbnU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/we-were-robbed.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56652997 2008-10-07T07:55:00-07:00 2008-10-07T07:55:00-07:00 Scott Brown On Friday, I'll be handing out the awards in our third annual Collegiate Book Collecting Championship, which honors the top young book collectors in the US, Canada, and the UK (so far, those are the only countries with college-level book...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=MK_BGNnPxCo:6bLuLiKmgY0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/champion-book-c.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56653355 2008-10-07T07:54:00-07:00 2008-10-07T07:54:00-07:00 Scott Brown Rhae Lynn Barnes, from UC Berkeley, won first prize ($2,500) in the Collegiate Book Collecting Championship with an extensive collection of black-face minstrel plays, which was certainly the most controversial and troubling topic ever submitted to the competition. She won...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=-2kF-xlVElg:7ucMNtGUIl4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/first-prize-for.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56653723 2008-10-07T07:53:00-07:00 2008-10-07T07:53:00-07:00 Scott Brown Salesmen's dummies, that is, also known as canvassing books. These are mock-ups of books that door-to-door salesmen (if one can use that word, since most of the sellers were women) used to get orders. This is an esoteric alleyway of...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=IAXJLqJag8c:w3dKZFC0NnI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/second-prize-fo.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56654211 2008-10-07T07:52:00-07:00 2008-10-07T07:52:00-07:00 Scott Brown Third prize in the Collegiate Book Collecting Championship went to Jake Brunkard, from Swarthmore College. Since Swarthmore was the first college ever to hold a book collecting contest, back in the 1920s, I was very glad to see one of...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=6-yljvqUvw8:m9Knc_dE04U:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/third-place---b.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-56652799 2008-10-07T03:44:20-07:00 2008-10-07T03:44:20-07:00 Scott Brown I resolved to resume blogging on October 6. I'm only a week late. Thanks to Book Bytes for asking if anyone had seen me. I will be visible live and in person at the awards ceremony for our Collegiate Book...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=C3PoiqYvwdE:kGaKQHT3sh8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/10/im-back.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54139500 2008-08-13T10:21:43-07:00 2008-08-13T10:21:43-07:00 Scott Brown I visited Knol today for the first time. Knol is Google's response to Wikipedia. To my surprise, an article on Book Collecting was featured on Knol's homepage. I don't know if that is a sign that Google recognized me (a...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=GIHwVNqHoC0:_DrnbESxuvc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/08/book-collecting.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-54115702 2008-08-12T20:21:51-07:00 2008-08-12T20:21:51-07:00 Scott Brown The pair that designs Fine Books magazine, just sent me this image of another book sculptor, like Brian Dettmer, who was featured on the cover of our May-June issue. This is a work from Noriko Ambe.<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=UZN0XLv9ym8:T9noepXf0DM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/08/the-cut-up-arti.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-53618794 2008-08-01T08:34:56-07:00 2008-08-01T08:34:56-07:00 Scott Brown The big news today is that Amazon.com announced it was buying AbeBooks (and Abe's subsidiaries BookFinder, Fillz, and a minority stake in LibraryThing, among others). The press release says "AbeBooks will continue to function as a stand-alone operation based in...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=5X68gfFR2zw:90kEw2_78H0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/08/will-the-amazon.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-53574914 2008-07-31T17:29:14-07:00 2008-07-31T17:29:14-07:00 Scott Brown [UPDATE: Beres' obituary in the New York Times (August 3, 2008).] The Parisian bookseller and book collector Pierre Beres died on Monday. I was hoping some other blogger would pick this up so I could keep working on the magazine,...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=YKu-kNI_GXM:DWml2kDSSSg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/07/a-true-book-lov.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-53054730 2008-07-21T23:19:10-07:00 2008-07-21T23:19:10-07:00 Scott Brown Book thief or patsy. The world wants to know. [Image from the Daily Mail] In Slate, Paul Collins entered the fracas over the allegedly stolen (from Durham University) First Folio of William Shakespeare that walked into the Folger Shakespeare Library...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=H7XH3rptiZ4:Nj9cK284Ong:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/07/first-folio-fre.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-52699672 2008-07-14T16:57:03-07:00 2008-07-14T16:57:03-07:00 Scott Brown A couple of issues ago, Nick Basbanes wrote a laudatory column about Dana Gioia, the current chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Nick described how Gioia had taken over the NEA at its lowest point—when calls for its...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=Bqf_yFOiYZ4:VjT9N0VJ82c:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/07/liberal-bias.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-52146240 2008-07-01T21:27:20-07:00 2008-07-01T21:27:20-07:00 Scott Brown All the big ad agencies are developing blog strategies for their clients. Apparently, if your product hasn't been mentioned in a blog, you're on the road to bankruptcy. Yesterday, my wife and I received FIVE - count 'em, 5 -...<div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?a=i64TvXzBd48:pmN8lEQZhgg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FineBooksBlog?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> </div>http://blog.myfinebooks.com/2008/07/how-cool-is-blo.html