by Jas Faulkner Carr: Artists are members of a privileged class. Art is absurdly overrated by artists, which is understandable, but what is strange is that it is absurdly overrated by everyone else… When I was in school, on certain afternoons we all had to do what was called Labour-weeding, sweeping, sawing logs for the … Read more
My mother was confused when I referred to the bathroom as the loo. When I explained it was the British equivalent of toilet, or bathroom, she mused with puzzlement, “But the House Hunters show when in England calls it a water closet.” I then had to explain that there is a difference between the loo, … Read more
Who can afford to collect photoplays these days? I checked out a link that ABE sent me. It has a super page full of gorgeous dust jacketed books representing early cinema. Most novels made into films at the time were called photoplays, and published by Grosset and Dunlap, a company known for producing reprints of … Read more
One of the amazing incidents I encountered when a bookseller for a major mystery store in Manhattan, was introducing one author to another and watching their interaction. Sometimes authors arrived at their current profession via other routes, ones where they may have gained success and fame, and now are trying their hand at writing. As … Read more
Thank you so much for protecting us from Apple’s attempts to monopolize the e-book industry. Sure, they set e-book prices and colluded with publishers to do so. And, maybe from the short term view of the consumer and U. S. government, that is a very bad thing. As if monopolies are non existent except for … Read more
A few interesting book-related links and errata I’ve found in recent days. Some of them are related to each other, others are just awesome, and some are both related to each other and awesome. It’s just a few things to keep you thinking about books today. 1) This is a video from AbeBooks which looks … Read more
by Jas Faulkner When the news came out that an inebriated Thomas Kinkade had urinated on a Winnie the Pooh statue that was standing in a corner of his suite at a Disney-owned resort, I raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. I had once stayed at a Disney-owned resort in Florida a few years back and … Read more
“The late, great Charlotte Armstrong once found herself at a party, and she met a woman who asked what she did. Charlotte replied, “I’m a novelist.” “What do you write?” asked the woman. Charlotte responded, “Mysteries.” The woman replied, “Oh, I don’t even have the time to read good books.” Good books. Whatever they are. Why are … Read more
