Sunday, December 20, 2009

Links & Reviews

Before I hunker down in the snowstorm for "Do Nothing But Read Day," here are this week's links and reviews.

- From the Eye blog, an interesting look at early book design.

- In Forbes, a look at forged modern first editions and the eBay world that allows them to persist. Offers some good, reasonable advice for those who'd collect them, too.

- Some fantastic images from the Nuremberg Chronicle, courtesy of BibliOdyssey.

- In the NYTimes, Margo Rabb writes on book thefts at independent bookstores.

- A fire at the Dean Heritage Centre in Soudley, Gloucestershire caused damage to some of the museum's archives, rare books and artifacts.

- Cornell University will partner with the Internet Archive to make available 80,000 already-scanned out-of-copyright works. [h/t Book Patrol]

- Paul Collins notes his current New Scientist article, "A History of Walking on Water."

- And on the other digitization front (i.e. Google Books), the ALA, ARL and ACRL sent a letter [PDF] to the Justice Department on 15 December requesting "active supervision of the settlement by the court and the United States."

- Ben Macintyre writes on Dr. Watson in the Times, calling him maybe the most "unfairly overshadowed character in English literature." And the University of Minnesota is highlighting its major Holmes collection with some multimedia goodies.

- From McSweeney's, "Letters to Santa Written by Shakespeare Characters."

Reviews

- David Nokes' Samuel Johnson and a new edition of Sir John Hawkins' The Life of Samuel Johnson: reviewed by Henry Power in the TLS.

- Amanda Vickery's Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England: reviewed by Andrea Wulf in the NYTimes.

- Peter Ackroyd's The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling: reviewed by Steven Livingston in the Washington Post.

- Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna: reviewed by Jane Shilling in the Telegraph.

- Thomas Mallon's Yours Truly: A History of People and Their Letters: reviewed by Richard Eder in the Boston Globe.

- Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall: reviewed by Karen Heller in the Inquirer.