Saturday, December 15, 2007

All the latest in book news....

The Rockford Public Library in Rockford, Illinois has bought a former Barnes and Noble bookstore to house its Northeast branch. The space is 23,000 square feet-three times the size of the branch's current location. Don't get me wrong-I love bookstores, especially B&N, but this is kind of satisfying.

The Tales of Beedle and the Bard, a limited edition, handwritten and illustrated book of fairy tales by J.K Rowling, sold for nearly $4 million at Sotheby's last week, the highest ever paid for a modern literary manuscript. Amazon.com Inc. is now the proud owner of one of only seven copies of the book. Reportedly, Rowling gave the remaining six copies to "people closely connected to the Harry Potter collection." Proceeds from the sale will go to Children's Voice, a charity co-founded by Rowling that campaigns for children's rights across Europe. You can see pictures of the book on Amazon's website.

The Golden Globe nominations were announced this week. Quite a few of the favorites were movies based on books, such as Atonement, No Country f0r Old Men, A Mighty Heart, Away from Her, Into the Wild, Love in the Time of Cholera and The Kite Runner.

John Grisham's brother, Mark Grisham is set to co-author (with David Donaldson) a novel of the Civil War and the events at Wingate Asylum, under the title Bedlam South. Publication will be in 2008.

Looking for the perfect gift for your favorite librarian? Try In the Library perfume.

1 comment:

MissMcGyver said...

HAHA!!! YES!!! a Library bought a bookstore!! I, too, love bookstores, but this reminds me of the scene in You've Got Mail, when Meg Ryan's character goes into the big, mega bookstore that is shutting her down and is able to tell a customer the book she is looking for and the author, simply from a description--and she also gives her suggestion on which book to read first, as it's a book from a series. (It was The Traveling Shoes by Noel Streatfield, and Meg said to read The Ballet Shoes first) Such a library moment, and I think of it all the time. In fact, there is a movie version of The Ballet Shoes on DVD now, and I started to watch it last week. Anyway, I agree, very satisfying--and possibly quite conventient--all the book and media shelves are already there!!


Oh, and I an THRILLED about the library perfume. I have said for years that they should bottle the scent of a reading room filled with old books (like the 4th floor of my university library--all the old 18th century books were there--and you could not only touch them, but they let you check them out!!!)

I'm totally buying some, even if only the small bottle! And I'm sending the link to all my library-nerd friends, too! In only hope it smells as good as I imagine...