explore-blog:

This inside look at how a book is made from Russian publisher Lamartis makes it feel exquisitely intimate.

Also see how books were made in AD 400 vs. 1947 vs. 1961 vs. today.

(↬ Doobybrain)

(Source: )

book-aesthete:

An Antarctic Mystery
Jules Verne. Sampson, Low, Marston, 1898.

First edition in English, half-title, 64 plates (one coming loose and slightly torn without loss on inner margin), marginal note in ink, publisher’s olive green pictorial cloth, slightly rubbed at extremities, 8vo,

lydianea:

Howl’s Moving Castle, 2004

(via heliophobus)

book-aesthete:

Salome. A Tragedy in One Act
Oscar Wilder. Illust. Aubrey Beardsley. John Lane, 1907.

16 plates by Aubrey Beardsley, publisher’s decorative cloth gilt.

biblioguerilla:

An example of Civilité letter developed by the printer Norbert Granjon and used in printing Philippe Gaulthier’s epic poem on the life of Alexander the Great.

Lyon, Norbertus Granion typis proprijs, 1558.

(Source: the-final-sentence)

This post’s book is brought to you by Faber & Faber, one of the world’s greatest publishers. If I had to name just one publisher who really knew how to pick ‘em it would be Faber!

So, A Case of Conscience by James Blish. It’s one of those rarities that are both scarce in first edition and very good. There are thousands of books out there that fit one or the other category, but the true collectables fit both.

The story follows a group of scientists as the investigate a planet 50 light years from Earth known as Lithia, they find thereon a paradise filled with moral dilemma and existential quandries. But without spoiling the plot for those who haven’t read it - and read it you should - all that remains to be said is that it’s an outstanding novel.

It first appeared in a much abridged form in 1953 in IF Worlds of Science Fiction - just the introduction I believe. Two years later it appeared in one of Edmund Crispin’s Best Science Fiction anthologies as a short story along with Ray Bradbury and John Wyndham. The Faber edition is the first hardback edition of the full-length novel and was published in 1958 with a memorable jacket by Peter Curl, who perhaps is best known for the jacket of the UK edition of The Beautiful and The Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book won the 1959 Hugo award.

The vital issue point of note is on the dust jacket, which must contain reviews of the books published on or before 1958: Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss is acceptable, Greybeardisn’t. For quick reference, the first state has centrally aligned titles on the reverse of the jacket, later states have them aligned to the left.

The book’s worth over £1000 in a decent jacket, so keep you eyes peeled. The last copy I saw sell went for around £800, though in 2004 there’s a sale record for £240 with five other books!

Our copy is listed at £1350 here.

There’s no denying that Philip K. Dick’s titles are just awesome. That’s not a matter of taste, it’s entirely objective. They’re awesome.

1. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
2. Galactic Pot-Healer
3. Confessions of a Crap Artist
4. The Man Whose Teeth Were Exactly Alike
5. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
6. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
7. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
8. The Man Who Japed
9. A Handful of Darkness
10. In Pursuit of Valis

Now Wait For Last Year was a close runner, but that top-ten is just great! Clans of the Alphane Moon is great too!

As an added bonus, I’m going to include the handful of titles that, while still having a semblance of awesome, lack the finesse of the above. These are his five least awesome titles.

1. The Man in the High Castle.
2. Eye in the Sky
3. The Golden Man
4. We Can Build You
5. Solar Lottery

You can browse our Philip K. Dick titles here.

I thought I’d write a bit more about social networking. I am of course an expert in the field; I had a conversation about the properties of different wines earlier, well, not wines exactly, beer, and technically I wasn’t involved in the conversation, I was just in earshot. Ok, so I heard to drunks talking about Special Brew. Still, I’m an expert. I have 160 followers on Twitter. Whatever.

So, my basic point is this: Social Networking is not about shouting. Imagine you’re at a dinner party. How would you like to be seen?

• As someone with nothing to say? The Listener
• As someone with a plenty to say, but doesn’t listen? The Talker
• As someone who’s constantly talking shop? The Workaholic
• As someone who’s trying to sell you something? The Salesman
• As someone who just re-iterates everyone else’s story? The Storyteller

I guess the answer is none-of-the-above for most of you. If you like to just sit and listen, please do continue. Otherwise, the chances are that you’d like to see yourself as someone who does a bit of all of the above, but not too much of any (admittedly, my analogy breaks down a bit here as I rarely go to dinner parties and try and sell books, in fact I rarely get invited to dinner parties, not since the fruit bowl incident). Anyway, the point is that when in a social setting, one observes inherent social rules.

If you want to have a successful social profile, then you can’t just be a Listener as your interactions will be very limited - if you don’t post to your social profile and those of your cohorts, people will quickly lose interest. 

You can’t be known as the Talker or people will get fed up of you and stop inviting you to parties. In the Internet world, these are the people who share absolutely everything, from the inane to the marginally interesting. They think that you want to know everything that they think. Talk too much and you will be muted, even the interesting people need muting if they’re posting too much.

The Workaholic is possibly the one you want to spend most of your time as. Most people will subscribe to you because they’re interested in what you have to say about your work (or what you spend most of your time doing). In the book world, people will subscribe to you because they want to hear what you have to say about books - this is certainly more valid for businesses. Talking shop all the time isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does round your profile a bit if you venture outside now and then. It’s always nice to hear that a fellow dealer is listening to a certain piece of music, or has heard about a new film coming out. It’s always nice to know that there’s a bit of depth to the person/business, a bit of colour.

As for the salesman, that’s why you’re on the social networks - right? I’m a bookseller, all I want is for people to buy my books - right? Of course, that’s a huge part of the end game, but it’s not that easy to get direct sales from a tweet about a book you have for sale. Imagine chatting to someone at a book fair, and all they do is shove every book they’ve got at you one after another and tell you to buy it. You’d soon move along. I’m guilty of this; we list a large number of books on the various networks as and when they become available. But, and this is the important part, we hope that we’re offsetting this with other valuable posts. So that people don’t mind so much. That’s the desired effect anyway.

And finally, the storyteller. The chances are that you don’t have a massive amount to say at a regular enough pace to really get momentum. Some of the best bloggers I know out there do output at a decent rate and with decent posts, but post too much (like some of the online magazines) and you get swamped. Best to get a backlog of decent stories for when you run out of things to say.

The most important thing I’d like to stress is that it’s not just about putting stuff out there, however interesting it might be. It’s also about sharing, liking the posts and pages of others, giving them a +1 or an RT, joining their mailing lists, damn - even email them. Share, Interact and Mix it up!