*If you read just one thing this weekend, make it this. Apparently, the story behind Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped is a true one. And it's even better than the book, if you can believe it. An excerpt from the article: "As yarns go, it pretty much has it all. There's a street waif who's actually an aristocrat, heir to half a dozen titles and estates in England, Ireland and Wales. A dastardly uncle who'll stop at nothing to usurp him. A kidnapping most foul, and a decade of toil as an indentured servant in 18th-century America. Then, against impossible odds, a dashing return, and a quest for justice through the courts that held all society spellbound." And it just gets better from there, folks.
I saw this Apartment Therapy post a few weeks ago and wasn't a fan. It came to my attention again today, and after giving it some more thought, I'm still not into the concept. I'm not a big fish person, and I could be accused of only appreciating them for their looks, but using fishbowls - excuse me, fish jars - as bookends is a bit much, even for me. It seems cruel to the fish, firstly; secondly, the logistics would be nightmarish; and third, where do you even find straight-edged jars? Looks like I'm in the minority, though, according to the poll. So what do you guys think? Is it hot or not?
Many thanks to Hope, who brought this sweet item to my attention. It's called the Puckman bookcase, and yes - it is deliberately referencing Pac-Man. It comes in yellow, black or white; if you're prepared to shell out, you can order a customized color. I just want to giggle every time I see it; I can't help myself. I'd love to walk into someone's home and actually see it on the wall. Make my day and buy it here.
This week's roundup was inspired by Project Runway's Seth Aaron, who mentioned in last week's episode that his daughter has a collection of 200 handbags (she's 11, by the way). His remark sent me on a hunt for tote bags - book-themed totes, to be exact. Check out what I unearthed after the jump.
The London Review of Books is Britain's most esteemed literary magazine. Published fortnightly, it features essays, reviews and the most outrageous personal ads ever set in type. The following is a selection from the latest issue.
*Pietas and Piñatas! Reply now to enjoy a front-row seat at one of my least disturbing puppet shows. Lutheran agit-prop ventriloquist and latter-day burrito enthusiast (M, 40).
*Are you 43-60, a bit sleazy but attractive, funny and a ladies man? That’s my type - but I’m open minded and I’ve been good long enough! Slim, pretty, smutty, witty Brighton woman (49) want you.
*It’s true. I have more than 200 books about post-revolutionary Russia. It’s my thing. I’m that guy. Write anyway.
*I pride myself on being very well lubricated. Lover and, more importantly, gentleman, 53.
*This is an advert full of cheap innuendo, lazy come-ons, and needy sexual impropriety. Just like the LRB letters page. Woman, 49.
*My Vostok, your Salamanca. Whilst my pet names for you will recall early Soviet space projects, your terms of endearment for me will be tributes to the golden age of locomotion. Our love-making will be legendary and scholars will write about it in text books 700-pages thick. These books will be bound in leather and sit upon mahogany shelves in libraries filled with the scent of rich cognac and many taxidermies. Perry Anderson will review them all favourably in this very magazine. Upon submitting his article, he will retire. The piece will contain no edits, and every reader will weep upon seeing it. Man, 60. West Bromwich.
*Let your mind be dazzled, your senses tingled! I am a geography teacher in West Hartford. M, 57.
*An iPad for kids? Thanks to Mattel, yes. It's the Fisher-Price iXL, an app-powered tablet that goes on sale in July. My childhood feels practically Victorian by comparison.
*University of Alabama Huntsville shooter Amy Bishop is apparently an attempted novelist. Gawker reports that based on the summary filed with the U.S. Copyright Office, "it sounds like The Martian Experiment has aliens, a female protagonist, and a whole bunch of bullets." Guess we'll have to add fiction writing to her list of crimes.
How neat are these? The work of Igor "Rogix" Udushlivy, these clever books incorporate a bookmark into their design, making the covers more than just pretty pictures.
Check out my favorites after the jump; browse the whole collection at Igor's website.
If you're currently in the midst of a winter freeze like me (will Chicago ever be free of snow?), maybe this will warm you up.
Every year since 1999, Half Price Books holds its Half Pint Library Book Drive, an effort that donates books to U.S. children in need. Last year, more than 104,000 books were given to the Half Pint Library program, with donations going to children in hospitals, schools and community outreach programs, among other institutions.
So what can you donate? Any type of childrens book, including Spanish-language books, in good condition.
As a Mac owner and book lover, I am completely lusting over the BookBook. It's a protective leather case that fits MacBooks and MacBook Pros. And it doesn't just look like a book - it has a rigid spine and hardback cover, making it tougher than a neoprene sleeve. At $79.99, it's a bit steep, but if you're looking for a quirky laptop case that's also functional, this one might just tick your boxes. More photos and info here.
*Let's go straight to the good stuff, shall we? What do Narnia and LOST have in common? Find out here. Want to prep for next week's episode of the show and find out what literary references to look out for? Check out the ever-trusty GalleyCat.
*The University of Chicago is a pretty standard academic press, churning out sedate, unassuming releases. Or, at least, it was, until it printed a book called Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis with an apt cover image.
Well, folks, it's been a crazy week at work (you know it's bad when you get home from your 9-5 job at nearly 10 p.m.). I'm not going to lie - I'm tired and feeling lazy, so today you get a cop-out post: movie trailers. First up is I Love You Phillip Morris with Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey; check it out and more upcoming book-to-film adaptations after the jump.
This. Is. Insane. Really; my mind=boggled. I want to know who owns this embarrassment of riches so that I can 1)curse them for making my not-insignificant library look puny and pathetic 2)become bosom friends with them so that I can rudely gawk at and dig through their collection.
On an inquisitive note - does the ladder not seem woefully inadequate?
Wish Her Safe at Home (NYRB Classics), the recently re-released 1982 novel by Stephen Benatar, begins innocently and optimistically. At first a type of delayed bildungsroman, the novel features narrator and middle-aged protagonist Rachel Waring, who inherits a house in southwest England and quickly relocates, determined to begin a new life as an independent woman. Attentive readers, however, will quickly realize that all is not well in Bristol, and soon after, attentive or not, the madness starts to creep in from the corners of every page. This leads some to call our Miss Waring an unreliable narrator, but I disagree with this prognosis completely. The events of the story that exist outside the narrator's mind are trivial; the meat and bones of the story are completely in Rachel's hopes and fears. There is no twist ending, no surprise, no light at the end of the tunnel, but instead the intricately detailed construction of a flawed and fragile mind.
If you're tempted by the thought of organizing your books by color but wonder how you'd ever find individual titles, this system might be a worthy compromise. For her senior grad project, Valerie Madill devised a shelving system based on colored sleeves. She originally designed it for libraries, but it could easily be adapted for home use. Books are divided into categories of your liking, then each category is assigned a specific color and those books are dressed in matching bands/sleeves. Thus, books are grouped into colors and look visually similar, while still retaining their individuality as well as a standard form of categorization. And there you have it - the perfect marriage of form and function! Ogle more pretty pictures at Valerie's site.
*Well, it was inevitable: Lady Gaga fever will soon be reaching bookshelves. The Overloook Press will release the first biography of the flamboyant singer, aka Stefani Germanotta, next month. The tome clocks in at 288 pages, 32 of which are dedicated to photos.
*In more music news, Lee Brackstone, editorial director at Faber, posted an open letter on the publisher's website asking singer Morrissey to let the company be the one to publish his memoirs. In what basically amounted to shameless grovelling, Brackstone wrote, "forlorn as this hope may be, I can only fantasise that at least you might read my letter through and consider the pleasures and prestige of being an author at Faber, the last great family-owned independent publishing house in the western hemisphere." Astonishingly, Morrissey has yet to respond.
*This one's lengthy (and juicy!), so here's the Cliff Notes version: Publisher Macmillian challenged Amazon's e-book pricing. Amazon removed buy buttons from all Macmillan titles on its site. Macmillan didn't budge. Amazon backed down. Macmillan won. Cause: the still-to-be-released iPad and iBook store. Oooh...
Booklicious is turning into quite the social butterfly! You can now add to the Booklicious goodness with a daily serving of tweets via @bookliciousblog and become a fan of Booklicious on Facebook.
IKEA's Billy bookcase just turned the big 3-0, and to celebrate, IKEA lined up 30 red Billys on Bondi Beach in Sydney. Australian publishers donated 7,000 books to fill the shelves, creating the world's longest outdoor bookcase. Beachgoers could purchase a book with a gold coin donation or swap one out with a read of their own, with all proceeds going to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. Click to view more photos of the event.
This shelving isn't everyone's cup of tea, being pretty industrial, but regardless of your tastes I think you have to admit it's still impressive (and just think how huge that room must be!). That ladder, though, is just a bit too railing-like for me. It really reminds me of the ladders you climb on to reach out-of-reach products at Home Depot and Lowe's.
I know, I know - on the surface, it's a bit of a stretch to cover a TV show on a book blog. But a couple of weeks ago, the folks at GalleyCat asked an intriguing question: Is LOST TV's most literary show? To tackle the question, they talked to TV blogger Nikki Stafford, who had some illuminating words: "The books are essential. The second season was the first time they came out a head of time actually told viewers that they would flash a book and they should watch for it ... in the beginning of season two ... Desmond chucks a whole bunch of things into his backpack, one was a copy of the book, 'The Third Policeman.' This was a book that came out in the 1960s by an Irish writer [Flann O'Brien]. I interviewed an editor at that publishing house and they sold 20,000 copies of that book in the weeks leading up to the episode."
My husband and I are making our way through the entire series of Frasier (we're up to season 9) and a few nights ago were treated to an episode featuring Niles' oft-mentioned library. I couldn't resist posting it here. It's the first time the room appears, and it's very true to character. The 2:55 mark made both of us groan with envy - definitely check it out. If you want to see what the tidied library looks like, go to 4:35 in part 3 of the episode.
is a true one. And it's even better than the book, if you can believe it. An excerpt from the article: "As yarns go, it pretty much has it all. There's a street waif who's actually an aristocrat, heir to half a dozen titles and estates in England, Ireland and Wales. A dastardly uncle who'll stop at nothing to usurp him. A kidnapping most foul, and a decade of toil as an indentured servant in 18th-century America. Then, against impossible odds, a dashing return, and a quest for justice through the courts that held all society spellbound." And it just gets better from there, folks. 
. The suit alleges that large parts of Jacobs' 1987 book were lifted and used in 
, Rowling's fourth book in the boy wizard series. 
(NYRB Classics), the recently re-released 1982 novel by Stephen Benatar, begins innocently and optimistically. At first a type of delayed bildungsroman, the novel features narrator and middle-aged protagonist Rachel Waring, who inherits a house in southwest England and quickly relocates, determined to begin a new life as an independent woman. Attentive readers, however, will quickly realize that all is not well in Bristol, and soon after, attentive or not, the madness starts to creep in from the corners of every page. This leads some to call our Miss Waring an unreliable narrator, but I disagree with this prognosis completely. The events of the story that exist outside the narrator's mind are trivial; the meat and bones of the story are completely in Rachel's hopes and fears. There is no twist ending, no surprise, no light at the end of the tunnel, but instead the intricately detailed construction of a flawed and fragile mind.
, a book by Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo, will feature this season. The novel tells the story of four tourists on their way to India whose travels are interrupted by the assassination of Indira Gandhi. 
is on its way to you. 
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