"In the old days, if you wanted to get your hands on a first edition of Syumanjaja's Aku, or copies of the works of Dickens or Camus, you would go to Kramat Kwitang in Central Jakarta."
"But market demand has changed. Very few people go to Kwitang now for secondhand books in good condition, they are mostly after cheap text books. "
"DURHAM, N.C. Some events for this week's N.C. Festival of the Book at Duke University:
Thursday, April 27:"
"_ 8 p.m., Duke Chapel: Keynote on writing for social change by Barbara Kingsolver, author of "The Poisonwood Bible."
"ATHENS, Ga. — Laid out on a table-length display at the University of Georgia library one day each year is the document that established a government to rival the one in Washington, plunging Americans into civil war."
"The only known copy of the Confederate Constitution draws hundreds of visitors to Athens every April 26, which is Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia."
"NEW YORK -- The Pierpont Morgan Library, closed for almost three years, showed off its $106 million renovation on Tuesday with expanded space to display its priceless collection of artworks and manuscripts, which include three Gutenberg Bibles."
"The expansion includes a modern, glass-and-steel addition by Italian architect Renzo Piano, who designed the Pompidou Center in Paris and is now working on the expansion of New York's Whitney Museum of American Art, among other projects."
"The Jane Webster Pearce Collection, a bequest to Bowdoin College, was received in February 2006. Ms. Pearce, a resident of Green Island, Mt. Desert, Maine, and an avid bookbinder and book arts collector, acquired over 100 works between 1977 -- when she purchased her first piece, a designer binding by Gérard Charrière -- and her death in August 2005 at the age of 94. In bequeathing her books to Bowdoin College, Pearce intended the collection both to remain intact near the family home on Green Island and to be accessible to the broader public."
"When it comes to books, older is often better. And at age 57, the city's beloved and biggest used-book sale appears to be thriving in a climate of Internet competition, new technology and corporate changes."
"Last year, the Greater St. Louis Book Fair saw a 20 percent increase in sales, and this year may be one of the largest events in the fundraiser's history."
"A UNIVERSITY has shelved controversial plans to throw away 22,000 library books after objections from students and academics."
"Dundee University had planned to bin thousands of books because of demands on space, even though a £7.5 million library extension is due to open."
"The about-turn comes after a Dundee economist, Neil Robertson, claimed that he bought a four-volume set from the library for 80p and subsequently found the same books being offered for sale at £1,500 on eBay. "
"A family’s book collection that spans five generations was awarded first prize at the fourth annual HCM City Fair."
"Tran Dinh Son’s extensive private library, which has been handed down from generation to generation in the HCM City-based family, is the family’s prized possession."
"Son said his family’s guiding principle was: 'property and assets can be lost but not books'."
" The appearance of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1998 helped publicize the work of the Edith Wharton Restoration, which less than a year later received a $2.9 million federal grant for restoration of the author's country home, The Mount. Yesterday, first lady Laura Bush was in Lenox to mark a defining moment in The Mount's recent history, the return of the author's library from England."
"Rare documents marking the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde and unpublished John Betjeman poetry have been donated to Leeds University thanks to a man who was so impressed by the help he received there."
"The latest literary treasures were made possible thanks to benefactors Geoffrey and Fay Elliott, whose support will be celebrated today, when a reading room is named after them."
"Their association with Leeds began when Mr Elliott used the university's library for research. He was so pleased with the expert help he received from Russian archivist Richard Davies that the couple decided to give their collection of about 200 rare books, manuscripts and letters to the university."
Read this article.
"A Japanese version of the Compendium of Materia Medica, an ancient Chinese medicine masterpiece, has been found in Northeast China's Jilin Province."
"The Japanese version was translated in 1927 and published in 1929 by a Japanese publishing house, which produced specialist reference publications, said Pi Fusheng, a collector of and expert on ancient documents in the province. "
"In his 'American Moments' television series, actor James Earl Jones described Amanda Buck's ancient methods of restoring antiquarian books as literally 'stitches in time.'"
"Using many hand-binding techniques developed by second-century Coptic monks, Buck labors quietly, restoring aged and rare books in a back-country barn loft studio in Spencer County, Ky. "
"Christie's in Paris is the sort of place where even Louis XVI would have felt underdressed. The glacial young women behind the desk, whose matching uniforms make them look like two of the early Supremes, are faultlessly coiffeured, sublimely correct. The austere neo-Classical architecture and wood panelling exude the very strong impression that vulgarity - let alone hanky-panky - will not be tolerated."
"Yet this aesthetic holy of holies is currently housing a collection of what the sale room likes to call "historical erotica" but is basically the biggest collection of very naughty books in private ownership. They are to be auctioned next week in what is the first sale of its kind for Christie's and nerves are a little frayed at the stately auction house which is anxious not to develop a reputation for peddling smut."
"The Morgan Library is not just a well-preserved relic from Manhattan's Gilded Age, but a modern museum with world-class collections and a full schedule of special exhibitions."
"Mohamed Sadeq, the proprietor, is appropriately proud: "I preserve and trade in anything related to knowledge and culture, so long as it comes on paper, from theatre tickets to film posters, musical notation, newspapers and books, whatever comes in paper..." Distinct from some 130 second-hand bookshops in Azbakia in that he only deals in genuine rare publications, this charismatic man started out in Al-Azhar, where his father relocated from Darb Al-Gamamiz."
"French writer Anatole France was asked by someone admiring his library if he had read all the books in his collection. France responded by saying, "Not one-tenth of them. I don't suppose you use your Sèvres china every day?" Literary critic Walter Benjamin subsequently used the quote in "Unpacking My Library," an essay in which he tries to explain the perplexing qualities of collecting things. In this case, the "things" happen to be books."
"Doug Manchee's work currently on display in the cloistered glass cases of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Rochester also is about collections of things --- in particular, images of the pages of books. But what is perhaps new about this collection is that Manchee uses digital technology in the production of multiple scanned images that are layered one upon the other until all the information becomes a composite, or a "concretion" on a single page. All the text is there for us to see but not to read: in the process of stacking or collaging together a book's pages, all the lines of text come together as dense, black bands that efface all that was written. Nothing remains decipherable."
" United - the Manchester United Opus - was launched for pre-orders yesterday at Old Trafford by Sir Bobby Charlton and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but anyone rushing to buy it may be well advised to pause and consider a few pertinent statistics. Weighing 5st 7lb - 35kg - and measuring half-a-metre square, this is not so much a coffee-table book as a coffee table."
"And the cost? Well, let's look at the cheaper end of things first. There is a print run of 9,000 containing the signatures of both Charlton and his fellow knight Alex Ferguson which would only set you back $5,300 (£3,000). You could spend more - $7,100 (£4,050) - for one of the 1,000 versions which also include signatures from Eric Cantona and Bryan Robson."
"MIDDLETOWN - Written by Irish monks during the Dark Ages, the Book of Kells is credited by scholars with helping to save modern civilization."
"A copy of the 680-page illustrated book, considered a national treasure in Ireland, was recently on display at Middletown Library, on loan from resident Richard Roden. "
"Tehran -- The Netherlands is to transfer a collection of ancient manuscripts including 2000 stone inscriptions and 100 paper manuscripts to Iran in a near future."
"'Three Iranian collection owners residing abroad have collected numerous precious manuscripts from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Central Asia for 12 years and since one of these three people is residing in The Netherlands, the entire collection was sent to him by the other two to be kept in a single place. Last year they offered Iran’s National Library to submit this collection to this center so that it may be kept inside Iran,” said Habibollah Azimi, director of handwritten and rare manuscripts of Iran’s National Library.'"
"DEARBORN: - A nearly 300-year old English
translation of the Holy Qur'an -- the Islamic scriptures -- has been
donated to the Islamic Center of America (ICA) by Richard L. Steinberg, a
Detroit trial attorney. The book is to be held in trust for all Muslim
peoples in metro Detroit at the ICA, which is the largest mosque in North
America."
"'If we do not stand together as a nation, but become a community of
clashing cultures and warring factions, we will all be destroyed,"
Steinberg stated. "Jesus said 'I give to you a new commandment that you
shall love one another' and the Qur'an says 'I swear by the declining day
that man is in deep loss except for those who believe, do good deeds, urge
one another to the truth and urge one another to steadfastness.' This is
the community our faiths are calling us to.'"
Read this article.
"The Anderson Memorial Library in Emporia is the second oldest Carnegie Library in Kansas."
"It's quite unique. Made of limestone, there's a wood framed dome, artful pressed tin ceilings and colorfully ornate stained glass windows."
"We hear the name 'Carnegie,' but who is he and what exactly is a Carnegie Library."
"he National Geographic Society has raised eyebrows over its pact with a controversial antiquities dealer, write Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino"
"In its recent unveiling of the Gospel of Judas, the National Geographic Society credited Swiss antiquities dealer Frieda Nussberger Tchacos with "rescuing" the ancient manuscript, described as one of the most important archeological finds of the last century."
"SALT LAKE CITY - Police arrested one man and recovered most of the 13 religious books stolen this week from the Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum."
"BEIJING -- Zhang Ping was engrossed in fixing a crack in a 10th-century Buddhist manuscript recently, using special paper, paste and, most of all, his patience."
"Looking up from his work, the usually-calm National Library of China (NLC) ancient-book restorer looked somewhat anxious."
"'We are still halfway through repairing the dilapidated scrolls from the Dunhuang Grottoes in Northwest China, which would stretch 10,000 metres if placed end to end. We need another six years to finish the job.'"
"SACRAMENTO - A bibliophile is someone who likes books. Michael Harrison was a bibliomaniac."
"And because he lived to be 107, his obsession with books grew to legendary proportions, known to collectors and scholars throughout the world."
"On Friday, nearly a year after Harrison's death, UC Davis made public a 21,000-volume collection bequeathed to the campus library by the peculiar man with only a high school education. The collection, focusing on Western Americana, is massive, stunning and worth millions."
"The first phase of the complex measures about 3800 square meters. It provides facilities for people to set up their works in this hall, said an engineer present on site. The entire area is air-conditioned. The library shall have a special section devoted to rare books and also provide computer connectivity. The auditorium has special vents for air-conditioning at the floor-level and has a capacity of 400 and boasts of a specialised projection and sound system."
"One of the most important 18th-century atlases of America will be at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, which opens Thursday night."
"In 1644 Roger Williams, original theorist of the separation of church and state, traveled to London to print his classic call for religious toleration, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution. Parliament ordered copies of the book burned, but Williams saved some and brought them back to Rhode Island."
"This August, when Phoebe Simpson, a librarian at the Rhode Island Historical Society, opened some other historical writings on a shelf with rare books, she discovered one of the few 1644 editions of Bloudy Tenent that remain (only five other copies of this edition are known to exist). 'I just broke out in goose bumps," Simpson said in an interview. "It was the pure excitement of touching something that Roger Williams touched.'"
"The librarian at the Kerala Sahitya Akademi is obviously dedicated to his work, and showed me the way they digitalise rare books. He has also created a literary website for Malaylam writers with pictures, bio-data, material from their books, and where possible, an audio track of them reading from their work."
"SALT LAKE CITY Two first-edition copies of the Book of Mormon were among a dozen rare books that could be worth more than $300,000 stolen from a museum, authorities said."
"The theft at Pioneer Memorial Museum on Capitol Hill was discovered early Wednesday, and investigators believe someone used a hammer to shatter a glass case where the books were stored, said Lt. Tony Garcia of the Utah Department of Public Safety."
"Stolen were 11 copies of the Book of Mormon, the central text of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a Tibetan wood printing block, said Garcia."
"TIRUPATI: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to entrust the task of digitising the Tamrapatras (manuscripts of brass leaflets) containing Annamacharya Sankeertanas to Chennai-based Soft India Private Limited."
"These Tamrapatras are several hundreds years old and more sacred than the valuables with the TTD as they contain the sankeertanas of the saint poet."
"The Patika Bookstore in the café provides the perfect hideaway for the travelling bookworm, thanks to its rich supply of rare book collections, as well as the latest news."
"The health conscious are also well catered for, with the Taylife Spa Detox and Wellness centre, which offers yoga, relaxation classes, massages and detox."
"BRANDED scandalous and obscene when originally published, a first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses has sold for more than £20,000 at a Salisbury auction house."
"The book, sold by Woolley & Wallis, was found at the bottom of a box of bric-a-brac that had been taken to the company by a local family."
"THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Archives Department has ambitious plans to decipher old and rare manuscripts in the state and put them on the internet. But there’s a catch. The department can’t get hold of enough translators to do the job it has in mind."
‘‘The manuscripts are mostly in old scripts such as ‘Vattezhuthu’ and ‘Kolezhuthu.’"
Read this article.
"'I collect work on themes of memento mori [the Latin proverb: remember you must die] and eroticism, but I'm also fascinated by surrealism and concrete poetry - it's not all sex and death.'"
"'I have rare books by Picabia, Man Ray and Duchamp, and works by artists like Richard Tuttle, Lawrence Weiner and Joseph Beuys. I have prints by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, and a Max Ernst drawing of André Breton which is always up on the wall.'"
Read this article.
"More than 200 rare books linked to the author Bram Stoker have been handed over to Dublin City Library."
"The collection includes copies of books on vampires and Transylvanian history likely to have been used by Stoker for his classic novel, 'Dracula'. "
"Michael and Jinny Isakson, formerly of Bismarck, have made a donation to The Library Foundation Inc., which funds projects at Bismarck Public Library."
"The Isaksons gave $150,000 to the foundation, adding to the coffers that have provided the library's computers, rare books, CDs and more."
"Lost for almost 1,700 years, an ancient Coptic text that tells a very different story of Judas and his relationship with Jesus moldered in a Hicksville bank safe deposit box for 16 years. The "Gospel of Judas," unveiled publicly Thursday, could be one of the most important texts in history, claiming that Judas was acting on Jesus' request when he handed Jesus over to the authorities."
"Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin."
"The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin."
" The ideal candidate to see Michael Winterbottom's wonderfully dry making-of-a-movie spoof Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story would be a Brit or anglophile who's plugged into movies and/or showbiz."
"The worst would be any bibliophile who regards Laurence Sterne's 18th-century novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, as a sacrosanct work of literature. "
" Wu, initially a book collector, bought an English book on the 1937 Nanjing Massacre by chance in 2002, which turned out to be of high historical value."
"Wu began investigating the war and decided to set up a museum so that people could remember and learn more about the tragedy and the war itself. "
"Judas Iscariot, long reviled as history's quintessential betrayer, was actually the best friend of Jesus and turned him over to authorities only because Jesus asked him to, according to the gospel of Judas, a long-lost document revealed Thursday by the National Geographic Society."
"The UC Davis Library will unveil a historic collection of Western Americana, one of the largest private collections ever to be donated to a university library. The collection, donated by a Sacramento-area couple, contains more than 20,000 volumes, many of them extremely rare, as well as Western and Native American artifacts. The collection ultimately will be available to researchers and members of the public."
"GREENSBORO -- At the new entrance to UNCG's Jackson Library, students are met by a giant, yellow disembodied head. It's not a student art project or some strange publicity stunt -- it's the "death mask" of school founder Charles Duncan McIver; an eerily life-like mold of his face taken from his corpse."
""As one of the central cultural institutions in Croatia, the mission of our institution is to promote Croatian culture, research and science," said Josip Stipanov, director of the National and University Library. "Leveraging the flexibility and power of the Endeavor solution will not only enable our staff to become more efficient in their daily work, but it will also provide citizens with the enhanced ability to interact with a wealth of historical and contemporary resources."
Read this article.
"F you're looking for something to collect, with an eye for investment, some depth and variety, think books."
"One of the most traditional of collecting fields, books attract people for all kinds of reasons, but for a seasoned collector the information contained in a book can sometimes be the least reason to buy it."
"Illustrations, bindings, the quality of the work, rarity and historical associations all add to the value of any volume. "
" A Perfect Vision: The Rare Book Collection of William Holland Wilmer, an exhibition of works from a collection of more than 400 books on astronomy, medicine, optics and ophthalmology that have been out of public view for nearly three-quarters of a century, opened on April 1 and will run through June 30 at the George Peabody Library."
"William Holland Wilmer, pre-eminent physician and founder of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, was also a passionate bibliophile who amassed an exceptional collection during the 1920s and 1930s. "
"Visitors can view 54 world-renowned historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, Magna Carta and a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible."
"The rare-book collection is on loan from The Remnant Trust, a public educational foundation headquartered in Hagerstown, Ind."
"The Trust shares original and first-edition works dealing with the topics of liberty and dignity. Park Tudor is the first elementary/secondary school to house the collection, which generally is available only to universities."
"Bancroft Library officials have selected more than 350 of the library's rarest and most historic holdings for an exhibit celebrating the library's 100th year."
"Running through Dec. 3, the exhibit combines pieces of California history with first editions of Copernicus and Galileo, ancien tEgyptian papyri with images of the Beat poets, mementos of the Black Panther movement with an extremely rare and fragile 16th century scroll illustrating the life, loves, wars and rituals of Cuicatec rulers who lived in what is now Oaxaca, Mexico. The scroll, called the Codex Fernandez Leal, is probably the most valuable item in the library's collection."
"DUTTON'S BOOKS in North Hollywood is closing."
"'On your marks! Get set! Get a plate! Graze!'announced Edward Hoyenski, assistant to the curator in the Rare Book Room to kick off the taste competition."
"The competition was part of NT’s seventh annual Edible Books Festival Monday in Willis Library’s Rare Book Room."
"Personal favorites: Collect books by an author you love or on a subject that fascinates you. "That way, no matter what you pay for it, you haven't lost any money," antiquarian book dealer Michael Utt says."
Read this article.
"A door curtain (kiswa) of the Ka`bah dating back to 1909 and a collection of rare Islamic manuscripts will be put on sale Wednesday, April 5, at the London-based Sotheby's auction house.
"They include a complete Qur'an in 30 separate juz', illuminated Arabic manuscript on paper and dating A.H. 1004/A.D. 1595."
"Beijing: China will adopt Egyptian techniques used to preserve the murals in the pyramids to save a number of Chinese ancient books which are in bad shape."
"'China's ancient books may be destroyed by acidification within a hundred years if repair techniques are not improved,' director of the rare book department of the National Library of China, Zhang Zhiqing said.'"
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