Inside Jacket

Richard has been reporting back to us from Vancouver where he is attending the Vancouver Antiquarian Book Fair. There has been a steady flow of folks all day beginning with a line of about 50 attendees waiting to enter as the doors were opening. The fair continues tonight (October 15th) until 9pm and tomorrow 10am – 5pm at the Vancouver Public Library (350 West Georgia).

As we mentioned before the fair features top booksellers from across Canada including a number of our AbeBooks sellers. So if you happen to be in proximity to Vancouver this weekend, be sure to stop by the fair to say hello at the AbeBooks booth, and of course check out some beautiful books.

Here are some photos of today’s action:

I will be attending the Vancouver Antiquarian Book Fair on Friday afternoon/evening and all day on Saturday along with some other colleagues from AbeBooks. I’m looking forward to meeting some interesting booksellers and book-buyers, and also the folks from the Alcuin Society. AbeBooks has a booth at the event – come up and say hello, and take some free Abe swag. As we’re an online business, the opportunity to meet our customers face-to-face is invaluable. I will also be taking some pictures on Friday afternoon and, hopefully, getting them posted on this blog and the AbeBooks’ Facebook page.

The book fair takes place on October 15-16 at the Vancouver Public Library on 359 West Georgia Street. On Friday, the hours are 3pm – 9pm and on Saturday they are 10am – 5pm. It costs only $5 to get in and you are going to see some marvelous books.

It’s good to see the Vancouver Sun give the fair some space in today’s edition.

Ever browsed through the books in a thrift store or at a yard sale in the hope of discovering a signed first edition? We invited our customers to tell us about their greatest rare book treasure hunting experiences and they came up trumps.

Their tales feature gems from Cormac McCarthy, Hunter S Thompson, Ha Jin, Stephen King, C.S. Lewis and others. There is also a memorable story about a Charles Manson book (and his fingerprints), and an unforgettable Shakespearean discovery. Read about their discoveries.

The English author Susan Hill has written a ghost story, a very good one apparently, with an antiquarian bookseller as the main protagonist, Adam Snow. The Guardian reviewed Hill’s The Small Hand at the weekend. The book also has a lovely cover.

Snow is on his way back from visiting some wealthy clients when he gets lost driving around narrow country lanes. He takes a wrong turn and discovers a dilapidated, seemingly abandoned country house. Drawn by curiosity – or something darker – he gets out of his car and goes to explore the overgrown gardens which, according to a rotting and broken sign, were once open to the public. Standing there, surveying the decay and desolation, Snow feels a small hand creeping into his own: “It felt cool and its fingers curled themselves trustingly into my palm and rested there, and the small thumb and forefinger tucked my own thumb between them.” There is, of course, no child there. Snow is quite alone.

There is an interesting article in the Deccan Herald (Deccan is a large chunk of southern India) about Graham Greene’s devotion to rare books.

He made sure that books presented to him were always inscribed and signed by the author. Even as a teenager, he sought first editions and signed copies. He knew the value of a book signed by him. He did the book-crawl whenever he could, wandering from auction rooms to antiquarian bookshops to flea markets in England, picking up what felt valuable and beautiful to him. He was constantly swapping his collection, selling or trading an edition for another edition he desired more

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