Inside Jacket

CNBC.com has an article on rare books as an alternative form of investment. And yes, we do indeed have a signed first edition of The Catcher in the Rye for sale for $55,000.

John Windle, owner of John Windle Antiquarian Books in San Francisco, says collecting books is more akin to a savings account than a short-term investment. “Books tend not to lose value over the long haul,” he says. “It’s not a bad place to put money with a reasonable expectation that it will grow. But if you’re looking for something that’s liquid, where one of your kids comes to you and says, ‘Dad, I need money for tuition next week,’ good luck.”

Galleycat has posted a list of books that the late Marilyn Monroe has on her bookshelf, the list is actually a lot more literary than I would have pegged the bombshell for:

- The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett
- Paris Blues by Harold Flender
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
- Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
- Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- The Fall by Albert Camus
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
- Once There Was a War by John Steinbeck

Just for fun I limited these searches to books that were published before Monroe’s death in 1962, so if you click though you can get an idea of what her shelf might have actually looked like.

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.

A previously unknown, and unfinished, Dr. Seuss manuscript has unearthed and will be going up for auction. This is apparently the first time that an abandoned Seuss draft has seen the light of day, let alone been up for auction.

Take a look on Booktryst

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.