5 comments about Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales.

1. If your not familiar with Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, it should be noted that they're writers and book collectors who often write about their love and/or obsession with book collecting. "Warmly Inscribed.." is their third such book. It's not uncommon for this pair to enter a bookstore just to see what's there and walk out $500 lighter with a first edition under their arm. This is their world of hardcore book collecting. So why on earth would someone pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for the same story that can be bought as a beat up paperback at a garage sale for under a buck? The Goldstone's first book does a better job of answering this question. In essence for investment, for art (first edition books are often in much better shape-book binding wise), and to be closer to "god'. What's it like to hold a book that Mark Twain himself probably held or Charles Dickens? And this is where "Warmly Inscribed leads us.
   
   The book is broken down into 6 main chapters with an additional afterword. About half of these chapters deal with the darker side of book collecting and selling. How can one be sure if Mark Twain held a certain book of his, even if he supposedly signed it? One chapter specifically dealers with forgers and a book buying system that both hunts down , but due to greed and economics, encourages forgeries. Another chapter speaks of the Internet, which has both help and hinders the local corner bookstore, another about the struggles of starting a new bookstore. A old joke goes "How do you make a million dollars? Take two million and open a book store."
   Other chapters are lighter in tone. One is about the Library of the Congress, which could merit a book unto itself; another focuses on a classic author lost to time and another chapter takes us to a Florida book convention.
   
   The stories, based on light reporting, are often very fun and informative. They do a pretty good job of making the book world, which is complicated-even for collectors, relatively easy to understand and appreciate. This particular book seemed a little fragmented in that there is no consistent theme and some of the chapters seemed a little light on material. The Florida Book Convention chapter was charming, but offered little in clarifying book collecting or book buying or books in general. Still, the Goldman's books are an easy way to spend a weekend escaping into a world of leather bindings, cool dust jackets, and cover pages.
   
   The book world is changing and in the afterword, the Goldstones make of point of showing that the first edition Harry Potter books are already bringing in thousands more than most of the great influential writers of the past 100 years. What does it mean? That's probably for the reader to decide. The Goldstones don't take and major stand on the issues, they're just there, like the rest of us, for the ride.



2. I always enjoy the Goldstones' book travelogues. Perfect for the beach or whenever you need a light and enjoybable read.



3. This pair write tales for bibliophiles, and this is their third book-about-books, featuring every aspect of the bibliouniverse, including: collecting, libraries, book fairs, catalogue and Internet trading, rare book dealers, independent booksellers, readers, and writers. In this volume, we meet Ken Anderson, the `New England Forger' who specialized in Pound, Yeats, and Eliot signed volumes before he was caught; we visit the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Reading Room of the British Museum, and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale.
   
   The two highly likable writers/readers/collectors, sometimes with daughter Emily in tow, warmly open their lives to their readers who, like them, get excited by books and appreciate the connections with people across time and place, with all their idiosyncrasies and passions. The Goldstone's books are not-to-be-missed gems.



4. Authors Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone are also book collectors and, in "Warmly Inscribed," they share their experiences in the used, rare and antiquarian book world. The tales are charming and anecdotal, filled with their love of books, and come across very conversationally, as if you were chatting with them over coffee instead of reading their adventures in a book. Also, it makes that particular world seem less stuffy and very accessible to everyone.

   Each chapter shares a small bit of the vast world of books and booklore, from the first chapter that deals with the immense colleciton of the Library of Congress (as well as their lovable eight-year-old daughter Emily and a missing teddy bear) to the true story of the New England forger Ken Anderson who created quite a to-do with the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. Plus, they give much of the history of books, bookfairs, and even a glimpse into the life of writer Max Beerbohm.

   This is a wonderful book to read, whether you're into book collecting or not.




5. I liked this book better than their first two. The somewhat precious plural narration is considerably more charming when it's not so constant, and their travels here are usefully varied. Most of all, this book is meatier, which really helps. The informative section about the New England forger adds a needed note of factual reportage. For me it anchors the rest of the book.

   I knew the Washington book scene fairly well at one point, and their account is a mixed success. The section on the Library of Congress is nicely done, but they managed to miss the two best bookstores in town: Booked Up, which they knew about but somehow couldn't manage to get into (?), and Andy Moursund's Georgetown Books in Bethesda. Also, although it's true that more people should know about it, I feel their appraisal of the Folger is lame and tame--the Folger always struck me as a really odd museum, consistently barely interesting enough to warrant a visit yet almost ludicrously top-heavy with Shakespeare First Folios. In this day and age, is there any conceivable need to have 79 First Folios in one place? Any independent-minded curator, it seems to me, would divest two-thirds of them to fund a broadening of the collection and an enlivening of the exhibits. (It's also almost anti-conservationist to have all of them together, where they might all be destroyed at one fell swoop by a natural disaster or an act of terrorism. It would be much better for their safety to spread them around a bit.) I would have liked a more critical viewpoint here.

   The Goldstones are not only savvier book people now, which is a relief (I found the "Duh, what's a nice book?" tone of "Used and Rare" too benighted), but they're getting to be better writers, too. The set-piece about Bearite is a hoot, and, despite her sparing appearances, Emily is strongly characterized as a sidekick--I really laughed at the vision of her sitting in the audience at sparsely attended book signings asking her parents how long it took them to write their book. I hope she figures more prominently in book #4. Next time, England? Archer? Get going, Goldstones!

No comments about Christmas Postcards: A Collector's Guide.

5 comments about Huxfords Old Book Value Guide (Huxford's Old Book Value Guide, 13th ed).

1. This guide is for the in-between books. It is for books that are not so old that they would be very hard to find. It contains 25,000 listings of old books with current values. It also lists a directory of over 200 dealers and collectors who are willing to buy the types of old books listed in the guide.
   
   Here are a few examples:
   
   John F Kennedy, Profiles In Courage, 1956 1st ed. F/NF $150.00
   Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962 1st ed. F/NF $150.00
   Woody Guthrie, Bound For Glory, 1943 1st ed. G/dj $65.00



2. When I purchased Huxford's Old Book Value Guide, I imagined that the books that were covered might be older than those written by Len Deighton and Marian Zimmer Bradley. There's lots of stuff from 1970 on, but coverage of genuinely old books is very sparse. The title of this guide is extremely misleading, but if late 20th Century books are your area of interest, you might find this useful. I didn't.



3. This book does list values of 25,000 books as it claims, but it is incomplete in some very frustrating ways that have to do with how it was put together. The authors apparently contacted a number of book dealers and collected their 'inventories' into a database. These were then consolidated into the listing(s) of this book.

   But what that means is that you find an extremely unsystematic selection of titles. You may find a $500 title that someone has been trying to sell for years right above a run-of-the-mill used-bookstore title selling for $15. You could find an author's second book listed, but not the first or third. As a lookup/reference tool is is hardly useful.

   I once thought this book would be a nice supplement to the other collecting books that focus on more high-end titles... something to take along to yard sales and the like to see if the $0.25 book was 'worth' $50 or $0.50. Well, even with 25,000 titles you can imagine that many more books are not listed here. Far too often I would not find a listing but COULD NOT KNOW if the book was valuable or not... its non-existence in this book just means one of the selected sellers did not have it in stock. I also kept finding entries in the $25/$30 range - right at the point where it might be a collectable underlisted by that one store or just their overpriced junk. With only a single such listing to consider, I just couldn't know.

   The overlarge physical size of the book also seemed unwieldy to me. Combined with the sense of slap-together technique and a look at the number of other "Huxfords" listings, I frankly feel that it is just an attempt to grab a piece of the growing 'collectibles' market.




4. I am sure this book is excellent for antiquarian/rare book lovers, but I like popular authors with books 20-30 years old too, and those seem to be lacking in this guide a bit. Unless you are a professional book dealer, you will not fetch these prices on the internet, it is flooded with booksellers and the worth of a fine book seems to be waning. But all-in-all it is a good guide to go by when looking up older hardbacks.



5. If you know your books fairly well to begin with, then this book will be at times, helpful. If you are looking for a way to bone up on collectibles, you may just be discouraged. A lot of very noteworthy books are left out, which leaves the reader to wonder if a little favoritism may be going on with the Author. Overall, I still had to rate a solid 4 for good effort in organizing a generally helpful refference guide to the new and seasoned book hound. For the money, it's a go.

No comments about The Idea of the Book in the Middle Ages: Language, Theory, Mythology, and Fiction.

3 comments about Design of Books.

1. That's a big territory to cover. It starts with selections of font and paper. It then works up to the design of entire families of books like the Penguin series, as of when this book was written.

   No one text can possibly cover the whole range of skills in book design, at least not in any detail. This gives a quick introduction to the many concerns of the book designer. Many topics will look familiar, such as harmonious matching of different fonts and selection of layout grids. Other topics are technological, like the strengths and weaknesses of different typesetting processes. Some choices won't be available to all book designers - choice of one volume vs. three or four, or choice of binding and cover material. Yet other concerns have to do with the business of book design, estimating design jobs and working with the authors, illustrators, and others involved in the book. The coverage may be sketchy, but the whole of the design process is laid out.

   The biggest problem is that the original edition came out in 1967. It predates effectively all of computer-based design. There are Jetson-like predictions of technology, though, such as the dream of Computer Composition: having typewritten text scanned (!?) automatically for typesetting. WYSIWYG never occurred to Mr. Wilson.

   Beyond lack of computers, its technology is archaic in other ways. Hand typesetting is still used in limited, artisan printing, but is obsolete for all commercial books. The tools of the designer have changed, as well. The real weakness, though, is its treatment of color. Again, printing technology has made photorealistic use of color feasible in most contexts. Some of the commentary is completely up to date, though. The garish, cartoony textbooks he criticizes have, if anything, gotten worse.

   There are some minor problems as well. The text makes reference to illustration 3-9, for example, which is not included in this edition. The "cover flaps" folded from the paper binding tend to get in the way. When they are the vehicle for a discussion of book design, the irony becomes annoying.

   This is an outstanding introduction to the full breadth of book design issues. It has weaknesses, but was never intended to stand alone as a typographic how-to. It still complements other texts very well.




2. This book is a distinctly mixed bag, so potential buyers should beware. On the one hand, its author is a master book designer whose opinions deserve special consideration. He has filled the book with rich and rewarding guidance that will endure. On the other hand, the book was written long before computers revolutionized the publishing industry, so it has a distinctly archaic - even obsolete - aura. Vast portions of the text are no longer relevant to modern publishing, and readers who rely on them will be very seriously misled. Newcomers should take note: this book cannot tell you how books are made today. There are other problems, too. The book was an incomplete survey even when it was new, and the author has the unfortunate habit of using technical terms that he has not explained. These serious shortcomings will create annoying obstacles for many readers. Still, the book has value for those who recognize its limitations. As one wanders from page to page, one has the sense of visiting some grand but long abandoned building whose former glories still speak through their layer of dust. For instance, the book is an interesting source of information about the history of book making and about the pre-computer state of its technology. And the author has included many useful examples of well-designed books, which repay careful study. The author's general advice about book design also retains much of its value. This is not a book that I would recommend for casual novices. It is much better suited to the respectful appreciation of those who already understand book making and who will recognize this book as a valuable artifact from a former era. Unfortunately, students will find that there is no modern alternative to this book. So although its value has diminished, it can serve as a useful stepping-stone for those who want to know how fine books are made. Proceed at your own risk, and bear in mind that many other books - none of them wholly satisfactory - must also be consulted for supplementary guidance within this sadly under-documented field.



3. This book is the best introduction (I know of) to the design, layout, and typography of traditional page and book design. This was written in 1967, long before desktop publishing and Web pages, but anyone who works in visual design can learn a huge amount from this classic work on page layout and typography.

No comments about King's Book of Kings: The Sha-Nameh of Sha Tahmasp/D1101P.

5 comments about Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards 2007: The Hobby's Biggest And Best Price Guide (Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards).

1. If you're looking for a one-volume price guide -- this is the one. Period. Forget about Beckett.



2. An excellent and quite comprehenwive listing of baseball cards and their values. In fact there is only one set I know of, reviewed by Mr. Lemke a year ago in Sports Collectors Digest, that was not included in the catalog. Still, I would recommend it most highly.



3. The book is better than most, of course, but it doesn't list many cards. For example, in the 2005 issue, there were cards listed, but in the 2007 issue, those cards were removed for some reason. Plus, in my initial issue, the pages were out of order in about 100 page increments. Thank goodness Amazon replaced it for me and the second issue was correctly paged.



4. I ordered this for my baseball card collecting husband and am very disappointed because the pages are not in order. There is a very large section of pages out of sequence. It makes it very difficult for my husband to rate and price his cards. I would love to return this defective book for a correct one! Then perhaps my confidence in ordering through Amazon would be restored.
   Thank you!
   Regina Bartels



5. The 2007 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards has the greatest breadth of any of the baseball card valuations that I've seen on the market, including Becketts. It gives approximate worth for diverse cards in Near Mint, Excellent and Very Good condition, and includes quite a range of cards from the old tobacco cards to card brands that are yet existent. There are numerous items that I'd never heard of, but have stumbled upon, and this catalog has helped 'ballpark' their worth. That being said, there are cards that I have not found within the catalog, but this has been a relatively rare occurence and has not significantly impacted my pursuance of this hobby. There is some occasional disagreement with Beckett's, which perhaps reflects a degree of relativity in value/pricing issues for cards considered by such books, but its diversity of information and almost biblical visage are impressive!

3 comments about Collecting Baseball Cards: How to Buy Them, Store Them, Trade Them, and Keep Track of Their Value As Investments.

1. Hello. I'm Donn Pearlman, author of Collecting Baseball Cards, and I appreciated all the wonderful response when it was first published in 1987, and a subsequent follow up edition two years later. Not a price guide, it was the first major "how to" book about baseball cards in many years when it was first published. But it has not been updated since then, and yes, it is verrry outdated in many respects.
   
   The information and advice about learning all you can about cards BEFORE purchasing still is valid; so's the info about encouraging readers to learn about card grading. But there's no info about the Internet, the many card companies that have come and gone since 1989, and other information that would be needed to make the book much more useful in the 21st century. Because of other professional commitments, I do not have plans at this time to write an updated version.
   
   Happy collecting all,
   -donn-
   Donn Pearlman



2. I READ THE BOOK MANY YEARS AGO AND IT WAS DATED THEN. I HAVE COLLECTED FOR 44 YEARS AND LOVE THE HOBBY, BUT THIS IS NOT GOING TO TEACH ANYONE ENOUGH ABOUT THE HOBBY TODAY TO BUY THE BOOK. IT IS SEMI INTERESTING BUT I THINK THAT IT IS FOR THE MID 80'S NOT TODAY.

   MR. PEARLMAN IS VERY KNOWLEDGABLE AND THE BOOK WILL GIVE YOU A GREAT AMOUNT OF INFORMATION FROM THE DAYS GONE BY. IT IS FUN TO REMEMBER THE PAST, YET WITH TODAYS ISSUES WITH CARDS AND THE HORRID AMOUNT OF CARDS BEING PRODUCED, THE DAYS OF COLLECTING AND TRADING ARE STILL HERE FOR THE CHILDREN. BUT WHEN I SEE A CHILD OPEN A $20.00 PACK OF CARDS AND IMMDIATELY LOOK AT A PRICE GUIDE TO SEE HOW MUCH THEY ARE WORTH (ACORDING TO THE GUIDES), FOR ME IT THAS TAKEN THE JOY OF THE SPORT AND COLLECTING AWAY. THERE HAVE BEEN SO MANY CHANGES SINCE THE PUBLISHING OF THIS BOOK THAT IT IS GOOD FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO COLLECT OLDER CARDS ONLY.




3. I thought I would get a current and comprehensive review of the hobby when I ordered this book. I purchased it new because I wanted a current edition. As soon as I received it I saw that its copyright (even though it was a third edition) was 1990. I read it anyway hoping that maybe they had attached a couple of new chapters to cover the internet and online auctions and their impact on the hobby, but no luck. This book needs updating badly. Too bad, I was hoping for advice and I got something that a 10 year old would not want to write his book report on because it's so badly outdated by current events.

5 comments about The Great American Paperback : An Illustrated Tribute to Legends of the Book.

1. Note: Your helpful votes are appreciated, and please remember that a short review (or recommendation) can still be good if it leads you to a great book.
   
   I've enjoyed thumbing through this book many times. It has a bunch of scantily clad females (racy in the old days, but quaint today), and they are either in crimes stories or characters in science-fiction stories.
   
   I'll just list some great covers:
   Page 26: "Dracula"--this cover shows Dracula creeping up to a sleeping blond woman--amusing.
   Page 113: "Revolt of the Triffids" has a city scene with a strange green plant attacking a woman, whose blouse revealing.
   Page 208: "Beyond the Farthest Star." This cover by an Edgar Rice Burroughs story shows a cat-like creature looking through an opening in a jungle at some astronauts who have crashed in their strange airplane.
   Page 135: This cover is over the top. It shows a green-faced man smoking a "Marihuana" cigarette. Under the cigarette is a woman lying down in her purple dress. "A cheap and evil girl sets a hopped-up killer against a city."
   
   Oh, for the good-old days of paperback covers!
   I would recommend buying a used copy. You'll enjoy it.



2. Yes,"PAPERBACKS,U.S.A.,A Graphic History,1939-1959"(Blue Dolphin Enterprises,Inc.San Diego,CA,1981)by Piet Schreuders(not Schruders),remains the best book on american paperbacks from the 'Golden Age'(published between 1939 and the early 1960's) .But,as a modest collector myself of these precious 'little books',I'm a fan of this work,penned by Richard A. Lupoff who is a comics connoisseur, a good short story writer,an interesting science fiction novelist and an outstanding non-fiction writer(author,for instance, of "EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS:MASTER OF ADVENTURE" an excellent biography of the creator of Tarzan).
   "THE GREAT AMERICAN PAPERBACK" as all the other titles published by Collectors Press is a "coffee&table book",with the advantages and disadvantages of its kind.I'm really not interested to list its disavantages.For me,Lupoff wrote an useful book,one of the best works about paperbacks,second only to Schreuders' "PAPERBACKS U.S.A." The selection of titles reproduced is almost perfect.The history of the american paperback is written with clarity,the chapters(covering the publishing houses) include all genera of paperbacks,the images(covers)are selected with generosity and the captions are opportune.
   Lupoff clearly knows the important paperback cover artists(almost all of them are represented).So,we have a large gallery of amazingly attractive cover paintings reproduced.Created by unique artists like LEO MANSO,STANLEY MELTZOFF,JAMES AVATI,ROBERT SCHULZ,STANLEY ZUCKERBERG,ROBERT JONAS,JAMES BAMA,ANN CANTOR,H.LAWRENCE HOFFMAN,EARLE K. BERGEY,RUDOLPH BELARSKI,GERALD GREGG,ROBERT STANLEY,RICHARD POWERS,NORMAN SAUNDERS,FRANK FRAZETTA,BARYE PHILLIPS,ED EMSH,ROBERT MAGUIRE and GEORGE SALTER.
   I highly recommend this very good book.



3. The task presented to Mr. Lupoff in making this book was formidable. He had to create a book that would appeal to paperback collectors, students of popular culture and the general public. I don't think he succeeded particularly well.
   Collectors will already know the vast majority of what is in this book and might disagree quite heartily with the grades of collectibility assigned to some of the books (only ...?). The obscuring of many covers by parts of other covers will also frustrate folks. Nothing really vital is normally blocked but when looking at a piece of art, one would normally care to see it in its entirety. The text of the book, while well written and factually correct, failed to engage me entirely. It was almost completely familiar territory and rarely went into any depth. Students of popular culture and collectors of art books will find some of these same flaws. For this reviewer the best part was the miscellany found with the descriptions of the covers/books. Neat tidbits of info and enthusiastic appreciation of the art made known Mr. Lupoff's appreciation for the books.
   The general public will either love or be indifferent to the book. The design is eye catching but the page coloring (an attempt to capture the sensationalism of paperback covers?) is often distracting and at times prohibitive to the enjoyment of the covers. The reading should be interesting to the uninitiated as Lupoff clearly enjoyed what he was writing about and the enthusiasm comes through.
   A little more information about the major paperback authors would have been nice along with a detailed index of cover artists. Any book that tries to seriously tackle the history of paperbacks in the United States and lacks an index listing for Orrie Hitt is doomed to mediocrity.



4. I received "The Great American Paperback" as a Christmas gift and hardly a week goes by that I don't dip into it. It's an overwhelmingly great book about a fascinating era of American publishing. Lupoff covers artists and writers well-known and unknown. There's a surprise on every page and visual treasure upon treasure. The text is equally interesting as Lupoff tells the stories behind the publishers, but it's clearly the book covers themselves that take center stage here. The layout (which sometimes presents covers slightly overlapping other covers) might have been improved, but overall the images are bright, sharp and big. Very few thumbnail views here. I for one hope we'll one day get to see a "Great American Paperback Volume 2" because as good as this one is, there's enough stuff out there to easily fill a second volume. Buy this book without reservation. If you have any love of Americana in general and pulp/paperbacks in particular, you'll fall in love with this book.



5. Richard Lupoff's colorful book is rather stunning at first glance but the more I look at it the more I see serious flaws.
   
   The presentation is too overwhelming. Several colors are used for the background of the pages and these mostly overpower the covers. These strong colors mean that some pages have white text which becomes tiring to read, especially tiny capital letter caption type.
   
   The overlapping of nearly all the covers was really annoying, in some cases one cover obscures just too much of another cover. A similar book, 'Jackets Required' by Steven Heller and Seymour Chwast has 270 covers (thankfully printed on white paper) none of which overlap and it is lovely to look at.
   
   As far as I can see there is no meaningful sequence to the covers, they are not shown by genre, year of publication, artist or publisher.
   
   The index is weak. This is a book collectors will use and I would expect an index to the 600 covers shown, possibly even an artist index, too. I wonder if the lack of a proper index is because at least a third of the pages have no number! The longest run I found was seven pages (58-64) but mostly it is runs of three or four pages through the book. Should buyers really have to put up with this?
   
   Another reviewer has noted how disappointing this book was, I agree, not because of what Lupoff has to say but because of the poor editorial production. The author probably had nothing to do with this. I still prefer 'Paperbacks USA' by Piet Schruders, a fascinating graphic history of the paperback, Lupoff says it 'is a landmark of paperback scholarship...'.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

1 comments about Fearless Fosdick: The Hole Story.

1. "Fearless Fosdick", a ruthless parody of Chester Gould's "Dick Tracy", was one of Al Capp's many brilliant creations within his comic strip masterpiece "Li'l Abner". It was also one of the funniest things ever to appear in the funny pages. Fosdick, a skinny, hatchet-jawed detective who is frequently riddled with enormous bullet holes (hence the title of this book), is the ideal of Abner Yokum and every red-blooded American boy, and stars in their favorite comic strip, within the "Abner" strip itself. Fosdick endures a world of corruption and his seventeen-year engagement to the beastly Prudence Pimpleton in order to slaughter members of the criminal underword for twenty-two-fifty a week.

   This handsome paperback from Capp's faithful re-publisher Denis Kitchen picks up where an earlier volume left off, collecting a handful of Fosdick stories (and one about Fosdick's fictional creator, Lester Gooch) from the late fifties and early sixties, as well as a few of Fosdick's "Wildroot Cream Oil" ads from the period. Dave Shreiner's commentary is, as always, insightful and intelligent.