3 comments about Children's Picturebook Price Guide, 2006-2007: Finding, Assessing, & Collecting Contemporary Illustrated Books.

1. I just received this meaty (the size of a small town phone book!) guide, and was very impressed with the layout and scope. As a collector (and seller) of quality modern children's books, I have found most price guides of collectible books in any genre to be less than what I wanted in terms of accessibility of the information. This guide, however, starts with well-written chapters on the history of Children's Illustrated books, why and how to collect, how to identify first editions, and many other juicy morsels ("flashpoints" in bookseller jargon). While some of the information might not be new to me, it is presented as a whole which makes sense.
   
   What I did find disappointing was errors in the main body of the book: the price guide, organized by illustrator's name. On just a quick browse, I flipped to about a dozen illustrators whom I collect, and TWO of them had titles omitted from the list. This was surprising to me, since this book was published so recently, and the books are readily available on major online venues. A simple search on the illustrator's name will yield this information.
   
   Of course, any guide of this scope will have small errors. I have only been collecting in this area for the last 6 years, so I hoped the author's combined experience and resources would far exceed what I could reasonably research on my own.
   
   The authors started from scratch in this effort to create a Price Guide for modern (since 1930) Illustrated children's books, and what they achieved is a fabulously accessible guide to the why's and how's of collecting these exciting bits of our collective childhoods. While I did find errors in the price guide, the layout was very well designed and easy to browse or to zero in on specific information.
   
   I hope the book sells well enough to allow for a second edition... and that anyone else, like me, who finds errors, can contribute to making the next edition a much more accurate reference.



2. Children Picturebook Price Guide: Finding, Assessing, & Collecting Contemporary Illustrated Books is a straightforward guide for book buyers and book sellers, featuring current market prices for over 22,000 illustrated children's books, including Caldecott Medal and Honor books that are individually worth over a thousand dollars. Though the majority of Children Picturebook Price Guide is a straightforward price catalog, the first one hundred pages also discuss such topics as how to identify first edition books, particularly Caldecott Medal books and Dr. Seuss books, where to find first edition picturebooks, key factors affecting a book's value, and much more. Enthusiastically recommended for serious picturebook collectors, and a very useful guide to booksellers searching for hidden paper gold.



3. Finally there's a book that details the history and reason why children books are a great collector's item. The easy to read format makes my trips to the used book stores, antique shops and yard sales that much more exciting.
   This has been an outstanding reference for me to review my collection, and suggest what gaps I need to fill to better enjoy my collection.

No comments about Prophets of Zoom.

5 comments about The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

1. Interesting book with details about the English medievale history hardly possible to find in bookshops in Italy.



2. Yes, this is an admittedly taxing read with its streams of tri-numbered dates and peculiar `olde English' names and its raw fact after raw fact, but if it begins to overwhelm you, stop to reacquaint your mind with exactly what it is you have the privilege of holding in your twenty-first century hands. This once rare book is no less than a thirteen-hundred-year-old historic record, compiled century by century across the entirety of the Anglo-Saxon period and into the first decades of Norman domination of England in the time commonly termed "the Dark Ages." Without this compilation, patiently and dutifully reported by Benedictine monks who passed the project on generation to generation, our knowledge of an entire millennium in British history would be far reduced. Here in this monumental work events mighty and minor are recorded. Such as:
   
   "A.D. 920. This year, before midsummer, went King Edward to Maldon, and repaired and fortified the town, ere he departed thence. And the same year went Jarl Thurkytel over sea to Frankland with the men who would adhere to him, under the protection and assistance of King Edward. This year Ethelfleda got into her power, with God's assistance, in the early part of the year, without loss, the town of Leicester; and the greater part of the army that belonged thereto submitted to her. And the Yorkists had also promised and confirmed, some by agreement and some with oaths, that they would be in her interest. But very soon after they had done this, she departed, twelve nights before midsummer, at Tamworth, the eighth year that she was holding the government of the Mercians with right dominion; and her body lieth at Glocester, in the east porch of St. Peter's church. This year also was the daughter of Ethered, lord of the Mercians, deprived of all authority over the Mercians, and led into Wessex, three weeks before midwinter. Her name was Healfwina."
   
   Think you can handle that?
   
   In The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lies news of battles, coronations, the marriages and bloodlines of ephemeral sword-wielding dynasties who braced against the Danelaw, gossipy remarks on yearly Viking onslaughts, plagues, rumors, meteorological milestones, agricultural information, obituaries, and much more. All of these matters were ponderously detailed for posterity by diligent monks who safeguarded history itself during Europe's most perilous epoch. No one can be truly well-versed in the lore and happenings on the island of Britain until she's read the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and this version, edited by historian Michael Swanton, is as good as any I've seen and better than most. Considering that this amazing work of western civilization is available for about the same price you'd pay for a ticket the latest mind-slurping Hollywood summer blockbuster, it should make you glad you live in the information age, as you do. People died to keep this chronicle safe, after all, it's the least we can do to give it a respectful perusal.
   
   Best of luck. It's worth the effort.



3. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys exploring the Anglo-Saxons and is keen on studying History. This edition uses all of the manuscripts, and gives the same annals from seperate sources. This setup gives the reader a very thorough look into Anglo-Saxon writen history. This edition is also very beautiful and contains many helpful Appendices, such as pictures and maps. The price isn't too high, I would highly recommend it. Although the Translator and editor Michael Swanton states that this edition is for reference, and not a steady read strait through, I still found it enjoyable to sit down and read it in order page by page.



4. "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" is the collective name for a whole set of chronicles, originally scattered across England. Arranged mainly year-by-year, they contain contemporary, or purportedly contemporary, accounts of important events: wars, the deaths of kings, bishops, and popes, and some interesting poems about such events.
   
   They are clearly derived from a single original form, but show considerable variation, due to different scribal practices and where and when they were copied and continued. Information in one copy can often be supplemented or corrected from another, allowing a better glimpse of "Dark Age" England. They are mainly in Old English, but some have Latin entries, and there are medieval translations into Latin. (The fact that chronicles were *not* kept in Latin was unusual, and suggests that King Alfred was right about the poor state of learning in Viking-assaulted England.) It has been recognized since Elizabethan times as an important work, and one or another manuscript served as the basis of series of translations into English since the nineteenth century. Eventually, efforts were made to present two or more manuscripts together, producing a new round of translations.
   
   This translation was originally published by J.M. Dent in 1996, and intended as a replacement for that publisher's Everyman's Library "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" translation of 1953, the highly-regarded, and often disliked, work of Norman Garmonsway. Highly regarded, because it was very accurate and followed the layout of a standard text edition of 1892, which displayed the considerable variety among the manuscripts. This layout allowed the student referring to a copy of Earle and Plummer's edition to find the appropriate passage in the original language with little effort. Disliked, because the same arrangement is very hard to follow, and the small print in the notes and index was annoyingly hard to read. The 1953 edition was revised in 1954, and issued in paperback in the 1970s with a few bibliographic updates. It was a state-of-knowledge treasure at the time, but an explosion in historical and archeological work in the following decades made it ever more creaky with age. My copy of the paperback is falling apart from use, some of that use a matter of getting used to the layout -- I share both views about it.
   
   Well, those who disliked the layout will have to try reading a single-text or composite translation, instead of this one. Michael Swanton has preserved the 1892 placement of the text. Fortunately, his translation seems as precise as Garmonsway's -- a statement I feel qualified to make, having worked through the Chronicle texts in "Bright's Old English Reader" and several other student's editions. On the whole, it is, I think, more readable (although I miss the old phrasing in a few passages). The pages are physically larger, and so is the type, (although the notes are still just below my comfort level), and the genealogical tables and maps are both easy to read and detailed enough to be useful.
   
   Sooner or later, of course, Swanton's annotations will begin to show their age too, although the technology of the next fifty years may allow more frequent and more radical improvements in published works than was possible in the twentieth century. Meanwhile, a collaborative edition of all the texts is in the process of publication, and a new understanding of the growth of the Chronicle may emerge, suggesting new ways of arranging and presenting the material. For now, however, Michael Swanton has provided an essential tool -- and buried in it is a lot of good reading.



5. With all due respect to the previous reviewer, this is a fine place to start with this fascinating work. Following the story of the Anglo-Saxons from their rather shadowy beginnings (the early parts of the book aren't precisely historical, as is explained in the introduction) through their battles with the Vikings and their conquest by the Normans, as told in their own words, one also gets to see the chronicle's authors grow in sophistication. Anyone interested in this period should have a copy of this book.

   This particular edition is more readable than the Garmonsway, if only because it isn't printed in eye-demolishingly tiny print. It also has better footnotes. (The translation itself is just as good; it's a matter of taste if anything.) It shares a characteristic I wasn't all that enthralled with in Garmonsway, however: the multiple-text format. By trying to put all of the material into one volume, it scatters about various alternate readings from different manuscripts. Scholarly, perhaps, but it makes it harder to actually read as literature. But that's quibbling.

   All told, this is a fine edition of a crucial primary source. Quite enjoyable.

1 comments about The Restoration of Engravings, Drawings, Books, and Other Works on Paper (Getty Trust Publications: Getty Conservation Institute).

1. Surprisingly, this recognized classic has not heretofore appeared in English. This translation is the 1950 revised and expanded version of Scweidler's book in German first published in 1938. The subtitle of the title page of the 1950 edition (which is shown in facsimile) is "Past Mistakes and New Methods in the Removal of Age-related Damage to Cultural Treasures in the Graphic Arts." The editor Perkinson notes in his Introduction that Schweidler wrote, "In our field one may not create the new, but bring the old into order." In relation to this, the editor notes that Schweidler's approach to the restoration of old works on paper was that of a doctor to the cure of a patient. The author would agree as recognized by his use of German words which can be translated as "patients" (for pictures), "recuperation" (for a state after certain operations are done), and "surgery" (for the removal of certain problems). With his old-time craftsman's love of his craft, knowledge of its techniques, expertise in applying them, his connoisseur's attachment to different kinds of works on paper, and his assumption that his readers share his love and appreciation and are truly interested in learning the techniques to put old works on paper back "into order," Schweidler is the perfect teacher for this unsung, challenging, and demanding craft. He imparts a complete course from collecting old paper for restoration work through handling both old works and their restoration materials, the use of chemicals, and specialized topics such as The Chemical Treatment of Painted Rice Paper to storage for long-term preservation. Some of Schweidler's techniques are now widely-known in the field of professional preservationists and even among amateurs. Nonetheless, this work is still invaluable not only for Schweidler's meticulous guidance, but also for its editor's Introduction and many notes and the frequent useful illustrations.

5 comments about The WPA Guide to New York City: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s New York (American Guide).

1. This is a very good guide to New York City at the time it was originally written (1939). I must, however, rate it at only three stars for the following reason:
   
   I've seen the original in libraries, and said original contained, inside the back cover, a pocket with a detailed street map of New York City, and this map was NOT included in this reprint. From my own standpoint as a cartographer, this is inexcusable.
   
   Robert L. Sklar



2. This well written guide had intersting facts about this - the greatest city in the world. The majority of the buildings described are still standing. The descriptions of the city in 1939 are facinating to read. Well worth reading if you are planning to visit 21st century New York and a must for any New Yorker



3. A facinating treasure trove of detailed and documented information on New York's neighborhoods. The bibliorgaphy is an invaluable but often neglected resource. Despite its extensive detail, the text is a facinating read.



4. Not for reading straight through, the guide is an amazing resource. Anybody living in or visiting New York regularly will be fascinated to look up their favourite (or least favourite) neighbourhoods to see what they were like in 1939. The maps are beautiful (the photos less interesting) and the text is elegantly and lyrically written.

   It's a bit of an archeological game at times, as you find that a few minor idiosyncracies in neighbourhoods today are the remnants of entire cultures and histories that used to thrive.

   The editors made the right decision to leave the text entirely alone.

   A perfect gift for anybody trying to make it in the Big Apple.




5. I'm writing a novel set in 1930s New York and for research purposes, this book is a great starting point. But as for simply sitting down and reading it all the way through, well, it's a bit dull. For a better sense of the sweep and drama of New York's history, try tracking down New York Panorama, also put out by the WPA around the same time.

No comments about Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum).

No comments about Tijuana Bibles Vol. 2.

4 comments about Christmas: Vintage Holiday Graphics (Icons).

1. Nice Clipart...some good old classic generic clipart.
   I scan it in...wish it was already scanned in.
   
   Great price...
   You should be happy.



2. While I enjoyed looking at the array of graphics, and I did wallow in warm fuzzies of Christmas past, I was disappointed that most of the graphics were grainy, some cut off, and several pages of my book looked like they had been ripped by a binding machine. Still, I put it out, and people really enjoyed looking through it and smiling that smile of rememberance which Christmas can bring.



3. I LOVE this book. Looking back at the advertisements of old and their sweet innocence that overflows with joyful, happy faces, beautiful snowy landscapes, warm fireplaces, and delicious food is really unnecessary. We have things SO much better these days. Our country is not divided, our culture is not at all coarse or crude, violent crime is almost unheard of, kids respect themselves and each other, and our mental health is so much better than in those old, foolishly sappy days.
   
   I need to stop thinking of the nostalgic times that this book recounts, and concentrate on the reality of today which is so very much better than in those days. I mean that....Honestly....I do...It REALLY is better today...No kidding....For real...Just look around-you'll see.



4. The latest Taschen Icon graphics book finally catches up with the American festive season and presents a delightful collection of historical printed matter. I liked the comprehensive selection of items, cards, wrapping paper, parcel tags, consumer ads, magazine covers, photos of house decorations, sheet music covers and all in color. Historically they come from Victorian times to about the mid-sixties.
   
   Kris Kringle obviously gets a good showing and I was surprised to see that he was depicted as a plump guy many years before illustrator Haddon Sundblom fixed his size for ever in 1932 for the first of his annual Coca-Cola paintings. Incidentally, as the drinks company has used Christmas as a strong selling point hundreds of items they have created can be seen in 'Coca-Cola Collectible Santas' (ISBN 1887432930).
   
   ***FOR A LOOK INSIDE click 'customer images' under the cover.

5 comments about Modern Book Collecting.

1. The information in the book is a little aged, but it is still applicable and useful. This book will remain in my reference collection.



2. Good reference book for book collecting. I read it as often as I can.

   Good book to have if you collect or sell books




3. From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly:
   Wilson's guide combines discussions of the basics of book collecting with helpful appendices.



4. The copyright date on this book is 1980. That's right, over twenty years old and the title says modern. The book is sorely in the need of an update. I was disappointed in lack of recent infomation dealing with the internet. It is a good source on basic book info, however. I would recommend looking elsewhere for anyone interested in this subject.



5. Robert A. Wilson is something of a legend in the book world. His experience can be useful to the beginner. If you buy no other book on the subject than this you could do much worse.

1 comments about The Encyclopedia of Non-Sport & Entertainment Trading Cards Volume 1: 1985-2006.

1. The Encyclopedia of Non-Sport & Entertainment Trading Cards Volume 1: 1985-2006 is a useful guide if you deal in these product lines as I do. The pricing seems to accurately reflect marketplace trends. My one complaint is the layout of the pages themselves: I dislike the way this book is laid out because in some cases it is hard to tell exactly which picture they are speaking of in the text. They may talk about 10 different items or years of items on a page and then only show two pictures in the margins. The way it is laid out, it can be confusing as to what is being referred to. Otherwise, its a useful addition to any collector's shelf.