Categories
Photography

Miriam Berkely

A link and story from Eric Kisor’s The Reluctant Blogger after reading an interview with photographer Miriam Berkely in Eric Forbe’s Book Addict’s Guide To Good Books.

Berkely specializes in photographing authors and there are a lot of samples of her work on all the links. Check out the image of Stephen Hawking. In the Forbe’s interview Berkeley says of the Hawking photo ‘My favourite of Hawking was shot in a horizontal format, although when it was used for publicity for the first American edition of A Brief History of Time, it was cropped and sent out as a vertical image with a fair amount of its Cambridge background removed, and some publications published only Hawking’s smiling face, which was a very small part of the entire image.’

Categories
In The Newspapers

Top 10 Canadian Novels For Canada Day

Thirty years after the National Conference on the Canadian Novel in Calgary picked the 100 most important works of fiction in Canada, the Globe and Mail has five experts pick their top ten Canadian novels. The 1978 Calgary conference also picked their top ten. They were:

The Stone Angel (1964) Margaret Laurence.

Fifth Business (1970) Robertson Davies.

As for Me and My House (1941) Sinclair Ross.

The Mountain and the Valley (1952) Ernest Buckler.

The Tin Flute (1947) Gabrielle Roy.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) Mordecai Richler.

The Double Hook (1959) Sheila Watson.

The Watch that Ends the Night (1959) Hugh MacLennan.

Who Has Seen the Wind (1947) W.O. Mitchell.

The Diviners (1974) Margaret Laurence.

Categories
In The Newspapers

Crystal balls and independent bookstores

Writers foreseeing the future in their fiction. Who’s done it. The Times check their crystal ball.

Where do you review audio books? The Independent looks at the 10 best children’s audio books in their books pages.

Emma Brockes on Lorrie Moore in the Sydney Morning Herald. A great headline Writing’s Easier For Obsessives.

In the Guardian, a look at the London Review Bookshop turning five and how an independent book seller can survive.

Categories
Stamps

Anne of Green Gables Stamp

Canada Post has just released a pair of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of everyone’s favourite literary redhead. No we’re not talking about Pippi Longstocking. It is of course Lucy Maud Montgomery’s creation, Anne of Green Gables.The stamps, based on paintings by Ben Stahl (Anne) and Christopher Kovacs (Green Gables house), are available individually or in a variety of sets. The souvenir sheet with both stamps (shown here, resting against a set of L.M. Montgomery Anne books) is only $1.04 Canadian.

Categories
Book

Gaspereau Press

We at Literary Photographer world headquarters firmly believe that books as objects can be as just as important as books are to read. Gaspereau Press, in Kentville, Nova Scotia, produces some beautiful books.

See the accompanying photo of two books from Gaspereau, Tim Bowling’s Fathom and Robert Bringhurst’s The Solid Form of Language.

This from Gaspereau’s website “At the core of our philosophy is a commitment to making books that reinstate the importance of the book as a physical object, reuniting publishing and the book arts. Many of our covers are letterpress-printed, feature original artwork by artists like Wesley Bates and George Walker, and are printed on fine paper, in some cases even handmade. Most of our books are smyth-sewn & bound into card covers and are then enfolded in letterpress-printed jackets. Our house paper is Rolland’s Zephyr Antique Laid, a creamy, sensual book paper. “

Categories
In The Newspapers

A Variety

The Globe and Mail on Douglas Gibson leaving M&S.

From the Guardian, why books need to be touched not just looked at although Chas Newkey-Burden begs to differ on the subject of second hand books

In the Independent, the “Espresso Book Machine” will allow you to print out a novel in seven minutes.

In the times (London), books that makes us really angry.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, literary success at 29 for Nam Le.

A slide show of classic book ads in the NY Times.

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Anonymous Bookshelf

Anonymous Bookshelf #2

Categories
Photography

Russell Books

This photo originally ran as part of a photo feature in the Victoria NewsRussell Books is well known in Victoria, BC, both for the service and the selection. The store is the largest used and remaindered book shop in Canada. Aliyah, the young daughter of managers Andrea and Jordan Minter spends lots of time in the store with her parents. On this day she spotted the stool and made a beeline for it. Her mother removed her before she actually climbed up on the steps.

Categories
In The Newspapers

Bestseller Search

In the Globe and Mail, Andrew Pyper on the search by publishers for bestsellers.

Categories
In The Newspapers

A Sunday Roundup

A selection of articles from the British newspapers’ book pages.

For Fathers’ Day, in The Guardian, writers write about their fathers

In The Times, Jeanette Winterson on the value of the British Library and why we should fund culture as well Alexander Monro on the Yellow Mountain poetry festival in Cardiff, Wales. The Yellow Mountain festival is a gathering of Chinese and English poets to conduct joint translations.

In The Independent, their guide to the 50 Best Summer Reads and an extract from a new book of letters from the 1940’s by the Soho bohemian Julian Maclaren-Ross.

In The Telegraph, an article on Leonard Cohen, although Cohen the singer not Cohen the poet and their guide to summer reading.