Reading.com

Three copies of the Gutenberg Bible are going to be on display at the Morgan Library in New York. Printed in 1455, only 180 copies were made, of which 50 survive.

“We invite all our friends to visit the current exhibition English in Print: from Caxton to Shakespeare to Milton, featuring rare early printed books from the collections of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Yale’s Elizabethan Club. The show is open free of charge through July 26, Monday-Saturday, 10 am-5 pm”

The Grolier Club in NY

Honya budo is the martial arts skill of visiting a bookstore without buying a book. It is an arcane art, practiced by secret masters in obscure parts of the world for several centuries. During the 20th century, when literacy went up in the western world, and people from every social strata started frequenting shops selling books, this venerable art has begun to rise in popularity.

The 5th Annual Ann Arbor Book Festival will be held from Thursday, May 15 to Sunday, May 18, 2008.

The 2008 Language & Literacy Symposium will be held on Thursday, May 15, 2008.

The 2008 Writer’s Conference will be held on Friday, May 16, 2008.

The 2008 Street Fair will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2008. Come have a look at the event schedule and plan your day!

Bookstore Crawl
Be sure to visit our area participating bookstores and libraries in the annual Bookstore Crawl. If you visit at least half (14), you are eligible for a small prize. If you visit 25, you will be put into a drawing at the Festival on Saturday, May 17. NEW THIS YEAR: a number of the Festival events are listed on the passport. Come to these events and get your passport signed. Check out the list - it’s a good one!

Saturday, May 3rd, 3008 is Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free* to anyone who comes into their stores.

Book Central is having a sale on books about books.

April 23rd is one of the most important holidays in Catalonia, where it is traditional to give a present to the loved one; red roses for women and books for men.

It is St George’s day as well as the death days of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare.

Where’s my book?

Vladimir Nabokov’s last wish was that his son burn his last unfinished work, The Original of Laura. As can be expected there has been great controversy over this in the literary world. Currently on 50 index cards in a Swiss vault, his son has said it is the concentrated distaillation of his father’s creativity.

He now says that his father returned to him and told him to publish instead.