If you love East Asian mythology and Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, then you will love this book. Mina’s homeland has been ravaged by deadly storms for one hundred years. People believe it is because the Sea God is angry, so to appease him, a beautiful bride is thrown into the sea every year in the […]
You’ve probably heard of books being adapted into films, but have you ever wondered if there are films that are about books, or have books as an important plot device? Here are just a few to get you started… The NeverEnding Story (1984) A troubled boy dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages […]
Books started with scrolls in Ancient Egypt. These scrolls were rolled up manuscripts made out of papyrus, a plant native to Egypt, and date back to 2400 BC. Parchment such as calf skin or deer skin appeared later around 600 – 200 BC. Scrolls were used by early civilizations before the invention of the Codex […]
‘I want to open a little bookshop – say, a tiny wooden cottage open six months a year where children (but also adults) can find a book that speaks to them, a magical place where you can admire the most wonderful sunsets on the Apuan Alps.’ This was part of what Alba Donati wrote […]
Yevgeny Zamyatin was a Russian author born in February 1884. He studied engineering for the Imperial Russian Navy, lost his faith in Christianity, became an Atheist and a Marxist, and joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Zamyatin used literature to satirize and criticise the Soviet Union for its enforced conformity […]
On November the 4th 1966, the river Arno flooded into Florence burying hundreds of thousands of books, manuscripts and artwork beneath mud, debris and putrid water. Due to this massive cultural and historical devastation, countries responded quickly with financial aid and restoration research. It became imperative to combine modern science with historical book making techniques […]
The simple answer is: Supply, Condition & Demand. If a book, or any product for that matter, is in short supply and high demand, then the price of that item will skyrocket. It doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s rare and people want it, it will have value. The same is true in reverse, […]
Before I worked in a second-hand bookshop, I didn’t know anything about old books; how they were made, what materials were used, how the pages were folded, or any of the terms for the different parts of a book. Over the last six years I’ve learnt a lot and I have been reading books about […]
Just before Christmas I was browsing in my local bookshop and I came across a journal called ‘Scribble-out Poetry’. In this journal there are individual pages of sample text from some of history’s greatest works, ready to be blacked out with a marker to form poetry. But what is Scribble-out Poetry? A quick internet search […]
It’s that time of year again where you’re wondering what an earth to get for your aunt, uncle, cousin, friend… and it’s even harder this year with energy costs and rising prices. So why not give your nearest and dearest a lovely book for Christmas which won’t break the bank? Here are some gift books […]