Pazzo Blog

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-27

August 27th, 2010 § 0

Boston Mag has S. Almond article on "literary" Boston but no bookstore category in Best of Boston. Irony is literary, right? #
I just won a customer satisfaction award and it only costs $195 to get the plaque to prove it!!! #

French Names

August 21st, 2010 § 0

My French Name is Phillippe Pamplemousse, for example – email me your first name, the day of the week you were born and your favorite cheese and I’ll tell you yours.

Just ran across this great design for a diving bell in the copy of Lorini’s Fortificationi (1609) that I picked up last week. It had glass windows for observation of sea life and was also handy for locating lost artillery.

Buonaiuto Lorini, Le Fortificationi - 1609

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-20

August 20th, 2010 § 0

Just found out that my great-great grandfather had a used bookstore in Corning NY ca. 1900 called Sternbergs. #
Thanks! @bostonbibliophl & @elizmccracken #
Back from Chicago which was lovely except for the black flies and the fact that it was 123 degrees the whole time. #
Went to a Christening at the Lithuanian World Center where they, somewhat improbably, also host MMA events http://bit.ly/aqikhQ #

A few things from Chicago

August 18th, 2010 § 0

Here are a few of the items I picked up on vacation (busman’s vacation, I guess), including a stunning wood and mother of pearl binding:

Thomas Paine: First-Principles of Government, 1795

Paine: Rights of Man, 1791

A rebound 1st edition of Graham Green's Power and the Glory

Wood and mother of pearl binding of L'Art de L'Imprimerie a Venise

Strangely, a lot of fine bindings are terrible books, but this one is lovely.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-13

August 13th, 2010 § 0

Just put a few food related books in my Ebay cookery store – mostly 19th century American http://bit.ly/9RyNBx #
Ever since I got my first cell phone last week I've been suffering from phantom vibrating pocket. Is this common? Does it go away? #
$1.1 billion in unwanted $1 coins – there's a great caper movie in here http://bit.ly/cRmK73 #

Vacation

August 10th, 2010 § 0

We’ll be closed from Wed 8/12 through Sun 8/17 – we’ll re-open on Tue the 19th of August.

Pow!

New Arrivals

August 7th, 2010 § 0

Some items that have come in recently:

Rene Laporte - Alphabet de L'Amour

The Physicians of Myddvai Meddygon Myddfai

George Gascoigne's Hundreth Sundry Flowres - the much suppressed 16th century classic (here in a fine, much later edition, on Kelmscott paper)

Étude des vignobles de France pour servir à l'enseignement mutuel de la viticulture et de la vinification Françaises, 1868

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

A reasonably nice first edition of Bradbury's story collection, The October Country

The classic on French wallpaper

A nice copy of the Burgess Nonsense Book

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-06

August 6th, 2010 § 0

It seems improbable, but I think Sunny Delight is better at room temperature. #
My new business strategy is to specialize in more stuff. Today I'm adding collection development and books about mice. #
Bought an antfarm for the kid, and they may seem busy in the wild, but without a queen? Sloth. #
A ski shop is opening next door – seems a little small, and a little random, but at least it's retail (and not a cell phone store). #
Liver and Onion special at the Westbury today – just $4.95. #
Firetruck just came for a lady locked out of her car – is that legit? I mean, cats in trees, sure, but… #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-30

July 30th, 2010 § 0

going to Northampton for an auction in a moment ~ will tweet anything interesting. #
These 250 pop-up books are going to be hard to pass up. #
Ashendene Dante went for $8400 #
Guy next to me with an oxygen tank ~ well played, but you're not getting in MY head #
Aldine Castiglione ~ $2400 #
Aldine Dante (1502) $3200 #
Back from the auction with 240 pounds of children's books, some architecture and a nice pile of American cookery. #
Just added a handy search box to our website and blog – now browse our weirder books from the comfort of your home. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-23

July 23rd, 2010 § 0

300+ DC graphic novels just came in – lots of everything esp. Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman #

Selected Bindings from the Gennadius Library

July 16th, 2010 § 0

From: Paton, Lucy Allen: Selected Bindings from the Gennadius Library: Thirty-Eight Plates in Colour. American School of Classical Studies, Cambridge, 1924, which I found in the basement the other day.

Lame Duck Books Closing

July 13th, 2010 § 2

Lame Duck in Cambridge is apparently closing down this summer – they’re liquidating their (often amazing) inventory from July 15-September 1.

” From 15 July until 1 September, we will be liquidating our stock of used and rare books, manuscripts, photographs, art and related materials, excluding consignments.

Items priced up to $1000 discounted 50%
Items priced $1000-$4999 discounted 35%
Items priced $5000 and up discounted 25%”

No word on why yet – I’ll poke around; but quite a pair of losses for Cambridge and planet earth this summer, between Rodney’s and Lame Duck.

Literary Mystery: John Fowles and the Baedeker’s Southern France

July 10th, 2010 § 4

Pazzo recently picked up John Fowles beat-up old copy of Baedeker’s Southern France, the 1907 edition.

In his novel The Magus, Fowles mentions reading a 1909 Baedeker’s (“Everything interested Alison – the people, the country, the bits in my 1909 Baedeker about the places we passed.”) and there’s a tantalizing reference, in a Times Literary Supplement article about John Fowles library being auctioned off, to how Fowles “drafts a poem in a French Baedeker”.

Was it a French poem? Is this an example of John Fowles famously difficult handwriting?

Is this? Strikingly, it’s no easier to sort out in English.

T-shirts, gift certificates, and an inscribed paperback copy of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (inscribed by me) to anyone who helps sort out this mystery. You should be able to click on the pictures to blow them up – if it doesn’t work, I’ll send along larger pics to anyone interested.