A cantankerously funny view of books and the people who love them. It does take all kinds and through the misanthropic eyes of a very grumpy bookseller, we see them all--from the "Person Who Doesn't Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover)" to the "Parents Secretly After Free Childcare." From behind the counter, Shaun Bythell catalogs the customers who roam his shop in Wigtown, Scotland. There's the Expert (divided into subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman). Then there's the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lyrca Clad), and the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter). Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer--all add up to one of the funniest book about books you'll ever find. Shaun Bythell (author of Confessions of a Bookseller) and his mordantly unique observational eye make this perfect for anyone who loves books and bookshops. "Bythell is having fun and it's infectious."--Scotsman "Virtuosic venting ... misanthropy with bursts of sweetness." Guardian "All the ingredients for a gentle human comedy are here, as soothing as a bag of boiled sweets and just as tempting to dip into."--Literary Review "Any reader finding this book in their stocking on Christmas morning should feel lucky...contains plenty to amuse--an excellent diversion"--Bookmunch

It has been very difficult over the years for collectors to know just what has been produced from the works of Tolkien, and where it can be purchased. There is not, and has never been, any 'official' Lord of the Rings cataloguing. Clear and specific documentation has been almost impossible to find, and any listing that has been available has been a patchwork at best. Over the last few years, the Internet has become a great source of assistance through various webrings that connect the many Lord of the Rings fans. This four-colour, highly graphic book will provide information on all things Tolkien; books, calendars, toys and movie memorabilia. Both the novice and die-hard collector will find this guide helpful and like the new film trilogy from Peter Jackson, make us believe again.

LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN A SUNDAY TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Timely ... a long and engrossing survey of the library' FT 'A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched' Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.

How did the advertisers of the past sell magnetic corsets, carbolic smoke balls or even the first televisions? Which celebrities endorsed products? How did innovations in printing techniques and packaging design play a part in the evolution of advertising? And what can these items tell us about transport, war, politics and even the royal family? 'Vintage Advertising: An A to Z' takes a fresh look at historical advertising through a series of thematic and chronological juxtapositions. Richly illustrated from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian Library, this book features a range of topics from Art to Zeitgeist, showcasing how nineteenth- and early twentieth-century advertisements often capture the spirit of their age and can be rich repositories of information about our past.

Editor's Choice, The Bookseller A mix of memoir and narrative non-fiction, White Spines is a book about Nicholas Royle's passion for Picador's fiction and non-fiction publishing from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s. It explores the bookshops and charity shops, the books themselves, and the way a unique collection grew and became a literary obsession. Above all a love song to books, writers and writing.

Every individual book has a history which can help us to understand what difference it may have made in the world. Within these pages you will find books damaged by bullets or graffiti, recovered from fire or water, or even disguised as completely different texts for protection in dangerous times. Marks of ownership - be it a rich treasure binding or a humble family inscription - shine a light on social history and literacy, while student doodles from the sixteenth century and a variety of pithy annotations give us a sense of readers through the ages. We increasingly recognise that the cultural and research value of books lies not just in their printed contents, but in the many other things they can tell us about the ways they have been used, read and regarded. Generously illustrated with examples from the early Middle Ages to the present day, Speaking Volumes presents a fascinating selection of books in both public and private collections whose individual histories tell surprising and illuminating stories, encouraging us to look at and appreciate books in new and non-traditional ways.

"...a terrific read for lovers of great music and vinyl" -Ruth O'Connor, Irish Examiner "Peppered with more than 200 colour and black and white images, this book shows off how photogenic the world of vinyl is for photographers." -Amateur Photography "From a recording medium to a cult object - this book is for fans of music and vintage items." -New Design The good old record is still spinning! With its demise predicted over and over, the vinyl has shown itself to triumphant over technology trends, beloved by music professionals and fans, collectors and DJs alike. This richly illustrated photo book celebrates the history of the record with over 200 colour and black and white images, seasoned with essential vinyl knowledge on record magazines, consoles, shops and cafes. From the art legends who shaped the cover art to the LPs that became coveted collector's items, this is a must-have compendium for all vinyl fans and collectors. Text in English and German.

Since this handbook was first published in 1994, interest in the book as a material object, and in the ways in which books have been owned, read and used, has burgeoned. Now established as a standard reference work, this book has been revised and expanded with a new set of over 200 colour illustrations, updated bibliographies and extended international coverage of libraries and online resources. It covers the history and understanding of inscriptions, bookplates, ink and binding stamps, mottoes and heraldry, and describes how to identify owners and track down books from particular collections via library and sale catalogues. Each section features an evaluated bibliography listing further sources, both online and in print. Illustrated examples of the many kinds of ownership evidence which can be found in books are also shown throughout. Relevant to anyone seeking to identify previous owners of books, or trace private libraries, this title will also support the work of all book historians interested in the history of reading or the use of books and in the book as a material object. An essential handbook for anyone working in provenance research.

White Star Line was originally founded in Liverpool in 1845 for travel to Australia but was eventually purchased by Thomas Ismay and transformed into the successful Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. Cleverly merging with Harland & Wolff, the line focussed on luxury over speed, developing many of the world's favourite vessels. Finally merging with its great rival Cunard in the 1930s depression, the companies continued to operate separately while flying one another's flags. This evocative book explores the colourful history of White Star Line, from personal postcards with messages from passengers, crew and troops, to the careers of her vessels in peacetime and at war, all from Patrick Mylon's impressive collection. It includes ships with alternative identities, unusual stories like the planned escape of Dr Crippen, and showcases a wide variety of interior views, adverts and 'proof', silk and Company Issue cards, conveying the glamour, drama and history of this world-renowned line.

Advertisers in the nineteenth and early twentieth century pushed the boundaries of printing, manipulated language, inspired a new form of art and exploited many formats, including calendars, bookmarks and games. This collection of essays examines the extent to which these standalone advertisements - which have survived by chance and are now divorced from their original purpose - provide information not just on the sometimes bizarre products being sold, but also on class, gender, Britishness, war, fashion and shopping. Starting with the genesis of an advertisement through the creation of text, image, print and format, the authors go on to examine the changing profile of the consumer, notably the rise of the middle classes, and the way in which manufacturers and retailers identified and targeted their markets. Finally, they look at advertisements as documents that both reveal and conceal details about society, politics and local history. Copiously illustrated from the world-renowned John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera and featuring work by influential illustrators John Hassall and Dudley Hardy, this attractive book invites us to consider both the intended and unintended messages of the advertisements of the past.

At the turn of the fifteenth century, private devotionals became a speciality of the renowned Ghent-Bruges illuminators. Wealthy patrons who commissioned work from these artists often spared no expense in the presentation of their personal prayer books, or 'books of hours', from detailed decoration to luxurious bindings and embroidery. This enchanting illuminated manuscript was painted by the Master of the David Scenes in the Grimani Breviary (known as the David Master), one of the renowned Flemish illuminators in the sixteenth century. Every page of the manuscript is exquisitely decorated. Fine architectural interiors, gorgeous landscapes and detailed city scenes, each one depicting a narrative, form the subjects of three full-size illuminations and forty-two full-page miniatures. There are floral borders on a gold ground or historiated borders in the Flemish and Italian style on every page. It is one of the finest examples of medieval illumination in a personal prayer book and the most copiously illustrated work of the David Master to survive. The manuscript owes its name to the French Queen, Marie de Medici, widow of King Henri IV. For a time she went into exile in Brussels, where she is thought to have acquired the manuscript before moving again to Cologne. An inscription in English states that she left the book of hours in this city, and it is here that an English manuscript collector, Francis Douce, may have acquired the book and eventually donated it to the Bodleian Library. Together with a scholarly introduction that gives an overview of Flemish illumination and examines each of the illustrations in detail, this full-colour facsimile limited edition, bound in linen with a leather quarter binding and beautifully presented in a slipcase, faithfully reproduces all 176 leaves of the original manuscript.

Contains: Conservatism and the Quarterly Review: A Critical Analysis The History of the Book: 1 Contributors to the Quarterly Review: A History, 1809-25 The History of the Book: 2 Wilkie Collins's American Tour, 1873-4 The History of the Book: 3 William Blake and the Art of Engraving The History of the Book: 4 Charles Lamb, Elia and the London Magazine: Metropolitan Muse The History of the Book: 5 Reading in History: New Methodologies from the Anglo-American Tradition The History of the Book: 6 Middle-Class Writing in Late Medieval London The History of the Book: 7 Readings on Audience and Textual Materiality The History of the Book: 8 Romantic Marginality: Nation and Empire on the Borders of the Page The History of the Book: 9 Wordsworth's Poetic Collections, Supplementary Writing and Parodic Reception The History of the Book: 10

Celebrate Spidey's 60th anniversary by discovering the wonderful world of webs in this epic official Marvel Spider-Man colouring book! Colour your way through the spider-verse and bring all of the different iterations of Spider-Man to life, including Miles Morales, Spider-girl, Scarlet Spider and many more. With original artwork and illustrations from giants like Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby all the way to John Romita Jr. and Todd McFarlane, this epic colouring book will keep you glued to the page for hours! Also available: - Spider-Man Museum: The Story of a Comic Book Icon - Marvel Museum - Marvel Heroes & Villains - Marvel Universe: An Atlas of Marvel - What Would Spider-Man Do? - What Would Hulk Do? - What Would The Mighty Thor Do? (c) 2022 MARVEL

Unpacking the Personal Library: The Public and Private Life of Books is an edited collection of essays that ponders the cultural meaning and significance of private book collections in relation to public libraries. Contributors explore libraries at particular moments in their history across a wide range of cases, and includes Alberto Manguel's account of the Library of Alexandria as well as chapters on library collecting in the middle ages, the libraries of prime ministers and foreign embassies, protest libraries and the slow transformation of university libraries, and the stories of the personal libraries of Virginia Woolf, Robert Duncan, Sheila Watson, Al Purdy and others. The book shows how the history of the library is really a history of collection, consolidation, migration, dispersal, and integration, where each story negotiates private and public spaces. Unpacking the Personal Library builds on and interrogates theories and approaches from library and archive studies, the history of the book, reading, authorship and publishing. Collectively, the chapters articulate a critical poetics of the personal library within its extended social, aesthetic and cultural contexts.

If you like true stories about real people, are intrigued by serendipity, curious about curiosities, or maybe you are a collector yourself, then this book is for you.

The collecting and researching of any collectable is an intense and pleasurable pastime. The author’s passion for more than half a century has been for collecting handwritten, original letters, antique documents, manuscripts, old share certificates, fire insurance policies, photographs and maps.

The writers of these words on paper include kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, admirals and generals, actors and authors, judges and prisoners, philosophers, statesmen, scientists, and sportsmen. Some were famous, some infamous, some important, others less so. Many you will know about; with others, only their names may be familiar. There’s Admiral Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington; there are queens Elizabeth I and II and kings George III, IV and VI; presidents Eisenhower, Kruger, and Mandela are here; prime ministers Botha, Hertzog and Smuts; explorers Scott and Shackleton. There’s Faraday and De la Rey, and many more, including two controversial giants of history – Napoleon and Rhodes.

The chapters need not be read in any set order, although there is an underlying thread linking them to the life of the author that enabled this eclectic collection to evolve in the way it did.

Johor: 300 Early Postcards will present a series of postcard galleries showing various aspects of the Peninsular Malaysian state of Johor from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, in particular the changing landscapes and townscapes. The book will be a richly informative visual guide to a formative period in Johor's history. The postcards presented in the book will be drawn from the vast postcard collection of Dr Cheah Jin Seng, the author of Malaya: 500 Early Postcards, Penang: 500 Early Postcards, Perak: 300 Early Postcards, Selangor: 300 Early Postcards and Singapore: 500 Early Postcards.

New research into medieval English literature, with a particular focus on manuscripts and writing. This acclaimed study of English medieval manuscripts and early printed books - many items from Professor Takamiya's own collection - quickly sold out in hardcover. The subjects range from Saint Jerome to Tolkien, with particular concentrations on Chaucer, Gower, Malory and religious and historical writings of the late middle ages. There are essays examining the work of early printers such as Caxton and de Worde, and of bibliophiles and antiquarians in modern times. Befitting a tribute to a bibliophile, this volume has been handsomely designed by Lida Kindersley of the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge, and is extensively illustrated. The volume as a whole constitutes a substantial body of research on medieval English literature, and early books and manuscripts. Contributors: Richard Barber, Nicolas Barker, Richard Beadle, N.F. Blake, Julia Boffey, Piero Boitani, Derek Brewer, Helen Cooper, A.I. Doyle, Martha W. Driver, A.S.G. Edwards, P.J.C. Field, Christopher de Hamel, Ralph Hanna, Lotte Hellinga, Kristian Jensen, Edward Donald Kennedy, Richard A. Linenthal, Jill Mann, Takami Matsuda, David McKitterick, Rosamond McKitterick, Linne R. Mooney, Ruth Morse, Daniel W. Mosser, Tsuyoshi Mukai, Paul Needham, M.B. Parkes, Derek Pearsall, Oliver Pickering, P.R. Robinson, Michael G. Sargent, John Scahill, Kathleen L. Scott, Jeremy J. Smith, Isamu Takahashi, John J. Thompson, Linda Ehrsam Voigts, Yoko Wada, Bonnie Wheeler, Patrick Zutshi.

Did the 16th-century Reformation influence French language and culture? This book, the fullest available bibliography of religious printing in French during the early Reformation, provides the materials to answer this question. It assembles information on all known printed editions in French on religious subjects during the crucial period 1511-51 (up to the Edict of Chateaubriant), giving full bibliographical details, library locations and references in secondary literature. An alphabetical list is complemented by a chronological list, and by an analysis of editions by printers and publishers. The work provides the fullest checklist available of works and editions produced from all parts of the religious spectrum, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. It reveals who were the most active and influential writers, which were the most popular texts, and which were the most active printing centres in the field of religious printing in French. The chronological survey shows the immense growth in publications triggered by the Reformation movement, and reveals the radical change in religious sensibility during the period, from contemplative meditation to polemical debate.