Tiny print+Storage record=Geek moment

Stanford has reclaimed its hold on the "fine print" crown, having just written "S U" "assembled from subatomic sized bits as small as 0.3 nanometers, or roughly one third of a billionth of a meter". The letters were written in the "interference patterns formed by quantum electron waves on the surface of a sliver of copper". Isn't technology fun!
We've come a long way since 1959 when Richard Feynman first challenged the scientific publishing world to:

find a way to rewrite a page from an ordinary book in text 25,000 times smaller than the usual size (a scale at which the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica would fit on the head of a pin).

It was not until 1985 that Tom Newman (at Stanford) "printed" the first page of Dicken's, Tale of Two Cities onto the head of a pin (see smaller image). Fun...though hard to read without a scanning electron microscope. It is said that Tom's biggest problem in collecting his prize was finding the page of text in the vast expanse that is the head of a pin.

The fine folks at Slashdot are all excited because this same feat has major implications for computer storage. In a nutshell, there is/was a presumption that data storage limits would be capped:

when you get to the point that an atom represents one bit in some form or fashion. But Stanford University researchers have used a quantum hologram model to store the characters 'S' and 'U' by encoding the data at a rate of 35 bits per electron.

This has little short-term implications...but huge potential for the future. 

John Updike has lost his cancer fight - Dead at 76

The AP is reporting that Updike's publisher, Alfred A. Knopf has issued a statement that he passed away earlier today (Tuesday) after a long battle with cancer. At this point, pretty much everyone else is just repeating the AP blurb. In a hour or so, NYT, et al will polish up the obits they have had more or less finished for the last 6 months and there will be much to read.

Over his life he won nearly every literary prize, including not one but two Pulitzers (Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest). He also won a pair of National Book Awards. Great writer. Great loss. Always annoying to lose a great when there are so many terrible hacks who couldn't be healthier. I'll have to add a book or two to my reading pile...

Friends of the Darby Free Library...

From their FaceBook page:

The Darby Free Library, which was founded in 1743 and is believed to be the oldest continuously operating public library in America, will be forced to close its doors at year's end if somebody doesn't write a big check or a lot of little ones.

It would be a shame if this old library closed. It is not only a vital resource for its community but also a symbol, as our oldest known public library, of our country's commitment to access to knowledge and education for everybody.

Thanks to CD at BoingBoing for the post...

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Coming in April

Says Chronicle Books, "The Classic Regency Romance—Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!" The publisher's blurb reads:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans.

I don't even know where to start. As you know, Gregory Maquire started a one-man rewriting of classics in alternative voices (e.g. Wicked, A Lion Among Men, Son of a Witch, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, etc). What we have here appears to be a different beastie...not a well-known tale told from a different perspective...rather, a well-known tale with flesh-eating zombies thrown in. I have already ordered a copy (possibly more than one).

I predict that P&P will see a bump in sales because of this...doubly so if they make a movie of it. Oh, please let someone make a movie based on this iteration.

I also predict this is the first in a series. Perhaps next we will see Matheson's, vampires ala I Am Legend invading Holmes' London. Maybe L. Bloom (of Ulysses fame) will have to fend off a werewolf as he wanders Dublin. Or Tom Sawyer will follow one more cut-off in the cave...and in his madness, release the Old Ones upon a Twainian world. Then again, it just might be a zombie horde roaming from one classic to another.

I hope this is as clever as it seems to want to be. It could actually be good fun...it could also be very painful. I will review it when it appears... Thanks for the heads up JG.

Yet another reason to look at ebay books with extreme skepticism...

A Reading, PA man has been indicted on Federal charges of forgery/fraud charges. According to the charges, he has made over $300,000 over the last several years foisting "signed" books to buyers on Ebay. The only upside here is that he apparently would buy a genuine inscribed copy and then have a company MAKE A RUBBER STAMP of the signature and use that to "inscribe" copies that he would then foist on buyers on ebay...the silver lining being that his bogus crap books should be easier to spot than "better" forgeries.

That is the real problem with this thief (can you really be a forger if all you do is rubber-stamp books?) and others like him. I do not have much...or any...sympathy for those who buy forgeries from sellers on ebay. Unless you know the seller to be reputable (this does *not* count ebays own "I am not a crook" system) personally and/or professionally, I think you have to *presume* that what you see listed on ebay is fraudulent. If, as here, you pay real money for a book from "bev103162smith," you deserve whatever arrives at your door.

The *problem* is that now and into the untold future, these bits of garbage are going to be polluting the secondary market. Even if you would never think about buying an inscribed work from ebay, you are going to have them offered to you in years to come by "innocent" buyers and/or their families. Rubber-stamp copies, one hopes, should be reasonably easy to spot...but I wager there are better (and worse) examples out there... I'd go so far as to suggest that unless you know the provenance of a given inscribed copy, it is not unreasonable to presume it is forged. 

Worse still, the growth of this kind of fraud poisons the well...driving potential collectors out of the field either because they have been burned or because they read articles like the above and decide it is just not worth the risk/headache. I know at least three of my clients started working with me only after they had been buying on their own on ebay and been burned more than once...I wonder how many knew they'd been burned, but lost the desire to pursue books altogether. As it stands now, I actively try to guide my clients away from inscribed modern lit and into "safer" (and more client-specific) areas. 

Ebay, of course, "has no comment"...as they steadfastly hold that they simply provide an infrastructure for the transactions and have no responsibility to police their cesspool for stolen property, fraud or forgeries. To paraphrase the good Dr., if you want to avoid forgeries, retain a book(wo)man you trust.

Sometimes I worry less about the future of books...

Microsoft has released "Songsmith" (see their SHOCKING horrifying ad). It allows you to "sing" your own song and then IT creates the music to "fit" the song you have sung. I offer, for your consideration, "Creep" by Radiohead as orchestrated by Songsmith. I offer the original at the end both for comparison and to purge the first from your brain.

Gawker has down a nice piece about it here (with embedded iterations of St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Roxanne, etc). Slashdot's tech-intelligensia is duly unimpressed. My favorite quotation:

I checked the links. Now I feel so dirty.

Hey Microsoft, will you please stick with the business that you are good at? You know, Operating Systems?

Oh, nevermind.

It really is simply appalling. I think they are targeting the wrong market. My 7 and 11 year old would probably have fun with it...for a few hours...

I'm going to go listen to good music and read a good book and try to ever think about (or hear) anything by Songsmith.

Good news: we have been picked to do the RBMS event

We have just been notified that we were selected (by lottery) to be one of the 28 ABAA members to exhibit at the 50th Annual RBMS Pre-conference. The RBMS (Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association...hence the convenient acronym) holds these meetings yearly, this year's topic being "Seas of Change: Navigating the Cultural and Institutional Contexts of Special Collections".

We tried to go last year, but were not able to get off the wait list. We are very excited to be able to attend this event. 

If we were very smart, we would coordinate this trip with taking classes at the RBS, but it is unlikely we will be that clever. Both Suzanne and I have been awarded scholarships (me last year, Suz this year...they are good for a two year period)...but I think we are planning to go in the fall. 

Urban Trout Flies of the Northeast

David Wolfe, not content with the obsessive nature of hot lead
letterpress work, ties flies...both "working" and "trophy". To those
can now be added "art flies".

This work includes 16 "urban flies", tied from things like electrical
wiring staples, a zip tie, and a 22 bullet. There are also 16 letter
pressed descriptive cards (plus a title page), each of which includes
a fine water-color illustration of the given fly.

It is simply wonderful and I can not wait to show it at the SF book
fair. Better images to follow as to allows. [Updated to add links]

Inaugural D.C. Spring Antiques Show shares the space with...

...another inaugural event. It turns out our event will be right where that first dance took place. In a very nice bit of PR, the promoter of the upcoming DC Spring Antiques Show sent out the following today:

Excitement is in the air as history unfolds at the Washington D.C. Convention Center.

In just six weeks you will be part of history at the Inaugural D.C. Spring Antiques Show at the Washington D.C. Convention Center!

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 20: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center on January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama became the first African-American to be elected to the office of President in the history of the United States.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Barack Obama;Michelle Obama)

That the POTUS is a geek pleases me to no end...

There is a bookish hook here somewhere. Our President will get to keep his crackberry, after a fashion. It appears he will be switching hardware, most likely to General Dynamic's Sectera Edge, a hybrid PDA that has been approved by the NSA for "Top Secret" voice communication and "Secret" email and web sites. 

It is a little bit clunky looking, but is pretty much the geekiest crypto-toy on the market. Security does not come cheaply, as this phone runs just shy of $3500...and apparently the car-jack adds at least another $100 [Note to self: stop whining about cost of iPhone toys.]. 

I, for one, am pleased the POTUS gets to keep his connectivity...while complying with the Presidential Records Act and keeping the folks at NSA, etc. happy. I can not imagine being unplugged and isolated...and am pleased to have a President who was apparently similarly twitchy about it... I wonder if it will take e-books...

Bad news on the show front...sign of the times?

The Boston Antiques Weekend, which houses MARIAB's Boston Antiquarian Book Fair, has been cancelled. Apparently there had only been one "new" dealer signed up and not enough returning to carry the show. It was a young show, only coming into its third year, and I was very pleased with it both prior years and was looking forward to it this year.

I hope they are able to get it rolling again for 2010. We shall see.

All is perhaps not lost...reading rates increase

The Economist, the recent NEA report indicates that "the number of adults who said they had read a novel, short story, poem or play in the past 12 months had gone up, rising from 47% of the population in 2002 to over 50% in 2008." 

Most remarkable of all has been the rebound among young men. The numbers of men aged 18-24 who say they are reading books (not just online) rose 24% in 2002-08.

It remains to be seen if this is actually a trend...or an anomaly...or spurious (perhaps they have just changed how they count...lying with statistics is an not much of a challenge). I hope it is a real trend. Reading makes you smarter and we need more smart people...

Sadly, what has not changed, "is America’s “functional illiteracy” rate. Fully 21% of adult Americans did not read a book last year because they couldn’t, one of the worst rates in the rich world." And yet 30MM people a night watch American Idol. 

RIP Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth, son of N.C. Wyeth and father of Jamie Wyeth passed away Thursday night in his sleep at 91. 

A pity...condolences to the family.

The Passion of the Hausfrau

Many years ago, I went to a school in the mountains of western Maine. I have recently been "finding" a number of my classmates thanks to the great time-hole that is FaceBook (find me and/or "Fan" LM). Several have gone on to do interesting things (notably Rainy Orteca). I have just learned (I am a bit slow) that another of clan has a book coming out in June of 2009 (preorder here).

Nicole Chaison has been chronically the trials and tribulations of modern parenting in her triannually self-published magazine, Hausfrau Muthahzine. Back-issues are available. They have resonated such that Random House is rolling out The Passion of the Hausfrau. Says RH:

How can women balance their intellectual (and physical) desires with the realities of motherhood and monogamy? And, no less profound, what’s the best bra to lift sagging, nursed-out breasts? In The Passion of the Hausfrau, Nicole Chaison addresses these universal and eternal questions as the monk-scribes of medieval times might have done: she illuminates her own humorous tale of reflection and self-discovery—including finding that perfect undergarment—with delightful illustrations and instructive asides.

Following the Hausfrau through a comedic take on the classic Hero’s Journey, we find our heroine lost in an intricate maze of hormones, identity issues, exhaustion, and mundane mommy-tasks. We follow her through the wormhole otherwise known as parenthood, concurrent with the renovation of a three-story Victorian with lice infestation; we travel to the center of “the happiest celebration on earth” with the whole dang family; and we cheer as our Hausfrau finally realizes that she not only has a story to tell, but wisdom to last the ages.

A hilarious memoir of the highest aesthetic order, The Passion of the Hausfrau is a delight to the senses and the funny bone; it’s the perfect indulgence for stressed-out, time-restricted mothers (and fathers!).

Best of all, I get a new book to give to my spawning friends (along with Blueberries for Sal and One Morning in Maine). If I end up with a review copy, I'll post about else you'll just have to wait until June...

Perspective...good, bad and just interesting....

The Bank of England has just cut its interest rate to 1.5%...below 2% for the first time in its 315 year history. 

That's right, not the first time since 1964...the first time since 1694. 

For perspective, on March 1, 1694, the HMS Sussex treasure fleet (of 13 ships) is shipwrecked off Gibraltar with the loss of approximately 1,200 lives. On November 21, 1694, Voltaire, French philosopher. In December of 1694, Thomas Tenison becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. On December 28th, Queen Mary II of England dies. Wikipedia is very cool.

There is some dispute as to the oldest bank in the US, but it appears to me to be the Bank of New York (now with "Mellon" at the end), which was formed in 1784. 

Here's to the hope that all efforts to get the global economy heading is a better direction are successful. We need more people feeling happy enough to buy good books...

Bad day for book loving geeks....

Stacy's in San Fran has closed the shop. *The* geek bookstore for 85 years, this past holiday season was apparently the final straw. Site is still live, so they may be trying to keep a toe in the trade...we shall see.

Book Fair Schedule for 2009...

I think we have finalized our show schedule for this year. It would be nice if there were another NY city show, but I just don't see it happening. We shall see...

42nd Annual California ABAA Book Fair
Concourse Exhibition Center, San Francisco, CA - Feb. 13-15

49th Annual New York ABAA Book Fair
Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY- April 3-5

Boston Antique Weekend (MARIAB)
Seaport World Trade Center, Boston, MA - April 18-19

D.C. Spring Antique Fair
Walter E. Washington Conv. Center, Washington, DC - March 6-9

28th Annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair
The Coliseum, Tampa, FL - March 13-15

Baltimore Summer Antique and Antiquarian Book Show
Baltimore Conv. Center, Baltimore, MD - Sept. 3-6

Maine Antiquarian Book and Paper Show
Wyndham Hotel, Portland, ME - Sept. 20

Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair and Book Arts Show 2008
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, Seattle, WA - Oct. 10-11

ABAA Boston Book Fair
Hynes Conv. Center, Boston, MA - Nov. TBD

We are also hoping to do the RBMS event, but that remains to be seen (fingers crossed re the lottery). [edited to correct link, etc.]