Posts Tagged ‘Books’
Apple conspired to keep e-book prices artifically high as libraries die
BOOKS are not just objects to buy and trade. The BBC reports on a ruling that Apple “conspired with publishers to fix the price of electronic books”.
And those are the electronic books that thanks to convoluted copyright rules you are not permitted to pass on to friends, as you can with an actual paper book.
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Posted: 10th, July 2013 | In: Books, Money, Technology | Comment
Everyday Racism in books: Simple Edition by A Little Nigger
It tapped into a theme. Earlier, G.H. Thompson had illustrated Ten Little Nigger Boys, a book he followed up with work on Ten Little Nigger Girls. This was sexual equality racism. Although in the girls’ version the females start at 10 and disappear. The boys grow in number.
Now grab your golliwog and read on….
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Helping the Retarded to Know God
BOOK of the day: Helping the Retarded to Know God. Published 1969 by Contordia.
Add it to the list of terrible book titles.
Posted: 13th, January 2013 | In: Books, Flashback | Comments (2)
Inappropriate bar code: the Paediatric Handbook
INAPPROPRIATE bar code placement of the day: the Paediatric Handbook:
Funny names of real authors
FUNNY names of real authors. (The author of the family planning book is ANITA HARDON)…
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Old books smell of grass and acid
Chemists at University College, London have investigated the old book odor and concluded that old books release hundreds of volatile organic compounds into the air from the paper. The lead scientist described the smell as “a combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness.”
The Bible smells of hellfire and Vimto; Middlemarch has top notes of regret; and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales have base notes synonymous with the top of a sucked pencil…
Sod Notting Hill’s Travel Bookshop It’s the Libraries That Want Saving
THE Travel Bookshop, on Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, London, which featured in the film Notting Hill, is for sale. But can it be saved?
The shop’s current owner, Simon Gaul, now lives not all that locally in France (more nominative determinism). The Telegraph says his shop made a loss of £18,000 last year.
The Bookseller reports:
European Estates Plc has not responded to recent press enquiries from The Bookseller about the closure.
In May, a spokeswoman for the company said: “His [the owner’s] adult children have indicated that they would rather not follow him into the business and so he feels that the continuance of the trade would be best served by selling it on for a new generation to look after one of London’s iconic and special bookshops.”
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Posted: 25th, August 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Beckham And How To Sell Erotic Fiction: Molly Parkin Is In
BEAUTIFUL Books is reissuing a few of Molly Parkin’s erotic novels on Feb 3, 2011, and I like the styling of the covers.
Where would a 21st Century hunk model be without a Becks-style tattoo on his arm? And the position of the man’s hand on, say, the Full Up cover suggests awareness of the clitoris. Progress must be measured in tentative increments.
I didn’t read Moll’s novels when they were first published in the 70s and 80s and I’m only familiar with three of them because of a serendipitous find in a hospital charity book sale. It was an omnibus edition of three books titled Bosom Pals bought for 40p.
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Books For Christmas: Stasha Palos’ Post-Feminist Irony Pudding
STASHA Palos, is now just Sir Philip Green’s step-daughter, she is StashaButterfly, author of How to Feed a Man.
Stasha is making a play to be the new Nigella Lawson. But while Nigella creates great eats to nourish the family and figure with sex appeal, Stasha relies on post-feminist irony to get away with her stuff. The PR calls it “a nod to post-feminist sensibilities”.
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Posted: 9th, November 2010 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
Terry Pratchett Meets Discworld Fans In Kingwell Rise, Twinned With Ankh-Morpork
SIR Terry Pratchett OBE was meeting fans of his Discworld books at Kingwell Rise, the small Somerset town, which has Discworld-inspired road names in keeping with the town’s official twinning with the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork. Pratchett left hand imprints and his signature in concrete on a Hollywood style ‘walk of fame’. These books are the next big budget films – just as soon as Hollywood has some big budgets to spend. Go long on pointy ears – you can’t have a big fantasy drama without the pointy ears…
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Author Sir Terry Pratchett OBE leaves hand imprints and his signature in concrete on a Hollywood style 'walk of fame' while fans of his Discworld novels cheer him on, at Kingwell Rise, the small Somerset town, which has Discworld-inspired road names in keeping with the town's official twinning with the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork.
Posted: 1st, May 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Time To Eat The Dog: The Real Guide To Sustainable Living.
WANT to save the planet. Kill a dog. And eat it. A new book says so. The Anorak Book Club says PuppyBeef agrees.
The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found.
Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in their provocative new book Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living.
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Posted: 22nd, October 2009 | In: Reviews | Comments (4)
Modern Delights: The Joy Of The Celebrity Death
A NEW book, Modern Delight, has asked 80 celebrities to reveal what makes them glow inside. Gyles Brandreth has made the news by admitting that he gets a kick from the death of his friends. A dead celebrity is thing of joy:
“They must be older than me, of course or, if younger, only slightly so. I am not talking here of the deaths of children or the young. Or of soldiers killed in action … I am talking about the delight of opening the morning paper and turning to the obituaries and seeing the face of a near-contemporary who has just snuffed it and being able to say to my wife, ‘Do you see old so-and-so’s gone?'”
Old Mr Anorak was asked to submit his secret delights and noted that his chief delight was not being asked to submit pieces to charity books, followed by sliding on a shoe and having to pull the lace out from under his socked foot, Germany scoring against England at football (a delight shared by every jobbing sports hack) and Jermy Kyle intoducing “the genius” Graham to give free televised therapy to the TV abused.
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Posted: 7th, September 2009 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
How To Make A German Baby In Pictures
IN today’s masterclass, we look at how to make a German baby.
The pictures below are safe for work and very possibly safe for school, caravan parks and fairground workers.
Pay attention to the perm and the child’s raised arms, both of which may or may not be sterotypical.
Posted: 2nd, July 2009 | In: Strange But True | Comments (6)
How To Make A Million: The International Bestseller
WANT to know how to earn a million? Russians do, and they’ve been buying the book that tells them just how.
Want to know what it says?
Just one word: work.
The book is to be worldwide smash, and Anorak has obtained exclusive copies of some other version:
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Posted: 21st, January 2009 | In: Money | Comment (1)
