Book News
Rare books’ stock stays steady.
There is nothing like a good, old book. Despite the ravages of the recession and the advances of the digital age, prices of high-end rare books are holding firm.
In fact, Swann Auction Galleries in New York, a specialist in the field, recently garnered a record $72,000 for a book from Latin America. In fact, it was the first book published in Peru (a little light reading on Catholic doctrine). Illustrated art books also have been selling well: A signed, first-edition Andy Warhol hardcover from 1967 recently went for $6,000 at Swann.
“People are turning to rare collectibles in an economy like this because the supply is finite and you are getting something tangible — it is a sounder investment than plenty of stocks,” said Swann’s Rick Stattler.
The market hasn’t been as kind to less-valuable collectible books.
All told, books and related ephemera are fetching 18 percent less at auction than they did in 2008, or a median of roughly $400 per lot (usually one book), reports online bookselling source Americana Exchange.
But in the luxe market, says Adina Cohen of New York’s Argosy Book Store, a purveyor of antiquarian fare, “We haven’t lowered our prices at all, and if we don’t sell it today, we will sell it next week or next year.”
online.barrons.com
First Lines
Girl in a Blue Dress: A Novel Inspired by the Life & Marriage of Charles Dickens, by Gaynor Arnold, $25.99.
My husband’s funeral is today. And I’m sitting here alone in my upstairs room while half of London follows him to his grave.
I should be angry, I suppose. Kitty was angry enough for both of us, marching about the room in a demented fashion. They couldn’t stop you, she kept saying. They wouldn’t dare turn you away — not his own widow. And of course she was right; if I’d made an appearance, they would have been forced to acknowledge me, to grit their teeth and make the best of it. But I really couldn’t have borne to parade myself in front of them, to sit in a black dress in a black carriage listening to the sound of muffled hooves and the agonized weeping of thousands. And most of all, I couldn’t have borne to see Alfred boxed up in that dreadful fashion. Even today, I cannot believe that he will never again make a comical face, or laugh immoderately at some joke, or racket about in his old facetious way.
Children’s series
bestsellers
1. Twilight Saga, by Stephenie Meyer
2. Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
4. The 39 Clues, by Scholastic
5. House of Night, by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
6. Magic Tree House, by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Sal Murdocca
7. The Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith
8. The Mortal Instruments, by Cassandra Clare
9. Gallagher Girls, by Ally Carter
10. Warriors, by Erin Hunter
Publishers Weekly
