The Joy of Books: Hey Page Dancer!

Ever wonder what books secretly do when we're not looking? Hah!? They have a party!
Shot on location at a Canadian bookstore, this video is just awesome page after page, frame by frame!

January 2 2012 is a Monday!

In my lifelong study of human beings, I have found that no matter how hard they try, they have found no way yet to prevent the arrival of Monday morning. And they do try, of course, but Monday always comes, and all the drones have to scuttle back to their dreary workaday lives of meaningless toil and suffering.
- Dexter
Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay

Well then, let's all enjoy the first Monday of the New Year! Happy 2012!

C'est la vie! New beginnings for this book blog :)

John James Audubon's Birds of America: World's Most Expensive Book

Now up for bids at Sotheby's,  John James Audubon's Birds of America now dubbed the world's most expensive book. Or the priciest My Big Book of Birdies that would send any birdwatcher into an orgasmic frenzy- ornithological porn anyone? :)

Note the delicate craftsmanship, the ornate engravings and the lock on the book, the tome definitely looks mysterious. 

Only 119 copies are known to have been made, each book contains 435 hand-colored prints created from engravings of John James Audubon's illustrations. The book size measures more than 3 feet by 2 feet because Audubon wanted to ilustrate an accurate depiction of the birds life size.

John James Audubon's Birds of America is expected make around $6.2 million and $9.2million. Whoa!

Agatha Christie: International Woman of Mystery

If you're a big fan of the Dame of Crime and Mystery then you'll enjoy the BBC Archive's spotlight on Agatha Christie, one of the world's most successful crime writer.

Her books are often whodunits that keep readers guessing clue after clue (or at least reading the book till the end, if you're just gnawing to know if you got your hunches right. One of her popular novels , Murder on the Orient Express features one of her long-running characters, the detective Hercule Poirot.

Her book sales totalled over an estimated 300 million books throughout her life as a detective novelist. She died in the ripe old age of 85 on January 12, 1976. Enjoy BBC interviews and features on Agatha Christie.

Paul Auster's City of Glass

I will now begin my reading spree into Paul Auster's New York Trilogy- the first novel City of Glass is not what it seems to be. Noir? Pseudo-Noir? Existentialist noir? or simply narcissistic?

A lot of self-importance is placed on finding the mystery caller named Paul Austere. Yeah, the author who turns out to be paranoid about his father. Yeah, Paul Auster has daddy issues.

Now let's see how this turns out, the first few chapters are very engaging to say the least!

The copy I got from booksale had a lot of dog-ears, proof that this is one book people can't get their hands off.

Professional 16/35mm Cameraman's Handbook

Today I found a gem, the Professional 16/35mm Cameraman's Handbook by Verne and Sylvia Carlson and it feels like a bible. Well, it is for film school and camera enthusiasts. The cover I mean has the texture of the Holy Bible and the inscription is engraved in gold.







The book has a lot of diagrams on the mechanisms of the arriflex and bolex cameras. It also has a tsep by step guide on loading on loading your roll. Yup all manual from here, nothing digital, nothing automated and that's the beauty of it. Now if only the book came with a 16mm camera. Maybe I have to check out Quiapo for that!

Tubthumping the Thumb Thing: The Best Gift for Bookworms

Just found the best invention created for bookworms. A soft plastic ring that keeps book pages open.

Whether you're on the tram, at the park, reading at an awkward angle or missing an opposable thumb, the ThumbThing is certainly handy to keep those pages at bay.