1732 • Benjamin Franklin begins publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanack” under the name Richard Saunders. containing weather predictions, humor, proverbs and epigrams, eventually selling nearly 10,000 copies per year.

Poor Richard, 1733
Courteous Reader,

I might in this place attempt to gain thy Favour, by declaring that I write Almanacks with no other View than that of the publick Good; but in this I should not be sincere; and Men are now a-days too wise to be deceiv’d by Pretences how specious soever. The plain Truth of the Matter is, I am excessive poor, and my Wife, good Woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud; she cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning in her Shift of Tow, while I do nothing but gaze at the Stars; and has threatned more than once to burn all my Books and Rattling-Traps (as she calls my Instruments) if I do not make some profitable Use of them for the good of my Family. The Printer has offer’d me some considerable share of the Profits, and I have thus begun to comply with my Dame’s desire. . . .

Friend and Servant
R. SAUNDERS.

lost n’ found • an update on the conservation of the 9thc psalter found in an Irish peat bog last summer. (via the Book Guide UK)

spoils • McMaster University Library in Hamilton, Ont., has obtained the diaries, correspondence and early material of Leslie McFarlane, author of 21 of the Hardy Boys books.

idiot alert • Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is being challenged by parents in Westport CT.

resurrectionists • WAPO gives us a piece on the New York Review Children’s Collection which is reprinting 8-10 out of print books each year.

naughty, naughty • Philobiblios has a little something to say about the son of a bitch a who bought a unique £47,000 67 volume Devonshire rector’s bible only to cut out the prints and now wants to resell the carcass.

groupies • did anyone else know there was a national council on bookstore tourism? and why didn’t they ask any of US to join?

• Wikipedia the end all and be all for inveterate listmakers has a list of Books banned during the Third Reich era.

blog of note • Book Patrol has a nifty post about a German memento mori to burned books.

birthday • 1916 – Shelby Foote is born

idiot alert, again • Folks in St Louis are winding themselves up about a sweet little book about 2 male penguins who have the audacity to make a family, And Tango Makes Three. I am beginning to prefer penguins to people.

show n’tell • from the Washington Post a piece about the exhibit The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artists’ Books exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

worth hearing • from, NPR, Thomas Cahill, guests on On Point and talks about his new book Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminisim, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe.

naughty • Thieves broke into Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s house in Cartagena de Indias and took a safe that contained no valuables. Perhaps this should be an idiot alert.

something new • from the Guardian a review of The Life of Kingsley Amis by Zachary Leader

obit of note • George Blackburn at 90 – War hero, musician, author.

event – FL Amelia Book Island Festival - Fernandina Beach, FL

idiot alert - Texas father wants to ban book about banning books . . . yeah I had to work at that one . . he doesn’t like Fahrenheit 451 being used in the curriculum, so he wants to eliminate it. I swear i think these people just do this to prove they are more Christian than the guy next door.

mazel tov! - Asimov’s I, Robot has been translated into Hebrew and is available online, since I’m not jewish and can’t read Hebrew I will take someone else’s word that this is the link.

events •
NJ – Collingswood Book Festival – Collingswood, N.J.
VA - Fall For The Book Literary Festival – Fairfax, Va.

audio • Noam Chomsky guests on NPR’s On Point, to talk about the US as a failed nation.

worth reading • Oregon paper profiles Ken Corliss of Bartlett Street Book Store

obit of note • the Coliseum Books, a bastion of independent Manhattan book sellers since the early 1970’s, the curtain is apparently closing on a second and final act.

idiot alert • Georgia mother wants Harry Potter books removed because the series promotes and glorifies witchcraft. hmmmm well DUH. so did Dorrie and the Blue Witch in 1964, and the Littlest Wtich in 1959, and Wizard of Oz in 1900.

birthdays
1879 - Wallace Stevens, American poet (d. 1955)
1904 - Graham Greene, British novelist (d. 1991)
1911 - Jack Finney, American author (d. 1995)

embedding - Northern Irish author Jason Johnson is set to sell the right to appear as a literary character in his third book to the highest online bidder. just one little question . . . . who cares?

mitzvah • Robert Anton Wilson is still broke and dying at home,
donations can be made to Bob directly to the Paypal account olgaceline@gmail.com. You can also send a check payable to Robert Anton Wilson to Dennis Berry c/o Futique Trust, P.O. Box 3561, Santa Cruz, CA 95063

idiot alert • Melbourne University has removed two books – Defence of the Muslim Lands and Join the Caravan – from its library shelves after they were refused classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Vice-chancellor Glyn Davis has complained that this will limit the legitimate research of staff and students. whatever happened to KNOW they enemy?. . seems to me ignorance is what got us in this mess in the first place.

cookies • Katharina Hacker won Germany’s top award for contemporary novels, the 25,000-euro ($32,000) German Book Prize, for her novel, “Die Habenichtse” (The Have-Nothings).