blog.

The funeral mass for our former co-worker Anthony Smith took place at Erdington Abbey, Sutton Road, Erdington, Birmingham, England on August 11th, followed by burial at the family grave at Sutton Coldfield cemetery. The Abbey (the Parish Church of SS Thomas and Edmund of Canterbury) was where Anthony was baptised, received first communion, was confirmed and then ordained. There is a website with historical notes and pictures of the church's exterior and interior at www.erdingtonabbey.co.uk This seems like such a fitting place for the man we knew as our fascinating fellow bookseller. We thought those of you who got to know Anthony through conversations and his great book suggestions here at read. would be interested in where now rests.
R.I.P.

While doing a new, front window display on writing, things to write with, and writers, I found myself thinking about great first lines...so I share the following.

Call me Ishmael. Moby-Dick

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. Lolita

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. 1984

Mother died today. The Stranger

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. One Hundred Years of Solitude

A screaming comes across the sky. Gravity's Rainbow

Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. The Trial

All this happened, more or less. Slaughterhouse-Five

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York. The Bell Jar

A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. The End of the Affair

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. A Tale of Two Cities

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. Mrs. Dalloway

 MAN BOOKER PRIZE for FICTION longlist

7.27.10
A total of 138 books, 14 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen' longlist of 13 books.

The longlist includes:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America
Emma Donoghue Room
Helen Dunmore The Betrayal
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question
Andrea Levy The Long Song 
Tom McCarthy C
David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet 
Lisa Moore February 
Paul Murray Skippy Dies
Rose Tremain Trespass
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap
Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky

The 2010 shortlist will be announced on September 7 at a press conference at Man Group's London headquarters. The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010 will be revealed on October 12 at a dinner at London's Guildhall. The winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction will receive £50,000 and can look forward to greatly increased sales and worldwide recognition. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their shortlisted book. 

 Next time you walk into the bookstore it will look different, it looks different now. We've been moving things around to create a new feel. It does have a new vibe, so check us out. There are also some new 2011 calendars over by the magazine racks - if you want to get a jump on another year.