Behind the Bookshelves
158 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 year ago - ★★★★ - 27 ratingsA podcast from AbeBooks. This series is dedicated to telling the stories behind books and the people who love them. We'll salute classic novels and famous authors, investigate long-forgotten books, and discuss publishing houses, libraries, bookshops, and anyone else with a bookish story to tell.
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Episodes
Buying a Bookstore
July 23, 2019 16:25 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBMedellee Antonioli is part of the new generation of booksellers. The 34-year-old is now the proud owner of a used bookstore after buying the Used Book Emporium in Bozeman, Montana. She joins us to discuss the joys and challenges of buying a bookshop, and fulfilling one of her dreams. If you’ve ever wanted to own a bookstore, then this podcast interview is for you.
Bestiaries: The Books of Beasts
July 18, 2019 11:00 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBA bestiary is an encyclopedia of animals, both real and mythical. Popular in the Middles Ages, these books often featured beautiful illuminated illustrations of unicorns and other fantastic beasts. The Getty Museum in LA is currently staging an exhibition called 'Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World', and Larissa Grollemond, from the Getty, joins us to explain the significance of these remarkable books.
Matthew Budman on Book Collecting
June 20, 2019 11:00 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBOur is guest is Matthew Budman, the author of Book Collecting Now: The Value of Print in a Digital Age. His book is a complete guide to collecting in the modern world. We discuss the new generation of young book collectors and the rise of female collectors.
Jen Campbell Interview
June 11, 2019 11:00 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBAuthor Jen Campbell has numerous strings to her bow. She's written non-fiction, poetry, short stories and children's picture books, as well as being a book reviewer and a podcaster. Jen's love of books, fairy tales and storytelling shines through in her writing. We discuss dragons, bookshops, bookselling, and how villains have been traditionally portrayed in fiction.
Kennel Club Library
June 04, 2019 12:00 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBWe interview Ciara Farrell who is the Library and Collections Manager at the Kennel Club, the UK’s largest organisation dedicated to protecting and promoting the health and welfare of dogs. If you have almost any question about a dog, then this specialist library, founded in 1873, has the resources to answer it.
Pinup Book Club
May 27, 2019 17:04 - 21 minutes - 20 MBWe interview Carly Maris, the founder of the Pinup Book Club, a community dedicated to reading the books from Marilyn Monroe’s personal library of 400+ titles, and also appreciating pinup culture.
Southern Italian Food
May 23, 2019 12:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBWe interview Nicole Kilburn, who is an anthropologist at Camosun College in Victoria, BC. Nicole is the author of a book called The Future has an Ancient Heart: Southern Italian Food Traditions in a Modern World. So that means we are talking about Italy, food and history.
Vintage Typewriters
May 16, 2019 18:23 - 19 minutes - 18 MBWe interview Anthony Casillo who repairs, collects and sells vintage typewriters. He is the author of a book called Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing, which features 80 machines from his personal collection. We speak about Tom Hanks, Ian Fleming, carrying typewriters on the subway, repairs and the dusty typewriter that started Anthony's interest in these machines.
Sheds, lists and book towns
May 10, 2019 20:33 - 24 minutes - 22.4 MBOur guest is British author and journalist Alex Johnson, who has written about garden sheds, book lists, and book towns. The interview ranges from George Bernard Shaw's writing shed to the books that Ikea use in catalog photography and Scotland's beautiful book town.
Guide to Buying Used Books
May 03, 2019 22:06 - 11 minutes - 10.1 MBShould be simple? But there’s a whole world of jargon to understand. From foxing to marginalia, we attempt to explain the terminology of the used book business and offer some golden rules to remember when buying a secondhand copy.
Literary Band Names
April 12, 2019 11:00 - 9 minutes - 8.71 MBThe Doors, Thompson Twins, Supertramp, Tears for Fears.... there are numerous bands that took their names from books. We look at the stories behind some of these band names, and discover the impact of Billy Idol's mum and the villain in David Copperfield.
Sizing Up Miniature Objects
April 03, 2019 11:00 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBSimon Garfield is the author of In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate The World - a study of miniature things and the people who create them. We discuss model trains (and Rod Stewart), miniature villages, flea circuses, matchstick models of ships, tiny books and so much more.
Writers Who Walked
March 20, 2019 20:50 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBWe pull on our hiking boots and discuss writers who made some seriously long walks and then wrote about them.There's Patrick Leigh Fermor, who walked 1,590 miles across Europe, and Laurie Lee who walked around Spain. There's also Thoreau, Wordsworth, Bill Bryson, Cheryl Strayed and several wandering poets. Enjoy the show.
Annie Barrows Interview
March 04, 2019 12:00 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBAnnie Barrows is the co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, one of the most popular novels of the past 10 years. Hear how Annie became involved in a project started by her aunt Mary Ann Schaffer. We discuss occupied Guernsey, early book clubs, epistolary fiction, and the challenge of writing for both children and adults.
Wine critic Natalie MacLean
February 11, 2019 12:00 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBOur guest is award-winning Canadian wine critic Natalie MacLean. She is the author of two books about wine, hosts a podcast about vino, and runs a website that is a huge resource for winelovers. We discuss the world’s top vineyards, $15 wines versus $30 wines, tasting in the digital age, wine in literature, pairings with food, & much more.
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
January 21, 2019 12:00 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MBWith The Very Hungry Caterpillar celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, we speak to Courtney Waring from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, an institution dedicated to inspiring a love of art and reading through picture books. We trace the history of Carle’s classic book, which began as A Week with Willi the Worm, his involvement with the museum and discuss the importance of picture books.
Rare Books LA
January 14, 2019 21:52 - 39 minutes - 35.9 MBA new book fair is about to make its debut. Rare Books Los Angeles occurs on February 1 and 2. We interview Brad and Jen Johnson, the husband and wife bookselling team, who are organizing the event. We discuss the fair, their bookshop dog, heavy metal books, Wayne's World, acting, menus, vintage board games, and Hugh Hefner's library.
Scott Wallace Baker, Agatha Christie Collector
January 09, 2019 18:36 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBScott Wallace Baker has been proclaimed Australia's biggest Agatha Christie collector. Scott describes his book collection and the other objects that he also collects. Dedicated to the world's most famous writer of detective fiction, Scott has traveled to places associated with Agatha Christie and has a deep knowledge of this author's remarkable life. Enjoy our interview with this very special collector.
York Antiquarian Book Seminar
December 28, 2018 16:34 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MB"A boot camp for booksellers," that's how Anthony Smithson describes the York Antiquarian Book Seminar in the latest AbeBooks podcast. Anthony is a co-founder of this annual event and he also owns Keel Row Books, an antiquarian bookshop in North Shields in the UK. Enjoy our interview with bookseller Anthony Smithson.
Rebecca Baumann Interview
November 01, 2018 17:34 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBWe interview Rebecca Baumann about her collection of books covering crime, science fiction, horror and pulp paperbacks. Rebecca's day job is working as a librarian at Indiana University's Lilly Library but this interview covers her wide-ranging personal book collection, which stretches from HP Lovecraft to Arthur Machen, and Shirley Jackson, as well as a host of less famous authors.
Lisa Grimm Ghostlore Collector
October 22, 2018 17:03 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBWe interview Lisa Grimm, who collects books about ghostlore, general folklore and weird fiction. Her shelves are filled with ghosts, hauntings and nasty things going on in the woods. Lisa, a former librarian, describes her collection and the inspirations behind it.
Lee Israel Literary Forger
October 16, 2018 08:00 - 6 minutes - 5.9 MBLee Israel was a run-of-the-mill author of non-fiction books, who became an exceptional forger of literary letters by the rich and famous. Melissa McCarthy plays Israel in a movie adaptation, released this week, of her 2008 memoir. Discover the story behind Israel's journey from author to criminal.
Father and Son Writers
October 12, 2018 22:43 - 7 minutes - 7.16 MBSons who have followed in their literary fathers' footsteps and become authors are surprisingly common. Perhaps it’s the genes? We look at 1o pairs of fathers and sons who wrote, visiting France, the UK, Canada and the United States along the way.
The Importance of Paddington Bear
October 06, 2018 20:00 - 6 minutes - 6.13 MBHe's looking good for a bear from Darkest Peru who is now 60 years old. Paddington Bear is much more than just a hero of a children's book series. His introduction was inspired by wartime evacuees, and there are several other aspects to his bear that make him exceptionally lovable. Discover the story behind Paddington.
The Shipwrecked Author
September 28, 2018 18:33 - 5 minutes - 5.19 MBRockwell Kent had three special talents – art, writing and adventuring. Best known for his Art Deco illustrations, Kent was also shipwrecked off the coast of Greenland and he described the experience in a 1930 book called N by E. Learn about this remarkable artist with a passion for traveling.
Tales from the Slush Pile
September 27, 2018 08:00 - 5 minutes - 5.48 MBWe all make them but mistakes in the publishing world can come back to haunt you. From Harry to Carrie and le Carré, discover how some of the world's bestselling books were initially rejected by publishers who thought they were not good enough.
Netflix and the First Edition
September 26, 2018 08:00 - 6 minutes - 6.15 MBMany of you will be familiar with the dark Netflix crime drama Ozark. But did you know Ozark has sparked interest in a 1929 first edition by Thomas Wolfe worth thousands of dollars? Listen to the show and we'll unravel the mystery.
Decoding the Voynich Manuscript
September 21, 2018 08:00 - 6 minutes - 5.94 MBThe Voynich Manuscript has been confusing clever people since the 15th century. It's an illustrated document written in an unknown language that has defeated all efforts to decipher it. Herbology and pharmacy, astronomy and cosmology, and human biology appear to be the main subjects. Join AbeBooks as we consider this on-going mystery.
Birth of the Hobbit
September 17, 2018 17:43 - 5 minutes - 5.39 MBThe Hobbit was published on 21 September, 1937, and only 1,500 copies were printed. It was a landmark day for modern literature. Learn how the original version was altered after JRR Tolkien realized he had written a book that was going to become immensely popular.
Dr Zhivago & the CIA
September 10, 2018 10:00 - 6 minutes - 5.58 MBIn 2015, AbeBooks sold an original, Russian-language copy of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak for $11,000. The bookseller's description read: "Original blue cloth. The true first edition in Russian, one of 1,160 copies, which was printed as part of a covert CIA publishing and propaganda program for distributing banned material to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe." A dramatic claim but it's true. Learn about this epic story of love, loneliness and the CIA's desire to destablize the Sovie...
Amy Stewart interview
August 29, 2018 11:00 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBAmy Stewart is an old friend of AbeBooks. We've been following her writing career for many years and saw her move from non-fiction to historical crime fiction. She is also the co-owner of Eureka Books, a bookshop in Northern California. In September, Amy's latest novel is released. Called Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit, this book is the fourth installment in the Kopp Sisters series. A mystery set in the middle of hotly contested election in 1916, Constance Kopp, one of the America's first deputy s...
Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants
August 27, 2018 11:00 - 7 minutes - 6.91 MBAn unlikely bestseller from 1968 was the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada - a handbook for Americans who wanted to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War by fleeing to Canada. Discover the origins of a book that shaped the lives of thousands of young people during a period of immense social turmoil.
Amy Bronee's Cookbook
August 22, 2018 17:55 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MBAmy Bronee has a wonderful cookbook to her name. It's called The Canning Kitchen 101 Simple Small Batch Recipes, and it was published by Penguin in 2015. Amy works just around the corner from the AbeBooks HQ, and she visited our office to explain how she got noticed by a major publisher. This podcast is all about relishes, pickles, jams and jellies, and what it takes to become a publisher author.
Books Set in London
August 17, 2018 11:00 - 7 minutes - 7.09 MBWe go beyond Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle to recommend books set in London. From a genre-defining non-fiction book about Arsenal FC to fictional descriptions of the immigrant experience by Zadie Smith and Hanif Kureishi, we cast our eye across a wide selection of books.
Gruesome Fairytales
August 10, 2018 18:48 - 8 minutes - 7.58 MBSnow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid. We all know and love these gentle fairytales. But are you familiar with the original versions? Many popular fairytales started as gruesome tales of violence and killing. Discover the grisly origins of these stories and that there isn't always a Prince Charming.
Things Found in Books
August 04, 2018 12:00 - 5 minutes - 5.25 MBBe careful what you use as a bookmark. Thousands of dollars, a letter written by CS Lewis, a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a 19th century marriage certificate, a baby’s tooth, and a diamond ring are just some of the stranger objects discovered inside used books by AbeBooks sellers over the years.
UBC Special Collections Library
August 02, 2018 18:45 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MBAbeBooks visits Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of British Columbia Library to learn about how they work and who they serve. From early exploration to immigration and settlement, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad, learn about some of the remarkable books, art, ephemera and other objects that are housed in this specialized institutional library.
Ex Library Books
July 23, 2018 12:00 - 6 minutes - 5.94 MBAn ex-library book is a book that once belonged to a public library or institution and has been 'discarded' after being deemed no longer useful. They are humble but useful things. This podcast pays tribute to these former library books getting a second lease of life on the used book market.
Fahrenheit 451
July 16, 2018 23:01 - 5 minutes - 5.35 MBDiscover the background to Ray Bradbury's classic dystopian book-burning novel from 1953 and why it's still relevant today.
Great Gatsby's Art
July 15, 2018 12:00 - 5 minutes - 5.15 MBF Scott Fitzgerald’s novel from 1925 can be found everywhere. It’s loved by readers for its exquisite prose but it’s also adored by collectors, primarily for its dust jacket. When complete with its original dust jacket, a first edition of The Great Gatsby is one of the most expensive modern editions. Just such a copy sold for $180,000 in 2009. Discover the story behind that beautiful blue dust jacket and why it's so valuable.
Angels of Mons
July 10, 2018 12:00 - 6 minutes - 5.76 MBOf all the memorable tales to emerge from the Great War, the most remarkable one is untrue. The Angels of Mons is a legend that evolved from a ghost story. In 1914, Arthur Machen published a short story called The Bowmen in a newspaper. It described how phantom archers from the Battle of Agincourt had come to the rescue of British soldiers fighting against the Germans in the Battle of Mons a month earlier. People thought Machen's story was factual and the myth of the Angels of Mons began.
Savoy Cocktail Book
July 05, 2018 12:00 - 8 minutes - 7.47 MBThe Savoy Cocktail Book is the coolest book in the world. Firstly, it's a one-off, the author, Harry Craddock, never wrote another book. Secondly, cocktails, in modicum, will never go out of style. And finally, it's beautiful and perfectly captures the mood of the Art Deco era. Discover the magic of this famous cocktail recipe book from 1930.
PulpFest
June 30, 2018 12:00 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBWe’re talking Pulp with Mike Chomko, programming and marketing director of PulpFest. Discover the origins of the early Pulp magazines, how authors churned out story after story, the formula behind the lurid cover artwork, and how “new” pulp is bringing crime, sci-fi and adventure writing to a new audience with modern editions.
Russell Books
June 27, 2018 17:00 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBJordan and Andrea Minter are the husband and wife team who run Russell Books, a bookshop in Victoria, British Columbia, that now employees 50 staff and offers thousands of new, used and rare books. We learn how the shop started in the 1960s in Montreal. We learn about the odds things that customers say. We learn about the strange things that are left behind in used books.
Detroit Bookfest
June 15, 2018 11:00 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBRyan M. Place is the creator and chairman of the Detroit Bookfest. This festival of books is a huge event on July 15, dedicated to everything bookish with a major focus on used and rare books. We ask Ryan about the Motor City's book culture, John King's epic bookstore and how the festival began.
Remembering Anthony Bourdain
June 12, 2018 16:24 - 7 minutes - 6.73 MBEleven years ago, author-chef-TV star Anthony Bourdain came to town and took a group of foodies to brunch. This episode features memories of that brief encounter and remembers the impact of his ground-breaking memoir about the New York restaurant trade, Kitchen Confidential.
History of LGBT Literature
June 08, 2018 12:00 - 9 minutes - 9.01 MBAlthough LGBT is now a thriving literary genre, it wasn't always this way. Discover the pioneering authors who paved the way with key books in the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century. From big names like Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf and Patricia Highsmith to long forgotten authors who have faded into obscurity, we take a tour of pen names, court cases and the simple struggle to be accepted.
Ian Fleming's Legacy
June 01, 2018 08:00 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MBIn an interview with bookseller Jon Gilbert, we learn about the legacy of 007 author Ian Fleming and how his remarkable life shaped these famous spy novels. We discuss Fleming's work in journalism with Reuters and newspapers, and children's literature with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Interview with a Bookbinder
May 28, 2018 19:42 - 18 minutes - 17.4 MBWhile at the 2018 ABA Rare Book Fair in London, we interviewed Marysa de Veer of Otter Bookbinding about how she is keeping this traditional craft alive and the skills required to restore, preserve and enhance books. Marysa founded Otter Bookbinding in 1993 and you can find her bindery in Midhurst, West Sussex, in the UK.
Book Burning
May 20, 2018 23:39 - 6 minutes - 6.3 MBBook burning. Two words to strike fear into bibliophiles. From Nazi Germany to Harry Potter, we look at what makes people burn books.