Beat Bookstore in Antwerpen
The Invisible Library
The ABC of Banned Books
New Harry Potter
Coups
de coeur
Landed
in Leuven!
Contact ABC |
|
Beat Bookstore in Antwerpen (spring 2005)
From 4 March till 22 April 2005, a cooperation between our library American Book Center, Demian Antiquariat Antwerpen and many other partners within the festival Antwerp Book capital of the World 2004, allowed our customers to visit a "small City Lights Bookshop" : the Beat Bookstore-Expo-Performance in Antwerpen.
Address :
Wolstraat 2
2000 Antwerpen
More info : www.demian.be/expo.html
The Invisible Library
By Jitse Verwer
Every once in a while we get a customer in the store looking for a book called Buttercup's Baby by S. Morganstern, the long lost sequel to his famous book The Princess Bride. Unfortunately for the customer the book does not exist and neither does S. Morganstern. The Princess Bride is actually written by William Goldman, who calls the book "the good bits version". To confuse us even more The Princess Bride has and additional chapter of the long lost sequel called "Buttercup's Baby" as an ending to the book. This has led readers to believe that there is another book and gets us in an awkward situation when people ask us when Buttercup's Baby will finally be published.
William Goldman is not the only one to give a twist to his story by inserting a non-existent source. Other authors have also taken it upon themselves to give us titles of books that have never been written. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about The Red Book of Westmarch, relating the events that are described in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and had been written by the Hobbits he created. Tolkien gives the impression that this book is actually real and has come to us over the ages to tell of an ancient and forgotten past.
Umberto Eco makes use of fictitious manuscripts in his most famous work The Name of the Rose. Le Manuscript de Dom Adson de Melk by Abbe Vallet is the product of Eco's imagination. He claims The Name of the Rose was based on this manuscript, but since he lost it in a train talking to a beautiful woman the reader has to forgive him some of the inaccuracies. This gives Eco a pretext to be liberal with this specific part of medieval history, where the climax of the book, the burning of the great library, is of course the reason we have no other information about the events that Eco describes.
Why do writers do this? There are several answers; the most obvious is authenticity. It gives the book an air of reality by making a reference to an authoritative manuscript. Making references to a book only the writer knows also gives him the ability to be very liberal with his information, giving a character the book with answers just as he needs it. These books are also used to guide the reader into the fictitious world; it raises curiosity, and gives a sense of mystery and wonder about the story. But most importantly, most writers are bibliophiles, and it is their dream to stumble upon one of those fabled old dusty tomes they write about in their books. This is where desires become real in the mind's eye.
This is also the case in The Club Dumas by Spanish bibliophile Arturo Pérez-Reverte. It tells the story of Lucas Corso, a trader of antiquarian books, a man of intellect who openly admits his sole purpose in the profession is financial gain, but this is a cover for his true love of books. Corso takes on the financially profitable and intellectually fascinating task of tracking down the only three copies of The Nine Doors written by Alexander Dumas; the text that supposedly has information necessary for summoning the devil. The characters in Reverte's book are searching for the ultimate enlightenment, as the devil is the master of all knowledge, and during their journeys they touch upon many different philosophical questions. As Corso starts making connections between his own experiences and those of the book he is after he begins questioning his own reality, giving an ironic twist to reading the book.
Fictitious books can start leading their own lives, and have actually appeared in print. This is the case with the fabled Necronomicon. This tome was conceived by the horror writer H.P. Lovecraft who created it to spice up his stories on ancient horrors from beyond time and space. Allegedly the Necronomicon was written in the 9th century by an Arab scholar know as Abdul al Azred, the mad Arab, who had travelled the Middle East in search for the ancient mysteries of black magic. In the deserts he contacted demons that gave him insights into obscure and frightful mysteries about a prehistoric race older than mankind itself. After Lovecraft's death in 1937, and the demise of the pulp magazines that published his stories, the legacy he left behind slowly disappeared from the public mind. In the 1960's a new generation of readers discovered his work, and references to Lovecraft's ancient horrors and the Necronomicon were embraced by American subcultures. In the late 1970's a new manuscript surfaced named the Necronomicon which wasn't written by a mad Arab, but by a mysterious monk named Simon. The book deals mainly with incantations to ancient Babylonian gods. It is the book that is now available as the Necronomicon, but its authenticity has been the issue of debate ever since it's publication.
Not all pseudobiblia are pretending to be real. There is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, which features "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". A very handy little electronic book which has the words "Don't Panic" inscribed in large friendly letters on the front, and tells you all you need to know about space and such when your planet has been blown up to make way for a hyper galactic space bypass. Adams gives us a peek into the library of tomorrow where we will have such bestsellers as "Where God Went Wrong", "Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes" and "Who Is This God Person Anyway" by Oolon Colluphid. Or you can liven up your space pad by reading the "Celestial Homecare Omnibus" or "Fifty-three More Things to Do in Zero Gravity".
This overview is of course far from complete and whole books could be written about the fictional books and their meaning in our culture. But above all the fictional books we read are a reflection of the human mind that always explores new possibilities, and the thoughts that linger in our mind but never take shape, until we read about them.
For more titles visit www.invisiblelibrary.com
The ABC of Banned Books
Introducing the new "Banned Book of the fortnight" feature in our Leuven store.
|
Have you ever stopped and paused to think about what it is, that causes people to attack and curtail the very things most of us have started to take for granted? Why it is that the seemingly most innocent ideas expressed on paper may engender hatred, persecution, violence and death?
The most simple answer to such a broad question is of course that ideas are not innocent. And although the popular German song from modernity expressed the idea that "Die Gedanken sind frei" that 'thoughts are free' — attempts are repeatedly being made to restrict their freedom to the heads in which they are thought, often culminating in the removal of those very heads themselves. One might think that these grizzly times are long behind us, have long since changed, and in a world that promotes the value of the freedom of expression and speech this could not possibly be the case.
However, it is the case. The persecution of books continues. Books that express ideas — perceived by the opponents of these ideas as dangerous and morally corrupt or, for lack of any better argument downright silly, continue to be attacked and persecuted. In the case of some titles the western world has become accustomed to think that the conflicts that surrounded them have long been overcome — that too is an illusion.
The problem of censorship is well known. Its history has intrigued and puzzled book lovers through ages past and present. After all, the very phenomenon that books could and can at all be subjected to considerations of taste in the broadest sense of the term, whether of a political, religious, sexual or social nature, is a testimony to the very power of the written word: to influence and change the world around us. Whether for better or worse can only be determined after a thorough look at the various standpoints at hand.
The American Book Center has from its very beginnings onward always tried to promote the free exchange of ideas, to reflect in the books freely on offer in its stores the whole gamut of human thoughts and emotions, from the weird to the wonderful, the challenging to the banal, the shocking to the trite. And let us be frank, tastes differ. What is offensive to some is the very paragon of good taste to others. The very corner-stones of world views that have upheld cultures and societies for centuries can be the most offensive abominations to other cultures that have come to oppose them.
In order to allow our customers to freely engage in a well balanced inquiry into the nature of these oppositions the ABC continuously seeks to provide access to all sides of the multifaceted scintillating world of ideas. One of the underlying thoughts in our newest "Banned book of the fortnight" feature in our Leuven outlet, is that if you wish to come to know your friends well — and in the world of book-lovers books are considered dear friends – it is helpful to know about their past lives and histories. Every other two weeks we feature a new "banned" book and its censorship history on our Banned Book shelf. And trust us, the history of some of these books, even the seemingly most innocent, can open a new world.
Of course, there are any number of titles of which we all know that they have caused controversy. Luther's 95 theses, Rushdie's Satanic verses, James Joyce's Ulysees, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita to name but a few. Equally well known and predictable, are the reasons for which they were attacked: The Catholic Church, the sanctity of the Prophet, the sexual mores of the time, the viability of the Soviet Socialist Republic were not institutions to be challenged lightly. So far so good.
However, one should keep in mind that in a community of free speech books can also be attacked freely. With some astounding results. A few examples from recently featured "Banned Books of the fortnight" may puzzle and astound you, and perhaps cause you to look at some of your old friends in a new light:
Did you know for example the Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl has been attacked in the United States as "being too much of a downer" to read for high-school students? That George Orwell's Animal Farm — the well known satire of Stalin's totalitarian regime — was considered a "problem book" in New York state Schools as late as 1987 on accounts of "Orwell being a communist"? That equally, Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, known to most of us as an interminable movie, was considered "subversive" and "un-American"? That John Griffin's classic sociological study and pearl of investigative journalism Black like me describing his experiences as an African-American man in the early sixties was challenged as late as 1982 on grounds of being obscene and vulgar "because of black people in the book"? Hilary Clinton's autobiography may currently enjoy the status of a best-seller — Benjamin Franklin's autobiography was subjected to more than a thousand changes by his publishers on accounts of being obscene?
Do you wish to find out more? Do not hesitate, the rich and fertile soil of the wild and wacky world of the exchange of ideas as it has left its traces in the publishing realm will open even further to you. Come and check it out and get to know your old and new friends better than you have known them before. The free expressions of ideas is not self-evident — do not hesitate to learn to love your books and the freedom of expression they represent a bit better.
|
|
 |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
"The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive… The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four."
This is the beginning of the long awaited fifth Harry Potter book, which will - finally! - be published on 21st June 2003. Later in the novel, J.K. Rowling writes:
"Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. 'It is time,' he said, 'for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything'."
Rowling has written a brilliant and utterly compelling new adventure, 768 pages and 38 chapters long! Her previous books have been number 1 bestsellers and are currently still on bestseller lists in Great Britain, the USA and around the world. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the fastest selling book in history in the first weekend of its publication.
You can help Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix break this record by coming to our Booklovers Party on 20th June, which is being organized especially to promote Rowling's new book. Starting at five minutes past midnight, we will sell the book at the estimated price of - 33,13 for the British edition, and - 39,89 for the American edition.
If you want to make absolutely certain that you’ll get a copy, you can put your name on our order list. Visit our web-site or our store in Leuven; Diestsestraat 115. Sign up now, and have a chance to win one of five free copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!
Coups de coeur
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
Passionate, profound and deeply moving, The Hours is the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, who one New York morning goes out about planning a party in honor of a beloved friend; Laura Brown, who in a 1950s Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway. By the end of the novel, the stories have intertwined and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace, demonstrating Michael Cunningham's deep empathy for his characters as well as the extraordinary resonance of his prose.
The Hours is the winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction and is now a major motion picture by Stephen Daldry.
Embers, Sandor Marai
As darkness settles on a forgotten castle at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, two men sit down to a final dinner together. They have not seen one another in forty-one years. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered - and each of them alone. Tonight, as wine stirs the blood, it is time to talk of old passions and that last, fateful meeting.
Exhibitionism, Toby Litt
A collection of stories from Toby Litt, threatening and with even more twists and turns, sex and violence, and glitz and glamour than in previous works. The text stars Polly Morphous, Lee Perverse and the Audioguide to the Museum-Of-Inside-Your-Head and this time - it's personal.
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Commander Sam Vines of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch has it all. But now he's back in his own rough, tough past without even the clothes he was standing up in when the lightning struck. Living in the past is hard. Dying in the past is incredibly easy. But he must survive, because he has a job to do. He must track down a murderer, teach his younger self how to be a good copper and change the outcome of a bloody rebellion. There's a problem: if he wins, he's got no wife, no child, no future.
Wittgenstein's Poker, David Edmonds and John Eidinow
On 25 October 1946, in a crowded room in Cambridge, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper came face to face for the first and only time. The encounter lasted just ten minutes, and did not go well. Almost immediately, rumours started to spread around the world that the two philosophers had come to blows, armed with red-hot pokers…
Dispatches From A Wounded World, Ethan Casey and Leah Kohlenberg (eds.)
The second in a series of innovatively published books that look closely at the human and global context of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dispatches From A Wounded World examines fragile political situations and American perceptions of terror and security. As a follow-up to 09/11 8:48 AM; Documenting America's Greatest Tragedy, it provides a global and cultural framework which lends much needed perspective to the change wrought by the terrorist attacks and the subsequent global reaction.
Project Orion: The Atomic Spaceship 1957-1965, George Dyson
In 1957, a group of scientists launched a madcap scheme to send a nuclear-bomb-propelled spaceship to Mars. It became known as Project Orion and is one of the most fantastic 'what if' stories ever told… Orion was to weigh 4,000 tons, carry 2,600 bombs and transport fifty passengers. Its team included English physicist Freeman Dyson, whose son George was five at the time. Now, George Dyson has pieced together the incredible story - much of which is still classified - that his father could tell him only in fragments. It is a tale of sublime science, Cold Warriors and an age obsessed by outer space. And it still raises tantalizing questions: what if Orion had been completed? And could we build it today?
Fences and Windows: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate, Naomi Klein
Fences and Windows is an eyewitness account of a unique chapter in our history and an investigation of globalization and its consequences: a survival guide for life in he world economy.
The Mechanical Turk, Ton Standage
In 1770, in the imperial court of Vienna, one of the most extraordinary and baffling inventions in history was unveiled to the cries of shocked courtiers. The Mechanical Turk immediately became a sensation: a life-sized clockwork figure dressed in Eastern costume that, somehow, could play world-class chess. For decades, this incredible automation confounded audiences across Europe and America. It trounced grand masters, outwitted Napoleon, defeated Benjamin Franklin and was even said to have stopped Catherine the Great from cheating.
Jamie's Kitchen, Jamie Oliver
Accompanying Jamie Oliver's new TV series - where he sets up a restaurant which is also a school for young chefs - Jamie's Kitchen is the ultimate guide for people who love great food and want to cook. It's packed with clear, no-nonsense advice and inspiration, as well as over 100 brand-new recipes from the cookery course and the restaurant. Jamie's approach is honest and easy - this is not a heavy 'cook like a professional' book, weighed down with facts, figures and techniques. Jamie guides you through different cooking methods - from poaching and boiling to char-grilling and pot-roasting. He encourages you to have confidence, a sense of independence, a laugh and - importantly - to be the boss in your own kitchen. Check out the hints and tips on how to take recipes in different directions and on how to be inspired when shopping - spotting what's good, what's in season and what's good value. It's like having Jamie in the kitchen with you, helping out with great advice and shortcuts to fantastic cooking, remembering all the tough stuff, so you don't have to. In no time at all, he'll have you trying loads of new ideas as well as cooking up a storm with old favourites.
Stupid White Men, Michael Moore
Stupid White Men tells you all you need to know about how the great and the good screw us over. It reveals - among other things - how 'President' Bush stole an election aided only by his brother, cousin, his dad's cronies, electoral fraud and tame judges; how the rich stay rich while forcing the rest of us to live in economic fear; and how politicians have whored themselves to big business. Not to mention providing fascinating details on just how stupid Bush is, a convincing case for male obsolescence and a fabulous new use for Whites Only signs! A hilarious must-read for anyone who wants to know what the con is and how 'they' get away with it, Stupid White Men is only available uncensored because public pressure forced the original publishers to publish a book they felt was too hot to handle. Now it's time to find out why.
Landed in Leuven!
We very proudly present to you our first mortar-and-bricks store over the Dutch border. Wait a minute you say, I thought ABC was not interested in expanding? Well.. sometimes life throws you an offer you can't refuse: in 1999 we had the chance to purchase a whole warehouse of great books, there was the offer of a good location and the surprise availability of a talented bookseller/manager. When these factors come together, it's pretty clear that another ABC bookstore wants to be born.
The site of our third store is the Belgian city of Leuven. We are located on the Diestsestraat 115, in the back of the International Magazine Store. Many people pass this door without knowing we are in the back — something they regret later — so keep your eyes open for the little sign next to the entrance of IMS.
Our store in Leuven is a full-fledged ABC store, roughly the same size as the store in The Hague. Even though we stock a lot of titles, it's impossible to stock every book in print. Therefore the store has a full ordering and customer services, just like our two other stores. This means that we'll special order books for you from both the US and UK at no extra charge. Because we are so specialized we might well be the largest source of English-language books on the continent.
Depending on availability, most popular titles take from 10 days to 3 weeks to arrive. And, of course, students, teachers and ABC-cardholders receive our standard 10% discount.
In 2001 ABC-Leuven's second floor was transformed into a bargain-books department. Up there you can find all kinds of books ranging from science fiction and children's books to computer manuals, fiction, philosophy and medical handbooks. All at extremely low prices.
Contact ABC Leuven
|
