Some short takes for June from the world of books.
School’s out, summer’s right around the corner. Time to kick back a little and browse through some of the interesting bookish news and information that is floating around the web. Here are a few of my picks.
>>Book Blogs- Important – to actually see the site click on the little chain link iconright next to the word “follow” in blue. Click anywhere else and you’ll get a promo message from Feed Spot with a pitch for subscription for their service. This list is by no means comprehensive and it’s coming from a website that wants to sell you info and data on niche markets. Still it provides a pretty wide assortment of individuals, institutions and dealers and it comes with some metrics info too. You could do worse. If you click the link - which is recommended and why we’re putting it first, you are still likely to get a follow up email offering data services, but most of the 30+ blog sites they’ve chosen are well worth a visit.
>> Print is dead or is it?Haven’t you heard no one reads, much less buys books any more? Here’s the rebuttal that ran recently in SlateIt says there are lots of creative ways to use statistics that might tend to be misleading, especially if you’re a party to a big lawsuit in a publishing merger. Plenty of data, nicely presented.
>> Reddit anyone?I confess to being a Reddit junkie, love it for all the odd bits of first hand news and information that gets mixed together on a daily basis. While it’s heavy on internet gamers and ageist sentiments (i.e. everything bad is the fault of old people, die already and give us your stuff) there is a staggering amount ofbook related subsinr/bookswith an aggregate membership of 24 million. All three of these links are a little different, so if you are not currently browsing Reddit suggest you click through on the trio.
Warning:Reddit is addictive and a lot of it is, shall we say, strange. There’s lots of youthful internet slang that I have to look up such as NSFW (not suitable for work), AITA? (Am I the a**hole?) and AMA (Ask me anything). It can be fun and informative, or it can be a huge doom scroll.
>> Movie star turned book recommender: Unbeknownst to some of us in the more esoteric reaches of bookish lore the actress Reese Witherspoon has become influential in book clubcircles. So who knew? Here’s a gift article to get you around the NY Times paywall to find out what’s hot in book club land.
>>> Tattered Coverthe legendary Denver book shop goes on the bankruptcy block this month. June 10th is the bid deadline for the auction which will be held June 12. The article says there are eight prospective bidders.
>>> And in other news from bookstores, Paul Yamazakihead buyer from City Lights in San Francisco shares some of his thoughts and literary tastes with the NY Times. Again, it’s another gift article so presumably you’ll be able to access the site.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
