March 17, 2009 Life would be less interesting without pet peeves. One of mine is abridgement. I'm not a rational being about it. I'm wholly against it. This may help explain what happened when I was working with one of my publishers representatives the other day when we got to the forthcoming Everyman's Library edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my all time favorite books. KB: I see that the copy says "Though a brilliant storyteller, Dumas was given to repetitions and redundancies; this slightly streamlined version of the original 1846 English translation speeds the narrative flow while retaining most of the rich pictorial descriptions and all the essential details of Dumas' intricately plotted and thrilling masterpiece." Rep: Hmmm. KB: Awfully generous of you guys to have retained most of the rich pictorial descriptions. Rep: Hmmm. KB: Random House really needs to have a quiet of moment of self reflection here. At what point was someone over there able to determine how the text of this masterpiece of world literature really should have been written? Rep: Well it still has 1,024 pages. KB: OMG. What kind of a concept is that! Is this a new imprint, the Steamlined Masterpieces... What's next the 'We Know Better than Homer' version of The Iliad, "Still With 463 Pages!" Rep: (Laughing pretty hard) I just meant that it was still a really long book. Oh No. KB: OMG! This is a total outrage. ...(Extended rant streamlined for your benefit.) Rep: All right well what about The Girl Who Played With Fire. KB: I don't want the 528 page version anymore, I want the 443 page version. Thus ended my streamline rant. Let me add that the great thing to look forward to here will be the streamline feature for ebooks, so that readers can hit a streamline button and key in a percent to streamline along with a few filter keys to check off to personalize the streamline, such as metaphors, scenic description, dialogue, and so forth, and then just hit refresh and the streamlined version of Little House on the Prairie is ready to read! Aaaaaaaah. Here they are! Our weekly picks for the two best: two hardcover, two paperback, and two children's books. The very best new arrivals to leap out of the box and onto our shelves this week. Don't forget that a five dollar gift certificate awaits the first person to email in to identify the unattributed author of this weeks Mystical Twitter. Call or email us if you want more information on any of these titles, or to have us hold you a copy. Or stop in and check them out in person. We'd love to see you. Thanks as always for sharing your reading with us!   Essential Pleasures: A New Anthology of Poems to Read Aloud [With CD] By Pinsky, Robert 2009/04 - W. W. Norton & Company 9780393066081 - Hardcover List Price $29.95 Availability: Available   Preorder Title Back Order If ever anyone has done a knock up job of being an ambassador for poetry it is Robert Pinsky. He's quite supplanted Sir Philip Sydney in that regard. His latest effort is, Essential Pleasures: A New Anthology of Poems To Read Aloud. This is a really attractive and well selected collection of poems dating from sixteenth century to modern. It comes with a CD featuring 21 poems read aloud by Pinsky. What is particularly engaging here are the subject heading, such as Short lines, Frequent Rhymes, or Odes, Complaints, and Celebrations, or again Parodies, Ripostes, Jokes and Insults. No question that Pinsky vow to make poetry fun again is to be taken seriously! ...More   Brush Cat: On Trees, the Wood Economy, and the Most Dangerous Job in America By McEnany, Jack 2009/03 - St. Martin's Press 9780312368913 - Hardcover List Price $24.95 Availability: Available Brush Cat: On Trees, The Wood Economy, and The Most Dangerous Job in America could hardly be more timely or of greater interest for readers situated in central Maine. According to Karen, "Maine has a history of logging and forestry which I believe has been an integral part of the economy here. This book is about anything and anybody that has to do with the wood business, from loggers to politicians to hikers, actors and businessman. McEnamy, strongly makes the point that how we choose to manage our forests in what he calls "a wood intensive world," aside from how it affects our climate, has profound and intricate consequences on our economy as well. Here's a quote from the introduction. "Every wood based product we use, and there are ten thousand and counting, started with some guy trudging into the wood with a chainsaw. This book is about that guy, his job, and how it affects us all."...More   A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond Between Two Friends and a Lion By Rendall, John Bourke, Anthony Adamson, George 2009/03 - Broadway Books 9780767932301 - Hardcover  See Other Formats List Price $21.95 Availability: Available Karen rates that this book is "unbelievably sweet." It is the story of two guys who bought a lion from the pet department of Harrod's, lived with him for a few years and then, seeking to avoid a Zoo setting, connected with George Adamson, of Born Free fame, who introduced the lion back into the wild. A year later the two came back to Africa and discovered that their old friend not only recognized them, but bowled them over with affection. This heartwarming story is loaded with what are without doubt some of the cutest photographs you'll ever see, ranging from a photo of the three of them sleeping in a tent together the night before the release, and a number of amazing stills taken during the reunion....More   Watchmen By Moore, Alan Gibbons, Dave Marx, Barry 1995/04 - DC Comics 9780930289232 - Trade Paper  See Other Formats List Price $19.99 Availability: Available With all the attention the movie is getting people will inevitably wonder whether they should read the book first, afterwords, or at all. The order of things isn't important but Moore's 1995 graphic novel is a true masterpiece of its genre, and really shouldn't be missed....More   The Annotated Wind in the Willows By Grahame, Kenneth Gauger, Annie Jacques, Brian 2009/04 - W. W. Norton & Company 9780393057744 - Hardcover List Price $39.95 Availability: Available Let me admit up front that if loving The Wind in The Willows is wrong then I am steeped in wrongfulness. I loved it as a child and I love it as, well, something kind of like an adult. To me this annotated edition is an absolute treasure, filled with classic illustrations and wonderful insights. Each page is a delight, and really, like William Beckford's dogs, this edition of Kenneth Grahame's timeless masterpiece "cannot be praised too highly."...More   The Very Hungry Caterpillar Pop-Up Book By Carle, Eric Carle, Eric 2009/03 - Philomel Books 9780399250392 - Hardcover  See Other Formats List Price $29.99 Availability: Available This 40th anniversary pop-up edition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar is exquisite. How long would it hold up if you handed it to a toddler and told them to have it? Ten seconds. So yeah, let them hold the board book version while you thrill them from a safe distance!...More