Showing posts with label hard case crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hard case crime. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2009

What book would you like to see back in print?

Bookfinder has released a list of "the top 10 most sought-after out-of-print books in America in 2008." The only "celebrity' book on the list is Madonna's photo book Sex (quickly sold sold, then tanked, now desired again). I'm kind of amazed at some of the others, and especially at the last two, which suggest a continuing market for high-quality books about craft.

What books would you like most to see republished? One of my childhood favorites was D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, which was out of print for decades and finally republished. This was published by New York Review Books, which specializes in bringing out-of-print classics back into publciation. There's a brisk business republishing great books. Another great publisher in this area is Hard Case Crime, which republishes old classic hardboiled detective novels alongside new novels in the same style. They also commission new, slightly slutty paintings for all their covers. I discovered the just-deceased Donald Westlake through Hard Case Crime.

New York Review Books publishes classic fiction, nonfiction, and children's books. Hard Case Crime publishes old and new hardboiled fiction. What books would you like to see back in print? Can you imagine a publisher that would specialize in a particular area of reprinting? How would you go about it? Questions for thought and possible repsonse.