Did you happen to catch this over the weekend? Christies’s will be auctioning off 75 first edition books, annotated by their authors. The New York Times has all of them, in an interactive feature.
Some of them are whimsical; some are still debating their point. Other annotations tell interesting bits of history and trivia. Katherine Paterson (“Bridge to Tarabithia”) writes that “the book’s first sentence was identified by ‘some flight magazine about bad first sentences in otherwise good books….But, heck, people have kept reading past it.’ ” James Salter (“The Hunter”) laments “I never liked the title.” Eric Carle wishes his name was in a bigger font on the cover of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.
It might be a great way (educational even!) to waste the next hour of your life…
