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Critique of leader could land writer a prison sentence, Clifford Coonan reports from Beijing
I would run
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...literature snobs — such as my Danish friends — seem to subscribe to the universal truth that books that make money are by definition commercial, and that commercial literature is by default rotten. The calculus is actually quite simple: bestseller is bad, bestseller with happy ending is worse and bestseller with happy ending and a page-turning plot is a one-way ride to the dime store. I’m sure German philosopher Immanuel Kant would agree; to be truly good, a book—like moral conduct—has to cause you pain.
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Even coming from the weird and wacked-out world of Tinseltown, the news that Sean Penn is to appear in a Hollywood biopic of Maxwell Perkins is somewhat startling. Perkins was a mild, courteous, self-effacing publisher’s editor.
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Are Barnes & Noble founder Len Riggio and his nemesis Ron Burkle the only people in America who still want to own a mega-bookstore?
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A book published last week by Campus Verlag is causing quite a fuss at Bertelsmann headquarters in Gütersloh. Bertelsmannrepublik Deutschland is a critical look at the close personal ties between Bertelsmann AG, the corporation, and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, or foundation.
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Last week, Seth Godin (self-described "bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change") announced in a Mediabistro interview that he would not "publish any more books in the traditional way." Bold words! They kind of remind us of that other time when Seth Godin quit traditional publishing, ten years ago.
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With Flat World's textbooks saving the average student $80 per class, the company is on track to save 150,000 students $12 million or more in textbook expenses for the 2010/2011 academic year which begins this month.
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Facebook has sued a little-known website for educators called Teachbook, claiming Facebook literally owns the “book” when it comes to naming social networking sites.
What hubris and a load of crap.
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The Jardin de la Connaissance is a temporary garden in a forested area involving approximately 40,000 books, multi-coloured wooden plates and several varieties of mushrooms.
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Ms. Hays and Mr. Levey acknowledge that they haven’t seen a spike in sales as a result of his Facebook groupies
I hate FB more than I hated Barney. ;)
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Auriane and Sebastien de Halleux are at sharp odds over “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” but not about the plot. The problem is that she prefers the book version, while he reads it on his iPad. And in this literary dispute, the couple says, it’s ne’er the twain shall meet.
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AbeBooks wonder if it's weird to read lying on your stomach. The answer is yes: everyone knows the side is best. Don't they?
heh - I often read so long I have to shift through a variety of positions!
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Houellebecq, who is the most successful French novelist outside France, does not deny that he copied technical descriptions from the anonymous compilers of Wikipedia. A couple of passages in his acclaimed new novel La Carte et le Territoire were lifted verbatim. They include a description of how flies have sex.
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Did he know he had this many enemies?
Tony Blair's account of what was said when he went to kiss hands with the Queen in 1997 is perhaps the most controversial part of his memoirs because it represents such a flagrant betrayal of the trust that had previously existed between the monarch and her prime minister.
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Hopkins, whose New York Times bestselling novels deal with topics from teenage drug addiction to prostitution and suicide, says she was invited to take part in the Humble Teen Lit Fest next January but after a librarian raised a fuss with some parents about the suitability of including her, the invitation was rescinded.
Matt Stewart wonders why we lack novels about fat people being fatNimbly presenting the moral implications of obesity, while crafting sympathetic characters, is an undeniably tall order. But not even trying is worse; obesity is an issue too commonplace to ignore.
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Whenever I consider actually buying a new device, I put it off. Partly I dread the data entry and the learning curve, but I strongly suspect that the luscious gadgetry -- not to mention my new, streamlined existence -- would eclipse all that. Besides, plenty of data I wouldn't need to transfer -- the blue book is bloated with dead information that is largely responsible (along with the bulky leather cover) for its ridiculous weight. By going electronic, I would shed the addresses and phone numbers of people whose names I only dimly recognize now, or not at all! -- "Books, rare: Robert 480-2138" -- not to mention defunct businesses: World Gym on Lafayette Street; Nada theater on Ludlow
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Tony Blair is getting hard to classify as the variety of stories surrounding his book escalates. He almost needs his own section!
I just hope Bush's memoir flops...probably wishful thinking.
A (brief) look at presidential reading listsApparently Julie Nixon made her father read The Feminine Mystique...
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Although he died 20 years ago, the author's popularity has not waned, and various events are planned to celebrate his writing
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Kay Burley, the broadcaster, has been asked to remove details from her book about three women in the life of a prime minister. Ho hum
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No. Not by a long shot.
A variety of sources, most notably Jack Shafer at Slate magazine in his recent article The Fallen Status of Books - Hard times for hardcovers, are pronouncing the demise of the book, and the hardcover book in particular. They are wrong.
The Trouble with Google BooksAmong other things, bad metadata, incorrect publication dates, misidentifying the author of Madame Bovary.
Literary News Stories
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Ed Lynskey (other topics)
Irish novelist accused of cashing in on Fritzl horror
AN Irish writer has been accused of cashing in on the Josef Fritzl case with her novel about the horrific imprisonment of a young mother and her five-year-old son.