It was a chance to finally get around to Tolstoy or Proust, but the charts tell a different story. Which books did we actually turn to in the lockdowns? • Let us know in the comments what you were reading Back in spring 2020, when it became clear that coronavirus wasn’t going away, book lovers spied an opportunity for a rare, government-mandated reading holiday. Here, at last, was a chance to have a go at Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Robert Macfarlane reported that he was working his way through the great Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. Ali Smith urged readers towards Boccaccio’s Decameron. Diana Evans’s thoughts turned “heavenwards” by way of Homer’s Odyssey. I downloaded 27 hours of The Brothers Karamazov audiobook in anticipation.All lovely ideas. With 20 months of hindsight, however, which books did we actually end up turning to? The bestseller lists from the three different lockdowns may not tell you the contents of Britain’s soul, but then again, the numbers do not lie. We read: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Sophie Hinchliffe’s Mrs Hinch: The Little Book of Lists. Lots of David Walliams, who topped the Lockdown 1 and Lockdown 2 charts with Slime and Code Name Bananas respectively. JK Rowling: the first three Harry Potter books steadily rose up the charts through the pandemic. Joe Wicks. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. A Pinch of Nom, plus spin-offs. Sally Rooney’s Normal People. Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-12-11 09:00:06 UTC ]
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Forty-five US states have adopted the Common Core, a set of standards that spell out what US public school students learn in each grade, from kindergarten to graduation. How would you match up? Test yourself on everything from Dickens to Dirda to see how familiar you are with the novels, poems,... Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Oxmoor House, MyRecipes.com, and Digimarc Discover has collaborated to created new interactive cookbooks that let cooks save recipes and automate shopping lists on smartphones. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Helen Fielding's new Bridget Jones novel, Mad About the Boy (Jonathan Cape), has become one... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It was just more than a year ago that Ev Williams and Biz Stone created the publishing platform Medium. The Internet officially met the site in August 2012, and since then, Medium’s popularity has grown enough for even the most ske ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just two weeks after announcing a $50 million dollar round of funding, mobile news reader Flipboard revealed growth numbers that may explain investors' eagerness to get behind it.The company now claims 90 million users, a jump from the 85 million Flipboard CEO Mike McCue confirmed early last... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new study finds that reading literary fiction “leads people to perform better on tests that measure empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence." Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The content on Scribd, the San–Francisco based startup that aims to create the digital library of the future, is available on a range of devices, from laptops to smartphones to tablets. But CEO Trip Adler tells Fast Company we won't be reading e–books in our hands in the future––they'll be... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chain bookstores, indie locations, schools and school libraries are participating all over the world. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A recent study done by New York's New School for Social Research found that, after reading literary fiction, participants displayed more social perception and empathy. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Berg's memoir chronicles the death of his brother and the aftereffects of the crime. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The real problem with ebooks is that they're more 'e' than book, so an entirely different set of rules govern what someone can and can't do with them compared to physical books, especially when it comes to pricing. The collusion in pricing has been a public issue for a while, but we need to talk... Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2013-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones has raised over £75,000 for Booktrust's Children's Reading Fund at a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The good news: According to a new report from the National Endowment for the Arts, more than half of American adults read books for pleasure in 2012.The good news: According to a new report from the National Endowment for the Arts, more than half of American adults read books for pleasure in... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Roughly the same portion of adult Americans read at least one book in 2012 as did in 2008, but the share of adults who read at least one work of literature last year fell. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the waning weeks of summer, debut titles began to populate the top spots on the international bestseller lists. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quercus has recorded a 10.9% rise in turnover to £10.2m for the six months to end June 2013... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The number of children who rarely read—or do not read at all—has risen in the past... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Retirement means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For Steven Soderbergh, it has meant, turning his attention away from directing theatrical releases at a breakneck pace, and working on any number of other projects instead. One such project involved writing a novella on... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scholastic has donated 1 million books to Reach Out and Read, a literacy charity that works to provide books to at-risk children via doctors and nurses. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Malcolm Mackay is named as the winner of this year's Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year for his novel How a Gunman Says Goodbye. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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