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 ]
Miriam Margoyles is to narrate the audiobook of Catherine Bruton's latest middle-grade novel, Another Twist in the Tale. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 15:31:19 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff and host Jo Reed discuss The Fragile Earth, an eye-opening... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-02 16:59:56 UTC ]
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Michael Specter’s audiobook brings the immediacy of voices to the scientist’s story. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-10-30 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Actor Matthew McConaughey has the #1 book in the country with ‘Greenlights.’ Plus books on baking and escapist photography help ease the lockdown blues, and a new edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ pops up. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Yes, it’s Kristin Scott Thomas, our most recent Mrs. Danvers and our forever Fiona. Can’t you just imagine her as the narrator of Cusk’s cool-toned autofictions? The best part is, she got the gig because she’s a fan. “Faber heard that I was a Rachel Cusk fan so I was thrilled when they asked me... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 15:18:37 UTC ]
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After shaky start in lockdown, Bloomsbury sales soar as people pick books over box setsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe Harry Potter publisher, Bloomsbury, has reported its most profitable first half in more than a decade, after a nation tiring of box sets fuelled... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-27 12:22:12 UTC ]
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Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (Viking) has bounced back into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 28,756 copies through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-26 19:38:08 UTC ]
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Sally Phillips has recorded the audiobook edition of Alexandra Potter’s new novel Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-26 06:15:07 UTC ]
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Girl A, the novel that was the centre of a bidding frenzy on both sides of the Atlantic, looks set to catapult Abigail Dean into the bestseller lists Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-26 05:10:18 UTC ]
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Kit Harington, Joanna Lumley and David Walliams are among the all-star cast for a new Penguin Random House audio edition of J M Barrie's classic Peter Pan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-23 01:15:27 UTC ]
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Samantha Bond will narrate the audiobook of S J Bennett’s novel, The Windsor Knot. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-21 13:14:02 UTC ]
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Nigerian-American writer, producer, and actress Yetide Badaki, well known for acting in the TV series This Is Us and American Gods, comes from a family of storytellers. She recalls sitting by the fire as a youth and listening to her elders. “Storytelling is such a part of just being,” she says.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-20 08:48:10 UTC ]
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It smelled like Clinton’s emails redux. Last Wednesday, the Murdoch-owned New York Post published a bizarre story, sliming Joe Biden and his son Hunter, that it said was based on files (including, yes, emails) from a laptop that a man who may or may not have been Hunter left in a Delaware... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-10-19 12:20:19 UTC ]
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SUSANNA CLARKE FIRST BURST on the scene with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 2004 on a wave of publicity partly fueled by comparisons with Harry Potter. However, while both stories are set in England and concern magic, the similarities end there: Jonathan Strange presents a complex, dark,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-18 17:00:59 UTC ]
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As The Bookseller reports, UK publisher Faber has announced that they will be releasing the complete screenplays of Normal People, the popular BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel of the same name. Whether or not you understand on a larger level the reason anyone might buy and read a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-14 14:37:05 UTC ]
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Mrs Hinch's This is Me (Michael Joseph) and Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (Penguin) have once again claimed the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold top spots in Non-Fiction and Fiction respectively. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-14 03:51:16 UTC ]
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Faber is to release the complete screenplays of the television series "Normal People", based on Sally Rooney's novel of the same title. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 21:25:25 UTC ]
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Julie Walters will be featuring as part of an all-star cast for the audiobook of Jasper Rees' authorised biography of Victoria Wood, Let's Do It. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 08:49:54 UTC ]
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Mrs Hinch's memoir This is Me (Michael Joseph) has dusted off a second week in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 25,983 copies in its first full week on sale. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-12 18:35:40 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Marin Ireland narrates Rumaan Alam’s stunning audiobook Leave the World Behind, which... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-12 08:00:42 UTC ]
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