A charming French novel about an old-school publisher trying to get to grips with the digital ageAt more than one point in this novel I found myself asking: could this be any more French? Early on we meet a character described thus: “She used to be incredibly good-looking and now at thirtysomething she is creditably handsome.” Sorry? What the narrator, an ageing male publisher, looks like, or how creditably or uncreditably good-looking he is, we don’t find out. Another woman leaves the room “in a wiggle of buttock” – I dropped my annotating pencil when I read that line. “Artichokes require a degree of elegance” – there’s another drop of essence of Gallic for you.But there is more to Dear Reader, and what kept me going was that one of the subjects exercising our narrator is the issue of electronic readers – Kindles or, as our hero Robert Dubois has it, the “dear reader” of the title. This book is an elegy for a dying world: that of the printed book and, that death’s darker corollary, the reader who is still interested in, or has the attention span for, the long-form narrative. (I always thought these things were arranged better in France, with no Net Book Agreement and tax breaks for bookshops, but apparently not.) In the world of Dear Reader, there has been a general collapse of cultural understanding: the interns point out to Dubois the remarkable coincidence that the publishing house they have landed in has the same name as him. Meanwhile, Dubois cannot quite get to... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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“Teller of the Unexpected,” an elegant new biography, sidesteps the ugly side of the children’s book author while capturing his grandiose, tragedy-specked life. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-01-17 20:39:40 UTC ]
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Paul J. Pastor, previously an editor at WaterBrook & Multnomah, joined Zondervan Books as senior acquisitions editor on December 27. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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At once emotional and embittered, the royal memoir is mired in a paradox: drawing endless attention in an effort to renounce fame. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-01-10 21:07:46 UTC ]
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On the 125th anniversary of “J’Accuse,” a picture book for older kids places the lives of Alfred Dreyfus and Émile Zola side by side. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-01-06 07:36:52 UTC ]
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After two years of surprisingly strong sales during the pandemic, unit sales of print books fell 6.5% in 2022 compared to 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
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In a newly reissued photo book from 1967, Ernest Cole surveys the ever-present atrocities of European oppression. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-12-29 10:00:35 UTC ]
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Helped by an extra Saturday of sales compared to 2021, unit sales of print books rose 10% last week over the week ended December 25, 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. All six major categories posted increases in the week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-28 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books rose 15.5% last week over the previous week, but were still down 6.4% from the comparable week last year at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Tis the season for schadenfreude. Yes, for the sixth year running, we’ve emerged from the bowels of the book review mines trailing behind us an oozing sack of pans—each one riper and more wince-inducing that the last. Among the books being gored and devoured by feral hogs this year: Jared... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-20 09:55:19 UTC ]
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Way back in the mid-aughts when I first started writing about books, pitching a print publication was the only reliable way for book critics to get paid, and third-person point of view was all the vogue. Much has changed in the years since: Newspaper and magazine book sections have shuttered,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-19 09:55:21 UTC ]
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Beatrice Alemagna’s “You Can’t Kill Snow White,” a picture book for older kids, mines the brutal envy that underpins the original Brothers Grimm tale. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-12-16 17:24:59 UTC ]
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You can read ebooks, write notes, or mark up PDFs on this new slate, but your wallet will feel a lot lighter. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2022-12-08 14:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books fell 17.1% last week compared to the week ended November 13, 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. It was the third consecutive week that sales fell by double digits compared to 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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A new anthology collects some of the writings, interviews and speeches of the comic and civil rights activist. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-11-14 20:11:45 UTC ]
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The soft fall sales season continued last week, with print unit sales falling 14.9% compared to the week ended November 6, 2021. Sales declined in all categories, including sales of adult fiction, which has been the best-performing segment this year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite three books posting sales of more than 100,000 copies last week, unit sales of print books fell 14.2% compared to the week ended October 30, 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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First published in Japan in 1983, this picture book from the fabled animator is eerie, enchanting and surpassingly strange. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-11-02 09:00:16 UTC ]
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The National Book Award-winning author and translator of “Winter in Sokcho” return with another quietly powerful tale of dislocation. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-10-22 09:00:12 UTC ]
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The stories in Samanta Schweblin’s “Seven Empty Houses,” a finalist for the National Book Award in translated literature, tear down the delicate scaffolding of home. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-10-14 09:00:09 UTC ]
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Deep declines in adult nonfiction and juvenile categories and only a small gain in adult fiction resulted in a 9.6% drop in print sales last week compared to a year ago. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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