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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Sorry to Kindle loyalists: people who read paper books tend to be more advanced readers, according to a recent study of the reading habits of thousands of teens around the world. The study, conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, looked at the way teenagers in 30... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-07-25 17:18:30 UTC ]
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A 23% increase in unit sales of adult fiction was offset by a big decline in adult nonfiction sales, resulting in a 2.5% drop in total sales last week compared to 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-07-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Fable app is a new platform that aims to make reading more social. Here's what one writer thought of it. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-07-20 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Sales of print books began the second half of 2022 on a down note, with units falling 8.8% last week compared to the week ended July 10, 2021. The sales pattern was a familiar one, with gains in adult fiction not enough to offset deep declines in adult nonfiction and the juvenile segments. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-07-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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As sales of nonfiction continued to struggle, unit sales of print books fell 9.4% last week compared to the week ended June 26, 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite a good sales increase for adult fiction titles, unit sales of print books fell 5% last week at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books fell 5.3% last week from the comparable week in 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The drop was the smallest decline in about two months. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Indie entertainment company A24's publishing division is bringing Claire A. Nivola's 2014 picture book 'Star Child' back into print in a redesigned and expanded edition; the book was prominently featured in the 2021 film 'C’mon C’mon,' written and directed by Mike Mills. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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With sales down in all categories, unit sales of print books fell 9.3% last week compared to the week ended May 29, 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The spring sales trend of weekly declines of about 6% continued last week, with unit sales of print books dropping 6.4% compared to the week ended May 22, 2021, at outlets that report to BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-05-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Since the end of the Easter shopping season, unit sales of print books have followed a fairly regular weekly path, falling by roughly 6% compared to a year ago. That was the result again last week when sales dropped 6.9% from the week ended May 15, 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-05-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The new imprint from Ulysses Press aims to foster a love of reading in juvenile and young adult readers Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-05-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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John Gleeson’s “The Gotti Wars” is a memoir about what it took to jail America’s star gangster. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-04-29 20:03:55 UTC ]
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With sales declining in every category, overall unit sales of print books dropped 12.6% in the week ended Apr. 23, 2022, from the comparable week last year, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Dyer's gloriously shape-shifting literary project — intensely perceptive, essayistic memoir — continues with "The Last Days of Roger Federer." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-28 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Print unit sales were down in every category last week compared to the week ended April 24, 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan, resulting in an overall decline of 12.6%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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No matter what the middle school reader in your life needs, there is definitely a book series to fill that void, including Front Desk by Kelly Yang and The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire #1) by Tui T. Sutherland. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-04-26 10:31:00 UTC ]
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After a few years of virtual ceremonies, the 42nd Los Angeles Times Book Prizes was held in person Friday at USC, kicking off the Festival of Books. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-23 04:25:08 UTC ]
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A huge spike in demand for children’s books in the lead-up to Easter resulted in a 16.8% increase in unit sales of print books in the week ended Apr. 16, 2022, over the comparable week in 2021, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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With Easter getting closer, the children's category had a big jump in sales last week over a year ago, leading to an overall 10.2% increase in print unit sales for the week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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