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 ]
News tagged with:
#electronic readers
#attention span
#tax breaks
The Lyrics will feature a ‘self-portrait’ in 154 songs, including the unrecorded Tell Me Who He IsPaul McCartney will include the previously unseen lyrics to an unrecorded Beatles song in his forthcoming book The Lyrics.On Monday, the former Beatle revealed the 154 songs to feature in the book,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-23 16:00:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#paul mccartney
While print unit sales improved last week over the week ended August 7, 2021, they still fell 1.3% compared to a year ago, as adult fiction remained the only category to post a meaningful increase. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-08-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#3% compared
Unit sales fell in all nonfiction categories last week, offsetting another week of increases in adult fiction and resulting in a 1.7% decline from the week ended August 1, 2020. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-08-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#nonfiction categories
#adult fiction
#7% decline
With sales in nonfiction categories all falling again, unit sales of print books declined 4.9% last week compared to the week ended July 25, 2020, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#week compared
#nonfiction categories
#print book
The last time 'PW' wrote about Artron was in 2016, soon after it completed Peter Lik’s epic 'Equation of Time', a 528-page large-format photography book that was printed digitally on a Screen TruePress Jet SX inkjet press. Since then, the company’s digital/on-demand printing business and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#art books
#digital printing
In a presentation on July 21, NPD BookScan said that, based on current trends, unit sales of print books are likely to finish 2021 with a gain over 2020. How high that gain will be depends on several factors, including the future course of the pandemic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#current trends
#print books
#bookscan
The long run of unit sales of print books posting weekly sales gains over the comparable week in 2020 came to an end last week, with units falling 1.3% compared to the week ending July 11, 2020, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#long run
#3% compared
'NPD Books' Brenna Connor says there's a possibility that the American market will go into the autumn with double-digit year-to-date gains. The post NPD BookScan: US June Print Book Sales Up 2.8 Million Over 2020 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-07-12 17:32:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#npd books
#american market
#print book
These websites and apps boost your reading speed, keep track of your personal library and recommend just the right book to fit your mood. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-07-10 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#personal library
“Fox & I” is Catherine Raven’s memoir of her relationship with a bushy-tailed creature — no, not a dog. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-06 09:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#memoir
Lit Lists Earlier this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate a single book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. We published... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-28 13:32:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#world war
#twentieth century
#claire messud
#short stories
#book written
After a hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic, 'PW' will again begin accepting print galleys for review consideration. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#review consideration
#covid-19 pandemic
'Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch,' historical fiction about Kepler's mother, is Galchen's first novel since 2008's 'Atmospheric Disturbances.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-06-03 14:00:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#first novel
#historical fiction
On the 125th anniversary of the Book Review, we look back at some of our earliest flourishes, curlicues, flowers and scrolls. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-05-28 16:20:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#125th anniversary
#book review
Despite the release of 'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' by Suzanne Collins at this time last year, unit sales of print books managed to rise 2.3% last week over the week ended May 23, 2020. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#week ended
#suzanne collins
Another good performance by the adult fiction category helped to drive up unit sales of print books by 8.8% last week over the comparable week in 2020 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Fiction sales increased 19% last week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#good performance
#print books
Unit sales of print books rose 24% last week over the comparable week in 2020. Sales of travel books continued to rebound after a disastrous 2020, and graphic novel sales soared again. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#sales soared
#graphic novel
#print book
"Philip Roth: The Biography" and the memoir "The Splendid Things We Planned" are axed as Blake Bailey's publisher plans to donate to charities. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-27 21:01:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#philip roth
#splendid things
#blake bailey
#publisher plans
#memoir
As we scour the past issues of the Book Review on its 125th anniversary, we have come across a lot of commissioned poetry — including this interesting specimen. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-23 15:47:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#125th anniversary
#book review
Strong book sales continue in Q1 of 2021, with print sales up 29 percent in the US. And in 2020, ebook sales increased by 17 percent. The post US First-Quarter 2021 Print Book Sales Grew 29 Percent appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-04-19 16:24:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#print sales
#print book