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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The Festival de Bande Dessinée has opened and will award a Charlie Freedom of Speech prize among other honoursThe celebrated Angoulême comic book festival opened on Thursday to laughter and tears three weeks after some of France’s best known cartoonists were gunned down in a terrorist... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital distributor Trajectory has an algorithm it claims can extract a book's 'personality' in order to offer better recommendations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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British children’s book start-up Lost My Name is planning to expand into several new territories in 2015 after claiming it outsold Julia Donaldson’s Superworm in 2015. The company sells personalised picture books via its website www.lostmy.name. Customers create a book by entering the name... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If you're the sort of Harry Potter fan who can't help but read the series again and again, Oyster has a treat in store. The all-you-can-read subscription service has teamed up with Pottermore to carry all of the Harry Potter books, including the Hogw... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tesco, the U.K. retail giant and parent company of ebook retailer Blinkbox Books, has reached an agreement that will keep the digital operation in business. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist Robert Harris calls on the BBC to give books more coverage "at a time when they're really fighting like crazy for a bit of space". Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ahead of an appearance at this year’s Changing Media Summit, Anna Jones talks to the Guardian about the future of magazines, Hearst’s role in the run-up to the 2015 general election and why the portrayal of women in Esquire is changingChanging Media Summit 2015 programmeIf a 169-year-old,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eleanor Catton showed "bad form" by speaking out against the New Zealand Book Awards, its organiser says. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ever get stuck at the bar waiting for your friends to show up? That’s when I usually whip out my tablet and start catching up on reading. And since Google Play Books lets me upload PDFs and ebooks I’ve purchased elsewhere, I’ve always got something new to read on hand.It’s easy to get your own... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk (Jonathan Cape), winner of last year's Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, has won the £30,000 Costa Book of the Year Award. The book's triumph was announced this evening (Tuesday 27th January) at a ceremony in central London. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unlike Blinkbox Movies and Blinkbox Music, Tesco hasn't found a buyer for its underperforming Blinkbox Books service. We expected the ebook platform to quietly fade into the night, along with customers' purchases, but it seems Tesco has a parting gi... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Blinkbox Books is in talks to shift its readers to the Kobo platform when it closes next month. The Bookseller revealed yesterday (26th January) that Tesco will close its ebooks platform at the end of February after exclusive talks with Waterstones to buy it failed at the last minute. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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US marines veteran Phil Klay, whose short story collection about the Iraq war won a National book award, chooses his favourite books about homecoming after conflictI’ve spent years trying to untangle my feelings about returning from war, and I’m hardly the only veteran writer to do so. In his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Four new books from spirituality and religion publishers address the practical and spiritual benefits of tossing, reordering, and simplifying. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a brief brief order this week, Judge Denise Cote ruled that plaintiffs in a second ebook price-fixing case cannot depose HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The robust children’s market in 2014 has been the main theme of The Bookseller’s Review of the Year features, and it is driven home in our look at last year’s bestselling authors. The top 50 writers are once again eclipsed by the shadow of the Gruffalo, with the mighty Julia Donaldson taking... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Khauli, managing director of Levant Group distributors, has died. Khauli passed away in Beirut on Friday 16th January, following a heart attack, aged 67. His funeral was held in Beirut last week (19th). Bill Kennedy of Avicenna Partnership, which offers sales and marketing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amy Marie Spangler of the AnatoliaLit Agency surveys the Turkish book market and the challenges it faces due to currency and political fluctuations. The post Turkish Book Rights Market Buffeted by Currency Fluctuations appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary agent Jonny Geller, authors Malorie Blackman, Hilary Mantel and Kate Mosse, and trade figures Nicola Solomon, Richard Mollet, Gail Rebuck, Charlie Redmayne and Tom Weldon are among the figures on the 2015 Debrett’s 500. The annual list brings together the 500 most influential and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In this week's roundup of books generating interest around the globe, we look at a new Spanish novel Knopf has just acquired in the States, the new biography of Winston Churchill by London mayor Boris Johnson and an Italian thriller that has just been optioned by a local production company. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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