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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Written By: Charlotte Williams Penguin has been appointed the exclusive publisher for Sainsbury's Book Club, providing all titles in the promotion between July 2011 and July 2012. Authors set to feature in the club include Marian Keyes, Clive Cussler, Jeff Kinney and Rick Riordan, with exact... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Costa Book of the Year prize-winner, Jo Shapcott, explains her delight that poetry has been recognised by Costa two years running. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Total revenue jumped 9 percent to $367 million for Meredith Corp in the second quarter of fiscal 2011, driven by strong advertising growth and integrated marketing services. Total advertising revenue for the first six months of fiscal 2011 jumped 11 percent to $420 million (with total revenue of... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anna Boiardi's family founded Chef Boyardee more than 70 years ago, spelling their name phonetically to help Americans pronounce it. Now, Boiardi teaches cooking classes and has written Delicious Memories, which Stewart, Tabori & Chang will publish in May. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While all the big box stores carry books and all offer discounted bestsellers, Target competes most directly for those consumers who might otherwise make their purchases at bookstores. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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