We Americans love to have ourselves a big old time. It's not just our waistlines that have exploded outward since the post-WWII era. Our houses have grown larger, as have the appliances within them, the vehicles in their driveways, the income inequalities between ourselves and our neighbors, and the challenges we face on a rapidly warming planet. In his new book, Size: How It Explains the World, Dr. Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, takes readers on a multidiscipline tour of the social quirks, economic intricacies, and biological peculiarities that result from our function following our form.William MorrowFrom SIZE by Vaclav Smil. Copyright 2023 by Vaclav Smil. Reprinted courtesy of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Modernity’s Infatuation With Larger SizesA single human lifetime will have witnessed many obvious examples of this trend in sizes. Motor vehicles are the planet’s most numerous heavy mobile objects. The world now has nearly 1.5 billion of them, and they have been getting larger: today’s bestselling pickup trucks and SUVs are easily twice or even three times heavier than Volkswagen’s Käfer, Fiat’s Topolino, or Citroën’s deux chevaux — family cars whose sales dominated the European market in the early 1950s.Sizes of homes, refrigerators, and TVs have followed the same trend, not only because of technical advances but because the post–Second World War sizes of national GDPs, so beloved by the... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2023-06-04 14:30:20 UTC ]
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Tom Fletcher and Shane Devries’s World Book Day title Brain Freeze (Puffin) has nipped into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, leapfrogging three-week wonder Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper), with 37,879 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Man Booker winner, the diary of a junior doctor and the secret lives of cows ... Which books made their publishers proud – and which ones made them envious? Editor-in-chief, Bloomsbury Continue reading... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling creator of the Tom Gates series talks about the latest instalment of the doodle-loving schoolboy’s adventures. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Traditional as well as language-focused and risk-taking narratives' are included in the longlist for this year's Buch Preis, says jury chair Katja Gasser. The post ‘Bigger, Broader’: The German Book Prize Releases Its 2017 Longlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The former FBI director, sacked in wake of clash with the US president, promises insights into the ‘highest-stakes situations’ of his careerThe former FBI director James Comey has signed a $2m (£1.5m) deal for a book about leadership and decision-making that will draw on his career in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Trapeze is publishing Things I Have Drawn: At the Zoo by Instagram father-and-son trio, Tom, Dom and Al Curtis, in which kids' drawings are "hilariously brought to life". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A government move to offer library supply contracts to foreign firms has spelled the end for the 27-year-old Open Book Company, with six roles affected and the wider trade outraged. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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She's the daughter of a billionaire family who married into another billionaire family and she's made millions selling merchandise branded with her name. So what could Ivanka Trump teach America's millions of way-less-privileged working women? Trump's latest book, Women Who Work: Rewriting the... Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The business of publishing and selling political-themed books moved front and center with the dawn of the Trump era in Washington. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Seattle-based indie comics press has ordered the largest second printing in its 40-year history for Emil Ferris' literary graphic novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Derek Thompson unravels the mystery of Fifty Shades’ mega-salesThere are no doubt plenty of people - but probably not as many as read the book - who simply can’t fathom how EL James can have sold more than 125m copies of Fifty Shades of Grey. Derek Thompson is here to help. The reason, it... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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JK Rowling mocks Twitter users who threaten to burn her books because of her anti-Trump stance. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2017-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Food writer Bee Wilson looks at the continued popularity and variety of cookery books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Small and independent houses share the books they enjoyed and envied this yearThe annual Guardian “hits and misses” feature, canvassing publishers about their high points and regrets of the year, always makes me wonder about what my friends and allies in the small-press world think about their... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Many Arab book fairs have been a free space for publishers to sell titles banned in shops, but Kuwait has seen raised levels of censorship – turning the book trade into a risky businessArab book fairs are like a giant travelling circus; no sooner does one end than publishers are boxing up books,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers are accelerating the development cycle for licensed tie-ins to satisfy consumer demand. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A book that has topped Germany's bestseller list for the past year is poised to be a North American bestseller for the Canadian small press, Greystone Books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Has fact become stranger than fiction? Book sales, publishing contracts and even whole writing genres may be affected by the fallout from the referendum “Feel as if I’m living in a bad dystopian political thriller,” tweeted the writer Robert Harris at 8.50am on 24 June, a response echoed 10... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Animal Media Group, an independent media and book production company that is looking to ramp up its presence in the book trade, has signed a two year distribution deal with Consortium. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Five German publishing houses united to organize LitBlog, Germany’s first convention for book bloggers, YouTubers and tweeters alike. The post LitBlog in Cologne is a Hit with German Book Bloggers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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