Last week, Ruth Rendell claimed that reading novels is a dying art. Sadly, she might have a pointNo one can say precisely why John Williams's novel Stoner has become a bestseller almost 50 years after its first publication. After all, plenty of books, "forgotten" or otherwise, are recommended by word of mouth and yet most will not go on to sell more than a few hundred copies. And it's hard to know in what ways, if any, its story – a young man falls in love with literature and thus a new world is revealed to him – might have touched people. Many of those who rushed to buy it will not yet have got around to opening it and some will never read it. Stoner will languish on their shelves, its spine unbroken, just like Jung Chang's Wild Swans, the non-fiction hit of 1992.But still, it has given us something to think about, this dusting down of so plangent and substantial a novel. On Radio 4 last week, Ruth Rendell, the novelist and Labour peer, suggested that Stoner is a book for our times, her argument being that we live in an age when reading is for most an alien pastime, just as it is to William Stoner until he has an epiphany. (Asked to elucidate a poem by a professor, he is unable to say anything except: "It means... it means..." and yet, in this moment, everything changes; the verse, whether he understands it or not, has touched him on some powerfully deep level.) "We are told that it isn't happening," said Rendell. "But it is. Reading is no longer something that everybody... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
David Tennant will read the audio version of Cressida Cowell’s The Wizard of Once (Hodder Children’s Books). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ten years ago, publishers might have struggled to find the emirate on a map. Today, it's home to a blossoming book scene, the Sharjah International Book Fair, and the hot Arabic-language kids' publisher Kalimat. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Our history, as individuals and as societies and cultures, is inextricably and necessarily intertwined with documenting things. And despite ever more technology, that will never change. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins will publish the “untold story of Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff” by Michael Stewart. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Libraries are “bracing for a book loan boom” as the Summer Reading Challenge launches this week, headed by presenter Dermot O'Leary. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From a city-wide book exchange in Latvia to a ‘New Writers Festival’ in Greece, European book fairs have a wide array of approaches to promoting reading, revealed in an Aldus report. By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson ‘Not the Normal Book Presentation Routine’ ollowing the... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-07-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From an examination of an iconic record to a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a classic movie, these releases offer a variety to baseball book lovers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2017-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Claudia Winkleman has been unveiled as the head judge for Book People’s latest Bedtime Story competition with a theme of “friendship”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Travel section is being redesigned. It will not appear in the print edition of the Sunday Los Angeles Times from July 2 through Aug. 13. The print section will return to your newspaper on Aug. 20. In the interim, continue to come to Travel online for fresh destination features and vacation... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has signed the “exclusive” inside story of the New Zealand All Blacks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sudanese writer Bushra al-Fadil has won the £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing for a short story which explores freedom. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Piatkus has signed debut author Nicola Mostyn’s first novel - a fantastical story about love, pitched as "Bridget Jones by way of Neil Gaiman", to publish on Valentine's Day 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s summertime – that glorious season of green grass, bare feet, and lots of playtime with best friends. When it comes to summer reading, how better to celebrate than with picture books that feature exactly such joys? Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2017-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith is selling seven exclusive short stories from writers including Jeffrey Archer, James Patterson and Jodi Picoult to celebrate its 225th anniversary. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kit de Waal, Clare Mackintosh and C E Morgan are some of the authors competing on the longlist for the inaugural £2,000 Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, which celebrates contemporary fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ingrid Persaud from Trinidad and Tobago has won 2017's Commonwealth Writers' Short Story Prize for "Sweet Sop". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Raven Books has signed Social Creature, a "Ripley story for the Instagram age" by Tara Isabella Burton. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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ITV is making a seven-part drama Vanity Fair with Amazon Studios and production company Mammoth Screen. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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On 11th July 1997, The Bookseller interviewed Jo Rowling, then a little-known author, about her first novel - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. To mark 20 years since the release of the first Harry Potter novel, we republish that interview, conducted by The Bookseller's then children's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New recognition for efforts that Sharjah's royal family and civic leadership have made, Sharjah follows Athens 2018 in the "World Book Capital" designation. The post UNESCO Names the UAE’s Sharjah World Book Capital 2019 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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