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 ]
Author Joanna Trollope is to chair the judging panel for the £15,000 BBC National Short Story Award with BookTrust. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Trapeze has acquired a high-concept love story, The After Wife, by Cass Hunter, exploring the differences between human and virtual relationships. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A debut novel from British Asian writer Sharon Duggal will be championed by City Reads 2017 in the Brighton and Hove area. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Instagram is testing video ads inside Stories, the section of the app that was built to challenge Snapchat, according to multiple people briefed on the new ad format."Instagram is testing them now with select publishers and content creators," said one ad agency executive, speaking on condition... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton is publishing a new cookbook by Alex Hollywood of "quick and delicious" mid-week suppers in March. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rakuten Kobo will take over the German Tolino ebook platform from Deutsche Telekom at the end of this month, pending approval from the German competition authorities. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gary Vaynerchuk is a wine blogger turned entrepreneurs’ self-help guru. He talks about fake news, fear of change and the future for social mediaBorn in 1975 in Belarus, Gary Vaynerchuk moved to the US with his family when he was three, part of the mass emigration of Soviet Jews agreed in the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From politics to Potter, we take a look at some of the biggest stories in UK publishing in 2016. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling books over the holidays at the e-tailer were 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down,' 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' and a children's backlist book. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We review more than 8,000 books per year, and these were the 10 most-read reviews of books published in 2016. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Our international publishing colleagues tell us which books are on their holiday gift lists this year. We wish you happy holidays and a wonderful New Year. The post Reading Up on the Holidays: Book Recommendations From the Field appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber & Faber has acquired The City That Fell of a Cliff by historian Matthew Green following a "heated" nine-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How do writers and publishers handle charged topics like climate change? Environmentalist Jamie Clarke makes a case for including more perspectives, both for the sake of book sales and the planet. The post Can Better Writing Make Climate Change Less Polarizing? appeared first on Publishing... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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DK has unveiled its Rogue One: A Star Wars Story global publishing program today (16th December), following the film's nationwide release this week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Annual short story competition the White Review Short Story Prize will be running simultaneously in the UK & Ireland and in the US & Canada for the first time next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The ouster of Barnes & Noble's CEO, the sale of Perseus, and Follett's purchase of Baker & Taylor were the big publishing stories of 2016. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PW takes a look back at some of the library stories that captivated the publishing world in 2016, and what they portend for 2017. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Culture, Media and Sport select committee has warned that budget cuts are making culture less accessible, as part of its latest report on funding and support for the arts outside London. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The new releases here ran on TV for the first time yesterday. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2016-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bridget Jones has made the Woman's Hour Power List - despite being a fictional character. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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