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 ]
After several years of honing its skills on properties like Back to the Future and Sam & Max, Telltale Games nailed its episodic storytelling approach with 2012's brilliant The Walking Dead. It forced you to make moral and strategic choices while trying to survive the undead uprising, and... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#smartphone screen
#source material
Brazil’s Bookcase Literary Agency has made a name for itself after just one year in business by connecting talented, independent authors with international publishers. The post Bookcase Literary Agency Makes a Global Splash with Self-Publishing appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#self-publishing appeared
#independent authors
#international publishers
Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks is to publish a book of short stories inspired by his personal collection of vintage typewriters. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2014-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
In a recent survey by industry newsletter Shelf Awareness, the novel 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' by Shirley Jackson was booksellers' top pick for a great spooky tale. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#recent survey
#shirley jackson
Literary agency Conville and Walsh has launched a competition to find new novels "that people just can't stop talking about". The agency is offering a prize of £1,000 and possible representation to an unpublished work in its new Word of Mouth competition, which will be judged by author Matt... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#conville walsh
#stop talking
#unpublished work
#joint head
#translation rights
#alexandra mcnicoll
#sophie lambert
#longtime reader
Pan Macmillan is to publish Uprooted, the new novel from fantasy writer Naomi Novik. Editorial director Julie Crisp acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Del Rey, part of Penguin Random House in the US. Novik is the author of the Temeraire series, published in the UK by Harper Voyager. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pan macmillan
#del rey
#harper voyager
For companies like Google, facing problems with the law across Europe has become a common thing. The most recent example of this is now taking place in Spain, where the country's parliament just gave the go-ahead to what's being known as the "Google... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#taking place
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday published a moving essay in Bloomberg Businessweek in which he publicly announced for the first time that he is gay. Cook is the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to publicly come out.Cook is famously private and said he doesn’t think of himself as an activist,... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#publicly announced
#bloomberg businessweek
"While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven't publicly acknowledged it either, until now. So let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay."In an op-ed published Thursday in Bloomberg Businessweek, Apple CEO Tim Cook, the most powerful man in technology, wrote the following:Read Full Story Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#tim cook
#bloomberg businessweek
#powerful man
Google's latest Play Books update for Android makes the app a lot easier to use for reading non-fiction ebooks. See, Play Books is perfect if you're just reading something from cover to cover. But if you're using it to read text or reference books... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#lot easier
#reference books
Given that links appear to be more clickable when shared on Facebook, online publishers have scrambled to become savvy gamers of Facebook’s News Feed, seeking to divine the secret rules that push some stories higher than others. But all this genuflection at the altar of Facebook’s algorithms may... Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#read online
#online publishers
#fundamental shift
#consumed online
Garten, the popular food personality and prolific cookbook author (her ninth, 'Make it Ahead,' just published), talks about the ultimate make-ahead Thanksgiving menu, her culinary influences, and what book is on her bedside table. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
A short story collection by Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib has won the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#short stories
#book award
Leicester-based writer Mahsuda Snaith has won the 2014 Bristol Short Story Prize for her work "The Art of Flood Survival". Snaith, announced as the winner of the £1,000 prize on Saturday (25th October), beat almost 2,500 other entrants from more than 60 countries to win the competition. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
This month, we’re balancing some quick reads---a Jonathan Franzen-blessed debut and a slim companion volume from one of our favorite new(-ish) fantasy writers---with Walter Isaacson’s latest blockbuster on the history of technological innovation, along with a few other selections. Attention,... Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#month appeared
#walter isaacson
With Port Harcourt, Nigeria serving as UNESCO World Book Capital 2014, African book publishers consider the future for Africa's writers. The post “The West is Running Out of Stories,” say Africans appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Guardian Faber has acquired a non-fiction book covering the experience of the Greenpeace protestors who endured two months in a Russian prison. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#greenpeace activists
#guardian faber
The UK publishing market led the world in terms of the number of new titles published relative to population size in 2013, as well as in 2013 export revenue, according to new figures from the International Publishing Association (IPA). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#uk publishers
Walker Books has acquired a new collection of short stories based on a character from Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy is a group of 10 stories centred around the character Simon Lewis as he enters training to become a Shadowhunter. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#walker books
#cassandra clare