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 ]
Turning literature into a numbers game makes some sense for the book trade, but none for readersWe may be halfway through January already, but the spirit of new year is still in full swing over in San Francisco, where the 2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge goes from strength to strength to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-books are rising in popularity, but according to the Pew Research Center, print remains the foundation of Americans’ reading habits. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new collection of contemporary short stories by Man Booker Prize-winning Hilary Mantel –... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After months of trying to negotiate a deal behind the scenes, Charter Communications is publishing details of its offer to buy Time Warner Cable (which split from Time Warner years ago). Despite a bid that including debt is enough to nab 20 or so ... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hutchinson is to publish a broad-ranging book on the ancient world by author and broadcaster... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If these are the end times for literature, then we must be traveling in circles, for the death of storytelling looks an awful lot like its birth. The novel itself isn’t all that old. Sure, we can find a handful of examples going back thousands of years, but you have to stretch your definition of... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new story reading app will launch later this month with nine picture books from publisher... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comedians, punks and sportspeople now among 'notables' in the online reference work, once the preserve of the great and goodThe Dictionary of National Biography has charted the lives of the British establishment for 130 years. But while entry into its prestigious pages after death used to depend... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frequently, literary agents argue that selling the territorial rights for a book has advantages over selling world rights. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For the past 15 years or so, poets and poetry lovers around the world have earmarked January 17 as a day to pay tribute to the late poet and pacifist William Stafford (1914–1993) with public readings from his works. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 2013, Russia overtook the UK and Brazil to become the world's third largest ebook market, trailing only China (in 2nd) and the United States (first). Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The unnamed protagonist in Jack London's 'To Build a Fire' gets into trouble while hiking in the frozen Yukon with his dog. Widely considered to be London’s best short story, 'To Build a Fire' captures the cold with painful accuracy. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The unnamed protagonist in Jack London's 'To Build a Fire' gets into trouble while hiking in the frozen Yukon with his dog. Widely considered to be London’s best short story, 'To Build a Fire' captures the cold with painful accuracy. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For libraries, 2013 was an eventful year. PW takes a look back at the top 10 library stories of the year, and a look ahead to what might be on the horizon in 2014. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reading a novel stimulates the brain for days, US researchers have found. The study,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The two stories were written in 1958 while the late writer was working at a Detroit-based advertising agency. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last week I shared the 10 most popular Slate stories from 2013, a list that paints with a broad brush about the stories our readers loved the most. Now it’s time to dig deeper to reveal which pieces were the most popular on our three strongest social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. As... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-12-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Much as we admired the potential of the YotaPhone in our recent review, we just couldn't overlook its lack of support for popular e-reading platforms like Amazon Kindle and Google Books. That problem hasn't been solved just yet, but things are ... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-12-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital media is thriving. Online advertising is growing faster than any other medium. The Web is hot. Except for the fact that the Web has had all sorts of growing pains. And major business challenges. And it changes constantly, sometimes quite radically. It's certainly never boring, and... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-12-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A sinking ship of a drama that managed to be neither monstrous nor deep"Thar she blows!" said one of the crew as a whale came to the surface. The cetacean wasn't the only thing blowing heavily in The Whale (BBC1), a 90-minute dramatisation of the sinking of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler, by a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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