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 ]
If Jackie French gets her way the nation's children's books will be a lot stickier and messier. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Coker of Smashwords, which recently inked a major content deal with Scribd, weighs in on how the all-you-can-read model changes the way we read, how authors make creative choices, and how everyone gets paid.Is a "Netflix for ebooks" nearing viability? Yesterday, Smashwords, the largest... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The books will be reissued in both trade paperback and ebook formats, and will feature updated interiors and new cover treatments. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sourcebooks' Put Me in the Story personalised-book series has launched a new 'universal... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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2013 hasn't been especially kind to Facebook. The Facebook Home app launcher, announced in April, was poorly received by consumers. Then, in June, the social media service fell under the scrutiny of privacy advocates as information surfaced about Silicon Valley's relationship with the NSA. But... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The first fiction acquisitions by Headline’s Mari Evans, who moved to the company from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The self-proclaimed Great British Chefs brand has produced a free kid-friendly app for Christmas. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The fast-growing news-feature website leads the league in approvals. Is that because it publishes less rather than more?The driving belief for news websites is that more (that's more stories, features, videos, blogs) equals more hits and thus more money. But what if less can also equal more... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Dennis Abrams South African writer Anita Pouroulis, a former primary school teacher from Johannesburg, won the Best World Children’s Book Award at the China […] Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A seasonal selection of new (and not so new) books about language that are anything but dullBooks about English fall into various categories, mostly offputting ones: the academic, rarely of much interest, and often incomprehensible, to the general reader; the lament for a (mythical) golden age... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Australian authors and critics sift through the piles of books they read in 2013 to highlight the treasures they found. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2013-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The save-it-for-later software service Pocket has released a list of the "best" content from 2013. Pocket's 10 million users saved more than 450 million items (from articles and videos to memes and gifs) from across the Web this year, and Pocket looked at which were saved most, as well as which... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of respondents said libraries aren't as necessary as they once were when it comes to finding information. However, 94 percent said a library improves a community's quality of life. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomberg News has an unusual practice of paying some of its reporters explicitly for publishing "market-moving" stories. This is one of many metrics that is factored into reporters' annual bonuses. Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The new imprint of the online bookseller has already released works by authors including William Lashner and Rebecca Adams Wright. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The magazine was once the most hotly anticipated Sunday read. Now it's been eclipsed by the showy T style publicationTwo magazines, both published by the New York Times, arrived in my house over the weekend, one thin, the other thick.The thin one, The New York Times Magazine, is largely about... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Guinness World Records is partnering with Chinese publisher Foreign Languages Teaching and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Publishing has launched a new digital short story imprint in the US called StoryFront.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I read while traveling, waiting for meetings, in the evening, and especially on vacation. As you can see, I'm still pretty much an old-school print guy, because I like to jot notes in the margins, but I assume I'll move over to ebooks when annotation features get better. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Under the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia's reading culture was destroyed, but over the past five years it has returned with the help of a revitalized publishing industry. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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