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 ]
Aurum Press has signed a book on cyclist Dieter Wiedermann, an East German sports star who... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#aurum press
For the past few years, newspaper publishers have prowled their buildings, asking why, and getting some amazing answers. Institutional knowledge is wonderful, but institutional resistance is intolerable. We must invoke a brilliant strategy to conquer ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#newspaper publishers
#institutional knowledge
A substantial donation to the Red Cross was made, with concern for the nearly 1,400 PRH employees in the Author Solutions division who work in Cebu, an area very near where the greatest devastation has taken place. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#substantial donation
#red cross
Ross Levinsohn, CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media, publisher of Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, is on the growing list of industry executives set to speak at the inaugural 2014 Digital Entertainment World conference in Los Angeles. The global marketplace and conference, which is... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#hollywood reporter
#growing list
#global marketplace
#content creation
#respective industries
#joint venture
Campus bookselling chain Follett in the US has made 570 people redundant as part of a move to shift... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Gertrude Stein's children's book, The World is Round, is 75 this year and is being rereleased by Harper Design in a reproduction of the book’s first edition from 1939. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Hutchinson has acquired a new anthology of life-writing from and about the First World War,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#sebastian faulks
#world war
Like mapmakers, we tend to put where we reside at the center of the world. It's natural: for most publishers it's the trade closer to home that's the lifeblood of your business. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
In the long, important, trillion-dollar history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, 2011’s Thor represented its first semi-risk. Iron Man, the 2008 film that launched the franchise, introduced a character who wasn’t terribly well-known outside the comic book shop, but it starred Robert Downey Jr.... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#iron man
#oscar-winning actor
#pop culture
Is wasting time as productivity killing as we've always thought, or does it provide a creativity–enhancing escape from the chaos of the world? Stop dawdling and let's explore!Recently, I read a great book and promised to mail it to a friend overseas when I was done, about nine months ago. Today,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#great book
#months ago
#post office
An audiobook version of Morrissey's Autobiography will be read by actor David Morrissey.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#audiobook version
Most startups will never see anything close to the amount of money Twitter plans on raising during its IPO this week (a reported $1.6 billion) and in fact, three out of four tech businesses fail. Entrepreneurs in training looking to create a successful company, then, might want to know what... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#makes sense
#early days
#paying attention
Baker & Taylor, best known for serving the library market, is working to up its business with independent booksellers in a series of initiatives overseen by David Cully, who was hired by the company six years ago as executive v-p of merchandising and president of retail sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#baker taylor
#library market
#independent booksellers
#executive v-
#retail sales
"I was just sitting with my dog in the sun daydreaming and the book came along, the rabbit fur cover, the feeling of the thing, its weight," Iranian–New Zealander artist Nabil Sabio Azadi tells Co.Design of For You the Traveller, the world's furriest travel book, available this week for the... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#don quixote
#strange things
For the UK celebration, fewer books will be given to volunteers to distribute, but they will be freer give away other titles instead. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#fewer books
Mashing up the places, characters and events of various works into one shared universe isn't exactly a new idea. Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton universe imagines that most of the great fictionalized characters of the last few hundred years – including Tarzan, Doc Savage, Dracula, James Bond,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#great place
To compete against the Kindle, Barnes & Noble is going back to its roots, leveraging decades of bookseller expertise to make its Nook e–reader feel more like a paper book. Released Wednesday, the new Nook Simple Touch GlowLight features a brighter, sharper display; lighter body; improved... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#matchbook service
#ve purchased
#made strides
#customer service
Amazon MatchBook, which lets customers who've previously bought the print edition of a book from Amazon score a digital copy on the cheap, is now open for business. Months in the making, the new service is a bold plan by Amazon to convert the world's stacks and stacks of books into digital... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#big push
#kindle format
#dating back
#makes sense
The titles which will be distributed for free as part of World Book Night include works by Cheryl Strayed, Maria Semple, Agatha Christie, and more. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#cheryl strayed
#maria semple
#agatha christie
An exhibition on New York's graffiti traces the history of the art form in the city, a Parisian museum shows how immigrants helped shape comic books worldwide - and other stories from the world of arts. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2013-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#art form