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 ]
The History Press has signed The First World War in 100 Objects by battlefield specialist Peter... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hutchinson senior editor Sarah Norman has made her first acquisition since joining the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Huffington Post is expanding the way it works with brands in an effort to cash in on the popular brand-as-publisher trend, Ad Age has learned. The company, part of AOL, has been talking to ad agencies and marketers about helping them build websites for brands and subsequently aiding in... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rachael Ray's "The Book of Burgers" could just be this year's burger bible. Here, the Food Network star shares tips on planning a burger bash and what she'd serve at a White House cookout. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers must address their "toxic" real estate and band together to compete in an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Collins & Brown has acquired a series of titles in a partnership with craft magazine Mollie... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Society of Authors has written to schools minister Nick Gibb urging him to support children... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nearly a third of British adults (31%) say they are likely to buy an ebook in the next six... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just as president Obama comes out in favor of gay marriage, a new book takes a close look at American same sex couples, from Walt Whitman to Greta Garbo to Jasper Johns. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Next month, the Slate Audio Book Club will discuss Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Reading Agency and the Publishers Association have launched a digital skills sharing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has bought world rights in The Real Lady Detective Agency, an account of a true-... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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All hail the ebook! Seriously, if it weren't for this marvelous literary development, try saying with a straight face that you wouldn't at least take pause before adding a new title to your collection. Numbers are in from The Publisher's Association -- a group of 120 companies across the trade... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber is releasing a series of six short ebooks, called Faber Forty-Fives, which each draw... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Data gathered by Nielsen BookScan for The Daily Beast show many of the same titles are popular in American cities – but exceptions include 'Heaven Is For Real' and 'The Great Gatsby.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two weeks after BEA ended last year and all the booksellers left town, something magical happened in New York: 10 more blocks of the High Line, our beloved “park in the sky,” finally opened to the public, doubling it in size. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Foyles has strengthened its marketing team and made a series of changes to its bookshop staffing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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On World Book Night thousands of volunteers in the US and Europe will hand out books, hoping to pass along their own love of reading. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Duchess of Cornwall, Stephen Fry and actor William Rycroft are among those gearing up to hand... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More than 400 authors are scheduled over the two days at USC. Writers as varied as Anne Rice and Jeff Kinney will hold court.What do Sugar Ray Leonard, Judy Blume, Betty White, T.C. Boyle, Rodney King, Joseph Wambaugh and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have in common? They're just a few of the high-profile... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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