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 ]
Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 05/09/2011 - 08:10 People in Huntingdon and Cambridge buy the most books of any town or city in the UK, according to a list compiled by Amazon from its print and Kindle sales since the start of the year. Towns in Kent, Wiltshire and West Sussex... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 01/09/2011 - 08:54 Bloomsbury has acquired independent food list Absolute Press, set up by publisher Jon Croft in 1979. Absolute Press specialises in high-end cookery titles, publishing Keith Floyd's first title in 1981. Its titles include... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 31/08/2011 - 14:45 The Edinburgh International Book Festival, Scottish indie Cargo and US publisher McSweeney's are to team up on a four-volume collection of stories from authors including Roddy Doyle and Ali Smith. Fifty authors are to take part... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 26/08/2011 - 08:48 Penguin is reissuing its collections of short stories for adults by renowned children's author Roald Dahl. The rejacketed paperback versions, priced £8.99, will be reissued in four batches, beginning with Someone Like... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Tye, CEO at Dennis Publishing, warns against assuming all your readers want the same, and reveals how the company is monetising its digital products. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Thu, 25/08/2011 - 07:00 The Orwell Prize is to blog George Orwells hop-picking diary entries, which went on to form part of his novel A Clergymans Daughter. Starting today, the political writing award will post a daily blog 80 years to the day that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 22/08/2011 - 15:18 One in six children do not read a single book per month, according to a new survey by the National Literacy Trust. The research suggested the United Kingdom is polarised between those who do not read and the one in 10 children... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Mon, 22/08/2011 - 09:21 American crime writer Karin Slaughter has written a digital-only short story exclusive to Amazon, with all the proceeds going to benefit libraries. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 19/08/2011 - 10:20 Weidenfeld & Nicolson has acquired a collection of stories by Nathan Englander, one of the New Yorker's "20 Writers for the 21st Century", whose previous works have been published by Faber. Editorial director Arzu... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 19/08/2011 - 12:03 World Book Day has appointed Kirsten Grant as director, with Cathy Schofield stepping down from her position as co-ordinator which she has held since October 2000. Grant, who was previously Puffin marketing and campaigns... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 18/08/2011 - 15:22 Aurum is publishing a memoir by the late actress Elisabeth Sladen, best known for her tole as Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who. Aurum editor Sam Harrison had approached Sladen directly, buying world rights to the book directly... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Oh boy, do I have a contest for you long-winded Facebookers and personal bloggers. It's called, "Your Life: The Reader's Digest Version." The venerable magazine is willing to shell out $25,000 if you can keep The Story of You to a crisp and compelling 150 words (words, not charactersthis isn't... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2011-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If the Bible is the dairy section of religion publishing, then Bible stories for children are milk cartons sized for kid consumption. Childrens religion publishing sells a lot of those cartons, but it also offers a wide variety of books on topics beyond the Bible, such as good manners,... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-08-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Steve Jobs was wrong. People love to read on the iPad. Lets hope newspaper publishers dont ruin it for everyone. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BlogHer co-founder and CEO Lisa Stone sounded triumphant today in San Diego, where her women-focused blog and advertising network was hosting its seventh annual BlogHer conference. More than 3,500 bloggers were in attendance, and the company announced some new partnerships like the "Live Well... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2011-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 05/08/2011 - 11:05 A book dubbed Watership Down meets True Grit is among Sam Humphreys first acquisitions at Serpents Tail since she moved from Picador. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 04/08/2011 - 09:20 The Society of Authors, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and actors' union Equity have jointly sent letters to both BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten and director general Mark Thompson, asking them to stop the BBC Radio 4... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 08:37 BBC Radio 4 seems to have performed a partial u-turn on its decision to cut the number of short stories it airs from three to one per week, with a compromise of two weekly broadcasts. Listeners, authors and celebrities such as... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 15:19 World Book Night will launch in the US in 2012, with the States confirmed as the event's first international partner. HarperCollins vice president of independent retailing Carl Lennertz has been appointed as chief... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 15:15 Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is the most popular title among the public to be given away as part of World Book Night 2012. The organisation launched a public vote last month asking people to vote for the titles they... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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