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: Philip Jones Publication Date: Fri, 20/05/2011 - 10:11 US bookseller Barnes & Noble has received an offer for the company from Liberty Media, a private investment group. The deal values the business at about $1bn, but Liberty said it expected to spend $500m on the acquisition... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A decade after New York City sustained one of the largest terrorist attacks in recent American history on September 11, 2001, Conde Nast has decided to move its head quarters, 18 magazine titles and 5,000 employees to 1 World Trade Center. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Tue, 17/05/2011 - 09:05 Jacqueline Wilson and Roald Dahl are among the high-profile authors selected for the 2012 £1 World Book Day books, which will revert to the single-book format for the first time in four years. The teen WBD titles will also go... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 16/05/2011 - 09:10 Bidders for Waterstone's have a reported two weeks to express a formal interest in the chain, as parent HMV Group said it was in "advanced discussions" over a sale. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 16/05/2011 - 09:03 Faber has acquired a non-fiction title by novelist Rachel Cusk, about contemporary mid-life femininity. Publishing director Hannah Griffiths bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Tracy Bohan at the Wylie Agency. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 13/05/2011 - 11:54 Titles on Russian history, the populace of Germany and a spiritual travelogue have been longlisted for the 2011 Authors' Club Dolman Travel Book of the Year. Molotov's Magic Lantern by Rachel Polonski (Faber), Germania by Simon Winder (Picador) and All... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Thu, 12/05/2011 - 09:30 Lonely Planet is to move some operations to London at the same time as making 70 staff redundant in Australia. Staff at the Lonely Planet office in Melbourne have been told a large part of the company's web operations are moving to the UK following... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 11/05/2011 - 15:41 America wants to hold its own World Book Night following in the footsteps of the UK. The American Booksellers Association said it is "exploring" the possibility of replicating "a version" of the event, which saw 20,000 people... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Mon, 09/05/2011 - 08:50 Pearson, Blackwell and Jamie Oliver are a few book trade names to make it onto the Sunday Times Rich List 2011. Vincent Cowdray and the Pearson Family were jointly in at number 64, with the family up £165m on last years figure.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In starting Bookish.com, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group USA and Hachette Book Group hope to provide one-stop shopping for books and information about authors. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 04/05/2011 - 15:53 WH Smith customers have voted Youre Next by Gregg Hurwitz as the best read from Richard and Judys Spring Book Club titles. The thriller, published by Sphere, came top of an online poll asking readers to judge which of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/04/2011 - 09:11 The trustee of the estate of the late Willy the Wizard author Adrian Jacobs has appealed against the High Court's order for him to pay £1.5m as security for the costs of J K Rowling and Bloomsbury before the plagiarism... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Nobles advertising campaign for the Nook Color, an e-reading tablet, features no company stores in the ads, a nod to changes in the publishing industry. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 18/04/2011 - 09:19 Authors including Iain M Banks and Michael Moorcock have written to the BBC's director general Mark Thompson, attacking the treatment of genre fiction in its recent World Book Night coverage. In total 85 authors, across the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 08:46 Titles on topics from Second World War bombers to the life of Roald Dahl have been longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011. The list of 18 books also includes Edmund De Waals Costa-winning The Hare with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 11:32 Independent publisher Choc Lit has bought a contemporary debut thriller and a modern day version of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Director Lyn Vernham bought world rights to Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham, directly from the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-books, mobile apps and e-learning modules are hot. That's the conclusion from a quick survey of 18 content services vendors operating in India. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 14:00 Two titles from Atlantic feature on the "compelling" 2011 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist, revealed today (11th April) at London Book Fair. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 15:45 Sphere believes it has a smashing winner with the acquisition of the autobiography of Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis ace and current world number one. Non-fiction publishing director Adam Strange bought UK and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 05/04/2011 - 15:22 Quercus has nearly matched the £1m digital revenue it made from ebooks last year in the first three months of 2011. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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