The author of Silicon Valley satire I Hate the Internet on the evils of social media, and how novelists have failed to tackle itWhen the novel I Hate the Internet came out in the US earlier this year, it had every likelihood of sinking without trace. It was self-published, it was by a young unknown – Jarett Kobek – and its main selling point was naked, gleeful contempt for the devices and technology platforms that are an essential part of all our daily lives. “Nothing says individuality like 500 million consumer electronics built by slaves,” he says at one point. “Welcome to hell.” Hell, for Kobek, a 38-year-old American of Turkish heritage, became daily life in San Francisco, where the novel is set. Along with many of the city’s artists and writers, he found himself driven out by the forces of gentrification, moved to Los Angeles, where he’s now based, set up his own small press, and wrote this book – a scorching satire of how a few hypercapitalist companies in Silicon Valley have come to dominate everything. I Hate the Internet didn’t sink without trace. It found a readership thirsty for its funny, acerbic edge, got a rave review in the New York Times, went to the top of the bestseller charts in Germany and has now been published here by Serpent’s Tail.So, do you actually hate the internet, Jarett?Not particularly. There’s part of it that I find really contemptible. The title is offered like the sneer of a 15-year-old into Twitter, after they’ve just seen a meme of... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Blake Society is asking people to donate funds via text to help buy the cottage William Blake lived in, as it races to meet a deadline later this week. Blake’s cottage in Felpham, on the Sussex coast, is the location where he wrote the words for the hymn "Jerusalem". The charity has been... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scientist and broadcaster Professor Mark Miodownik has won the £25,000 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books with Stuff Matters (Viking). Miodownik was announced as the winner at a ceremony held at the Royal Society last night (10th November), hosted by anatomist and broadcaster... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The rise of the Subscription Economy continues. Little more than a year after launching its all-you-can-read ebook service, the San Francisco startup Scribd has announced that the service now offers more than 30,000 audiobooks, including titles from big-name publishing houses HarperCollins and... Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2014-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#including titles
Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is to deliver the inaugural Folio Society Lecture when The Folio Prize Fiction Festival returns next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Over the past 65 years, the Folio Society, a London-based publisher, has released nearly 2,000 titles, most artfully designed, updated reissues of modern classics and works from the canon with an emphasis on packaging, typography, and illustration. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon just found a way to put further pressure on Hachette in its ongoing pricing war: strike a deal with another publisher. The online retailer has forged a new agreement with Simon & Schuster that will keep the book giant's digital and physical... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair StoryDrive speaker and Swedish provocateur, Alexander Bard, argues that the internet is engendering a new collective spirituality. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Specs Who Chris Colfer Age 24 Accomplishments Star of Fox’s Glee; screenwriter; author of The Land of Stories book series (his latest, A Grimm Warning, was just released) Base Los Angeles What’s the first information you consume in the morning? I immediately turn to my cellphone and look to... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Folio Society managing director Toby Hartwell has resigned from his role and will leave the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chief executive of 9,000-member UK group argues that while 'authors' earnings are going down generally, those of publishers are increasing'After figures released this week showed professional authors' median annual incomes have collapsed to to £11,000, The Society of Authors' chief executive has... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg sees the Internet as a vital service that should be made available to everyone across the world—a service that can be as vital as, say, the ability to call for emergency help on a telephone. In an editorial published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, the Facebook chief outlined... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two titles from The Bodley Head and a book by Stephen Hawking are on the longlist for the Royal... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The event takes place on June 12, and while the general admission price is set at $15, PW Daily readers can attend for free. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Recently, experts working on ORCID and ISNI, both ISO-standard identifiers, spoke with one of the founders of schema.org to facilitate their use as embedded persona references, particularly through extensions such as BibExtend. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For legitimate online publishers that rely on display on advertising, it's getting increasingly difficult to make ends meet. That's thanks in large part to long-tail sites that have learned to game the online ad system, and the ad tech middlemen that help them do it.The post Is this the worst... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2014-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twelve German online news publishers have taken a 50 percent stake in collecting society VG Media, with the aim of receiving compensation from search engines that republish parts of news articles.Joining collecting society VG Media is the publishers’ first step toward collecting compensation... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Japan’s Rakuten will acquire instant messaging and calling app developer Viber Media for US$900 million, the e-commerce giant said Friday, highlighting its moves to penetrate new markets.Rakuten’s purchase of the messaging and VoIP company follows its acquisitions of Canada’s ebook platform... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Venture capitalists poured more money into Internet companies last year than they have since the dot-com bust, according to a survey published Friday.Internet companies in the U.S. took in US$7.1 billion from VCs in 1,059 deals in 2013, the highest level of Internet investment in terms of... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Attorney general backs Law Commission recommendation that jurors who search web for case details should be jailedJuries are deeply "ingrained in our national DNA" and the internet should not be allowed to undermine a system of justice dating back to Magna Carta, according to the the attorney... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If you're ready to tear yourself away from a screen for awhile, Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools is your must-read book and DIY muse. It's also the perfect gift for the geek in your life.With the advent of the Internet, the Whole Earth Catalog's curation of all the weird and wonderful things necessary... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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