Since 2008, the year that David Foster Wallace committed suicide, there has been a steady stream of posthumous publications, none of which, as a matter of strict biblio-taxonomy, would have any business occupying the same section of your local ink-and-paper bookseller. We’ve had This Is Water (inspirational commencement speech), The Pale King (unfinished novel), Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will (undergraduate philosophy thesis), and Both Flesh and Not (essays and criticism). Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you still bought physical books from that local bookseller: You’d have to do some considerable legwork around the place just to get your hands on all these posthumous Wallace books. There aren’t many figures in the landscape of contemporary literature who as fully embody Susan Sontag’s memorable definition of a writer as “someone interested in everything.” Wallace really was interested in everything: madly, distractedly, encyclopedically interested. (He wrote a book on that topic, too: Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity, for which, I suppose, you might want to look in “popular science.”) Continue reading at 'Slate'
[ Slate | 2013-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a 2015 piece, PW columnist Brian Kenney jumpstarted a frank conversation about library reference. A year later, librarians tell us why that article struck a chord, and how reference is changing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Dani Shapiro was writing about her mother in her memoir "Slow Motion," she imagined sending her on a cruise around the world that would last exactly as long it took the book to "pass from public consciousness." Instead, she had a close friend, a parent of a teenager, give the manuscript a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We take a look back at some of the library stories that captivated the publishing world in 2015, and a look ahead at what they portend for 2016. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For years, we’ve been hearing that traditional library reference service is dead. In reality, reference just disappeared, like Jimmy Hoffa. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The controversial news that media outlets including The New York Times and BuzzFeed may publish straight into Facebook’s ecosystem was a hot topic at Digiday’s Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado, where hundreds of digital publishing executives are gathering this week to hash out the issues... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For the last two decades, the talk has been that library reference is dead. Is it time to change the conversation? Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A coalition of publishers, booksellers and libraries argue that pre-enforcement challenges are "a critical tool for protecting free speech." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thrill to the sight of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker raising a toast in honor of Sir Alec Guiness's birthday!Today in vaguely surreal photographs: Peter Mayhew, the 7'3" actor and mainstay of the traveling sci-fi/comic book convention circuit whose claim to fame is being the man inside the... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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On August 22, 2012, 13 days before Quebecers went to the polls in one of the most hotly contested provincial elections of the past two decades, Quebec’s book industry launched its One Price for Books campaign (noslivresàjusteprix.com). Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The head of libraries at Manchester City Council has denied claims that up to half of Manchester... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The government views its settlement with, and continuing litigation against, publishers and Apple over ebook pricing as a great victory for consumers. The overwhelming reaction in the book industry, however, is one of bewilderment, with many members believing that the government has no sense of... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hugh Howey has not quite broken out in the way recent self-publishing superstars like Amanda Hocking and John Locke have, but his sales record has made New York publishing houses take notice. Best known among his avid fan base for Wool, his five-part science fiction series, Howey estimates that... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Actor Simon Callow has donated 1,000 of his own books to the Westminster Reference Library. Most... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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