Will social media and aggregated preferences sweep away book reviewing and literary culture? There’s nothing new about the death of literatureThe writer Caleb Crain is unhappy about “the intrusion of counting into the life of literature”. He believes that big data and predictive-taste algorithms are cutting humans “out of the loop”, and that social media are undermining our faith in “the mental states of other people” when those inner states aren’t acknowledged in tweets and likes. It seems we are mired in “a new kind of disenchantment”, he says, which is devolving our sense of literary merit. As big data blurs personal opinion into preference aggregates, and as Twitter-propelled article-surfing destroys reviewing communities and the authority of critics alike, Crain contends, we have no choice but to “declare war on counting”. So that, you know, “literature will survive”. Related: Computer says no: Amazon uses AI to combat fake reviews Bad criticism in public is a nuisance. Does it spell the end of days? Hardly [S]uddenly the cosmos seems like one vast plan after all, patterned in such a way that the novel you’re reading at bedtime connects to your astronomy lecture, connects to what you heard on NPR, connects to what your friend discusses in the cafeteria at lunch – and then briefly it’s as if the lid has come off the world, as if the world were a dollhouse, and you can glimpse what it would be like to see it whole, from above – a vertiginous magnificence. Continue... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 06/07/2011 - 08:02 A court hearing to decide whether permission will be given for a judicial review to proceed against Gloucestershire library cuts is to take place in Birmingham tomorrow (Thursday 7th July). If allowed to proceed, the judicial... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 06/07/2011 - 09:19 The third edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is to be released online later this year by ESF Ltd, a new company set up by the contributors to the book, in association with Orion imprint Victor Gollancz. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 06/07/2011 - 16:25 The Legal Services Commission, which handles legal aid, has been accused of "cynically changing the rules" by ignoring the decision of its own appeals panel that library campaigners pursuing judicial review claims should not... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.com has acquired The Book Depository International, a seven-year old online bookseller based in the UK, which also republishes titles that are no longer in print or poorly available. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 04/07/2011 - 08:31 University lecturers posting course notes online are "harming" academic booksellers, and the posts can also deter students from reading around the subject, the chairman of the Booksellers Association's Academic, Professional... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 04/07/2011 - 08:33 Pearson Australia is taking over the online business of collapsed Australian bookseller REDgroup, which includes the Borders and Angus & Robertson sites. The publisher said it wanted to maintain "continuity for the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 29/06/2011 - 14:20 The O'Brien Press has bought rights to a memoir by "X Factor" contender Mary Byrne. Managing director Ivan O'Brien bought world rights from Will Talbot, at Modest Management. The book, This is My Life, will be published in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 07:55 Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood and Christopher Eccleston are to star in an adaptation of Mary Norton's classic children's novel The Borrowers this Christmas. The 90-minute drama, penned by Merlin" writer Ben Vanstone and produced by Working Title... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 14:12 Women dominate the first-ever The Bookseller Rising Stars, an annual listing which highlights the people who will shape the British book trade. Two-thirds26 of 39 entriesof Rising Stars 2011 are women. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Beyond the banner is a term that publishers have kicked around for years in terms of digital marketing opportunities. As the number of different channels grows, so does the opportunity to really go beyond the banner but it often requires a significant commitment. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:36 Octopus has acquired a vegetable cookery title by chef, eco-restauranteur and star of "The People's Supermarket" Arthur Potts Dawson. Publishing director Stephanie Jackson acquired world rights to Eat Your Veg from Sophie Laurimore of Factual... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 10:05 Literary agent Peter Cox has offered to review "any" contract given to an author by an agent for free in order to ensure that the author has "impartial advice". The move is a response to agents setting up their own publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 02/06/2011 - 08:37 Nobel Prize-winning author V S Naipaul has declared that women's writing is "unequal" to his, during an event at the Hay Festival. The writer, who won the Man Booker in 1971 for In a Free State, said during an interview... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 27/05/2011 - 09:29 Bloomsbury and Faber are to jointly develop a digital content platform providing online access to drama texts. Drama Online will launch in October 2012, and will feature the drama lists from Methuen Drama, Arden... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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According to the Associated Press StylebookSlate's bible for all things punctuation- and grammar-relatedthere are two main prose usesthe abrupt change and the series within a phrasefor the em dash. The guide does not explicitly say that writers can use the dash in lieu of properly crafting... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 24/05/2011 - 09:38 Pan Macmillan has bought UK and Commonwealth rights (including ebooks) to seven books by self-published US sensation Amanda Hocking. Julie Crisp, editorial director at Tor, bought the rights from St Martin's Press in the United... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Tue, 24/05/2011 - 15:17 Aurum Press has bought a book delving into archive material from science fiction television show Star Trek. Commissioning editor Sam Harrison acquired UK and Commonweath rights to Star Trek Vault: 40 years from the Archives from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Mon, 23/05/2011 - 12:15 Aminatta Forna has won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2011 Best Book for her novel The Memory of Love (Bloomsbury). The judges described the novel as "a bold, deeply moving and accomplished novel which confirms her place among the most talented writers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 18/05/2011 - 09:55 Publishers appear to have got a reprieve in the Hargreaves Review into intellectual property with it recommending against imposing an American style 'Fair Use' defence for copyright exceptions. The report also suggested the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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