Pantomime misanthropy is tempered with bursts of sweetness in the secondhand bookseller’s latest dispatches from WigtownThere’s a moment in the first season of the short-lived but influential sitcom Black Books in which an elderly customer appears with a box of attractive old editions of classics to sell to Dylan Moran’s crosspatch bookseller Bernard. Barely looking at them, Bernard offers him £40. But they’re worth more than that, the man says. “I know, I know,” Bernard concedes. “But I don’t want them. I’ll have to price them, then, and put them up on the shelves, and store them, and people will come in and ask about them, and buy them, and read them, and come back and sell them and the whole hideous cycle will just go on and on and on ...” He gives the man £40 to take the books away.Shaun Bythell’s dispatches from the Wigtown Bookshop, which he has run for nearly 20 years, read like a knowing riff on the persona of Bernard Black. He started out grousing about his life, pillorying his eccentric staff and venting about his noisome customers on a Facebook page. Then he did the same in his hit Diary of a Bookseller, continued with Confessions of a Bookseller, and here he is – an actual franchise – with a slim little listicle-titled till-point follow-up for the Christmas market. His inner Bernard Black will be heaving a world-weary sigh. The more he parades his contemptus mundi, the more the world loves him.Much steam is enjoyably vented over customers who whistle... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 09:00:33 UTC ]
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Tensions between academic booksellers and publishers are likely to heighten following the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Almost two-thirds of industry leaders from the publishing industry foresee that newspapers and other print publishers will end up as digital-only enterprises by 2020, according to a survey conducted by MPP Global Solutions. Conducted during two web ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the 2011 Man Booker Prize finalist, the author has pitch-perfect voice and her jazz musician characters have rhythmic conversations.Not unlike its counterpart rock 'n' roll, memorable jazz novels occupy a pretty slim shelf at the local bookstore. Though the music has been gracefully spun into... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Web magazine will publish an expanded look at books on the first Saturday of each month, as stand-alone book review sections in newspapers have dwindled. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With care and craft, the novelist and essayist seeks to summarize Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 art film 'Stalker,' finding elements that will keep the non- cinéaste onboard.Zona Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A creepy professor eavesdrops on a woman's therapy sessions and becomes obsessed with her.By Blood Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The death of language is explored via plague-carrying children and their horror-struck parents in a wildly inventive tale by Ben Marcus.Spend too much time with 24-hour news networks and it's easy to feel that exposure to that much talk can make you sick. Taking the idea a few steps further,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'Enemies: A History of the FBI,' Tim Weiner ('Legacy of Ashes') offers a scathing indictment of the FBI, before J. Edgar Hoover and since.Each week, the FBI sends reporters an email of "top ten news stories" that it hopes will hit the headlines. The press releases usually highlight crooks... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Willesden Bookshop is searching for new premises after Brent council plans to develop the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tracie McMillan takes us to agricultural fields, Wal-Mart and Applebee's, where she works short stints and tries to eat healthfully on meager pay.The American Way of Eating Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thomas Mallon's novel deftly paints a picture of 1970s America and adds an imaginative back story to the characters.Watergate Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The author's short stories paint vivid pictures of growing up Filipino American.In a smoke-stained San Francisco hotel room, Felix Starro is making fake blood. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The murder of Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey and a family's violent rise to prominence is given gripping life.On a morning in August 2007, a slender masked man ran up to Chauncey Bailey on an Oakland sidewalk and fired two shotgun blasts at the journalist. The first slug tore through Bailey... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wesley Owen has announced it may close all but one of its chain of Christian bookshops, saying... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones is to open a Russian-language "bookshop" within its flagship London... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The team behind the successful book Change the World for a Fiver has launched a free newspaper... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In September, Harvard University Press tried something a little different. That month the scholarly press announced it was holding an open search for the design of its forthcoming book series featuring English translations of works in various Indian languages. HUP has now found a logo and look... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hardie Grant UK has acquired a relationship guide by Huffington Post writer Tracy Macmillan. UK... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The first category of this year's Bookseller Industry Awards opens next week, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The first category of this year's Bookseller Industry Awards opens next week, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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