When the U.K. newspaper the Sunday Times outed J.K. Rowling as the author of detective novel The Cuckoo's Calling earlier this year, computer scientists were among the first people called in. Although the novel was published under the pen name Robert Galbraith, two computational scholars––including Duquesne University's Patrick Juola––were tasked with confirming or denying whether the novel belonged to the Harry Potter author, or one of three other possible writers. That Juola succeeded (his conclusions were later confirmed by Rowling herself) speaks volume about the the potential that algorithms and computer science can have, even with application to a field as notoriously subjective as literature. Which raises an interesting question: Can we use software to help us think about literature? Reverse Engineering J.K. Rowling To explore that question, we should first look at how the Juola cracked Rowling's writing style. To begin the process, Juola loaded 1,000–word samples of The Cuckoo's Calling in to his self–designed Java Graphical Authorship Attribution Program (JGAAP), along with several other texts, including The Casual Vacancy, Rowling's first post–Harry Potter novel. A freely available Java–based, modular program for textual analysis, categorization, and authorship attribution, JGAAP analyzed the texts on four different variables: word–length distribution, the use of common words like "the" and "of," recurring–word pairings, and the distribution of "character... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2013-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Headline has acquired a new humour title, Texts from Dog, billed as "the first ever Tumblr... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#humour title
Professor Damian Walford Davies has been appointed chair of Literature Wales, following the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#literature wales
Indie publisher Duckworth has teamed up with the Read Russia project to create a 125-volume... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Academic library managers should support staff in acquiring new teaching skills to help break... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Plain, ordinary text files aren’t normally the most interesting ways to convey information, but if you’d like to change that then Toolwiz FlipBook may be able to help. Just point the program at a particular TXT file, and in a click it’ll be converted into an executable file. And launching this... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#txt file
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Nobody partners, or negotiates deals, like Microsoft. That's evident from today's stunning agreement with Barnes & Noble, which is sure to turn the ebook market on its head. The two will jointly invest in Newco, temporary name for ebook venture that incorporates B&N's digital and College... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#decade ago
When World Book Night organizers expanded the book-giving event from the U.K. to the U.S. for 2012 they knew that generating buzz—and understanding—about a program with the goal of giving away 500,000 copies of 30 titles on a single day would be a challenge, given the limited budget available.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Works that will be available for perusal will include Gutenberg's Bible, believed to be the first text ever printed. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fewer than one in ten students purchase ebooks, while 88% of undergraduates still use printed... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The late American publisher Barney Rosset led the charge to push back against literary puritanism, championing writers like Henry Miller and William S. Burroughs.Barney Rosset, who died Tuesday at the age of 89, was the most important American publisher of the 20th century. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Students are split on the necessity of physical textbooks in a digital world, but a majority of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Will Apple's recent attempt to break into the textbook market, and other rapidly evolving ebook distribution models, help to moderate soaring textbook prices? From what I've seen so far, it could do just the opposite. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The current state of the newspaper industry is unsettled at best: more than two hundred newspapers have either folded or stopped publishing their print editions since 2007. Even the most acclaimed newspapers in the country are downsizing their new ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 09/11/2011 - 12:25 Faber Academy has launched a three-day self-publishing course, with Faber Academy director Jason Cooper saying that it does not represent a conflict of interests for the publisher. The course, "Bring Your Book to Market",... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 28/10/2011 - 14:49 The Literature Prize is to be awarded in the spring of each year, with founder Andrew Kidd saying it will take place for the first time in 2012 if the necessary funding is secured by the end of this year. Kidd said the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 25/10/2011 - 15:30 A new internet bookselling site has launched specialising in travel literature. The Culture Trip is selling four million books and films, organised into categories by countries. The company is also planning to launch a music... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page, Graeme Neill and Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 13/10/2011 - 08:53 Ion Trewin, administrator of the Man Booker Prize, has hit back at the new Literature Prize over claims by its advisory board that the Man Booker no longer offers a selection of novels... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 12/10/2011 - 11:55 A new literary award, The Literature Prize, has been set up to "establish a clear and uncompromising standard of excellence", with the advisory board claiming that the Man Booker Prize no longer does the job. The board, for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 12/10/2011 - 16:06 Publishers, agents, writers, scouts and literary critics are backing the new Literature Prize announced today but all names other than those already released are being kept under wraps, spokesperson Andrew Kidd has told The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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