Turning literature into a numbers game makes some sense for the book trade, but none for readersWe may be halfway through January already, but the spirit of new year is still in full swing over in San Francisco, where the 2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge goes from strength to strength to strength. More than 240,000 of Goodreads' 25 million members have already committed to reading more than 14m books this year, pledging to get through them at an average of more than a book a week. And many fans of books will say hurrah for that. I reckon I'm pretty much in favour of books and literature, too, but the Goodreads Reading Challenge just sets my teeth on edge.It starts right there in the name. Since when was reading any kind of challenge? Isn't it supposed to be fun? Maybe not for children still learning to differentiate their Perfect Peters from their Horrid Henrys, or for the one in six UK adults who still struggle with literacy, but Goodreads is a site for people who are already "readers" . I don't think they have schoolchildren in mind when they suggest you should "raise your reading ambitions" and it certainly doesn't look like a scheme designed to help adult learners "make it to the final chapter". All this talk of pledging, of targets, of tracking your progress, is just another step in the marketisation of the reading experience, another stage in the commodification of literary culture.We know that literacy correlates with better social outcomes, that literary fiction... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
Egmont UK has commissioned a new research programme as part of a wider initiative by the company... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More children are going digital, according to Scholastic's latest study, and the percentage of boys reading passionately and for fun is up, while girls are down. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Which writers (apart from EL James and Suzanne Collins) are dominating the best-selling book lists? Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The National Schools Reading competition has launched today, with up to 200,000 children in years... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The number of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 but children still... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kobo increased its global e-ink device sales by 150% in December, making it the "biggest... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Capital One set out to endear itself with entrepreneurs, it enlisted Forbes to create blog posts on its behalf about cybercrime and other scourges of small business. Likewise, UPS entrusted Fast Company to create custom infographics that ran on the business brand’s site. In both cases, it... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Porter Anderson curates the best web clips for authors, including Random House's Facebook success, male vs. female genre writing, self-publishing success in the UK and more. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nearly a quarter of Americans have read ebooks in the past year, with the number of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, and Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas, will address the promises and pitfalls of a digitally connected world in a book titled “The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business,” due out on April 23 from Knopf. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Politicians have backed the Reading Agency's Six Book Challenge in an attempt to improve... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mobile reading may revive entire genres of literature, such as mid-length novels and poems, which have fallen out of favor. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2012-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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J K Rowling has been overlooked in the nominations for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex award... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Saveur magazine's James Oseland discusses inspirations for both print and digital media Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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CourseSmart has introduced an analytics program that allows professors to monitor how pages read, notations and more for their student's e-textbooks. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E-readers are devices for reading electronic books, or ebooks. Here's a rundown of their basic features: Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sony is to develop a range of augmented reality titles on its Wonderbook platform as part of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Is there an argument to be made in favor of state intervention in the book trade? If the growth of the book trade in Sharjah is any evidence, the answer is yes. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the end of June, Amazon’s Kindle family of reading devices was used to read ebooks by 55% of ebook buyers, according to figures compiled by Bowker Market Research. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google Books is great at helping you find interesting reads, and makes it easy to view them online from just about any device. The service isn’t quite as versatile when it comes to letting you download local copies in a format of your choice, unfortunately, but that’s where FSS Google Books... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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