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 ]
Peter Orner's 'Still No Word From You' melds memoir and criticism and, in the process, brings reading to life as a multi-sensory, communal experience. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-10-28 15:00:54 UTC ]
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Bethanne Patrick's November highlights include musings from Dylan, Tarantino and Jerry Saltz, the returns of Russell Banks and Katherine Dunn and more. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-10-28 14:02:44 UTC ]
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This year, religion and spirituality publishers are helping readers get into the Halloween spirit with a guide to conducting séances, stories from haunted spaces, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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If you've avoided picking up manga out of genre/format snobbery, you're missing out. Manga has reminded me of just how fun reading can be. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-10-25 10:37:00 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Golden Voice narrator George Guidall compellingly narrates Craig Johnson’s latest Longmire... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-24 13:48:59 UTC ]
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The best witch manga include something for everyone, whether you want gentle and cozy, dark and action-packed, or something in between, like Flying Witch by Chihiro Ishizuka. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-10-19 10:33:00 UTC ]
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There's no better time to read horror short stories than October. With Halloween fast approaching, dive into these 20 spooky tales. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-10-17 10:31:00 UTC ]
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The webcomics category is exploding in growth—and it’s only going to get bigger. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Life Studies is Robert Lowell’s best-known and most influential book. It won the National Book Award for poetry in 1960. I read it in 1962 and I hated it. In a shallow way, my dislike was a matter of social class. I said aloud to Lowell’s book, “Yeah, I had a grandfather, too.” Like my […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-13 08:57:28 UTC ]
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Do you want to star reading manga, but don't know where to start? In this list, I paired up popular books with manga to help you out! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-10-10 10:38:00 UTC ]
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With empowering middle grade like Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega and silly picture books, October children's book releases are pretty awesome! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-10-03 10:38:00 UTC ]
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These new October graphic novel and manga titles are just the thing to read as you munch on some should-have-been-for-Halloween candy. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-10-03 10:35:00 UTC ]
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The story within a story. It’s a common enough trope—from The Arabian Nights to Hamlet to the postmodern canon, we’re familiar with books that nest realities inside one another. Moving from the main narrative to the nested narrative can reveal interesting echoes, parallels, and reflections, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-03 08:54:13 UTC ]
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Bethanne Patrick's October highlights include the biographies of Bob Dylan and Samuel Adams, new fiction from John Irving and Celeste Ng and plenty more. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-09-29 13:00:19 UTC ]
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At its best, the relationship between novelist and reader is an intimate one. Can I tell you something? whispers the writer, and the reader whispers back, Please do… Of all the forms that the novel can take, the diary is surely the most confiding of all; it’s as if the intimacy level has been... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-28 08:57:35 UTC ]
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By the time I read Hilary Mantel’s 1996 review of Kate Atkinson’s debut novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum in the London Review of Books, the novel had been a favorite of mine for over a decade. My mother gave me the book when I was in high school—both of us entirely unaware of […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-23 14:57:31 UTC ]
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Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings. Fortunately,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-14 09:05:43 UTC ]
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"My Government Means to Kill Me" follows a gay, Black activist in 1980s New York. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-09-10 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“There was an upsetting aura of righteousness in the room” when the group read Iris Murdoch’s “A Fairly Honourable Defeat,” says the religious scholar, whose latest book is “Sacred Nature.” “It did not deserve this response. I have never returned.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-09-08 09:00:11 UTC ]
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New books by Megan Goldin, Jonathan Ames, Laurie Loewenstein, William Kent Krueger and Tracey Lien offer a murder-and-mayhem tour across the globe Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-09-03 11:00:28 UTC ]
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#fall reading