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 ]
A reader contemplates how to choose the last book to read before you die and reflects on the life and death of her book-loving grandmother. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-12-30 11:32:00 UTC ]
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Now that you've read "Klara and the Sun" and "One Last Stop," it's time to look ahead. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-12-30 11:00:43 UTC ]
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The author, who died Thursday, produced decades' worth of memorable work. Here's our guide to starting — or continuing — your Didion journey. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-12-23 21:24:38 UTC ]
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Booksellers Association managing director Meryl Halls says she is "enormously proud" of what booksellers have achieved this year but has raised concerns about "another unsettling stretch" with the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, concerns about inflation and continued issues with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-23 04:11:09 UTC ]
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Lately, I’ve tried to read books published more than five years ago, and this year, I found a lot of pleasure in dwelling in the backlist—though I made time for a few new books. The post A Year in Reading the Backlist: Larissa Pham appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-12-22 20:00:42 UTC ]
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A law forcing publishers in the US and abroad to license e-books to the state's public libraries in the US state of Maryland is expected to come into effect as planned on 1st January 2022 after a court challenge was set for February. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-22 09:32:19 UTC ]
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The monarch had plenty of shortcomings, but he wasn’t a brute, writes Andrew Roberts. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-12-17 13:00:00 UTC ]
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For the 'Millions,' 12 authors look back at 2021 and the books they read along the way. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Former US President Barack Obama has released a 13-strong list of his favourite books of the year, spanning memoir, fiction and non-fiction, including Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen (Fourth Estate), These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) and Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-16 04:55:04 UTC ]
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The Department of Justice is aiming to begin court proceedings against Penguin Random House owner Bertelsmann on 1st August 2022, in a bid to block the publisher from acquiring Simon & Schuster in a $2.2bn deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-12 18:18:18 UTC ]
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It was a chance to finally get around to Tolstoy or Proust, but the charts tell a different story. Which books did we actually turn to in the lockdowns? • Let us know in the comments what you were reading Back in spring 2020, when it became clear that coronavirus wasn’t going away, book lovers... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-12-11 09:00:06 UTC ]
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In addition to being a prolific novelist, Toni Morrison was a prolific editor. She was committed to championing Black writers, both through her role as senior editor at Random House and her work with writing collectives like The Sisterhood (which included literary giants like June Jordan, Alice... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-10 18:40:25 UTC ]
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Charities Speakers for Schools and Book Clubs in Schools have teamed up with Andersen Press for the third National Teen Book Club and creative writing course for state school students, this time reading Sue Cheung's Chinglish. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-10 08:14:22 UTC ]
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Claire Keegan’s novel breathes something vital into the season’s most cherished tales. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-12-07 16:50:34 UTC ]
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The crisp weather makes it the perfect time to snuggle up with a little one and read these 11 December children's book releases. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-12-06 11:39:00 UTC ]
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I’m not sure The Black Prince is my favorite book of all time, but it might be the most indelible, the most neuron-rewiring. The post A Year in Reading: Adam O’Fallon Price appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-12-04 11:00:03 UTC ]
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The uncanniness of rereading Lucky now that the man Alice Sebold identified as her rapist has been exonerated. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2021-12-04 00:50:58 UTC ]
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Seven books comb through history, travel to distant planets and imagine our A.I. future. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-12-03 20:26:32 UTC ]
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Twelve new yarns will whisk readers to the past, where life was every bit as complicated, dramatic and story-worthy as the present. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-12-03 14:00:06 UTC ]
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Author and editor of the New York Times Book Review Pamela Paul and New York Times journalist Cecilia Kang join hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to consider how social media and search engines have changed everyday life. First, Paul provides a nostalgia tour of pre-internet life,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-02 09:50:49 UTC ]
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