The novelist on his new collection of journalism, why he regrets criticising Sally Rooney and how he’s never shaken off the influence of JG Ballard“I’ll see your eidolon next Tuesday,” writes Will Self, 61, when I email to arrange a video call to discuss his new collection of journalism, Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021, which is centred on the concern (as he later told me, or my on-screen spirit-image) that “people are dumbing down their entire response to their own culture by their unfettered use of social media”. Self’s 26 previous books include Umbrella, shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2012, and its sequels Shark and Phone, the latter a single 624-page paragraph which the Telegraph called an “epic anti-tweet”. Speaking from his home in south London, he said he liked the description “because the book was a deliberate attempt to call people’s attention to what was being lost by the digital. I don’t think the Umbrella trilogy is that hard to read at all; it’s only hard to read in contrast to a tweet. By Donald Trump!”How did you pick the pieces in Why Read?Until fairly recently, certainly since 2001, I probably wrote an average of 150,000 words of journalism every year, so there’s a vast amount to choose from. My New York editor said that in the age of the web, collections like this need a theme or else readers feel they’re just getting a grab bag they could’ve sourced themselves. So the emphasis fell on the impact on reading and writing of what I choose to call... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-11-26 18:00:32 UTC ]
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David Baldacci's 'No Man's Land' pulls back up to the top of the iBooks bestseller list this week, sending James Patterson's 'Cross the Line' tumbling down to #4. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Baroness Lola Young OBE will chair the judges for the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nick Gomez-Hall, an administrative assistant at Counterpoint Press, has been confirmed dead in the wake of Friday night’s fire at the Oakland warehouse known as the Ghost Ship. He was 25. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Julian Barnes has reignited the debate over the Man Booker Prize rule changes, calling the decision to allow American authors to compete "straightforwardly daft". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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David Baldacci's latest installment in the John Puller series, 'No Man's Land,' reaches the peak of the iBooks bestseller list this week, with John Grisham's 'The Whistler' dropping to #2. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It started as a kitchen-table project in Cyprus, and 30 years later has grown into a distinctive brand. Oneworld founders Juliet Mabey and Novin Doostdar talk about their instinct for successJuliet Mabey is listing some of the topics covered by the novels she’s published. There’s Majok Tulba’s... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HQ has snapped up rights to The Songaminute Man, an "inspirational" memoir of entertainer and "viral sensation", 80-year-old Ted McDermott, told by his son Simon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Beatty's book 'Sellout' tells the story of an African-American who attempts to bring back segregation and slavery. The novel had previously won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2016-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Concerning to some UK observers of the Man Booker Prize: a US author has won the prestigious literary award: Paul Beatty's 'The Sellout' is widely hailed. The post Paul Beatty is the First American to Win the Man Booker Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout, is the first American winner of the Man Booker Prize in its 48-year history, giving Oneworld its second consecutive win of the award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent booksellers are backing Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project (Contraband) to win the Man Booker Prize, following strong sales. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Beatty has won the 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for 'The Sellout,' making him the first American author to win the award. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Danaher has been found guilty of murdering author and rare books dealer Adrian Greenwood (pictured) over a first edition of The Wind in the Willows. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Observer's Robert McCrum has described the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize as "among the best, and most confident, of recent years", calling the selected authors "a distinctive slate of new writers, all of them deserving of the attention bestowed on their work by Booker". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the Oct. 18 EDItEUR Supply Chain Seminar at the Frankfurt Book Fair will see a presentation on 'The Link Between Metadata and Sales' for the USA. The post At Frankfurt: Supply Chain Meeting to Feature Nielsen Book’s New Metadata White Papers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dead Ink has received a "significant" grant of £65,359 from Arts Council England. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber is to publish The Fountain in the Forest, an "astonishing experiment in literary form" by Tony White. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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DK is launching an audio app this month providing free walking tours of "two of the most visited cities in the world" - London and New York. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the inaugural South by South Lawn: A White House Festival of Ideas, Art and Action on Monday, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield explained that it's easier to implement diversity in hiring practices when companies are small, and by doing so, companies are more likely to be aware of a... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the inaugural South by South Lawn: A White House Festival of Ideas, Art and Action on Monday, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield explained that it's easier to implement diversity in hiring practices when companies are small, and by doing so, companies are more likely to be aware of a... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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