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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Peter James, Sharon Bolton and "Robert Galbraith" were among the authors honoured at the second annual Dead Good Reader Awards 2016 at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The White Horse Bookshop is sponsoring the Richard Jefferies Society Writers’ Prize while the book trade is experiencing a “golden age of nature writing”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Download our free white paper on international publishing regions featured at Frankfurt Book Fair on October 18 in The Markets: Global Publishing Summit. The post ‘Promise, Energy, Surprises’: A White Paper on ‘The Markets’ 2016 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Edinburgh International Book Festival director Nick Barley is chairing the judging panel for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rated at a suitable reading-difficulty level in the seventh year of school, Man Booker Prize winning titles are seen in an interactive filtering grid to have authors who are an average age of 49. The post Trends in Man Booker Winners: Male and Middle-Aged in Third Person appeared first on... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BBC Books is publishing an in-depth account of the Class of '92’s takeover of Salford City FC, authored by the ex-Manchester United stars Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, with chief football writer for the Mail on Sunday Rob Draper. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Sunday Times has moved Oli White's Generation Next (Hodder & Stoughton) to its Children's and Young Adult bestseller chart for this forthcoming Sunday's issue (19th June), after it topped the adult fiction list in last Sunday's edition (12th). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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He was the fifth-generation president of family-owned Publishers Printing Company. The post Printing Executive Nick Simon Dead at 57 appeared first on Folio:. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2016-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reviews editor Everett Jones recommends 'The Man with the Golden Typewriter' by Ian Fleming, a selection of the author's James Bond-related correspondence. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sunday Times literary editor Andrew Holgate has said it is "worth thinking about" introducing a Young Adult bestseller chart into the paper, after taking the decision to make vlogger Oli White's Generation Next (Hodder & Stoughton) number one on the upcoming Sunday Times adult fiction... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The United States has a prison problem—namely, the largest prison population in the world and the second-highest per-capita incarceration rate. These statistics are partly what inspired me to speak with Christopher Grewe, the CEO and founder of American Prison Data Systems, or APDS.Grewe may not... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2016-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Voice actor and television host Chris Hardwick, who last year bought a storied estate in Los Feliz with his fiancée Lydia Hearst, has sold his home in Hollywood Hills for $3.477 million in a deal closed off-market. Set behind gates on a quarter of an acre, the 1920s two-story has an eclectic... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nordic young adult series, The Snow White Trilogy by Salla Simukka (Hot Keys Books) is to be adapted for the silver screen by Zero Gravity Management in association with Elina Ahlback Literary Agency. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The winner of the "newly evolved" Man Booker International Prize 2016 is The Vegetarian by South Korean author Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith (Portobello Books). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Remember the days when getting an author in the New York Times, on the Today show, Oprah, or, for us old-timers, Carson practically guaranteed a spot on the bestseller list? Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Veteran African American pop culture writer David Walker discusses writing for two popular black comic book superheroes: DC's half-man/half-machine, Cyborg, and Marvel's Luke Cage, aka Power Man. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Animals in comics can be wild creatures, loyal pets, test subjects, and so much more. These 10 comics reflect the complicated relationship that exists between people and the animal world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reclusive Italian writer Elena Ferrante and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk have been named on the six-strong Man Booker International Prize shortlist. Three titles from independent publishers feature on the list: Ferrante's The Story of The Lost Child, the final novel in her Neapolitan quartet,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This year's AWP, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from March 31–April 2, was a vibrant mélange of multicultural voices. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray Learning has bought a self-published bestseller, Life Leverage, by Rob Moore. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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