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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Kate Manning, former sales and marketing director of Hot Key Books, is moving to The Phoenix Comic, which is published by David Fickling Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shin Kyung-sook had earlier denied using material by Yukio Mishima, but has now apologised, saying ‘I can’t believe my own memory’Shin Kyung-sook, an internationally renowned South Korean novelist who won the $30,000 (£19,000) Man Asian literary prize four years ago, has apologised to her... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown imprint Abacus has acquired UK rights to Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared. Independent Hesperus was ordered to stop selling or distributing the title in April after a High Court hearing brought by Hachette Book Group US, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weidenfeld & Nicolson is to reissue T H White’s The Goshawk, with a forward by award-winning author Helen Macdonald. First published in 1951, White’s memoir is an account of how he came to train a wild goshawk. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paula Hawkins, Steve Cavanagh, Clare Mackintosh and Jo Nesbo are among the writers who have picked up two shortlistings apiece for the inaugural Dead Good Reader Awards. The awards, nominated and voted for by readers, will be presented in Harrogate this July at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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David Duchovny, best-known for his portrayals on TV of Fox Mulder on The X-Files, and Hank Moody on Californication, is finally where he originally thought he would end up: as a writer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kara Richardson Whitely, author of 'Gorge: My Journey Up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds' (Seal Press, 9781580055598), will appear on 'Good Morning America' on Wednesday, May 27. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai has won the £60,000 Man Booker International Prize for his “achievement in fiction on the world stage.” The post László Krasznahorkai Takes Man Booker International Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-05-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai has won the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. The British literary honor, which is award every two years, comes with a £60,000 purse. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The European Commission has a grand plan to create a single market for digital content across all the member states of the EU, so it can be bought and sold without barriers such as the administrative burden of different VAT rates. The creation of that market will help entrepreneurial start-up... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sun, sand, and--sin? Shelve the beach reads for books that explore the shadows of evil-doing and guilt. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Patterson and Maxine Paetro’s '14th Deadly Sin,' released May 4, made its first appearance on Apple’s iBooks bestseller list at #2. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last Wednesday, the Times published a front-page story about the movie and real-estate mogul Wang Jianlin, who is the richest man in Asia, worth an estimated thirty-five billion dollars. The former People’s Liberation Army foot soldier has ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As Apple works toward a relaunch of its Beats Music streaming service, it’s reportedly pushing labels to kill off the free version of Spotify.It’s a bold move by Apple if The Verge’s unnamed sources are accurate, coming less than two years after a judge found that the company colluded with... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2015-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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SurveyMonkey CEO David Goldberg, who grew the company to a $2 billion valuation, died suddenly on Friday night. He is survived by wife Sheryl Sandberg, the COO at Facebook Inc., and two children. Sandberg married Goldberg in 2004 and credited him in her book "Lean In" for his role in creating a... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2015-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House’s crime community Dead Good Books has created six awards to be presented at this year’s Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival by authors including Lee Child and Val McDermid. Each award has been created in collaboration with the Dead Good Facebook community and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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President Obama announced today digital reading initiatives for low income students that include major ebook donations from corporate publishers, and a commitment to ensuring all students have access to a library card. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Esteemed critic, teacher and tastemaker helped shape the modern literary canon and wrote one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed works of criticismMH Abrams, an esteemed critic and teacher who helped shape the modern literary canon as founding editor of the Norton Anthology of English... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent booksellers name their favorite handsells, as well as "indie champions," Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors representing 10 countries — 6 countries for the first time — are included on the shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize. The post Man Booker International Prize 2015 Finalist’s List Announced appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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