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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Ten authors have been named as finalists for the Man Booker International Prize 2015, representing countries including Hungary, Guadeloupe, and the Republic of Congo. Each writer is now in the running to win a £60,000 prize, with the winner announced in a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sam Husain has fought off the threat of ebooks and online retailers to make Foyles bookshops profitable again. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2015-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Grammy Award-winning rock musician Jack White's indie publishing effort, Third Man Books, has signed a North American distribution with Consortium, and is looking ahead to releasing three titles in 2015. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kate Manning has left her role as sales and marketing director of Hot Key Books. Manning confirmed she had left the company to The Bookseller, but would not give any more information. A spokesperson for Bonnier, which owns Hot Key, would not confirm if Manning had been made redundant, but... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Wake' centers on the sinking of the British ship the Lusitania in 1915. The book will be released on March 10. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Internet phenomenon known as "what color is the dress" showed just far ahead BuzzFeed is from traditional publishers -- and just how badly traditional publishers want to be BuzzFeed. The problem is the race to out-BuzzFeed BuzzFeed can't be won,and in the process there's a good chance... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2015-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has hired former White House press secretary Jay Carney as senior v.p. for worldwide corporate affairs. Carney, who served as press secretary for US President Barack Obama for more than three years until 2014, will begin in his new job on Monday, Politico reported. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reading science fiction, chick lit and fantasy novels by people of colour for a year brought home to me just how white my reading world wasIn 2014, I managed to read 25 novels. All of them were written by people of colour. That was the result of a small challenge I set myself: not to read books... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You can add a few more entries to the long list of comic book movies due in the next few years, as Sony Pictures has revealed its plans for the Spider-Man franchise. As suggested in emails leaked during the recent hacking scandal, the studio has work... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2015-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scottish independent publisher Black & White Publishing has acquired a three-book series by 17-year-old Estelle Maskame, which has already had 4m hits on Wattpad. Maskame has more than 125,000 Twitter followers and her Did I Mention I Love You? (DIMILY) trilogy has had 4m hits on digital... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The White House published President Obama’s 2016 fiscal budget on Monday using a medium that’s become increasingly popular among its advisors: Medium, the three-year old self-publishing platform. In the past three mon ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reports that physical books are gaining ground at the expense of digital are just plain wrongHas the ebook had its day? If you’ve skimmed a newspaper over the past month you could be forgiven for thinking just that. “The physical book market is making a comeback after years of decline,”... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers have criticised the Man Booker Prize's change of stance on the print availability of longlisted titles as “disappointing”. However others have applauded the ruling, saying publishers must be able to set publication dates as they wish. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Man Booker Prize has made significant tweaks to its rules for 2015, abandoning its former rule on the availability of print books following the longlist announcement, placing time limits on the eligibility of titles published outside the UK, and defining the term "publisher" more closely. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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July's upcoming book has received many positive reviews, with critics calling it 'compelling' and 'visionary,' though some felt that parts of the story were contrived and that some sections tried too hard to shock the reader. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter James’ Want You Dead (Pan Macmillan) has been named eBooks by Sainsbury’s eBook of the Year 2014. The award, which aims to let readers decide their stand-out “screen turner” of the year, is in its second year. Want You Dead was chosen from a longlist of more than 150 titles from a range... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Molly Manning, author of 'When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II' (HMH, 9780544535022 ) will appear on WNYC’s the 'Leonard Lopate Show' on Friday, December 19. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Whiting Foundation and the Slate Book Review have joined forces on a new campaign that, according to the two partners, aims to "breathe new life into second novels." This year, the initiative, We Second That, recognizes five of the "greatest second novels of the last five years." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If squabbles over format, pricing and Amazon have led the US publishing industry to neglect an ever more diverse audience, we have forgotten why people read books in the first placeThe true price of publishingAt the recent National Book Awards ceremony in New York City, presenter and bestselling... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When sales of ebooks doubled in 2011 over 2010, it seemed as if the mass market paperback format might quickly sink into oblivion. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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