Boy A wins talking point award: Jonathan Trigell’s controversial novel Boy A has been named as the first winner of the Book to Talk About award, announced to coincide with World Book Day. The award, decided by members of the public, brings with it a prize of £5,000 for a work which inspires debate and discussion among readers. The novel is a sympathetic account of a young man released from prison after committing an appalling crime as a child. [Guardian]
Flying Off the Shelves, The Pleasures and Perils of Chasing Book Thieves: This is pretty much the authoritative top five, the New York Times best-seller list of stolen books. Its origins still mystify me. It might have belonged to an unscrupulous used bookseller who sent the homeless out, Fagin-like, to do his bidding, or it might have been another book thief helping a semi-illiterate friend identify the valuable merchandise. I asked the man whether he preferred Bukowski’s Pulp to his Women, as I did, and whether his favorite Thompson book was The Getaway or The Killer Inside Me. First the book chatter made him nervous, but then it made him angry: He bellowed, “You’re just a little bitch, ain’t'cha?” and stormed out. [The Stranger]
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