Bookstores bracing for the next chapter: Only a few years ago, bookstores helped define neighborhoods. They were physical and cultural markers on the landscape - showcases of what mattered, there and then. Now, instead of perking up when I step through the doors of a good bookstore, I wonder morosely how long it will last. “It’s an antiquarian business model in a changing world,” admits Melissa Mytinger, manager of Cody’s Books in Berkeley. [SFGate]
Lois Lowry: A children’s writer who doesn’t talk down: Lois Lowry flies under the radar of most adults. But she’s a monumental figure to many readers in the 11-to-15 age range. “She has huge appeal,” said the librarian Judy Nelson of Tacoma, Washington, past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. “Once she has been introduced, it’s not unusual for a child to read all her books as she grows up. We have schools that require her books, on the fifth- or sixth-grade level.” [IHT]
One thousand and one delights: But Arabic literature itself is not in crisis; in fact, it has never been more energetic and more varied than today. Some of the authors who came to maturity in the 60s are now writing the swan song of that decade, others turn to different episodes of history, either to look for parallels or for the lines that connect the “then” to the “now”. Younger writers are making their mark. Many are writing politically engaged works, others depict an alienation that is itself a comment on the “now”. Several deal with issues of the Arabs’ relationship to the west. From the epic works of Ibrahim al-Koni to the contemplative narratives of Bahaa Taher to the “puzzle” novels published by Malamih, the bestselling Alaa al-Aswany and the runaway success of the “blogs” brought out by Dar al Shorouk Publishing House, Arabic literature today grapples with and comments on the ills experienced by Arab societies. [Guardian]
Robots wrote my bestseller: Philip M. Parker has written over 200,000 books, and all of them have turned a profit. How does he do it? With the magic of computers. [Times]
April 16th, 2008 at 9:33 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
Is this the world’s finest bookshop?: ‘This is Holland,” a sales assistant tells me, as I scan bookshelves generously stocked with English as well as Dutch works. “We are not so religious. Yes, we have more mosques now - but we have also a lot of empty churches.” And here’s a great thing to do with such atmospheric yet dormant spaces. I’m in central Maastricht, standing in what must be one of the finest bookshops in the world. [Guardian]
The neuroscience delusion: A generation of academic literary critics has now arisen who invoke “neuroscience” to assist them in their work of explication, interpretation and appreciation. Norman Bryson, once a leading exponent of Theory and a social constructivist, has described his Damascene conversion, as a result of which he now places the firing of neurons rather than signifiers at the heart of literary criticism. Evolutionary theory, sociobiology and allied forces are also recruited to the cause, since, we are reminded, the brain functions as it does to support survival. [TLS]
Cairo’s greatest literary secret: The latest Booker prizewinner is tucking into seafood risotto beside the calm waters of the Arabian Gulf, weighing up a sometimes turbulent career. Bahaa Taher was sacked as a radio journalist in Egypt in the 1970s and driven into exile. Yet he says now, “I was freed, not fired.” As the Man Booker prize turns 40 this year, the foundation behind it has backed a new award, for the best novel of the year written in Arabic. [Guardian]
April 11th, 2008 at 11:39 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
2008 Pulitzer Prizes for Letters, Drama and Music: The Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday. Following are the winners in Letters, Drama and Music. [NYT]
History out, celebrities in as top publisher wields axe: One of Britain’s most distinguished publishers has been condemned for turning its back on serious history books in favour of ‘crappy’ celebrity biographies and TV spin-offs. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, whose authors have included Harold Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, Golda Meir, Henry Kissinger and Pope John Paul II, has culled a number of planned titles at a cost said to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds in advance payments to authors. [Guardian]
The Book Is Real Enough. It’s the Author That’s Fake: In a time of fake news and fake memoirs, why not fake authors? On Nov. 30, the glamorous, impetuous Kendall Hart — wife, mother, founder of a highly successful perfume company, woman in despair and one of the lead characters on the ABC soap “All My Children” — decided to try a little creative writing as a distraction from the pain of her husband Zach’s sudden (and of course mysterious) disappearance. [NYT]
April 8th, 2008 at 11:17 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
New HarperCollins Unit to Try to Cut Writer Advances: HarperCollins Publishers is forming a new publishing group that will substitute profit-sharing with authors for cash advances and will try to eliminate the costly practice of allowing booksellers to return unsold copies. [NYT]
Leaving the ghetto: Short of money and short of food, V S Naipaul found his early life as a writer in Fifties London harsh. Then the BBC offered him a lifeline with a radio programme, Caribbean Voices. It became an important influence, but one he later felt obliged to disown. [New Statesman]
New reason to surf the blogosphere: Book deals: And then March 20 Random House announces that it has purchased the rights to a book by the blog’s founder, Christian Lander, an Internet copy writer. The price, according to a source familiar with the deal but not authorized to discuss the total, was about $300,000, a sum that many in the publishing and blogging communities believe is an astronomical amount for a book spawned from a blog, written by a previously unpublished author. [IHT]
April 4th, 2008 at 8:59 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
Online raiders stole my book: In the digital age, anyone can publish more or less anything, legally or illegally, at the push of a few buttons. I recently found an entire digitised copy of one of my own books on the internet. Someone had simply fed the book into a scanner, changed a few names, and posted the text on a website. [Times]
It’s Not You, It’s Your Books: Some years ago, I was awakened early one morning by a phone call from a friend. She had just broken up with a boyfriend she still loved and was desperate to justify her decision. “Can you believe it!” she shouted into the phone. “He hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!” [NYT]
The Rescue of John Steinbeck: The extraordinary thing about John Steinbeck is how good he can be when so much of the time he’s so bad. There are talented writers who grow into their full maturity and then decline, slowly or precipitously. But that isn’t Steinbeck. You can divide his work up into coherent periods, but there’s no coherent trajectory of quality. [NYRB]
An Investment Banker Finds Fame Off the Books: Today Mr. Bhagat is still an investment banker, now with Deutsche Bank. But he has also become the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India’s history. [NYT]
March 31st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
Writing the Nation: The “state of the nation” novel is back in fashion, with recent examples from Hanif Kureishi, Sebastian Faulks and Louis de Bernières. But many of these books focus too closely on “authentic” period detail at the expense of convincing characters and stories. [Prospect]
In Mexico, on the Lam With Ken Kesey: I said I was doing nothing, but I’m actually trying to summon somebody: Ken Kesey, novelist, psychedelic prophet, leader of the Merry Pranksters, hero of “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” It was here, on this beach, that he took to the waves as I did, back in 1966. He was a hunted man then, on the run from the F.B.I. and Mexican federales, but even he, a man of great aplomb, found time for thoughtful bobbing. [NYT]
Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity: No matter how artful her prophecies, nobody ever listens to Cassandra until the catastrophe has come—so it shouldn’t be surprising that one of the most prescient, thorough, and hilarious satires of postmodernity fell into obscurity shortly after its publication in 1955. But it’s time we rediscovered that book, for Nigel Dennis’ Cards of Identity was written with so much foresight that it almost reads like this week’s edition of The Onion. [First Things]
Interview, Sara Paretsky: Author Sara Paretsky is best known for creating the feisty female detective VI Warshawski. But in her latest book, she finds the strength to tackle her troubled childhood in rural Kansas. [Guardian]
A Boy’s Life, Guided by the Voice of Cosmic Wonder: On the night last week after Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction writer and space visionary, died at the ripe age of 90, it was cloudy and threatening rain in New York. I was frustrated because I wanted to go outside to see if the stars were still there. [NYT]
March 25th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
Blog catapults Japan’s new literary star: Mieko Kawakami, a former bar hostess and bookstore clerk, was just another obscure singer until she started a blog. Her poetic, street-wise writing stood out so starkly among Internet diaries in Japan — which, like those around the world, tend to be more informative or gossipy than narrative — that she is now Japan’s biggest literary star. [MSNBC]
Interview: Peter Hobbs: The author of The Short Day Dying, who unexpectedly became a writer during a long illness, cautions against sentimentality among storytellers. [New Statesman]
Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Science Fiction Writer, Dies: Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90. [NYT]
March 21st, 2008 at 10:46 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
My three homelands: ‘Israeli literature is like a colorful peep show for tired Europe,’ says Lizzie Doron, chosen by French Vogue as one of Israel’s 7 most influential authors. [Haaretz]
America anti-intellectual? Now, let’s think this out: The issue, in short, is complicated. And the greatest flaw of The Age of American Unreason, a spirited, provocative polemic by a veteran freelance journalist and author who writes books on weighty subjects usually handled by professors (e.g., justice, the history of secularism), is that it feeds the notion of American anti-intellectualism as a no-brainer truth. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Just the Facts, Ma’Am: Fake memoirs, factual fictions, and the history of history. [New Yorker]
March 18th, 2008 at 11:48 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
British novelist with Alzheimer’s donates $1 million: British novelist Terry Pratchett said Thursday he will donate $1 million to fund research into Alzheimer’s disease, the incurable illness he was diagnosed with last year. [SFGate]
In Hong Kong, exploring the many Asian faces of Islam: Why is it acceptable for a Muslim writer to clone the Prophet Muhammad, but not acceptable for Danish newspapers to produce cartoons of the Prophet? Why is diversity so much more interesting than demonization of Islam? And why is history so important? Some answers emerged at the eighth Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival this month, as part of efforts to inject intellectual content at its annual collection of disparate teas and talks. [IHT]
Former ‘chick lit’ author wins PEN/Faulkner award: An author initially marked as a purveyor of chick lit has won one of the US’s most prestigious literary prizes. Kate Christensen took the 2008 PEN/Faulkner award for her novel The Great Man. She is only the fifth woman to win in the prize’s 28-year history. [Guardian]
Shy school librarian finds success as author: Laura Schlitz lives out her own real-life fable – her children’s book is ‘discovered,’ wins a prestigious award, and fame comes knocking. [CSM]
March 16th, 2008 at 9:55 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
The mother of so much: Sylvia Plath was the first poet to write great poetry about childbirth. Her suicide at the age of 30 made her a legend, but she left a legacy far richer than the story of her tragic death. [Guardian]
Georges Simenon, the existential hack: Paul Theroux on Maigret’s creator, the Balzac of blighted lives, who was confident of winning the Nobel Prize. [TLS]
March 13th, 2008 at 8:53 am
This article is filed under Blog, Books.
