Just saying

Watching Bravo's Arts and Minds and Colin McAdam is a funny guy.

Prognostications a la Giller

The Globe literary types place their bets on who gets the nod on Tuesday and pretty much come up with Anne Michaels as the winner.

It says here that Annabel Lyon will win, but it should be Kim Echlin.

I'm seldom right at these things, and really what's the difference.

Everyone knows the really good stuff is written by dudes, apparently.

For the record, nobody should argue with Dan Chaon being on any best of list this year, but hey Kate Christensen wrote a book this year.

Bad dog, PW.

reading from right to left

He may be a jackass, but in tough times he moves numbers. Shudder.

'“He’s our Oprah,” said Brad Thor, a writer of political thrillers who has appeared on Mr. Beck’s radio and television programs several times. “God love him, we’re very fortunate.”

At a time when the book industry is struggling to maintain, much less increase, sales, publishers and authors say an appearance on Mr. Beck’s television or radio programs helps attract new readers. After James Rollins, the author of “The Doomsday Key,” a thriller about a group of Defense Department scientists trying to solve an ancient mystery, appeared this past summer on Mr. Beck’s radio program and then his television show — on which Mr. Beck promised viewers “it will keep you on the edge of your seat — Mr. Rollins met several people at a book signing who told him they had bought the book based on that recommendation, he said.'

Good for Beck. Anything to keep the little weirdo from crying

You Won't Want to Miss *Buzz Hargrove* in Waterloo!

Saturday November 21st, 3:00 pm, In Store, Absolutely FREE!

As head of the CAW from 1992 until his retirement in 2008, Buzz Hargrove was a force to be reckoned with. And love him or hate him – agree ardently, or disagree passionately – no one knows the behind-the-scenes dealings of the Big Three, unions, manufacturing and the political machine better than Hargrove. In his book Laying it on the Line: Driving a Hard Bargain in Challenging Times, Hargrove delivers a blistering verdict on the roots of the current economic crisis and the state of Canadian government, the economy, manufacturing, and unions.

From his start in the maintenance department of Chrysler, Hargrove was eventually elected head of the CAW, a position he held for 16 years, until his earlier-than-expected 2008 retirement. And then, in late 2008, the world’s economies crumbled with alacrity, and at the forefront of the collapse were the Big Three: Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors.

In Laying it on the Line, Hargrove details the decades of terrible decision making – from the federal government to corporate CEOs – that set the stage for this crisis, including personal betrayals and behind-the-door dealings. Laying it on the Line explains the crisis form Hargrove’s perspective, outlining the failings and offering a prescriptive to correct course and help position manufacturing as Canada’s foremost economic driver for the future.


Come and meet Buzz Hargrove, hear him read from his new book Laying It On The Line, and listen to or participate in the question and answer period. This event will spark much talk and debate! Don't miss it!

See you there!

If he's scared of the future....

John Grisham is worried for the future of books.

"Paying full price for the books is essential to keep publishers, booksellers and writers in business

Grisham said.

“That enables me to make a royalty, the publisher to make a profit and the bookstore to make a profit,” he said. “If a new book is worth $9, we have seriously devalued that book.”

He acknowledges that this doesn't affect him much, but new writers "are going to have a very hard time getting published."

Prices are going to have to come down insofar as there's a lot of books out there that don't necessarily need to be hard cover. But that's going to mean smaller advances for those who do make it in a traditional sense, ie: through a publisher large enough to spend even a little money on marketing, advertising, author appearances, etc., but with so much print on demand, and so little media review (indeed the humble newspaper is in deep trouble) I'm at a loss as to who is going to find out about all of these books.

For what it's worth, no one in the book supply chain is making huge money on their respective slice of that $24. Chain stores are losing money, publishers are laying people off, and authors...please.

The deeply discounted hard cover is all about creating a psychological price point so that in a few years every piece of junk in whatever form by any schlub who wants to tell their tale can do so in a form convenient to whomever survives the price wars.

Quality, merit, the betterment of humankind, or the slightest whiff of enduring appeal barely enters into it, and Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart and so forth couldn't be less interested in finding the next Barbara Kingsolver (whose book is one of the $9 wonders being discounted at the above retailers.

Quality is hard to quantify. The usual slurry is easier to judge.

First Lady of Memoir or What's That Smell?

I've never read Mary Karr's books and am not commenting on their quality in any way, but when Liar's Club arrived in the mid 90's, it gave license to everyone who ever had an alcoholic parent, grew up poor or stubbed a toe to tell all about their miserable lives.

The train keeps running, and it doesn't help when Karr tells of her take for the new book.

"After "Cherry" came out in 2000, two separate publishers approached Ms. Karr with "a big fat honking advance" of nearly $1 million for a third memoir, she said. She turned them down because she felt she couldn't face her recent history. But two years later, she found herself writing the first chapter of "Lit," a prologue addressed to her son. Ms. Karr and her publisher, HarperCollins, wouldn't reveal what her advance was, but Ms. Karr described it as "a s—load."

Perfect.

Apple for teacher

Jesus, is there nothing Mark Sarvas can't do?

IMPAC award (very) long list

This sort of thing reminds me of some dreaded sporting event where rather than cause esteem issues in a wee 'un, they just give a trophy to everybody.

Nonetheless, here's the Dublin Impac long list.

love it

The Guardian eviscerates Superfreakonomics.

'As you can see, the reason it's taken us four years to come up with a second volume is that we haven't really got any interesting material. But as Chicago-based economist Kevin J Dickhead has proved, most readers don't get beyond page 10 of books like this, so we're not too bothered."

don't get strung out by the way I look

Richard Cohen, author of Israel is Real ponders how to dress for an author reading.

First, I want clothes that are soothing, calming, that give the impression of sanity and the most moderate kind of adulthood; that say: “I am not a firebrand attacking your core beliefs. I am a banker, and not that new kind with the derivatives and flash, but the old kind, who can put you to sleep by talking.”