It's year end (fiscally) at Words Worth, so there's newness in the air and such.
It's a bit of a drag though, because Heather Siemens, bookseller extraordinaire and all around class act has moved onto other pastures.
Heather's been around the store for about seven years, and though she was mostly part-time she came to be a hell of an asset: a consumate bookseller who sniffed out lots of cool stuff that we would have missed otherwise. It goes without saying that she was a pleasure to work with.
Alas, she's found full time work and is more able to indulge in the subtle and rarified passions common to booksellers, past and present.
Stay in touch, Heather.
Posted by Dave
Thursday, January 31, 2008
They do prizes up right in Europe
Doris Lessing is fitted for the big prize.
"Actors Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman read excerpts from Lessing's new novel to the audience. Due out in May, Alfred and Emily speculates about how her parents' lives might have gone if there had been no first world war. "
That's pretty damn cool.
Posted by Dave
"Actors Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman read excerpts from Lessing's new novel to the audience. Due out in May, Alfred and Emily speculates about how her parents' lives might have gone if there had been no first world war. "
That's pretty damn cool.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
no problem from here
I've been reveling in Lydia Millet for the past few days. How the Dead Dream is a short book that deserves to be savoured and some passages demand to be reread. It's why smaller is usually better, and a sharp reader reminded me earlier this year that 2007 felt like the year of big books that didn't live up to expectations.
I think she's on to something.
It's in that spirit that maybe it's time for a change.
That's not to say that some big novels can't work pretty damn well; only to suggest that a well edited small work can find an audience at a price point befitting a smaller work, and have more than enough bang for the buck.
Slogging through an interminable Douglas Coupland gabfest against a collection of George Saunders short stories or essays is an easy choice to make. I loved Johnathan Franzen's Corrections years ago, but I love him more for championing the damn near perfect short novels of Paula Fox.
Posted by Dave
I think she's on to something.
It's in that spirit that maybe it's time for a change.
That's not to say that some big novels can't work pretty damn well; only to suggest that a well edited small work can find an audience at a price point befitting a smaller work, and have more than enough bang for the buck.
Slogging through an interminable Douglas Coupland gabfest against a collection of George Saunders short stories or essays is an easy choice to make. I loved Johnathan Franzen's Corrections years ago, but I love him more for championing the damn near perfect short novels of Paula Fox.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Building unrealistic expectations for one hundred years
The venerable British publisher Mills & Boon celebrates 100 years of...of..
What the hell Mills & Boon is 100 years old.
"A Mills & Boon paperback is sold in a UK bookshop on average every 6.6 seconds. Compare this to our domestic market for literary fiction, where some critically acclaimed novels sell so few copies that the author might well have been better to bypass the publishers and knock them off on a photocopier. As it reaches its centenary, Mills & Boon is a truly astonishing phenomenon."
I still remember catering to readers who read the similarly colour coded Harlequin romances, and were meticulous in their tracking the various series by the numbers, many of the series titles running into the thousands.
They carried folded sheets of paper with bookkeeping strategems worthy of a Fortune 500 company.
Thankfully this was years ago.
"It has been calculated that dedicated modern Mills & Boon readers will have seen their characters sharing some 30,000 embraces and tripping merrily to the altar at least 7,000 times, more than enough happily-ever-afters to cheer the most jaded of readers. Jilly Cooper puts it best: 'After all, life's bloody tough. Mills & Boon is much better than binge drinking.'
But it works best in that order.
Posted by Dave
What the hell Mills & Boon is 100 years old.
"A Mills & Boon paperback is sold in a UK bookshop on average every 6.6 seconds. Compare this to our domestic market for literary fiction, where some critically acclaimed novels sell so few copies that the author might well have been better to bypass the publishers and knock them off on a photocopier. As it reaches its centenary, Mills & Boon is a truly astonishing phenomenon."
I still remember catering to readers who read the similarly colour coded Harlequin romances, and were meticulous in their tracking the various series by the numbers, many of the series titles running into the thousands.
They carried folded sheets of paper with bookkeeping strategems worthy of a Fortune 500 company.
Thankfully this was years ago.
"It has been calculated that dedicated modern Mills & Boon readers will have seen their characters sharing some 30,000 embraces and tripping merrily to the altar at least 7,000 times, more than enough happily-ever-afters to cheer the most jaded of readers. Jilly Cooper puts it best: 'After all, life's bloody tough. Mills & Boon is much better than binge drinking.'
But it works best in that order.
Posted by Dave
A whiff of defense in the name, but OK
This is just a good idea.
"It was photography, specifically shots of Toronto in the 1850s, that inspired author Michael Redhill to write his prize-winning novel, Consolation.
The Toronto Public Library has picked Consolation for its inaugural Keep Toronto Reading One Book campaign, in which all Torontonians are being asked to read Redhill's novel during February.
But there's another twist. As an official sponsor of the project, the Toronto Star is also asking readers to take Consolation as their own inspiration for personal images that capture the city."
By all means keep Toronto reading. It's how they deserve their hipper than everyone else status.
Posted by Dave
"It was photography, specifically shots of Toronto in the 1850s, that inspired author Michael Redhill to write his prize-winning novel, Consolation.
The Toronto Public Library has picked Consolation for its inaugural Keep Toronto Reading One Book campaign, in which all Torontonians are being asked to read Redhill's novel during February.
But there's another twist. As an official sponsor of the project, the Toronto Star is also asking readers to take Consolation as their own inspiration for personal images that capture the city."
By all means keep Toronto reading. It's how they deserve their hipper than everyone else status.
Posted by Dave
That's better
Never mind the previous post, The Globe and Mail weighs in on the plus side regarding Lydia Millet. Not just anyone mind you, but Catherine Bush is a hell of a novelist in her own right.
It's a plus when something this good comes about this early in the year. Booksellers get caught up in that sort of thing.
I'll likely have a proper review of How the Dead Dream up in a couple days.
Staying with the Globe, Michelle Berry has nice things to say about another new arrival. It's too bad this didn't arrive in November, as Gods Behaving Badly would have been a great gift for anyone on a Christmas list.
Posted by Dave
It's a plus when something this good comes about this early in the year. Booksellers get caught up in that sort of thing.
I'll likely have a proper review of How the Dead Dream up in a couple days.
Staying with the Globe, Michelle Berry has nice things to say about another new arrival. It's too bad this didn't arrive in November, as Gods Behaving Badly would have been a great gift for anyone on a Christmas list.
Posted by Dave
Friday, January 25, 2008
Baby, I don't care
Before the internets, a more than casual reader relied on word of mouth, the haughty, long winded recommendations of bookstore clerks, or something like intuition or guile to add to ones to-read pile.
Googling a current pickup can solve all that, but not always fully.
I know Lydia Millet is a sure thing because of this, but reviews on her new novel, including one from someone I trust are good, but not great.
Still, after about an hour with How the Dead Dream, I'm as smitten as I am with all of her stuff.
As a social satirist, she's as good as anyone, but her new book differs in terms of scope; it's much more restrained than Oh Pure & Radiant Heart. Each paragraph benefits from sharp observation and I suspect, an engaged editor.
So far as I said, the reviews for the new book don't match the unrestrained raves that greeted the last book, but I'm still in awe.
Posted by Dave
Googling a current pickup can solve all that, but not always fully.
I know Lydia Millet is a sure thing because of this, but reviews on her new novel, including one from someone I trust are good, but not great.
Still, after about an hour with How the Dead Dream, I'm as smitten as I am with all of her stuff.
As a social satirist, she's as good as anyone, but her new book differs in terms of scope; it's much more restrained than Oh Pure & Radiant Heart. Each paragraph benefits from sharp observation and I suspect, an engaged editor.
So far as I said, the reviews for the new book don't match the unrestrained raves that greeted the last book, but I'm still in awe.
Posted by Dave
The whole affair kinda smells
What does one do when their pursuit of literary greatness is impeded by fumes from a nearby factory?
No problem, you switch to writing crime novels.
"Joan Brady, who beat Andrew Motion and Carol Anne Duffy to win the Whitbread Prize in 1993 with her book The Theory of War, has received £115,000 in an out-of-court settlement after she suffered numbness in her hands and legs allegedly caused by solvents used by Conker, a cobbler based next to her home in Totnes, Devon.
She told The Times that the fumes were so bad that she was unable to concentrate on writing her highbrow novel, Cool Wind from the Future, and instead wrote a brutal crime story, Bleedout, which she found easier. The violent plot of the book also allowed her to vent her frustrations on the factory and South Hams District Council, which failed initially to detect the smells. According to Nielsen Book-scan, Bleedout has sold a respectable 10,000 copies."
There are literary efforts that don't sell a tenth of Brady''s crime novel. I'm not suggesting that Brady's affliction has no merit, but surely the sales of the crime novel and the settlement can be parlayed into a down payment on a house in more suitable surroundings?
Posted by Dave
No problem, you switch to writing crime novels.
"Joan Brady, who beat Andrew Motion and Carol Anne Duffy to win the Whitbread Prize in 1993 with her book The Theory of War, has received £115,000 in an out-of-court settlement after she suffered numbness in her hands and legs allegedly caused by solvents used by Conker, a cobbler based next to her home in Totnes, Devon.
She told The Times that the fumes were so bad that she was unable to concentrate on writing her highbrow novel, Cool Wind from the Future, and instead wrote a brutal crime story, Bleedout, which she found easier. The violent plot of the book also allowed her to vent her frustrations on the factory and South Hams District Council, which failed initially to detect the smells. According to Nielsen Book-scan, Bleedout has sold a respectable 10,000 copies."
There are literary efforts that don't sell a tenth of Brady''s crime novel. I'm not suggesting that Brady's affliction has no merit, but surely the sales of the crime novel and the settlement can be parlayed into a down payment on a house in more suitable surroundings?
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Because if you're just reading, you're not buying stuff
If a few critters or plants in a shrinking ecosystem die off that's a concern, but it doesn't mean the whole place is doomed.
However, if the big animals go south, that's trouble.
"It’s believed that Wal-Mart generates about 20% of all retail magazine sales in the U.S. — so dropping a thousand titles is a major problem for the publishing industry. The big question is this: will Wal-Mart dedicate more display space for fast-moving magazines in an effort to turn more inventory, or will magazine sections in Wal-Mart stores be downsized to make room for more lucrative, higher-margin products? The answer will be coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you."
Well not near me. It's one of the things I like about where I live.
Posted by Dave
However, if the big animals go south, that's trouble.
"It’s believed that Wal-Mart generates about 20% of all retail magazine sales in the U.S. — so dropping a thousand titles is a major problem for the publishing industry. The big question is this: will Wal-Mart dedicate more display space for fast-moving magazines in an effort to turn more inventory, or will magazine sections in Wal-Mart stores be downsized to make room for more lucrative, higher-margin products? The answer will be coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you."
Well not near me. It's one of the things I like about where I live.
Posted by Dave
This is a shame
I'll show you my quid if you show me your quo
The behind the scenes at Amazon's customer reviews are chronicled at Slate.
"I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but I had imagined Amazon's customer reviews as a refuge from the machinations of the publishing industry: "an intelligent and articulate conversation ... conducted by a group of disinterested, disembodied spirits," as James Marcus, a former editor at the company, wrote in his memoir, Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut. Indeed, with customers unseating salaried employees like Marcus as the company's leading content producers, Amazon had been hailed as a harbinger of "Web 2.0"—an ideal realm where user-generated consensus trumps the bankrupt pieties of experts. As I explored the murky understory of Amazon's reviewer rankings, however, I came to see the real Web 2.0 as a tangle of hidden agendas—one in which the disinterested amateur may be an endangered species."
The author alleges "that Grady Harp's 92,000 "helpful votes" are the product of collusion—that Amazon reviewers often strike e-mail bargains to "yes" one another's reviews."
For what it's worth, independent bookstores are, well independent. As in not beholden to publishers or anyone.
Posted by Dave
"I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but I had imagined Amazon's customer reviews as a refuge from the machinations of the publishing industry: "an intelligent and articulate conversation ... conducted by a group of disinterested, disembodied spirits," as James Marcus, a former editor at the company, wrote in his memoir, Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut. Indeed, with customers unseating salaried employees like Marcus as the company's leading content producers, Amazon had been hailed as a harbinger of "Web 2.0"—an ideal realm where user-generated consensus trumps the bankrupt pieties of experts. As I explored the murky understory of Amazon's reviewer rankings, however, I came to see the real Web 2.0 as a tangle of hidden agendas—one in which the disinterested amateur may be an endangered species."
The author alleges "that Grady Harp's 92,000 "helpful votes" are the product of collusion—that Amazon reviewers often strike e-mail bargains to "yes" one another's reviews."
For what it's worth, independent bookstores are, well independent. As in not beholden to publishers or anyone.
Posted by Dave
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Seems like an okay guy to me
Today's scary story comes from the Onion.
"Sitting in a quiet downtown diner, local hospital administrator Philip Meyer looks as normal and well-adjusted as can be. Yet, there's more to this 27-year-old than first meets the eye: Meyer has recently finished reading a book.
Yes, the whole thing."
It should be noted that he has a girlfriend, friends and a job.
Must be a fluke.
Posted by Dave
"Sitting in a quiet downtown diner, local hospital administrator Philip Meyer looks as normal and well-adjusted as can be. Yet, there's more to this 27-year-old than first meets the eye: Meyer has recently finished reading a book.
Yes, the whole thing."
It should be noted that he has a girlfriend, friends and a job.
Must be a fluke.
Posted by Dave
Just because I've always wanted to work Frank Zappa in here somewhere*
I've no numbers to back this up, but I often wonder if Japan is the future of how books are produced and consumed. Annual sales are dropping over the last ten years, and the new authors are doing things a little differently.
"Whatever their literary talents, cellphone novelists are racking up the kind of sales that most more experienced, traditional novelists can only dream of.
One such star, a 21-year-old woman named Rin, wrote “If You” over a six-month stretch during her senior year in high school. While commuting to her part-time job or whenever she found a free moment, she tapped out passages on her cellphone and uploaded them on a popular Web site for would-be authors."
These books seem to mimic text messaging, insofar as sentences are short, plots are fairly predictable and use "expressions and emoticons, like smilies and musical notes, whose nuances were lost on anyone over the age of 25."
I promised to try sunny side up this year, so I'll take down my dark cloud backdrop, and see this as a sort of training ground for the traditional novel as the NYT suggests.
Still though, I think Frank might be right.*
Posted by Dave
"Whatever their literary talents, cellphone novelists are racking up the kind of sales that most more experienced, traditional novelists can only dream of.
One such star, a 21-year-old woman named Rin, wrote “If You” over a six-month stretch during her senior year in high school. While commuting to her part-time job or whenever she found a free moment, she tapped out passages on her cellphone and uploaded them on a popular Web site for would-be authors."
These books seem to mimic text messaging, insofar as sentences are short, plots are fairly predictable and use "expressions and emoticons, like smilies and musical notes, whose nuances were lost on anyone over the age of 25."
I promised to try sunny side up this year, so I'll take down my dark cloud backdrop, and see this as a sort of training ground for the traditional novel as the NYT suggests.
Still though, I think Frank might be right.*
Posted by Dave
But you'd look cool with them rolled up your shirt sleeve
In a clever bit of marketing, a British outfit has released a selection of classics that resemble cigarette packs.
They look spiffy and given their size, their certainly portable.
There's only one problem.
"Baker & McKenzie, the London law firm representing BAT (British American Tobacco), claims the "rectangular device, white background ... circular device and a stripe across the top of the box" are the "dominant and distinctive elements" that belong to Lucky Strike. Furthermore, such packaging "is likely to deceive members of the public to believe that BAT has either endorsed, sponsored or is in some way connected" with the books, a confusion "which can dilute the goodwill in the Lucky Strike brand.""
So there you have it.
Cigarettes are made worse when books get involved.
Posted by Dave
They look spiffy and given their size, their certainly portable.
There's only one problem.
"Baker & McKenzie, the London law firm representing BAT (British American Tobacco), claims the "rectangular device, white background ... circular device and a stripe across the top of the box" are the "dominant and distinctive elements" that belong to Lucky Strike. Furthermore, such packaging "is likely to deceive members of the public to believe that BAT has either endorsed, sponsored or is in some way connected" with the books, a confusion "which can dilute the goodwill in the Lucky Strike brand.""
So there you have it.
Cigarettes are made worse when books get involved.
Posted by Dave
Saturday, January 19, 2008
our colours are showing
Off to see (and preside over a table of books) Elizabeth May this evening at the Bricker Academic Room this evening.
That's around 7:30.
Sometimes we go out to see those who've authored a book, and other times they come to us.
It looks like we're getting quite a bit offered to us this spring in terms of more high profile authors, including some of the major American variety.
Not to tease, but think in terms of a huge movie a few years back featuring a wholly photogenic male lead. Oh, and you know...based on a novel.
We'll announce this if and when it comes together.
Posted by Dave
That's around 7:30.
Sometimes we go out to see those who've authored a book, and other times they come to us.
It looks like we're getting quite a bit offered to us this spring in terms of more high profile authors, including some of the major American variety.
Not to tease, but think in terms of a huge movie a few years back featuring a wholly photogenic male lead. Oh, and you know...based on a novel.
We'll announce this if and when it comes together.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Or I could just be getting old
This isn't bookish, but I'm not sure what Facebook is for, if this goes by the boards.
"Lawyers for toy makers Hasbro and Mattel say Scrabulous infringes their copyright on the board-based word game.
The move has sparked protests by regular fans of Scrabulous keen to keep the add-on running."
Truth be told, I've only got a few reasons to get up in the morning to begin with.
Yep, it's a rich, full life.
Posted by Dave
"Lawyers for toy makers Hasbro and Mattel say Scrabulous infringes their copyright on the board-based word game.
The move has sparked protests by regular fans of Scrabulous keen to keep the add-on running."
Truth be told, I've only got a few reasons to get up in the morning to begin with.
Yep, it's a rich, full life.
Posted by Dave
Plastic, but not fantastic
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
My favourite burg
"Oh I don't read mysteries"
I won't say I could get rich if I got a dollar every time I heard it, but I could buy lunch perhaps once a month. But now a wrinkle presents itself as much loved writer and almost-local hero Jane Urquhart has apparently dipped a toe into the genre pond.
Sarah has made the call in Macleans magazine and its an intriguing prospect. Any thumbs up from her is a fine thing, but my favourite graf (right on the money) reads:
"What is odd is that Wolfe (Urquhart's agent) would choose to keep her identity so tightly concealed, almost as if there's a stigma attached to writing genre fiction. Perhaps long-time Urquhart readers of a snobbish nature would blanch at reading a crime novel under her name, but mystery readers, being of greater number and of voracious habit, have no qualms about the reverse as long as the work is good — and might then be inclined to pick up one of Urquhart's literary efforts."
She notes that it's not exactly novel anymore for literary novelists to turn to crime fiction.
And it's not like George Pelecanos, Louise Welsh, Michael Connelly etc. give away a damn thing next to their literary cousins.
Writers that good are not to blame for every crappy crime novel, just as the Booker Prize doesn't guarantee literary merit.
Posted by Dave
Sarah has made the call in Macleans magazine and its an intriguing prospect. Any thumbs up from her is a fine thing, but my favourite graf (right on the money) reads:
"What is odd is that Wolfe (Urquhart's agent) would choose to keep her identity so tightly concealed, almost as if there's a stigma attached to writing genre fiction. Perhaps long-time Urquhart readers of a snobbish nature would blanch at reading a crime novel under her name, but mystery readers, being of greater number and of voracious habit, have no qualms about the reverse as long as the work is good — and might then be inclined to pick up one of Urquhart's literary efforts."
She notes that it's not exactly novel anymore for literary novelists to turn to crime fiction.
And it's not like George Pelecanos, Louise Welsh, Michael Connelly etc. give away a damn thing next to their literary cousins.
Writers that good are not to blame for every crappy crime novel, just as the Booker Prize doesn't guarantee literary merit.
Posted by Dave
This is NOT kids' book!!!
Funny how a little post-it with the above heading gets so much attention.
"Oooooooo, I wonder why!!" Sold two, just like that.
The book I'm referring to is Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls by
twenty-something (I'm assuming) Danielle Wood. The cover is a little
misleading, if not ambiguous, and, if it said ..Grrls instead of ..Girls, it might not
have been in the Young Adult section! (Check the adults-only first chapter).
These 'not-for-good-girls' stories are linked by themes of love lost, betrayal,
scary realities & the power to dream. Saucy Australian newbie (to us) Danielle
Wood, in the voice of Rosie Little, narrates slightly-'Grimm' cautionary tales with
a silver lining, if you look.....
Cheryl de Slegte
"Oooooooo, I wonder why!!" Sold two, just like that.
The book I'm referring to is Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls by
twenty-something (I'm assuming) Danielle Wood. The cover is a little
misleading, if not ambiguous, and, if it said ..Grrls instead of ..Girls, it might not
have been in the Young Adult section! (Check the adults-only first chapter).
These 'not-for-good-girls' stories are linked by themes of love lost, betrayal,
scary realities & the power to dream. Saucy Australian newbie (to us) Danielle
Wood, in the voice of Rosie Little, narrates slightly-'Grimm' cautionary tales with
a silver lining, if you look.....
Cheryl de Slegte
Monday, January 14, 2008
Irrational exuberance? Nope, just saying thanks
Bookninja links to a rarity.
An independent bookseller who seems bullish on their survival.
"When we moved our shop, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, over the Memorial Day weekend in 2005, we sent out a press release saying how here was a story about a small, independent bookshop that was doing so well that it could move to a larger space after 15 years, and no one in the local press paid any attention. Two and a half years later, business is terrific; 2007 was our best year yet, a 6.5 percent increase in sales over 2006."
I'll be the first to admit that the glass is half empty more often than full, but there might be something to this optimism.
Indie bookstores continue to close, but they continue to open as well. (I still haven't seen some shops that I'd like to, but soon enough, perhaps.
This December was challenging all the way around, but most indies according the industry rag Quill and Quire discounted to compensate for the dollar and came out pretty well.
It's behind a subscription wall, but basically most had to discount and did so to stay still; minus a percentage point or two on either side of break even.
Our place discounted all U.S titles by fifteen per cent through November and we still had a strong December when prices returned to normal, so much props to K-W.
My sense is that the dollar dilemma was a platform for a few people to throw a dart at an easy bulls eye, but most readers had a basic understanding of economics.
So in that spirit, hears to a new leaf around here. No more posts about how precarious independent bookselling is for the rest of 2008.*
There's some favourites coming shortly, and despite the same number of mines in the harbour, it just might be a good year.
Posted by Dave
*There's no way I'm sticking to this, it's just something you say.
An independent bookseller who seems bullish on their survival.
"When we moved our shop, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, over the Memorial Day weekend in 2005, we sent out a press release saying how here was a story about a small, independent bookshop that was doing so well that it could move to a larger space after 15 years, and no one in the local press paid any attention. Two and a half years later, business is terrific; 2007 was our best year yet, a 6.5 percent increase in sales over 2006."
I'll be the first to admit that the glass is half empty more often than full, but there might be something to this optimism.
Indie bookstores continue to close, but they continue to open as well. (I still haven't seen some shops that I'd like to, but soon enough, perhaps.
This December was challenging all the way around, but most indies according the industry rag Quill and Quire discounted to compensate for the dollar and came out pretty well.
It's behind a subscription wall, but basically most had to discount and did so to stay still; minus a percentage point or two on either side of break even.
Our place discounted all U.S titles by fifteen per cent through November and we still had a strong December when prices returned to normal, so much props to K-W.
My sense is that the dollar dilemma was a platform for a few people to throw a dart at an easy bulls eye, but most readers had a basic understanding of economics.
So in that spirit, hears to a new leaf around here. No more posts about how precarious independent bookselling is for the rest of 2008.*
There's some favourites coming shortly, and despite the same number of mines in the harbour, it just might be a good year.
Posted by Dave
*There's no way I'm sticking to this, it's just something you say.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Adding it to the pile
David Lodge is such a uniformly gifted novelist, that it's easy to forget what a fine critic he is.
His introduction to Patrick Hamilton's beauty of a novel is worth the price alone.
In the Guardian, he holds forth on another neglected countryman.
Posted by Dave
His introduction to Patrick Hamilton's beauty of a novel is worth the price alone.
In the Guardian, he holds forth on another neglected countryman.
Posted by Dave
It's all tied up
Anne Rice vamps for Hilary Clinton, while Bookslut notes that Michael Chabon is for Obama.
That's another reason to go for Obama, folks.
It;s dated, but here's how things shook out in the '04 novelists vote.
From Lorrie Moore:
"Are there really any novelists voting for Bush? I am tempted, since my vote is almost always bad luck, its recipients almost always losing."
Yeah, well......
Posted by Dave
That's another reason to go for Obama, folks.
It;s dated, but here's how things shook out in the '04 novelists vote.
From Lorrie Moore:
"Are there really any novelists voting for Bush? I am tempted, since my vote is almost always bad luck, its recipients almost always losing."
Yeah, well......
Posted by Dave
Thursday, January 10, 2008
It just makes me feel better
I missed this one, but over 500 pages of Truman Capote essays?
I'm incognito for the weekend.
Truman Capote was really the first modern celebrity, and on balance it did his career more harm than good. However, when he was good, there were few Americans who chronicled their times with more style and wit than he did.
He was way ahead of his time, and I'm not sure where he'd fit in today. Probably running this in between perfectly formed paragraphs.
It's going to be a good year.
Posted by Dave
Only the suit was white
Others have weighed in on the generousity surrounding Tom Wolfe's new Back to Blood, due sometime in 2009, but I'm intrigued by the plot already.
From New York magazine-
"In their press release announcing their acquisition of Tom Wolfe's new novel last week, Little, Brown wrote a little bit about what ground the novel would cover. Set in Miami and addressing "class, family, wealth, race, crime, sex, corruption, and ambition," according to the press release, the novel features a broad cast of characters of all colors. The revelation the next day of the book’s title, Back to Blood, confirmed that Wolfe would be enthusiastically investigating the racial politics of South Florida.
So who are these characters, and where is this story going? Vulture got our hands on the 28-page précis Wolfe submitted to editors in December.
“Our story begins,” Wolfe’s proposal opens, “inside the mind of a young Cuban policeman.” This policeman is Angel, a second-generation Cuban who’s no longer that invested in his heritage."
Just saying, but my guy Michael Gruber covered this for a hell of a lot less money, and can outhit Tom Wolfe forever.
Posted by Dave
From New York magazine-
"In their press release announcing their acquisition of Tom Wolfe's new novel last week, Little, Brown wrote a little bit about what ground the novel would cover. Set in Miami and addressing "class, family, wealth, race, crime, sex, corruption, and ambition," according to the press release, the novel features a broad cast of characters of all colors. The revelation the next day of the book’s title, Back to Blood, confirmed that Wolfe would be enthusiastically investigating the racial politics of South Florida.
So who are these characters, and where is this story going? Vulture got our hands on the 28-page précis Wolfe submitted to editors in December.
“Our story begins,” Wolfe’s proposal opens, “inside the mind of a young Cuban policeman.” This policeman is Angel, a second-generation Cuban who’s no longer that invested in his heritage."
Just saying, but my guy Michael Gruber covered this for a hell of a lot less money, and can outhit Tom Wolfe forever.
Posted by Dave
She covers a lot of other deep stuff, too
For those who read Lawrence Hill's much-praised novel, The Book of Negroes, good on you.
I confess I never got there but of of the neighbourhoods brighter lights has read it pretty deeply.
Waterloo loves to bruise it's back patting itself around Intelligent Community this and that, but it's not for nothing either. Nice one, Chanda.
Posted by Dave
I confess I never got there but of of the neighbourhoods brighter lights has read it pretty deeply.
Waterloo loves to bruise it's back patting itself around Intelligent Community this and that, but it's not for nothing either. Nice one, Chanda.
Posted by Dave
Shrugs, sighs, gnashing of teeth
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Harry Potter and the Newly Orphaned
Raincoast books, distributors of Harry Potter and publisher of some Canadian well...other stuff, are no longer in the business of publishing quality homegrown books, but not to worry there will always be room for Harry.
"The Canadian co-publisher and distributor of the phenomenally popular Harry Potter series of novels is scrapping its domestic publishing program and blaming the appreciation of the Canadian dollar for that decision.
Vancouver-based Raincoast Books announced Monday that it will cease publishing Canadian-written titles by the middle of this year in addition to shedding as many as a dozen client publishers whose books it was distributing across Canada, closing the Toronto warehouse it opened in 2001 and laying off 10 to 15 per cent of its total staff – 20 employees, in fact, including its five-member domestic publishing division."
Yeah right, whose going to believe that an impenetrable fortress like the Canadian publishing industry is going to sweat a meteoric rise in the country's currency?
Still, if anyone could spare a dime for what was a damn fine Canadian imprint, it's Raincoast.
The money made on Harry was such that the value of the single malt squeezed out of the place mats at the last few Raincoast staff Christmas parties could have kept the domestic publishing program going.
As to the links above, Anne Fleming wrote one of my favourite novels in Anomaly a couple years ago and Alison Pick is a favourite of much of the staff.
Here's hoping that the writers get new homes in Canada somewhere.
Posted by Dave
"The Canadian co-publisher and distributor of the phenomenally popular Harry Potter series of novels is scrapping its domestic publishing program and blaming the appreciation of the Canadian dollar for that decision.
Vancouver-based Raincoast Books announced Monday that it will cease publishing Canadian-written titles by the middle of this year in addition to shedding as many as a dozen client publishers whose books it was distributing across Canada, closing the Toronto warehouse it opened in 2001 and laying off 10 to 15 per cent of its total staff – 20 employees, in fact, including its five-member domestic publishing division."
Yeah right, whose going to believe that an impenetrable fortress like the Canadian publishing industry is going to sweat a meteoric rise in the country's currency?
Still, if anyone could spare a dime for what was a damn fine Canadian imprint, it's Raincoast.
The money made on Harry was such that the value of the single malt squeezed out of the place mats at the last few Raincoast staff Christmas parties could have kept the domestic publishing program going.
As to the links above, Anne Fleming wrote one of my favourite novels in Anomaly a couple years ago and Alison Pick is a favourite of much of the staff.
Here's hoping that the writers get new homes in Canada somewhere.
Posted by Dave
Thursday, January 03, 2008
I'm glad I'm not on his list
When Chris Lehmann lands a punch, he's deadly.
Joel Osteen is more of a phenomenon if you buy your books in a Wal-Mart, but still...
Long before James Frey embarrassed himself, Lehmann was one of the first to call bullshit on him.
Love that man.
Posted by Dave
Joel Osteen is more of a phenomenon if you buy your books in a Wal-Mart, but still...
Long before James Frey embarrassed himself, Lehmann was one of the first to call bullshit on him.
Love that man.
Posted by Dave
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
I was having a pretty good day anyway
but I do like to see these kinds of things.
"Either way, the book and the fly collided spectacularly (and isn't there something immensely satisfying about that little wooden "pock!" sound that flies make when you connect properly?). Now try doing that with an e-book. Or reading it in the bath. Or taking it to the beach. Or lending it to a friend. Or leaving it on a shelf so your friends can admire your so-called erudition."
Don't dismiss that last bit. A quick scan of the books laying around your potential mate's place can reveal rather a lot. A sterile plastic thingy, not so much.
Posted by Dave
"Either way, the book and the fly collided spectacularly (and isn't there something immensely satisfying about that little wooden "pock!" sound that flies make when you connect properly?). Now try doing that with an e-book. Or reading it in the bath. Or taking it to the beach. Or lending it to a friend. Or leaving it on a shelf so your friends can admire your so-called erudition."
Don't dismiss that last bit. A quick scan of the books laying around your potential mate's place can reveal rather a lot. A sterile plastic thingy, not so much.
Posted by Dave
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
In Defense of Food
I whipped through Michael Pollan's new book, reviewed here, and it's a solid, wry and illuminating piece of work. Regular readers of the New York Times will remember his blog several months back, and out of that came his look at agribusiness and the food industry; and the high stakes game around how we consume food, or as he's put it "food" as much of what we consume is made rather than grown.
From the simple maxim "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants," Pollan lays out how we came to be both fatter and sicker, who the culprits are, and what weapons have recently come to our disposal to make it easier to get back to essentially, eating closer to how our grandparents ate.
Slate is a bit less forgiving, but still comes down on side.
I don't have the necessary chops to argue the finer points, but I thought the book was a worthy addition to the sort of investigative journalism done by Eric Schlosser and Marion Nestle.
Posted by Dave
From the simple maxim "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants," Pollan lays out how we came to be both fatter and sicker, who the culprits are, and what weapons have recently come to our disposal to make it easier to get back to essentially, eating closer to how our grandparents ate.
Slate is a bit less forgiving, but still comes down on side.
I don't have the necessary chops to argue the finer points, but I thought the book was a worthy addition to the sort of investigative journalism done by Eric Schlosser and Marion Nestle.
Posted by Dave
Whose woods these are I think I know...
This is the way to ring in the new year.
"Vermont police are investigating what they suspect was an illicit drinking party at the former summer home of poet Robert Frost.
Intruders broke into Homer Noble Farm, where Frost spent his summers from 1939 until his death in 1963, either late Friday or early Saturday morning and ransacked the historic site, leaving empty beer bottles, cans and plastic cups strewn about, police said Monday."
As part of their sentencing, the little bastards should be made to memorize the Collected Works.
Sigh.
Posted by Dave
"Vermont police are investigating what they suspect was an illicit drinking party at the former summer home of poet Robert Frost.
Intruders broke into Homer Noble Farm, where Frost spent his summers from 1939 until his death in 1963, either late Friday or early Saturday morning and ransacked the historic site, leaving empty beer bottles, cans and plastic cups strewn about, police said Monday."
As part of their sentencing, the little bastards should be made to memorize the Collected Works.
Sigh.
Posted by Dave
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