Friday
May 31
WALSER
CONDEMNED/DEFENDED: Critics are condemning Martin Walser's
new book as anti-semitic. "The book is about a wounded author's
supposed murder of a high-profile Jewish book reviewer, obviously
modeled on the prominent critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki." Walser's
publisher has "rejected the suggestion that it is an obvious
roman à clef," saying that "comparing literature to reality
has nothing to do with literary criticism, only with malice."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
05/30/02
- WALSER
DEFENDS: "I would never, never, never have thought that
this book would now be set in the context of the Holocaust.
Believe me, I would never have written it in that case."
The Guardian (UK)
05/30/02
- Previously: CHARACTER
ASSASSINATION: Prominent German writer Martin Walser proposed
to editors of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the newspaper
serialize his new novel. Instead, one of the paper's editors
writes an extraordinary open letter to Walser declining the
offer, and accusing the writer of vicious anti-semitism. "It
is important to you, you said, that it appear in this particular
newspaper. I must inform you that your novel will not appear
in this newspaper. May the critics decide how good or bad this
book is in terms of lasting value. 'Even a bad Walser is an
event,' a well-known editor once said. Your novel is an execution,
in which you settle the score with - and let us drop the smoke
screen of fictitious names from the start - Marcel Reich-Ranicki.
It is about the murder of a prominent critic." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 05/28/02
JUMPING
ON JONATHAN: Jonathan Foer's debut book has become a literary
sensation. But is the hype all because of his age (25) and the
astounding advance ($400,000) he got? "A backlash was inevitable:
the bookselling website Amazon is full of vicious comments saying
Foer's success owed little to talent and much to his youth and
excellent connections (his brother is an editor for the New Republic
magazine, his creative writing teachers were literary luminaries
Joyce Carol Oates and Russell Banks, both of whom provided fulsome
quotes for the blurb). The publishing industry was accused of
over-hyping Foer, at the expense of others."
The Telegraph (UK) 05/31/02
Thursday
May 30
CANADIANS
PROTEST AMAZON PLANS: "The book industry is abuzz with
rumours that Amazon will set up a Canadian subsidiary this year
in partnership with a Canadian firm. Government rules say booksellers
must be Canadian-controlled, forcing anyone interested in the
market to find a Canadian partner. The Canadian Booksellers Association
says that cannot be allowed to happen."
National Post (Canada) 05/28/02
BRINGING
JOYCE BACK TO IRELAND: Ireland's National Library has bought
a collection of 500 papers by novelist James Joyce. "The
rare collection, believed to be the largest of its kind - includes
unseen drafts of the classic book Ulysses."
BBC 05/30/02
Wednesday
May 29
CHARACTER
ASSASSINATION: Prominent German writer Martin Walser proposed
to editors of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the newspaper
serialize his new novel. Instead, one of the paper's editors writes
an extraordinary open letter to Walser declining the offer, and
accusing the writer of vicious anti-semitism. "It is important
to you, you said, that it appear in this particular newspaper.
I must inform you that your novel will not appear in this newspaper.
May the critics decide how good or bad this book is in terms of
lasting value. 'Even a bad Walser is an event,' a well-known editor
once said. Your novel is an execution, in which you settle the
score with - and let us drop the smoke screen of fictitious names
from the start - Marcel Reich-Ranicki. It is about the murder
of a prominent critic." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 05/28/02
Tuesday
May 28
A
FEW NEW STATISTICS ON READING: A new Scottish study reports
that people spend an average of only 11 minutes a day reading
novels. "Fiction has now been overtaken by newspapers as
the most popular reading material, research by the Orange Prize
for Fiction has claimed. It also said 40 per cent of the population
do not read books at all. Researchers said that people spend only
six hours a week reading, compared with three hours a day watching
television." The
Scotsman 05/27/02
SEPARATION
ANXIETY: "There comes a point in the writing process
when a novel turns a corner, after which it is no longer a work
of fiction. The events are as real as anything the author has
seen on TV or read about in a newspaper, and the characters have
as solid an existence as anyone outside his immediate circle of
family and friends." This makes it hard when you finally
have to pak up your new friends and send them off to a publisher.
"No author is immune to the empty-nest syndrome, the aching,
psychic void as he fidgets from room to room like a reformed smoker,
staring at his trembling hands, full of fresh air, fingers bitten
to the quick." The Globe &
Mail (Canada) 05/28/02
INFERIORITY
COMPLEX? British writers have been protesting the decision
to open up the Booker Prize to include American writers. Writers
from the Commonwealth need something of their own, they say, and
the Americans would dominate the competition. But such arguments
"tell us more about a certain British cultural inferiority complex
than about the nation's literature. The notion that American writers
exist in another league is fatuous, cringing. The protestation
of British inadequacy, said Robert McCrum, literary editor of
the newspaper the Observer, is 'quasi-philistine, provincial and
rather embarrassing'." San
Francisco Chronicle 05/28/02
Monday
May 27
TO
CATCH A THIEF: William Simon Jacques is one of the great book
thieves in history. Since 1990 he stole hundreds of rare books
from some of Britain's great libraries. "The total value
of the books Jacques stole is around £1.1 million. Many were damaged
in an attempt to disguise their origins. Whole collections within
those libraries have been devastated. Hundreds of the books have
still not been recovered." Here's how he was caught.
The Observer (UK) 05/26/02
Sunday
May 26
TALKING
ABOUT BOOKS: The rise of the literary festival to the point
where it plays a significant part in publishing economics is a
fairly recent phenomenon. If the literary festival represents
the public face of contemporary letters, then it also doubles
up as the chief agency for establishing its hierarchies and pecking
orders." The
Guardian (UK) 05/25/02
TOP
HEAVY: A critic takes issue with the notion of ranking the
top 100 books of all time. "We live in a time of lists. That's
why we like awards so much: They tell us who the best writers
are. That's what we want to know: Who has the highest score. Never
mind that a list of favourite books of the year, arrived at by
much compromise after a discussion among three or four entirely
human judges, has about as much historical significance as a list
of My Favourite X-Box Games." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/25/02
Friday
May 24
THE
NEW PUBLISHING: Each year, about 3,500 novels are published.
"While the main advantage to being published by a big press
is the distribution, marketing, promotion, and visibility it can
offer, all too often that kind of attention is only bestowed upon
the clearly commercial novel that is already earmarked to be a
winner, usually because of the author's previous performance.
Sessalee Hensley, fiction buyer for all 582 Barnes & Noble superstores,
says the sad truth is that only 10 percent of books get any serious
marketing or PR support." Now a new publishing model is taking
hold. Poets
& Writers 05/02
JUST
SAY NO (TO WRITING SCHOOLS): Are writing schools a good way
to teach writing? Probably not. What they do is provide a group
that the solitary writer can belong to. But there are downsides.
"The short story, I'd hazard, has been much diminished in
Canada, where it has been subsumed to the purposes of the MFA
schools. Too often, what we're getting these days are short pieces
of fiction and not short stories. Professional samples, really."
National Post 05/24/02
Thursday
May 23
BLASTING
THE BOOKER: The expected protests over plans to open the Booker
Prize to Americans have begun. "The chairwoman of this year's
Booker judging panel, Lisa Jardine, raged that 'the Booker will
become as British an institution as English muffins in US supermarkets
... more blandly generic as opposed to specifically British. This
will completely change the character of the prize'." Why
is it happening? " The Man Group, a new sponsor, has more
than doubled the value of the prize this year to £50,000 ($A131,189)
but, seeking greater international prominence and book sales,
has insisted that US writers should be eligible by 2004."
The Age (Melbourne) 05/23/02
- A
COMMONWEALTH INSTITUTION: "Corporate branding is a
bad way to justify radical changes to a literary competition
that has become a much-loved institution. The Booker has nurtured
talent in the Commonwealth and Ireland that might not otherwise
have emerged and which could easily be smothered amid a landslide
of books from the US." The
Guardian (UK) 05/23/02
- TOO
MANY PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES: "How to open the competition
to another literary continent, yet keep the long list down to
manageable proportions? At the moment judges must read about
130 novels in a year, surely as many as an honest intellectual
can ever manage. So there will have to be sieving, or pre-judging,
especially given the ruthlessness of the big US publishers,
hungry for hype. What chance now for those unknowns - the bus-driver
with his first novel - making it through to at least temporary
fame?" The
Guardian (UK) 05/23/02
- A
STUPID IDEA BUT... "Commonwealth fiction is as good
as American fiction, and doesn't seem in any danger of being
swamped. Furthermore, it can be argued (and most recently has
been argued by Stephen Henighan), that there already exists
a globalized literary culture that has replaced most national
and regional voices. Are Salman Rushdie or Peter Carey, both
Booker winners, Commonwealth writers? They both live in New
York City, which is also where Rushdie's last novel, the execrable
Fury, was set." Good
Reports 05/22/02
Wednesday
May 22
BRINGING
THE BOOKER TO AMERICA? England's Booker Prize, the nation's
most prestigious literary award, is considering a plan to expand
the entrant pool to include American authors. Supporters say the
expansion would only increase the profile of the competition,
but others worry that the Booker could lose its "Englishness,"
and point out that the plan comes on the heels of a new sponsorship
for the prize from a company rumored to be looking for ways to
make inroads in the U.S. BBC
05/22/02
ACCLAIM
BUT NO SALES: Sylvia Ann Hewlett's book Creating a Life:
Professional Women and the Quest for Children has got all
the promotional and critical boosts an author could want. Yet
"data from the research marketing firm Bookscan suggest Creating
a Life has sold fewer than 8,000 copies. The peculiar fate
is the publishing world's mystery of the year. How could a book
with such exposure on the hot-button topic of reconciling
motherhood and career sell so abysmally?" The
New York Times 05/21/02
Tuesday
May 21
KEEPING
TABS: One of a librarian's biggest chores is keeping track
of where books are. Now a new radio tag might help solve the problem.
"Unlike bar codes, which need to be scanned manually and
read individually, radio ID tags do not require line-of-site for
reading. Multiple tags can be read simultaneously, through packaging
or book covers. With radio ID tags, librarians can automate check-ins
and returns. Patrons can speed through self-checkout without any
assistance or ever even opening a book." Wired
05/21/02
READING
IN DARK IS BAD: Your parents were right - reading in the dark
is bad for your eyes. A researcher reports that "the way
we use our eyes when young can affect the way the eyes develop."
He salso says that rates of myopia are increasing. BBC
05/21/02
Monday
May 20
READERS
DESERT UK LIBRARIES: A new study reports that use of British
libraries is shrinking. The report says that "since 1992
visits to libraries have fallen by 17%. In the same period spending
on books has fallen by a third, and 9% fewer libraries are open
for 30 or more hours a week - although the national library budget
has remained stable, at £770 million a year." Why - readers
complain of shabby building and limited selection." The
Guardian (UK) 05/17/02
ART
OF REDIRECTION: You go to the Amazon website, type in the
name of the book you're looking for, and when your book comes
up, it's accompanied by a suggestion to try another book instead.
"Two weeks ago, Amazon's Web site added a feature that lets
users suggest that shoppers buy a different book than the one
being perused." The
New York Times 05/20/02
ART
YES, BUT SUITABLE? Mark Read is Australia's best-selling true
crime author. His partner, illustrator Adam Cullen is an Archibald
Prize winner. They've collaborated on a horrific little book called
Hooky the Cripple, that has the Australian "art world,
literary circles and parents' groups raising eyebrows," with
suggestions it ought to be banned from libraries. "It is
a curiously poetic little book, a fine balance between mawkish
tragedy, revenge thriller and ironic courtroom drama."
The Age (Melbourne) 05/20/02
RICH
AND SPIRITUAL: A bookstore worker sees trends in buying converge.
"Sept. 11 may have sparked a renaissance in learning about
Islam and the Middle East, but the economic downturn has inspired
an even greater rash of financial book buying at my place of employment.
This war on terrorism, fought with a fever-pitch moral righteousness
against 'evildoers' and the like, has much in common with modern
business strategy as espoused by today's bestsellers, which often
blend scorched-earth war rhetoric with financial advice."
Salon 05/20/02
Friday
May 17
WHO
READS THE BOOK REVIEWS? "What is the role of print reviews
and features in catalyzing book sales? A quick check of the sales
rankings on Amazon.com following major reviews in national newspapers
such as the New York Times, USA Today or the Wall St. Journal
confirms that those publications can have a significant commercial
impact. But publicists across the industry say it's next to impossible
for a single review or feature to make a bestseller." Publishers
Weekly 05/13/02
NEXT
IT'LL BE METAL DETECTORS AND A BOARDING PASS: One of the more
comfortable places to hang out in Tacoma Washington in you're
homeless is the Tacoma Public Library, where it's warm and dry.
This week the library's directors approved a "behavior rule that
would restrict patrons from bringing bedrolls, big boxes or bulky
bags into the library. Under the rule, a visitor's belongings
must fit comfortably under his or her chair and measure no larger
than 18 inches long by 16 inches wide by 10 inches high."
We're not discriminating against homeless people, say's the library's
director. Seattle
Post-Intelligencer 05/16/02
Thursday
May 16
SAVING
THE GREAT POETS: Libraries have recordings of some of the
great poets of the 20th Century. "Often these tapes were
made in casual settings where the poets felt free to muse, explain
and joke as well as read. But the recordings, many of them decades
old, are in poor condition" and disintegrating. So poetry
centers are trying to transfer the recordings to digital storage
to save them. The
New York Times 05/16/02
OXFORD
AMERICAN
MAY FOLD: The decade-old literary magazine Oxford American,
which tags itself "the Southern Magazine of Good Writing,"
is in serious danger of closing up shop, after publisher and chief
bill-payer John Grisham decided that it was time for the magazine
to either break even or shut down. There is still time for the
magazine to be saved, probably through new ownership, but Grisham
isn't willing to wait forever. Nando
Times (AP) 05/15/02
Wednesday
May 15
TAKING
REVIEWS ONLINE: American newspapers may be cutting their book
sections, but online book reviews are flourishing. "Harriet
Klausner has written over 3,000 online reviews and ranks as Amazon's
No. 1 reviewer. A publicist at one of New York's prestigious houses
who requested anonymity said Klausner's reviews matter to her
more than some city newspapers. 'A single review of hers shows
up on hundreds of sites. She's as important as some syndicated
newspapers in terms of reaching readers'."
Wired 05/14/02
IRONY
IN CONTEXT: So some in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia
want to ban To Kill a Mockingbird because it contains the
"n" word. Stupid right? But maybe there's a little problem
with cultural context going on here. "When you use an anachronistic
text to teach a moral lesson, it can become a double agent working
for the opposite side; its overearnestness and its lack of contemporary
code become ripe for irony. In practice, a well-meaning text of
yesteryear can become a form of hate lit - inarguable, because
it is shrouded in irony." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/14/02
BROKEN
SYSTEM: At a time when Canadian authors are big news, there
are "myriad problems in the secretive and delusional world
of Canadian book distribution and retailing. The problems are
neither new or surprising. Revealing them to public scrutiny is
an opportunity to rethink some of the ways books are distributed
and sold in this country." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/15/02
Tuesday
May 14
DUBLIN
PRIZE: French writer Michel Houellebecq is the winner of the
annual $90,000 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his second novel,
Atomised, about "half brothers who have little in
common apart from their mother." Nando
Times (AP) 05/13/02
DOWNWARD
SPIRAL? One book industry inside is pessimistic about the
long-range future of the business. "With record numbers of new
books published every year, a more liquid market for used books
online, fewer books going out of print thanks to print-on-demand
technology, and overall unit sales stagnant or even declining,
the mathematical collision is disastrous - lower sales for all
but a few titles. And a potential decline in young readers will
make the situation worse when those kids grow up. It raises urgent
questions about everything from book pricing to how we treat reading
in our society and use technology to grow audiences." Washington
Post 05/14/02
WE
OPNIONATE, YOU DECIDE: Does fairness count anymore? Are we
bored by it? "In the April 21 issue of the Sunday New York
Times Book Review, nearly half the top ten nonfiction bestsellers
belong to a genre that middle-of-the-road innocents might label
'one-sided,' 'unbalanced,' 'exclusionary' or worse, though the
Times's blurbs artfully avoid the issue. Maybe we've entered an
era in which publishers and readers no longer care about two hands
working at complementary tasks - about evidence and counterevidence,
arguments and counterarguments, decency toward subject matter."
The Nation 05/20/02
MOBY
GOES TO BOOKEXPO: For all the hoopla and jostling and depressing
observations one could make, last week's BookExpo in New york
was heaven for book lovers. "Did I mention someone dressed
up as Benjamin Franklin was there, too? Also, a guy in a green
suit covered in question marks. Also, a couple dressed up like
miners, wearing overalls and helmets with lanterns on them."
MobyLives 05/13/02
THE
UNREADABLE BEST-SELLER: Jean M Auel has sold some "34
million books worldwide and she has been translated into 26 languages."
Yet you likely have never heard of her - her books are rarely
reviewed. Maybe there's a reason - The Shelters of Stone
is not an easy book to review. "Actually, it is not an easy
book to read at all for anybody of any literary sensitivity whatsoever.
It is absurd from beginning to end and stupefyingly boring, too."
So what's the appeal? London
Evening Standard 05/13/02
Monday
May 13
BOOK
PARTY: The recent BookExpo in New York is considered by most
attendees to have been a success. Given recent difficulties in
the book industry, the mood down on the exhibit floor was "refreshingly
upbeat." Publishers Weekly 05/13/02
LOOKING
AT THE TOP 100: The poll that ranked the top 100 books of
all time and put Don Quixote atop the list surprised many. Not
Shakespeare? Not Homer or Tolstoy? "Of the 100 titles, more
than two thirds were written by European authors, almost half
were written in the 20th century and only 11 were written by women."
The Scotsman 05/13/02
Friday
May 10
YOU
MEAN THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO SELL BOOKS? One of the U.K.'s
leading writers has lashed out at British booksellers who, she
claims, have sacrificed diversity and range of stock for massive
displays featuring guaranteed best-sellers like the Harry Potter
series. One of the bookshops singled out by A.S. Byatt has responded
that while it certainly makes a point of marketing the big-name
titles, it also stocks fully half of all books currently available
in print. BBC
05/10/02
NOT
THAT ANYONE STILL CARES, BUT... A settlement has been reached
between Houghton Mifflin, publisher of the Gone With the Wind
parody The Wind Done Gone, and the estate of original Wind
author Margaret Mitchell, nearly a year after the last court challenge
ended. The original gripe was ostensibly over copyright infringement
and freedom of speech, but, like most things, it turned out to
really be about money. Nando Times
(AP) 05/09/02
IS
CENSORSHIP ALL BAD? Yet another silly book flap over an attempt
to ban To Kill A Mockingbird for its use of the word 'nigger'
is sparking discussion at the offices of Canada's National
Post. In a discussion with two editors, the paper's cultural
writer puts forward the unpopular notion that "the so-called
intelligentsia... are too quick to slap around ordinary people
who have entirely authentic concerns about the effect of language
and even ideas on their constituencies." Also, is censoring
Harper Lee somehow more egregious an offense than censoring Agatha
Christie? National Post (Canada) 05/10/02
Thursday
May 9
BOOK
SALES SOAR: The first quarter was a blockbuster one for the
book trade. "The largest gain was in adult hardcover, where
sales moved up nearly 61% over the first quarter of 2001, while
children's hardcover sales had a 47.8% increase. Trade paperback
sales were up almost 25% and children's paperback sales increased
31.2%. Mass market paperback sales were ahead 20.5%."
Publishers Weekly 05/07/02
EVER
HEARD OF... Is it just an illusion that service in book shops
is getting worse? Hmnnn... At one London bookseller, "I ask
if he knows of a book called The Colour Orange by Alice
Walker. 'Let's put the title in and see what comes up,' he says.
There is no exact match, but there is a book with the words orange
and colour in the title and then a lot of symbols. 'Could that
be it?' he says and pushes the screen round. It is about metallurgy.
I tell him that I think it's a novel. 'Is it possible you've got
the wrong title?' he asks. I concede that it is. There follows
a stumped silence." The
Guardian (UK) 05/07/02
INSPIRING
SALES: While some general interest publishers have been cutting
back, inspirational/religious books have surged recently. "The
books range from the serious Christian, Jewish and Buddhist (and
lately some Muslim) works through New Age buckle-down about self-help
to stuff that would embarrass P. T. Barnum. For many readers apparently,
these books bring a kind of religion to those who don't want a
traditional one. Whatever, secular publishers are into it heavily."
The New York Times 05/09/02
Wednesday
May 8
TOP
OF THE WINDMILLS: A poll of leading international authors
names Don Quixote as the best work of fiction ever. "Miguel
de Cervantes's 17th-century novel about a knight crazed by reading
too many romances about chivalry, who goes on a mad quest accompanied
by his levelheaded servant, was comfortably ahead of Proust's
Remembrance of Things Past in the poll of 100 writers from
54 countries. It eclipsed the plays of Shakespeare and works by
authors from Homer to Tolstoy." The
New York Times (Reuters) 05/08/02
HARRY
DELAYED? Harry Potter fans have been eagerly awaiting the
September release of the next installment of the boy wizard's
adventures. But JK Rowling has "still not delivered the manuscript
for the book to her publishers and has refused to give any hints
about when it will be ready. But unless it is completed within
the next few weeks, her publishers, Bloomsbury, will fail to meet
their target publication date of September this year."
The Scotsman 05/08/02
READING
CUTS: Several American newspapers have reduced their books
coverage. And at least some of them haven't logged many complaints
by readers. "I defy you to find any newspaper research that shows
book sections at the top of the list of what people want to read."
US News & World Reports
05/05/02
- COLD
TYPE: Canadian newspapers are making even deeper cuts in
books sections than US publications. "Book pages seldom, if
ever, make money. Even though newspapers pay shockingly low
fees to reviewers, book pages are often a loss leader because
the advertising from publishers and retailers cannot support
the cost of the pages." Ryerson
Review of Journalism Summer 02
Tuesday
May 7
HOOKED
ON AN E-READ: After lots of buzz a few years ago about how
e-publishing was going to transform the book business, e-books
still account for less than 1 percent of all books sold. Now e-publishers
are starting an education initiative. "Enticing people to try
reading on their favorite handheld device will undoubtedly convince
many of them to start reading e-books on a regular basis."
Wired 05/07/02
Monday
May 6
YOU
TOO, CAN START A BOOK CLUB: They all lamented the end of Oprah's
stories book club (they'll miss the sales, natch). But since Oprah's
news, all sorts of celebs have stepped up to start their own clubs.
And it turns out that guess what - even the dumbest of them (oops,
did we say that out loud Kelly Ripa?) sell a ton of books. Ah,
the power of TV...(and you thought it was th love of reading).
MobyLives 05/06/02
A
SICK INDUSTRY: Last week's collapse of Canada's major distributor
of books was no surprise. The company hadn't been paying publishers
for about a year. "Two years ago, I made what seemed to me
a startling discovery about Canadian book publishing — that even
when everyone knows something is terribly wrong, no one is prepared
to speak publicly about it. A code of silence prevails. It is
considered better to face a looming catastrophe stoically than
to draw attention to it." Toronto
Star 05/05/02
FIGHTING
BOOK THEFT: Each year 100 million books worth £750 million
are stolen off UK bookstore shelves (true crime books are most
stolen, reports one bookseller). Now some possible high tech tagging
help in cutting down theft. "Unlike the acoustic magnetic
tags attached to CDs, DVDs and videos, which set off an alarm
unless they are deactivated before the customer leaves the shop,
the tags contain a silicon chip which can carry a large amount
of information and an antenna able to transmit that information
to a reading device." BBC
04/30/02
Sunday
May 5
POETIC
TREASURE: Chicago-based Poetry Magazine is ninety years old.
It has introduced the work of "virtually every major American
poet of the 20th century, including Robert Frost, Ezra Pound,
Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore."
Each year the magazine gets 90,000-100,000 submissions and the
staff says it reads every one. Chicago
Sun-Times 05/05/02
FOREIGN-OWNED
OR DEATH? Canadian law prohibits selling a Canadian publisher
to a foreign buyer. But there are no obvious Canadian buyers for
the large General Publishing Co. after the company filed for bankruptcy
protection last week. So maybe the Canadian government will make
an exception to the ownership rule rather than let the company
fold? The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/04/02
- Previously: CANADIAN
CRISIS: "The Canadian book publishing industry was
reeling last night after Jack Stoddart, one of the largest publishers
in Canada and owner of the largest distributor of Canadian books,
won bankruptcy court protection from his creditors yesterday.
The move leaves many book publishers across Canada struggling
to stay afloat, cut off -- for now -- from their main source
of revenue, which is the money funneled to them through Mr.
Stoddart from the stores that sell their books." National
Post (Canada) 05/01/02
LIVING
IN THE AFTERLIFE: Next to a hatchet-job of a biography, there's
probably nothing so damaging to a deceased popular writer's memory
and reputation as a pot-boiling sequel. The publishing industry
cheerfully conspires with the process by which a good popular
writer's memory is piously demeaned by inferior imitations churned
out by penurious hacks. Which brings me to the intriguing case
of Ian Fleming's James Bond, who is about to celebrate his 50th
birthday. (Casino Royale was first published in 1953)." The
Observer (UK) 05/05/02
MEMENTOS
OR STORAGE PROBLEM? If you're at all a reading person, you
have to deal with where to store all your books. After you've
stored them for years (rarely taking many of them off the shelves),
the thought might occur - why do I need all these? "What
are they? Memento vitae, furniture, ornament..." So you start
opening them with an eye to paring down, and inevitably ... The
Guardian (UK) 05/04/02
Friday
May 3
THE
LIFE OF NOBODY: Everyone's writing a book these days. "This
is the age of memoir. Never have personal narratives gushed so
profusely from the American soil as in the closing decade of the
twentieth century. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone
is telling it." As a literary form, though, memoirs get no respect.
"It is fashionable, a bid for superiority, to denigrate memoir
and explain its causes in derogatory terms. The reasons have calcified.
Memoir is Jerry Springer. Memoir is narcissistic. Memoir is easy.
Memoir is made-up. Memoir is ubiquitous. Memoir is self-help disguised.
The counter-argument also has hardened. Memoir is a genre - some
practitioners are good, some not. Memoir is not new - vide Augustine.
Fiction is exhausted, memoir is vital. Both sides have stated
their cases over and over. The questions remain - why memoirs
by nobodies? And why now?" Alternet
05/01/02
END
OF RUN: Seattle's Poetry Northwest is the longest-running
poetry-only publication in America. But "after 43 years of
publication, the poetry quarterly from the University of Washington
is shutting down with its Spring 2002 issue." The publication
"was given a two-year reprieve by the university amid a financial
crisis in 2000, but the magazine's supporters have been unable
to locate another source of funding and it will have to cease
publication." Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/021/02
Thursday
May 2
NAT'L
MAG AWARDS HONOR THE BIG PLAYERS: "The National Magazine
Awards, the Oscars of the industry, proved Wednesday that a media-wide
gap between the haves and have-nots may well be widening in a
melancholy period for the magazine industry, with stalwarts The
New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly each taking home three of
the 19 first-place prizes." Chicago
Tribune 05/02/02
THERE
OUGHTA BE A LAW: The bankruptcy of General Publishing, Canada's
largest publishing and distribution house, continues to have a
terrifying effect on the country's book industry. The latest scenario
may have General cutting its losses by selling to a foreign buyer,
although a special exemption from a Canadian law prohibiting such
sales would have to be obtained first. Toronto
Star 05/02/02
SINGING
PRAISES OF THE OED: "Why should a maturing book-lover
know or care what the Oxford English Dictionary is? Well, let
me give you an analogy: The OED is to the average dictionary what
the Louvre is to a garage sale with a few antiques. All of us
book-lovers, at some point, become vividly conscious of this lexicographic
masterpiece, in the same way that as adults with maturing palates
and troublesome colons we come to adore olive paste, oysters,
and fiber supplements." Village
Voice Literary Supplement 04/29/02
- WORKING
AWMERICAN: Likewise, Webster's isn't just another dictionary.
"What Noah Webster proposed was simply to teach all Americans
to spell and speak alike, yet differently in detail from the
people of England. The result would be an 'American language,
to become over the years as different from the future language
of England, as the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from
the German, or from one another'." Okay, so it didn't quite
work out that way, but it does explain some things...
Times Literary Supplement
04/27/02
WHO'S
AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF'S DESCENDANTS? This past week, representatives
of the estate of Virginia Woolf blasted a San Francisco publisher
for the release of a rough early work which had previously been
available only for scholarly study. Strangely, however, the estate
had previously given its permission for the new trade edition,
and the publisher claims to be completely flummoxed by the shots
being fired across her bow. Boston
Globe 05/02/02
HOW
TO ACT LIKE A ROCK STAR ON YOUR BOOK TOUR: His name is Neil
Pollack, and he may or may not be fictional. He may or may not
be Dave Eggers. (His mother swears he's not.) He may or may not
be the most exciting thing to happen to Canadian literature since
Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale. And he most
definitely does not care what you or Margaret Atwood or the stuffy
old publishing industry thinks about any of it. National
Post (Canada) 05/01/02
Wednesday
May 1
CANADIAN
CRISIS: "The Canadian book publishing industry was reeling
last night after Jack Stoddart, one of the largest publishers
in Canada and owner of the largest distributor of Canadian books,
won bankruptcy court protection from his creditors yesterday.
The move leaves many book publishers across Canada struggling
to stay afloat, cut off -- for now -- from their main source of
revenue, which is the money funneled to them through Mr. Stoddart
from the stores that sell their books." National
Post (Canada) 05/01/02
TOME
RAIDER: A man dubbed by police the "Tome Raider"
who stole 412 extremely rare antique books and pamphlets worth
an estimated £1.1 million from libraries and then sold them at
auctions is today facing a lengthy jail term. His haul was "one
of the biggest of its kind in British legal history. Some of the
books have been returned to the libraries but hundreds of them
have never been traced." The
Guardian (UK) 04/30/02
ART
BOOK ABDICATION: Australia's premiere art book publisher was
sold last year. Now some authors have been told by the new owners
that the company is not obligated to pay royalties negotiated
under the previous owners. Other writers have had their projects
canceled. Sydney
Morning Herald 05/01/02
- TOUGH
ON ART BOOKS: Australia has a dearth of art book publishers.
It's a tough business. "All art publishers face the problem
of how to make a profit on lavish, labour-intensive books which,
at retail prices of $50 to $100, sell only a few thousand copies
at most. Authors generally pay copyright and reproduction fees
for artworks; at up to $250 an image, this can consume advances
and royalties." Because of the costs, vanity publishing
is common and credibility is low. Sydney
Morning Herald 05/01/02
PAPA'S
GOT A BRAND NEW BAG: With two major U.S. publishers folding
their e-book imprints, and horror writer Stephen King abandoning
an online writing venture a few chapters in, this might not seem
like the best time for anyone to launch a massive new e-books
project. Nonetheless, "Ernest Hemingway is to become one
of the first major authors to have his whole literary catalogue
put on the internet. The 23 novels will be available for people
to read on their computers for less than the price of most paperbacks."
BBC 05/01/02
CORRECTING
THE NORTH AMERICAN NOVEL: So what's the big deal about Johnathan
Franzen, anyway? The author who snubbed Oprah has some very interesting
ideas about North American literature, and he is determined to
change what he sees as a lazy literary culture which ignores the
context of the larger world in favor of introspection and glorified
navel-gazing. The Globe & Mail
(Toronto) 05/01/02
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