In the city of St. Gallen, Switzerland, population around 160,000, the main tourist attraction is the Abbey of St. Gall. It’s library contains books dating back to the 9th century. It is one of the most valuable collections of handwritten medieval manuscripts in the world. And now, thanks in part to a $1 million grant [...]
Sarah Butler of the UK’s Bookseller.com reported today that Amazon won’t be launching the UK version of Kindle until sometime next year. The problem seems to be attempts to sign up Wi-Fi partners. If those of us in the US put two and two together, though, my guess is that the Kindle released in the [...]
Last night I was looking at my book shelves—I might have been looking for myself. I remember once when a neighbor was over, he studied the shelves and then told me that he understood me better; he knew who I was. I swallowed hard; he not only knew who I was, he also knew who [...]
Tomorrow nearly every book blog, this one included, will tell you who won the Man Booker prize. Then, on Wednesday you’ll see the shortlist for our own National Book Award. But I find myself wondering whether or not the real news is in who will win and who will make the shortlist, or rather in [...]
As of this morning, the Dow dipped below 8,000 and our president is telling us that our anxiety is feeding our anxiety—I tend to think a more than 40% drop in the Dow and record foreclosures are enough to feed our anxiety, but, hey, what do I know? I go through each day stubbornly searching [...]
For reasons I’m not totally sure of, the Nobel prize seems to have been established as literature’s highest honor—it must have something to do with the 1.3 million dollar prize. But, still, I find it hard to believe that when we find it difficult to choose a winner of the Booker in this country, some [...]
Let’s assume you’ve spent the last two or more years writing the great American novel and now you want someone to publish it. You don’t have an agent and have decided against the expense of self-publishing. Yet you’re convinced that if you could just get the book to a few people, the publishing world would [...]
Forbes magazine has just released their list of the top 10 writers. Of course, making the Forbes list has very little to do with quality, and everything to do with quantity. Of dollars! For the year, which runs from June 1, 2007 to June 1, 2008, Forbes listed the 10 writers who earned the most [...]
As you are probably aware, this is “Banned Book Week.” I came across an essay in The Los Angeles Times that I believe is worth your time to read. It’s written by Time book editor David L. Ulin, and is titled “Banned Books Week a Thorny Issue“.
At least as interesting is the appearance of John [...]
Recently, I’ve been reading a lot concerning publication of Literary Fiction as trade paperbacks rather than hardcover. This is especially true regarding new authors, but is also becoming more prevalent with an established writer who might have seen a reduction is sales on his or her last book. And while in previous posts I’ve dodged [...]
