Category: publishing

Maria Shine Stewart: “I have asked plenty of questions – as have my students – and we never leave empty-headed or empty-handed. We may have our own search approach, complementary and valid. But in partnership with academic librarians, we make quicker progress than flying solo. And my library colleagues remind me to be fearless in my race? sprint? jog? with technology.”

The Guardian highlights independent bookstores of all stripes and kinds in this multimedia package. Authors tout their faves, in cities and towns all over Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

“A senior Russian Orthodox official claimed Wednesday that novels by Vladimir Nabokov and Gabriel Garcia Marquez justify pedophilia and said they should be banned in the nation’s high schools.”

“In various versions of Homer’s nearly 3,000-year-old epic poem The Iliad, the Trojan warrior Hector is referred to as ‘glorious,’ ‘flashing helmeted,’ and ‘man-killing.’ But he’s probably never been described as a ‘son of a bitch’ before.”

“The loss of a Borders may open up the retail landscape for independent or niche booksellers. Still, there is little doubt that many of the vacated Borders stores are simply too large — and have leases that are too expensive — to turn a profit by selling books.”

“The furor over Webster’s Third also marked the end of an era. It’s a safe bet that no new dictionary will ever incite a similar uproar, whatever it contains. The dictionary simply doesn’t have the symbolic importance it did a half-­century ago.”

“Hundreds of forgotten classics by authors including Edith Sitwell, Monica Dickens, VS Pritchett and HRF Keating are being brought back to life through a new digital imprint launched today by Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury.”

Adonis, the 81-year-old Syrian experimental poet, is the current favorite at 4-1, followed closely by Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer at 9-2. Farther behind are novelists Thomas Pynchon (10-1), Assia Djebar (12-1), and Haruki Murakami (16-1).

“A university graduate who stole £36,000 of manuscripts by famous figures including Sir Winston Churchill, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and TS Eliot has been jailed for 30 months.”

“This year’s shortlist, announced on 6 September, is already the most popular ever. The six books have sold, collectively, 37,500 copies since the announcement, an increase of 127% year-on-year, and up 105% on the previous record-holding year, 2009. And there’s still another three weeks to go until the winner’s announced.”