Category: publishing

Culturomics is a nifty tool, but we need to be cautious and critical about this kind of digital data and about claims that culturomics could make “much of what [historians] do trivially easy.”

“The report proposes running libraries in partnership with the private sector, charities or other councils and extending their reach by integrating them with community facilities such as churches and by providing health centres and police surgeries on site.”

Vooks, Byooks, rental textbooks and many more apps populate the e-book landscape like mushrooms in the forest, leaving consumers fascinated … and a little overwhelmed.

“Kunzru’s almost self-defeatingly ambitious fourth novel is about the human quest for transcendence – not just encountering big-brained Venusians, but the hope of finding a thing that sometimes goes by the name of God.”

“They weave narratives from seemingly innocuous blogs, magazine ads, TV slots, fashion labels and public phone calls. Clues in the alternate realities designed by authors are littered in the physical and the virtual; consumers simply need to be tuned in to see them, and willing to take part in the unfolding narrative.”

“Because of who Poe was, and what he wrote about, his lingering presence seems stronger in this house than, say, somewhere where George Washington once slept. Writers like Stephen King come to visit. Visitors try to spook one another. People often ask whether the house is haunted.”

“I’m increasingly frustrated when reading printed books because they don’t have a search function. With an ebook I can quickly search the text to remind myself who a character is or to re-read a particular passage. It’s also much easier to annotate and highlight an ebook.”

“With texts going digital, it becomes alluringly simple to rework, revise – and profitably republish – earlier works. In theory, a writer could download his or her first novel onto a laptop, give it the thorough polish it deserves, and have it back on the real and/or e-bookshelves in a matter of days.”

“I am struck by the wedge being driven between academia and the rest of the world when it comes to how we know. For those few, those lucky few with an affiliation with a large research library, access to ‘high impact’ literature is routine. For everyone else, it’s a question of how badly you want to know.”

“It’s always interesting when a very strange book is also an enduringly popular book. … Like The Catcher in the Rye,” The Bell Jar “is a touchstone for a certain kind of introspective, moody teenager – the kind of teenager who used to listen to the Cure and, later on, Tori Amos, and who these days listens to – actually I have no idea, but she definitely has a blog.”