Category: publishing

“There are many reasons why bookstores are naturally romantic environments: the smell of paper, the soft lighting, the baseline understanding that those inside like to read, and are therefore probably not morons. Browsing customers often circle each other like timid sharks, the piles of books in their hands their only weapons.”

“If you look at checkout statistics for Seattle Public Library, it’s clear that there are a lot of well-loved books in the system. Over the past three years, the average number of checkouts per book per year has been 23, but almost 300,000 books were checked out 26 times or more. And 6,759 circulating books for children and adults have been checked out 100 times or more.”

“When the classic novel From Here To Eternity was published in 1951, a few things were gone that had been in the original manuscript: explicit mentions of gay sex and a number of four-letter words. … Sixty years later Mr. Jones’s estate has made a deal to reissue a digital version of the book that restores those cuts.”

Over the last 13 years, Munther Fahmi “has created what has been described as ‘the only decent English-language bookshop in the country’.” During that time, he has been living in his native city on a series of tourist visas after his permanent residency lapsed while he was abroad. Now the Israeli government is threatening not to renew those visas, leading to a public campaign on Fahmi’s behalf.

“Fewer than one in 100 teenagers who sat the most popular English literature exam last year based their answers on novels published prior to 1900, says the Education Secretary.”

“The lofty effort, the Digital Public Library of America, counts a long list of heavyweights among its supporters, including librarians from major universities and officials from the National Archives and the Library of Congress. Some of the nation’s largest philanthropic foundations have said they were interested in financing the project, though its total cost has not been determined.”

“If European books remain unavailable via legitimate digital outlets, the threat of piracy will grow. Publishers, politicians and regulators need only look at the music industry to see what that means.”

“Can a slang dictionary possibly hope to uncover any ‘lost words’? Are there any unmentionables left to mention?”

“There are so many claims on our attention. Very literate people admit they can’t read books any more. And just as the literate brain is physically different to the illiterate brain, the digitally savvy brain is different again. It’s a physiological change, not just a moral one.”

“The trailers are typically between two and five minutes long and usually are found on YouTube and publishers’ websites. Some trailers feature re-created scenes from the book to tease viewers; others showcase the author reading from his or her work, or depict images associated with the book.”