“Waterstone’s said that sales of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos have already overtaken the total achieved during the 2005 general election by 160%. … The Conservative manifesto has performed the best of the three, taking 38% of total sales, with the Lib Dems on 32% and Labour bottom on 30% at Waterstone’s.”
Category: publishing
Tintin On Trial
A Congolese man who lives in Belgium, “Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, who has been campaigning for years to have the book [‘Tintin in the Congo’] removed from Belgian shops, says its depiction of native Africans … is ignorant and offensive, and he has applied to the Belgian courts to have it banned.”
A Former US Poet Laureate Reflects On The Post
Charles Simic: “The Republicans, especially, are always worried that someone in the arts is undermining the religious and family values of our country. They suspect poets of being subversives, free-thinkers, sex-fiends, and drug addicts. Their fears are not entirely without foundation. There have not been many American poets, living or dead, you’d want to bring home to meet your grandmother or have speak to your Bible study group.”
Was Robert Frost A Modernist?
“On the ‘no’ side of that question, it’s true that works like ‘The Road Not Taken’ do not unsettle or revise any 19th-century notions of form or idea. … On the other hand, Frost’s greatest poems, such as ‘Directive’ and ‘The Most of It,’ do radically challenge and reimagine old conceptions of memory, culture, and ways of beholding nature.”
The Danger In America’s Neglect Of Translated Books
Edith Grossman: “The dearth of translated literature in the English-speaking world represents a new kind of iron curtain we have constructed around ourselves. We are choosing to block off access to the writing of a large and significant portion of the world, including movements and societies whose potentially dreadful political impact on us is made even more menacing by our general lack of familiarity with them.”
Wodehouse Prize Surprise: Ian McEwan Is In The Running
“In a validation of McEwan’s decision to move towards more comic writing and ‘play around at the edges of realism … [to] be slightly less sober’, the judges have selected [McEwan’s ‘Solar’] as one of the five novels of the past year that have captured the comic spirit of PG Wodehouse.”
A New Role For Public Libraries: Grocer’s Helper
“The Virtual Supermarket Project is part of a city push to make healthy food more accessible in communities where major supermarkets are scarce. Baltimore’s health department launched it last month at two of the city’s public library branches.”
Why Archie Comics’ New (Token) Gay Character Matters
“In superhero comics, [openly gay characters are] old news (and in art comics, [they’re] very, very old news). … The significant distinction here is that, unlike superhero comics, Archie comics are specifically aimed at kids…: They’re a fantasy about what high school will be like.”
Inside Wikipedia’s Food Fights
“Wikipedia seems like a utopia come true — global knowledge compiled by everyone, administered, amended and corrected by everyone, serving the philosophy that knowledge shouldn’t be a good to be sold, it should be something freely available to all. The miracle of Wikipedia, though, is how all that bickering can actually give rise to knowledge.”
Publishing Industry Weighs Losses After Volcano-Afficted London Book Fair
“Agents and publishers are weighing up the damage in terms of cancelled meetings and lost opportunities as flight restrictions prevented many foreign visitors from reaching Earls Court. Normally the major publishing event of the year, at which deals are done, international rights are negotiated and titles are pitched by agents, it was eerily quiet when I attended this week.”