Category: publishing

Under a congressional resolution, 2010 would be the Year of the Bible. “The problem is not praising the Bible, it’s giving official recognition to it and not other sacred texts. Ironically, by pushing this notion, its advocates run the risk of diminishing the stature of the Bible.”

Farhad Manjoo: “The new magazine from Time Inc. seemed like a gimmicky, goofy effort to save a beleaguered industry: Time wanted to print a magazine just for me! … Turns out my skepticism was misguided. I’ve received two issues of Mine, and I love it.”

One of the infamous e-mails by Ruth Padel: “On the chair, there is still no other nomination except (so extraordinarily) Derek W and me. But thye close on 29th April so another or others may well turnup… There is aupposed to be a book called The Lecherous Professor, which has 6 pages on Derek Walcott’s two cases of sexual harassment, which might provide interestigfn copy on what Oxford wants from its professors..”

“No one should write poetry for money. No one can expect to make any money either. Even a Poet Laureate, or whoever gets to occupy the professor’s chair just vacated by Ruth Padel, will need other jobs, and other income, to make ends meet.”

“Concord Free Press just released its second free book: Wesley Brown’s novel about a ’60s radical, ‘Push Comes to Shove.’ And — get this — in October, Concord Free Press plans to release a new novel by mega-bestseller Gregory Maguire called ‘The Next Queen of Heaven.’ Again, for free. Nada. Zip. $0.00. Turns out, there is no hidden agenda, at least no nefarious one.”

“Canadian Alice Munro won the third Man Booker International Prize, overcoming competition from authors including Peter Carey, Mario Vargas Llosa and Joyce Carol Oates for the cash award of 60,000 pounds ($94,900). First bestowed on Albanian writer Ismail Kadare in 2005, the prize is granted once every two years in recognition of a living author who has made an outstanding contribution to world literature.”

“This weekend’s BookExpo America will be a good time for promoting, predicting, mingling — and worrying. … Like the industry itself, this year’s booksellers convention seeks to be smaller, more economical and more committed to a digital future.”

“The Eucalyptus ebook reader program was initially rejected because people could use it to read the Kama Sutra, but Apple has since allowed the software to go on sale. The app, made by James Montgomerie, enables iPhone and iPod touch users to access thousands of free books from the Project Gutenberg library, including the Kama Sutra, which Apple deemed offensive.”

“There have been many calls to protect the young from violent images, but it’s not often the opposite case is argued, that there aren’t enough aggressive pictures in children’s books. But award-winning children’s author Ted Dewan is conscientiously putting scenes of mayhem and destruction into his latest book, not drawn by an adult but by the children themselves.” They’re the kind of “scenes of slaughter that many boys like to draw.”

“Novels, and men, have fared badly in Wales this year, at least according to the judges for the country’s top book award, who have selected a woman-only, novel-free shortlist for this year’s prize.”