Category: publishing

Former Chinese leader Jian Zemin’s writings have been given extraordinary promotion, and have soared to the top of the bestseller list. “Published in three tomes, the collection of 203 speeches, articles, letters and decrees is difficult to carry, let alone read. But since its launch last week, the work has been extolled as one of the three ideological foundations of the Communist party. Along with similar works by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, it forms the closest thing the party has to a Bible, guaranteeing its place in every library, university and military barracks.”

The Loeb Library has recently published its 500th volume in translation. “Just as scholars once feared, there has been a steady decline in hard-core classical philology—and thanks in part to that, the Loeb Library has lately thrived.”

“Nonfiction, once relegated to the ‘good for you, like oatmeal’ shelf, has become the kind of fare readers choose for enjoyment. In this age of declining readership for all sorts of publications, any reading is good reading, right? Maybe. But does a de-emphasis of the literary novel — still the form of entertainment that requires the most engagement and conjecture on the reader’s part — coincide with a devaluation of the imagination?”

“More than 30 million books were downloaded in the past month as part of the World eBook Fair, a giveaway of books in electronic form. Originally intended to run July 4 to Aug. 4, the project was extended for a week because unexpected demand at the start temporarily overwhelmed computer servers.”

“Nobel prize-winning author Günter Grass’s surprise admission that he served in the Waffen SS as a teenager has been met with sympathy from some German writers but drew harsh criticism from other prominent figures who asked why he had waited so long to own up. Some argued that, as a prominent moral voice that urged Germany to face up to the Nazi past, the 78-year-old’s authority had been undermined by his silence about his months in Adolf Hitler’s notorious paramilitary combat force.”

Why does the Booker Prize give short shrift to comedic writers? “There are some terrifically good comic writers around at the moment, such as David Lodge and Howard Jacobson, are in some respect running with a handicap. But I know from experience that when you get into that committee room, it’s extremely hard to argue that a trivial book is more important than an earnest one.”

Excitement in the publishing world that Starbucks would begin offering books with its lattes has calmed somewhat since the coffee company said it would offer first a book that would already have been a best-seller. “Starbucks’ biggest gamble may be that its customers will be willing to buy a book with their daily caffeine fix. According to those involved with the project, however, it’s a natural fit.”

Nineteen authors have been chosen for this year’s Man Booker Prize longlist. “The 19 books were chosen from 112 entries – 95 submitted and the remainder called in by the judging panel. A shortlist will be announced on 14 September, with the overall winner revealed on 10 October.”

“Among longlisted contenders seen as having a fair chance of reaching next month’s shortlist are the veteran writer and columnist Howard Jacobson…Others are the South African Nadine Gordimer for Get a Life, Kate Grenville for The Secret River and Barry Unsworth, joint winner of the prize in 1992, for The Ruby in Her Navel.”