Category: words

“They are at least preferable to their nearest equivalent, the arsehole, who is petty and spiteful and astringent and actively gets off on other people’s misery. The douchebag just blunders around in his obnoxious pool sliders, naively wondering why nobody’s having as much fun as he is. Boris Johnson? Total douchebag.”

“Men are put off because of what romance novels symbolize, then, rather than by anything in romance novels themselves.”

“Described as ‘beautifully British’, the ‘subtle yet devastating’ put-down overshare was today named word of the year by the Chambers Dictionary. Collins, however, has plumped for photobomb as its choice, citing the words 100% increase in usage over the past year.”

Rebecca Mead: “[The] view that any book that is avidly embraced can serve as a gateway to an enduring love of reading is surely true … But the metaphor of the gateway should prompt caution, too, since one can go through a gate in two directions.”

“Readers have become so canny about the way fiction works, so much has been written about it, that any intense work about sexuality, say, or race relations, will be understood willy-nilly as the writer’s reconstituting his or her personal involvement with the matter.”

“There are two novellas by Sofiya: Whose Fault?, the story of a jealous husband who murders his innocent wife, and Song Without Words, about a depressed married woman who becomes obsessed with a composer and his music, and eventually checks herself into a ‘nerve clinic.’ Song Without Words is a response to The Kreutzer Sonata; Whose Fault? is a systematic rebuttal.”

“The agreement ‘is economically advantageous for both Simon & Schuster and its authors and maintains the author’s share of income generated from eBook sales,’ said a letter signed by Carolyn Reidy, the publisher’s chief executive.”

“Everyone is a critic. Everyone’s got a soapbox. And the worst fate for a writer isn’t being attacked … it’s being ignored.”

Bob Eckstein offers watercolor-style portraits, with anecdotes, of the likes of Coliseum Books, Scribners, Shakespeare & Co., and Forbidden Planet.

A chart explains the chemistry behind the smell of new books – and how it changes as books get old.