April 16, 2013 On the Shelf Honors Galore, and Other News By Sadie Stein The lit Pulitzer: back and better than ever. Granta presents its Best of Young British Novelists issue. A gorgeous slide show of the selected writers. Simon & Schuster is test-driving an e-book lending program with New York libraries. In addition to checking out titles, patrons will be able to buy directly, with libraries taking a cut. “Intrigued” would be putting it too strongly, but we are mildly curious to see how Go the Fuck to Sleep gets stretched into a movie.
April 15, 2013 On the Shelf The Most Expensive Book in the World, and Other News By Sadie Stein This is the most expensive book in the world. “Because the Pulitzer board couldn’t possibly be so cruel two years in a row, right?” We shall see. We have a title: the new Bond novel is called Solo. Neil Gaiman left a little guerrilla artwork on the New York streets. Julian Barnes: England “has always been a comparatively philistine country.”
April 12, 2013 On the Shelf Men, Women, Dante, and Other News By Sadie Stein GQ suggested the books every man should read. So then Flavorwire amended their list. You could, of course, also stick to Robert Frost’s favorite books. (If you like the classics.) Women, meanwhile, get stuck with awful titles. “Dan Brown’s forthcoming Inferno, of which Dante will be the central subject, has already got me trembling. Brown might have discovered that the Divine Comedy is an encrypted prediction of how the world will be taken over by the National Rifle Association. When the movie comes out, with Harrison Ford as Dante and Megan Fox as Beatrice, it will be all over for mere translators.” Clive James, by the book.
April 11, 2013 On the Shelf Charlotte Brontë Poem at Auction, and Other News By Sadie Stein An itty-bitty, handwritten Charlotte Brontë manuscript has sold at auction for £92,000. In Hong Kong, one small bookstore has become a haven for banned Chinese books. The City of New York is ponying up $230,000 to pay for the Occupy Wall Street Library destroyed in the 2011 Zuccotti Park raid. With numbers dwindling, a Texas book club folds after 120 years of regular meetings. I hereby call for a moratorium on … whatever this genre is.
April 10, 2013 On the Shelf Rumors of the Death of the Book Greatly Exaggerated, and Other News By Sadie Stein Peter Workman, “known in the publishing world as a genially offbeat entrepreneur of nonfiction, with an on-base percentage—in publishing terms—worthy of Cooperstown,” has died. Workman hits included The Preppy Handbook, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, and The Silver Palate Cookbook. Barnes & Noble gets into the self-publishing game with NOOK Press. The death of the book, like doomsday, has been predicted since time immemorial. But: “If reading is going be all digital in fifty years, so be it.” Tim Waterstone, founder of the eponymous bookstore chain, is philosophical. Listen to John le Carré read from his new novel.
April 9, 2013 On the Shelf The Digital Public Library, and Other News By Sadie Stein Welcome, Digital Public Library of America! Neruda, as promised, has been exhumed. Watch this space for toxicology reports. The Kindle publication of a Cornish-English children’s book marks a victory for minority languages. Books stolen by the Nazis, like other precious objects, are still being returned. “Speaking of Grindr, who knew it would prove to be such an effective marketing tool for an author who is trying to make his mark in the LGBT community?” On unconventional marketing.