“The Best Translated Book Award recently announced its longlist, a collection of simply wonderful books from 2012. The website Typographical Era posted short descriptions of the 25 books under consideration. Most of these books don’t get the review space they deserve. I’m thinking of Dominque Edde’s fine book Kite and Sergio Chejfec’s The Planets and authors like …
As reported by Shelf Awareness November 14, a survey performed by The Digital Reader found 35 percent of almost 2,000 respondents had used their e-reader device only once. And, of that number, 25 percent said they preferred to read paper books. Also today, I received a package from Paris with an advance copy of Elfriede …
There’s an opinion in publishing that literature in translation doesn’t sell— that the books are dense and unapproachable, and that Americans won’t read authors whose names we can’t pronounce. Norman Manea (The Lair, Yale Margellos) says books in translation are thought to be “too ‘complicated,’ which is another way of saying that literature should deal …
NW Book Lovers’ North-North-West columnist George Carroll also authors a Young Bookseller Focus series for Shelf Awareness, and his latest piece just happens to be about another contributor from the NWBL roster, resident interview queen Lindsey McGuirk, Village Books’ Digital Marketing & Publishing Coordinator. She does briefly attempt to turn the tables but, in the …
When I started as a publishers’ representative, buyers would tell me of the old days, when a rep would arrive in town on a train, rent a hotel suite and present to all of the area booksellers in one meeting. No one I knew ever actually sold that way or bought books that way, but …
I wish I were a better Buddhist. Actually, I’m not really much of a Buddhist; I’m more a lapsed Catholic with Buddhist aspirations. And I suppose that wishing I were a better Buddhist is probably antithetical. I would master non-attachment and acceptance, and let go of anger. If I were a better Buddhist. Andy Puddicombe, …
