Historian Orlando Figes is in trouble again. Figes, who was last in the spotlight when he admitted writing flattering reviews of his own books on Amazon and bad reviews of books by rivals (after first saying it was his wife’s doing — see the earlier…
In a sprawling, two-page article Daily Beast critic Mark Wortman laments the recent glut in extremely long books. In this epically long blog post titled “Are books becoming too long to read?”, Wortman points to a series of culpably grandiose books that include the likes…
Where Pulitzer refrained, Carnegie leapt. Just a month after the Pulitzer Prize board could not agree on the year’s best work of fiction and didn’t give out its annual award, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Library Association announced the finalists for…
Farah Samti at Tunisia Live reports that rather than being wiped out, literary censorship has ‘simply changed forms’ since the country’s revolution. Before, books seen as harmful to the regime of Ben Ali were stopped, without further explanation, at the airport. Now, notes bookseller Adel…
The first trailer for director Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of The Great Gatsby was released this week, and it certainly looks intriguing. The parties at Gatsby’s mansion, described in such detail by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are fittingly decadent and over-the-top, which should come as no…
The art of the literary interview Celebrating contemporary British fiction Microinterview with Jonathan Lethem Book about Stalin comes to an unfortunate end 50 shades of grey (the useful kind) Taking the spoiler with the plot Brodsky’s brooding poetry Arthur Miller reads Death of a Salesman …
In a Publishers Weekly opinion essay, indie publisher John Oakes of OR Books argues that publishers can best fight Amazon by cutting them out of the equation entirely and selling books direct to their customers. Oakes argues that battling with Amazon over terms of sale,…
This coming Sunday San Francisco marks The Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday with a series of tributes, festivals, and readings. The suspension bridge is known across the globe for its grand towers and sweeping beauty, but also for its place in popular culture, including literature. It would…
It’s not usually my first port of call for music news, but there was a great tribute to Adam Yauch on the OED blog last week. It’s cheering to know that even that venerable etymological organ has taken note of the Beastie Boys‘ excellence: it…
Are print books and digital books pretty much the same thing? In a short, stirring documentary video called “The Story of the Book,” British booksellers Adrian Harrington and Jonathan Kearnes talk about “some of the key points of the book as a physical form,” taking…
Last month we told you about an NPR story about the number of bookmobiles dwindling across the country—this Sunday, Weekend Edition announced that at least one of these trucks will have a happy ending. The focal point of the original NPR piece was a bookmobile…
Orange cancels Women’s Fiction Prize Nester’s Maple Shade Sherlock Holmes belongs to that generation, or this one Piano music helps patient recover from brain surgery So you want to move to France and become a literary translator Mowing down prejudices through reading Notes from a…
Just last December, it was the talk of not just the UK but New York when James Daunt, legendary London indie bookseller and currently head of chain retailer Waterstones, publicly attacked Amazon as a “ruthless, money-making devil.” As Ellie Robins reported here on MobyLives, Daunt used…
In an article on the Columbia Journalism Review website Ryan Chittum takes on a spate of recent tech posts “arguing that production costs (you know, minor details like advances, editors, etc.) don’t or shouldn’t factor into the end price” of an ebook. He wags his…
In case you missed it, as I did, “A treasure trove of pre-revolutionary books and magazines has been discovered in the archives of the Russian State Polytechnical Museum Library in Moscow” hidden behind false walls, according to this report from the RBTH website. The librarians…
Aurorarama author Jean-Christophe Valtat was a guest of honor at not one but two steampunk festivals over the last nine days. Jules Verne would be so jealous. Over the next couple weeks images and videos will begin to manifest from these two splendid outings. Naturally…
The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing this week, and the Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins has surmised that its coveted prize, the Palme d’Or, will most likely be presented to a film based on a book. While the festival has historically eschewed adaptations (only two…
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt formally files for bankruptcy Barnes & Noble to open “concept” store in Oregon B&N denies “concept” store story Science books for future presidents Lewis Lapham’s still got it Ebooks for the fellas Rating YA books, a good idea? Grub Street’s Launch Lab…
Well, strange that it took this long, I guess: Amazon is planning to add advertising to the Kindle reading experience. According to a report from — where else? — AdAge by Jason Del Rey, they won’t be cheap, either: Amazon is pitching ads on the…
“The Vatican has denounced as ‘criminal’ a new book of leaked internal documents that shed light on power struggles inside the Holy See and the inner workings of its embattled bank, and warned that it would take legal action against those responsible,” according to this…
In Chapel Hill, NC, the public library is a quiet place where you can track down your latest interests or peacefully read the latest novel. But that quiet has been disturbed recently. According to this report on WCHL radio’s Chapelboro website, some one has been…
Neil Gaiman gave the commencement address at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia last Thursday. “I thought I’d tell you everything I wish I’d known starting out,” he told the imminent graduates. “And that I’d also give you the best piece of advice I…
A group of fraternity brothers from Lousiana Tech University burning their textbooks in celebration of the end of the school year are believed by local authorities to have caused a fire that burned down their fraternity house. According to a report from KSLA News by…
Carlos Fuentes gets state funeral BYU prof calls for rating “for mature content” for kids books New book details how David Cameron “chillaxes” Cameron says he doesn’t chillax that much Everyday words invented by famous authors James Daunt is poised to enter the e-reader wars…
Alison Flood reports in the Guardian that a Harvard Business School study finds that “Amazon reviews are just as likely to give an accurate summary of a book’s quality as those of professional newspapers.” The study, “What Makes a Critic Tick? Connected Authors and the…
Edward Jay Epstein made headlines two weeks ago with a big interview with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, drawn from his ebook original Three Days in May: Sex, Surveillance, and DSK, just out from Melville House and reviewed in the New York Times here. Just days after DSK…
Frederic Mitterand, the outgoing culture minister of France, has written a letter to the EU’s Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia critical of the EU lawsuit against publishers (see the earlier MobyLives report), saying it could foster “predatory pricing” by Amazon. According to a report (in French)…
If you’ve been wondering what to do with that $3.2m burning a hole in your pocket, you might consider investing in a piece of children’s literary history. A.A. Milne‘s former home is for sale — the very one in which his son Christopher Robin Milne grew…
Earlier this week, novelist Charlaine Harris confirmed on Facebook that the next installment in her bestselling Southern Vampire Mysteries series will be the last. The basis for HBO’s hit show True Blood, the books have come out every year since the first, Dead Until Dark,…
The description on the iTunes page for this app tells you what you need to know: “Do you hate turning your neck sideways to read book titles at libraries and bookstores? Or scrunching down as well to view lower shelves? With SHELFLOOK, those days…
