A 3,600-word cover story in the current issue of Bloomberg Businessweek by Drake Bennett focuses on Melville House author David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years, and tells the story of how he and a small band of anarchists helped kick start the…
It’s been one of the more puzzling aspects of Barnes & Noble‘s move into the future: Why are they giving up thousands of square feet of prime bookselling space — the area just inside of entrances, which have the highest sales-volume-per-square-inch of any area in…
One of the more wide-spread stories concerning the occupy movement concerns its libraries. Whether Oakland, Boston or Wall St, many of these “tent cities” have well-organized and carefully curated libraries that are often tended to by actual librarians. The story is popular because it is…
Just went you thought it was safe to go back into the, er, video viewing place, Washington Post book critic Ron Charles returns from a long video-making hiatus with a new one. In this one, he introduces a new product from the Library of Congress.
The New York Times has reprinted author Mona Simpson‘s eulogy to her brother Steve Jobs. She describes how Jobs invented new technologies, even until the end. The “technology” he used to record his ideas, however, was not an iPad. It was a sketchpad. Intubated, when…
E-Readers get heavier… Why read books from Amazon? Thousands lobby over library closures Q&A: W.S. Merwin Chicago Literary Hall of Fame holds benefit The American Book Awards? Occupy Wall Street – the book Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Big in Iran 2011 hardcover and paperback sales down…
We’ve written before — and before that — that Barnes & Noble seems to us to be enacting some kind of end-game, at least as far as books are concerned. Our thinking has been that the company is making moves that are geared toward becoming…
In John Self‘s latest missive in the Guardian, he discusses the idea of “an easy read,” which is defined as a book that is “not too hard going.” But what does “readability” mean, exactly? And is it necessarily a bad thing for a book to…
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has been accused of plagiarism in his new book, according to a wire report from the Associated Press. “Some parts of Opportunity Ukraine bear a striking resemblance to magazine articles, a lawmaker’s speech and even a college term paper” says the…
Transcript of an email interview conducted with Johnny Temple, founder of Akashic Books … Moby: You’re in Frankfurt right now. What’s the thing you’re hearing about the most there? Temple: There seemed to be a bit of a buzz around a young Israeli author whose…
Melville House isn’t known for pulling its punches, especially where politicians are concerned, but even we’ve never gone this far: A brawl broke out in Italy’s parliament yesterday over proposed pension reforms, and the session had to be suspended while the naughty politicians thought about…
Bill Gates book reviewer? Go the F*** to Sleep again 10 Myths about bookselling Kobo to publish books Religious Apps Amazon “threatens future of bookselling” Occupy: the intellectual high ground Bloomsbury profits rise The Page Turner Festival Book Trailers: Fun or function +1 FUNny book…
Amazon‘s stock continued to plummet yesterday, after the previous day’s shattering losses of more than $16 billion, with a “13 percent share-price plunge to $198.40,” which “wiped more than $2 billion off the value of Jeff Bezos‘s stake in the company.” Bezos’ stock had plunged…
BAM opening 41 new stores Apple’s Newsstand success How Amazon makes money from the Kindle Whiting Award Winners In praise of first lines An American Editor Damn the Man! Save St. Mark’s! Disney + Bertelsmann Amazon + the Book Depository Charles Hamm – R.I.P.
Britain’s phone hacking scandal (eventually to become America’s phone hacking scandal?) took a turn into the book world yesterday, when it was revealed that Scotland Yard had notified a publisher and a literary agent that their phones had been hacked by the News of the…
Remember the surprisingly unsurprising news from the New York Times way back in January, that fewer than 15% of Wikipedia contributors were women? Then there was the even more depressing report from the Wikimedia Foundation itself, which confirmed that the figure for editors was less…
“Of all the murders committed in New York City in 1964 — 636, to be precise — only that of Catherine Susan Genovese launched a whole subfield of social science: There had to be an explanation for why 38 people could see the 28-year-old barkeep…
![Truth-Out.org highlights this salient and shocking fact from this Naked Capitalism article by David Graeber (author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years): Given the fact that interest payments alone takes up between 15-17% of household income,[1] a figure that does not include student loans, and…](http://mhpbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Debt-300dpi2-66x100.jpg "1 in 5 dollars ends up as Wall Street Profit")
Truth-Out.org highlights this salient and shocking fact from this Naked Capitalism article by David Graeber (author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years): Given the fact that interest payments alone takes up between 15-17% of household income,[1] a figure that does not include student loans, and…
This is the final post in our week-long celebration of the Return of Derek Raymond. It is also the most powerful. The audio recording below is taken from the final public reading given by Raymond, who despite his failing health delivered one of his finest…
What a day for Amazon: According to this New York Times report by David Streitfeld, the company’s “market cap shriveled in one day by about $16 billion.”A Bloomberg report by Danielle Kucera estimates Jeff Bezos’s personal stock holdings in the company may have plummeted by…
Formerly Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky is approaching year eight of a thirteen-year prison sentence — a sentence that is widely believed to be politically motivated. He’s spent quite a bit of the time writing, reflecting on life in prison and politics in Russia. And…
The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume 2 was released last month; the book reveals what the famous author was reading from 1941 to 1956, along with notes about the novels and essays he sent to various correspondents throughout the years. It shows Mr. Beckett at…
The Fallback Plan is a weekly column, offering advice to those undergoing a second adolescence. It is written by Leigh Stein, author of the January novel, also titled The Fallback Plan. For an illustrated fallback plan of your own, write to Leighstein@thefastertimes.com Dear Miss Leigh,…
Hiding Shakespeare Books vs. Internet Shortlist for DSC prize Occupy London’s Library Shalom Auslander in your attic? Jagger’s reply to Keith Richards’ Life? Joseph Heller Letters up for auction The Golden Age of dirty talk OWS Poetry Anthology Mystery Bookshop launches digital imprint eBook vs.…
Authors ranked by beard weight World Book Night 2012 Operation Warrior Library Michelle Obama to publish her first book Tolkien the artist Harper Collins buys New Market Press Small Demons Murakami Read-a-Thon starts tonight Insult like Shakespeare Boys vs. Girls Will the Arab Spring Transform…
If you’re in New York and for some ungodly reason find yourself in midtown, you might want to swing by The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound on the Third Floor of the New York Public Library. It is here that you can find…
Finally, the New York Times airs a penetrating conversation about Amazon.com that features the most obvious question of them all: is it a, you know, a — monopoly? The Times does so courtesy of none other than our own co-founder, Dennis Johnson, who’s given the…
A black train. The brief selection of audio we have today comes once again from the series of interviews done by Cathi Unsworth (Bad Penny Blues, The Singer) on her former “Dark End of The Street” program. In today’s interview, Cathi is talking with Welsh…
Over on FutureBook last Friday there was a long article about book apps and the future of storytelling. It’s a mission statement-cum-press release on behalf of debut author Nathan Farrugia and his agent, the bestselling author Xavier Waterkeyn. The project they’re working on is Farrugia’s…
