This is a blog post which puts the argument (that is, the argument for 'book books') far better than I could (and there are pictures!):
http://woodgreenbookshop.blogspot.com/2011/12/one-of-my-bookshelves.html
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Book Porn
This is a wonderful site I found earlier.
E-books can never do this:
or this:
There are many more beautiful examples here: http://bookporn.tumblr.com/
E-books can never do this:
or this:
There are many more beautiful examples here: http://bookporn.tumblr.com/
Monday, 28 November 2011
It would only be so long...
until I, like every other online cesspool, would make reference to Pippa Middleton's bum.
Actually, sorry - I mean her new book!
Here is an article on the Guardian Books site today, in which Alison Flood (sorry, Al - normally you're ace) decries the ridiculous advance Pippa recently got for her book on party planning: http://bit.ly/ugb3sX
It's very late and I'm very tired, and as usual there's wine involved, but I'd just like to point something out here. Publishers have to juggle talent and money. Talent and money. Sadly, the two don't always come together. So, when you get someone like Pippa, who they know they'll make mega bucks off, they'll give her a massive advance, just to keep [her] profit safe [with them]. What that means, then, is that they have more money. And what do they do with all this money?
Oh, that's right. Spend it on developing new and interesting authors. Cos, y'know, wealth begets wealth in the same way that poverty begets poverty.
So, sometimes, it pays. Selling out pays.
Actually, sorry - I mean her new book!
Here is an article on the Guardian Books site today, in which Alison Flood (sorry, Al - normally you're ace) decries the ridiculous advance Pippa recently got for her book on party planning: http://bit.ly/ugb3sX
It's very late and I'm very tired, and as usual there's wine involved, but I'd just like to point something out here. Publishers have to juggle talent and money. Talent and money. Sadly, the two don't always come together. So, when you get someone like Pippa, who they know they'll make mega bucks off, they'll give her a massive advance, just to keep [her] profit safe [with them]. What that means, then, is that they have more money. And what do they do with all this money?
Oh, that's right. Spend it on developing new and interesting authors. Cos, y'know, wealth begets wealth in the same way that poverty begets poverty.
So, sometimes, it pays. Selling out pays.
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Sunday, 13 November 2011
How does this happen?
Already, already it is mid-November. How has it been a month since my last entry?
A quick update on what I've been reading recently, to be followed by some choice top tips about the how to behave in a bookshop:
I've just started a book entitled Calories and Counting. It's a history of dieting from the Greeks onwards, and so far, it is amazing. It'll be on the recommends table at work in January (when it is to be published). Profile Books are a super lovely publishing company too, so I'm glad to support them in whatever little way I can. I'm due to write a review of a novel called Q: a love story for Harper Collins too. I really must crack on with that - the novel is good - I never knew that Freud had spent his early career studying eel genitalia - but not wonderful. Not as wonderful as The Tiny Wife, which is a very short work by Andrew Kaufmann, which I finished at the start of the month. I also re-read Lolita and was once again amazed, simply amazed.
Here are some bookshopp etiquette tips in case today if a bookshopping day for you:
1. Customers: it's fine if you buy all your books from Amazon, but don't expect there to be any bookshops in ten year's time. And that's fine, if that's how you want it. But browsing in a bookshop only goes so far, and certainly not far enough to pay the rent. As found out the owner of The Travel Bookshop, a beautiful indy in Notting Hill.
2. Just because I work in a shop, I am not stupid. Have you read Ulysses? Five times over? We can have a brain off if the answer's 'yes', but otherwise, for now, accept that I do have a brain and I buck the 'retail = stupid' stereotype.
3. People who come in and buy the 'Life in the UK' book: I don't actually make the decision. You are all lovely, as a general rule, and I'd let you all stay, but it's not up to me, sadly.
4. Please do not let your kid/grandma vomit/shit in the bookshop. It feels excessive to state that this is not acceptable.
5. Do not assume that because I work surrounded by books that I must have necessarily read them all. Why would I read a David Nicholls book? Why would I read Sophie Kinsella? Why would you assume that my cultural opinions are in some way lacking for not having done so?
A quick update on what I've been reading recently, to be followed by some choice top tips about the how to behave in a bookshop:
I've just started a book entitled Calories and Counting. It's a history of dieting from the Greeks onwards, and so far, it is amazing. It'll be on the recommends table at work in January (when it is to be published). Profile Books are a super lovely publishing company too, so I'm glad to support them in whatever little way I can. I'm due to write a review of a novel called Q: a love story for Harper Collins too. I really must crack on with that - the novel is good - I never knew that Freud had spent his early career studying eel genitalia - but not wonderful. Not as wonderful as The Tiny Wife, which is a very short work by Andrew Kaufmann, which I finished at the start of the month. I also re-read Lolita and was once again amazed, simply amazed.
Here are some bookshopp etiquette tips in case today if a bookshopping day for you:
1. Customers: it's fine if you buy all your books from Amazon, but don't expect there to be any bookshops in ten year's time. And that's fine, if that's how you want it. But browsing in a bookshop only goes so far, and certainly not far enough to pay the rent. As found out the owner of The Travel Bookshop, a beautiful indy in Notting Hill.
2. Just because I work in a shop, I am not stupid. Have you read Ulysses? Five times over? We can have a brain off if the answer's 'yes', but otherwise, for now, accept that I do have a brain and I buck the 'retail = stupid' stereotype.
3. People who come in and buy the 'Life in the UK' book: I don't actually make the decision. You are all lovely, as a general rule, and I'd let you all stay, but it's not up to me, sadly.
4. Please do not let your kid/grandma vomit/shit in the bookshop. It feels excessive to state that this is not acceptable.
5. Do not assume that because I work surrounded by books that I must have necessarily read them all. Why would I read a David Nicholls book? Why would I read Sophie Kinsella? Why would you assume that my cultural opinions are in some way lacking for not having done so?
6. Please do not get pissy with me when I tell you that the book you want is out of print. I do not print the books.
....there'll be more to follow. There are always new breaches of behaviour occurring, and I'll notify you as and when they do.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Posh Bingo
On Tuesday night, Julian Barnes was awarded the 2011 Booker Prize for his novel A Sense of an Ending.
On Monday night, I went to see five of the shortlisted authors (there were actually six on the list but Barnes wasn't there) read from their works, talk about them, and then take questions from the floor (I do like that expression, as though one can 'take' a question as one takes tea or the newspapers). The event was hosted by Tom Sutcliffe, who is a journalist for, not least, the Guardian. The talk was at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, which I mention in particular because it is a fantastic venue. No microphone runners here! All the armrests have little flaps on them: lift them up and hey presto, a microphone. Wonderful. Only at the IET. Also of note is the fact the I met the publisher for the Granta title, The Sisters Brothers on the way in. He complimented me on my choice of bag (a Granta one, naturally) but unfortunately we didn't have time to chat and I didn't have a chance to ask him for a job later. If you're reading this: I was wearing the pretty green-with-sparkles-on cardigan, and I'm pretty sure you spotted me taking notes.
Carol Brich's Jamarach's Menagerie sounded fine, but there was no spark to it; she reminded me a lot of Jill Dawson reading Lucky Bunny a month ago ('The Book Stops Here' post, September). Patrick de Witt (The Sisters Brothers) was sexy and nonchalant and deadpan and aloof and I liked him, and the book, greatly. Esi Edugyan was fine, but hardly remarkable; the same was true of Stephen Kelman (though his novel is, I think, a far greater one than hers). Finally, A D Miller was excellent. Thanks to him, I now know the meaning of 'snowdrop' in Russia: the term is used to describe a dead body that is buried under the snow and is found when the snow thaws. Only from a former foreign correspondent.
So the author bit was all fine, and then came the questions from the floor - hardly the best questions ever, but they were fine ('Have you read each other's books?' is hardly the cutting edge of culture). Thus ensued discussions of 'voice', first person/third person narrative, use of slang, authenticity, 'readability', cultural acculturation and mortality. This final part of the evening was by far the most exciting. And how long does it take to write a Booker-shortlisted novel? On average, two and a half years. Best get cracking.
My little piece above has been less than passionate. To be honest, the shortlisted titles were all so odd that I haven't really engaged with the prize at all this year. I found a first edition of the Julian Barnes at work an intend to buy it tomorrow. A fiscal relationship with the prize is probably the most sophisticated response I can manage. Well, thank fuck it's over for another year.
On Monday night, I went to see five of the shortlisted authors (there were actually six on the list but Barnes wasn't there) read from their works, talk about them, and then take questions from the floor (I do like that expression, as though one can 'take' a question as one takes tea or the newspapers). The event was hosted by Tom Sutcliffe, who is a journalist for, not least, the Guardian. The talk was at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, which I mention in particular because it is a fantastic venue. No microphone runners here! All the armrests have little flaps on them: lift them up and hey presto, a microphone. Wonderful. Only at the IET. Also of note is the fact the I met the publisher for the Granta title, The Sisters Brothers on the way in. He complimented me on my choice of bag (a Granta one, naturally) but unfortunately we didn't have time to chat and I didn't have a chance to ask him for a job later. If you're reading this: I was wearing the pretty green-with-sparkles-on cardigan, and I'm pretty sure you spotted me taking notes.
Carol Brich's Jamarach's Menagerie sounded fine, but there was no spark to it; she reminded me a lot of Jill Dawson reading Lucky Bunny a month ago ('The Book Stops Here' post, September). Patrick de Witt (The Sisters Brothers) was sexy and nonchalant and deadpan and aloof and I liked him, and the book, greatly. Esi Edugyan was fine, but hardly remarkable; the same was true of Stephen Kelman (though his novel is, I think, a far greater one than hers). Finally, A D Miller was excellent. Thanks to him, I now know the meaning of 'snowdrop' in Russia: the term is used to describe a dead body that is buried under the snow and is found when the snow thaws. Only from a former foreign correspondent.
So the author bit was all fine, and then came the questions from the floor - hardly the best questions ever, but they were fine ('Have you read each other's books?' is hardly the cutting edge of culture). Thus ensued discussions of 'voice', first person/third person narrative, use of slang, authenticity, 'readability', cultural acculturation and mortality. This final part of the evening was by far the most exciting. And how long does it take to write a Booker-shortlisted novel? On average, two and a half years. Best get cracking.
My little piece above has been less than passionate. To be honest, the shortlisted titles were all so odd that I haven't really engaged with the prize at all this year. I found a first edition of the Julian Barnes at work an intend to buy it tomorrow. A fiscal relationship with the prize is probably the most sophisticated response I can manage. Well, thank fuck it's over for another year.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
On Comments
Hello Readership
I feel that's a reasonable address. Why? Because I KNOW that people are reading this. I know that because blogspot has a clever little stats thingy, meaning I can see how many people are looking at this, when they are, and where they are too (as in 'where they are looking at the blog' not just 'where they are'. It's not that creepy.). Hell, I even know what browser most of you are using. I know, for example, that at four o'clock this afternoon, 8 people looked at this, the majority of whom were using Firefox.
It would be really helpful if you would leave comments. You may do so anonymously if you wish - but any sort of feedback would be good. If you want to slag things off, that's also helpful, criticism being the mother of improvement, but like any floozy, I'm highly receptive to compliments.
Thank you
xx
I feel that's a reasonable address. Why? Because I KNOW that people are reading this. I know that because blogspot has a clever little stats thingy, meaning I can see how many people are looking at this, when they are, and where they are too (as in 'where they are looking at the blog' not just 'where they are'. It's not that creepy.). Hell, I even know what browser most of you are using. I know, for example, that at four o'clock this afternoon, 8 people looked at this, the majority of whom were using Firefox.
It would be really helpful if you would leave comments. You may do so anonymously if you wish - but any sort of feedback would be good. If you want to slag things off, that's also helpful, criticism being the mother of improvement, but like any floozy, I'm highly receptive to compliments.
Thank you
xx
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