News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, giveaways on this and other blogs, and other cool stuff.
Books & Ebooks in the News:
- Crime writer Karin Slaughter takes on the IRS over self-employment vs. royalties taxes. (Forbes)
- New York Times Book Review Revamps Best Sellers Lists, adding 12 new lists. (MarketWatch)
- An EU Court rules that libraries can digitize books without publisher permission – but distribution is limited to a few dedicated terminals. (Publishers Weekly, based on this news release.)
- The 100 Books Facebook Users Love. More than a list, this article looks at the data produced when hundreds of thousands of Facebook users named the 10 books that have really stayed with them. (Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic)
- Young people really are reading – at the same or higher rates than older adults. That and more information on Millenials’ reading habits and attitudes toward books and libraries from a recent Pew study on younger Americans and public libraries.
- College students less likely to own/use tablets than 10-year-olds. And other results of a study of mobile device use among college students. (The Digital Reader, parsing a study published by Harris Poll and commissioned by textbook publisher Pearson.)
- Ursula K. LeGuin to receive lifetime achievement award at the National Book Awards. (GalleyCat)
- The Man Booker shortlist is out, and it includes 2 Americans. (The Guardian)
- Nook Press self-published authors waiting for delayed royalty payments. (The Digital Reader)
Worth Reading/Listening to:
- Reading Insecurity. Has the digital age really affected our ability to read deeply, to concentrate fully? (Katy Waldman, Slate)
- Accents, narrators and total silence: how you hear voices when you read (The Guardian‘s Books Blog)
- Charting Nook’s Decline (Digital Book World)
- Taking a Long-Overdue Sledgehammer to the Public Library. From tools to telescopes to musical instruments, libraries are lending more than books these days. (Fast Company)
- Go Forth and Re-Read Your Favorite Books From Childhood: A Dare (Syreeta Barlowe, Book Riot)
For Writers & Bloggers:
- 6 Great Apps To Help You Write (MediaShift)
Book & Movie Announcements:
- “New” Doctor Seuss stories? Random House issues a book of “lost” stories originally published in Redbook. (NPR, which also has a link to listen to one of the stories.)
- Broadway adaptation of Of Mice and Men to screen in movie theaters in November. The filmed stage show stars James Franco and Chris O’Dowd. (GalleyCat)
- Radio BBC plans a 6-part adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens (BBC News)
Awesome lists:
- 75+ of Your Favorite Novels Featuring Witchcraft. If you need ideas for pre-Halloween reading (or a fall reading challenge), here you go. (Book Riot)
Just for fun:
- How long does it take to read a classic or popular book? Personal Creations has an infographic which answers that question based on word count and average reading speed. The books range from Antigone (under an hour) to the entire Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin (98.5 hours.) The graphic is too big to include here, but it’s worth looking at!
Bookish Quotes:
That’s it for this week!
I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles, lists, and links for News & Notes, so please let me know if you see (or write!) anything that might be good for this feature. You can leave me a comment or send me an email — my address is on the About/Review Policy/Contact page.
Peggy Farooqi
Excellent Post, so much to to read up on, thanks. I enjoyed the writing tips, I have to say I got Scrivener some time ago for writing and love it.
The Pegster Reads
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Glad you enjoyed the post, Peggy! My daughter uses Scrivener and swears by it. She tells a funny story about her Alpha writers workshop. Scott Westerfeld was lecturing, and he put up a screenshot. Someone said, “Scrivener!” and about half the class asked, “Scrivener???” To which the other half said, in tones of great satisfaction, “Scrivener!” Long story short, the lecture took a side trip into the benefits of Scrivener, and by the end of the 10-day workshop, almost all the students had bought it!
Katherine P
Great News and Notes as always! You find the most interesting articles. I”m definitely curious about Nook’s decline and that college students don’t use tablets as much. Now that I think about it I can believe it as I know my teenagers aren’t particularly interested in tablets. I’ll have to check out the rereading your childhood favorites as well.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Thanks, Katherine! Yes, I have to say, things don’t look good for B&N, especially on the Nook side. And I can see college students not using tablets much – most of them need more functionality and a better keyboard than tablets provide, and with college costs what they are, not many can afford a laptop, a tablet, and a phone. Of the three, the tablet is the least critical for a student.
Rita_h
Great post, always informative! I was interested in the Karin Slaughter tax woes story, the NY TImes revamping their lists, and rereading children’s books at our age. We have an old Nook and it just didn’t hold up well so we have switched over to Amazon books because we are happy with our paperwhite and kindle fires. I’m so glad that younger people are reading at least as much or more than older folks– that’s great to hear!
Bea
YAY, more Dr. Seuss stories! I do love your news roundup, it’s always so interesting and there are usually articles I missed. Now I’m off to check out some of them.
Jan @ Notes from a Readerholic
Great links as usual, Lark! The BBC adaptation sounds great.