News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Book News
- Man Booker International Prize 2016 Longlist Announced (Man Booker Prize) The longlist contains books from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe by established and debut writers, including at least one banned book. The prize, when awarded, will be split between the novelist and the translator. The Guardian has more information on the International Prize and the longlist entries.
- Barnes & Noble is shutting down the Nook App Store — and the UK Nook Store. (Laptop Magazine)
- Letter penned by Walt Whitman for dying soldier found by a volunteer among Civil War pension applications in the National Archives. (The Guardian)
- George RR Martin denies being dead after Beatles producer George Martin’s death (The Guardian)
- Finland ranked most literate nation (The Guardian)
Worth Reading
“The Bocke of Plaies and Notes therof per formans for Common Pollicie” by Simon Forman
- Handwriting Expert Makes New Shakespeare Discoveries (Jennifer Maloney, Wall Street Journal)
- The White House Wants to Use Science Fiction to Settle the Solar System. Well, sort of. (Andrew Liptak, Gizmodo)
- There’s controversy over Rowling’s use of a Navajo tradition in writing about Native American wizards (The Guardian and The Washington Post)
- Men give up on books sooner than women, but overall completion rates are about the same across the genders, according to a recent study by jellybooks. However, men start and finish books which deal with emotion (like romance novels) in noticeably smaller numbers. (Digital Book World)
Book & Movie Announcements
- St. Martin’s Signs Nora Roberts to a 6-book deal. St. Martin’s Press is a subsidiary of Macmillan. Roberts’ books have previously been published by the Penguin Publishing Group.
- Macmillan Adds 6000 New Titles to the Scribd Library (GalleyCat)
Awesome Lists
- Around the World: Women Writers from Every Continent (Allison Peters, BookRiot)
- 50 of the Best Heroines from Middle-Grade Books (Karina Glaser, BookRiot)
- 11 Ways to Love Goodreads Even More (BookRiot)
- 16 Reasons To Be Proud Of Being A Book Hoarder (Huffington Post)
- 7 Reading Tips for People With ADD/ADHD (Kate Scott, BookRiot)
Really Cool / Just for Fun
- New Snowcapped Mountains and Swirling Vortexes Excavated from Vintage Books by Guy Laramée (Colossal)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Becki @ The Flutterby Room
You have some interesting links this week that I enjoyed following.
Lark_Bookwyrm
I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Rita @ View From My Home
Nice links! Too bad about B & N. I used to use a Nook Color, and I still visit the bricks and mortar stores, was just there yesterday, but I guess they are fighting an uphill battle against Jeff Bezos 🙂
Interesting article on literacy. I was going to guess Iceland if you hadn’t mentioned Finland right away, because I posted a link awhile back that in Iceland they have a time during the holidays where you are supposed to buy books and gift them to people, then snuggle in and read! Sounded way cool. Enjoy your weekend!
Rita @ View From My Home recently posted…Mellow Moment
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thanks, Rita! Yes, I think Amazon has really put a dent in the brick-and-mortar chains, but on the other hand, there seem to be more indie bookstores popping up, which is encouraging. And I must admit I buy some of my print books from Amazon, because I live 1/2 hour away from the nearest bookstore, and I can’t always justify the time and gas to go to the store. But I do buy from them when I am in town.
Charlie @ Girl of 1000 Wonders
What fantastic links! It’s so interesting to see what is going on in the world.
Lark_Bookwyrm
I’m glad you found them interesting. 🙂