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
- Cervantes’ remains discovered in the crypt of a Madrid convent, 4 centuries after his death. (The Guardian)
- Rakuten to buy Overdrive for $410 million (GalleyCat) Rakuten, a Japanese firm, purchased the Canadian-based ebook retailer Kobo a few years ago.
- Scholastic, AAP Team Up on [School] Library Funding (Publishers Weekly) School library funding has been cut almost everywhere, closing down school libraries, cutting their hours, and eliminating librarians. A coalition is urging Congress to include funding in the ESEA reauthorization.
- BEA Children’s Art Auction to Honor Judy Blume (Publishers Weekly) The auction supports the Kids’ Right to Read project and Banned Books Week.
- Louise O’Neill Wins the Bookseller.com YA Book Prize (GalleyCat)
- George R. R. Martin will skip World Fantasy Con and San Diego Comicon, he announced on his blog. The implication is that he’s trying to finish Winds of Winter.
Worth Reading & Watching
- Boys falling behind girls in reading, higher education – and not just in the U.S. (The Economist)
- Books That Inspired the New Dungeons and Dragons (Forbes)
- Neil Gaiman remembers Terry Pratchett in an interview with Michael Chabon. (See the full hour-long interview on YouTube.)
Book & Movie Announcements
- Terry Pratchett’s last Discworld novel will be published posthumously. The Shepherd’s Crown features Tiffany Aching, Pratchett’s teen witch, will feature illustrations by Paul Kidby. Pratchett finished the book last summer. (i09 interview with Paul Kidby)
- Emma Thompson will play Mrs. Potts in Beauty & The Beast movie – and yes, it will be a musical, with score by Alan Mencken, the original songs, and a few new songs by Mencken and Tim Rice. Kevin Kline will play Belle’s father. And we don’t have that long to wait – it’s due out on March 17 of next year. (BBC America)
Freebies & Bargains
- Over 250 SF and Fantasy books for under $5 (many are under $2) (via SF Signal)
- Huge sale on HarperCollins romances – many are free or 99 cents. (via Herding Cats & Burning Soup)
Awesome Lists
- 10 Superbly Bookish Statues (BookRiot)
- 50 Best Images About B0oks, Reading, and Libraries (ebookfriendly.com)
- Kindle Cover Disasters. Not a list but a Tumblr blog. Some of the worst cover designs you can imagine – often ludicrously bad. (Warning, adult content.)
Bookish Quote
That’s it for this week!
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
I hadn’t heard about the Cervantes find. I love archaeology and have watched hours on the discovery of Richard the III so I’m fascinated by this. Just from my personal experience I’m not to surprised that boys are falling behind girls in reading. Both my girls have always read for pleasure though sometimes more than others but my son hated it. I think at some point he will start reading but not until he’s an adult. Apparently my husband was the same way. I still have hope for the Tornado. He’s loving books right now!
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…Serbian Cooking – Cookbook Review
Lark_Bookwyrm
The Richard III discovery really thrilled me. I’m firmly in the “innocent” camp when it comes to him. Henry had much more incentive to kill the boys.
I have to wonder how much of the “boys aren’t reading” is because we as a society expect them not to enjoy reading, and to prefer more active pursuits? A sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Jess@Fairday's Blog
Look at all those awesome links! I love Neil, so I can’t wait to watch the video! I have so much to check out now- so thanks for sharing all of these with us. 🙂
Jess@Fairday’s Blog recently posted…Author Interview with Karen Hesse
Lark_Bookwyrm
I want to watch the whole video; he did an hour-long interview and I’m sure it was awesome.
kimbacaffeinate
That HarperCollins sale was fantastic. We keep losing so many good authors. Makes me sad.
kimbacaffeinate recently posted…Disobedience by Alvania Scarborough
Lark_Bookwyrm
It was a terrific sale, but very bad for my TBR, LOL! I’m sad about losing all these wonderful authors, too.