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:
- Elizabeth Catton’s The Luminaries wins the 2013 Man Booker Prize (Liz Thomson, Publishers Weekly)
- The National Book Awards shortlist is out, and The Millions has links to excerpts and reviews. (The Millions)
- “Offensive e-book controversy highlights issues with self-publishing” (Jamie Rigg, Engadget)
- Oxford Reference is offering free access for two weeks during U.S. government shutdown, so if you’re a heavy user of the Library of Congress website, you might want to give it a try.
- “Iceland: Where 1 in 10 People Will Publish a Book” (Rosie Goldsmith, BBC News Magazine)
- “Neil Gaiman novel banned by New Mexico school after mother objects” (David Barnett, The Guardian)
Worth Reading (or watching):
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| A small portion of the stacks in Lawrence Thomas’s basement. (Photo © Mary Winchester) |
- “The Man With 59,000 Books — In His House“ Avid reader and collector Lawrence L Thomas took “There’s no such thing as too many books” to the limit. And I thought I had a lot of books! (Keith Thomson, Huffington Post)
- “Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading, and daydreaming” This lecture by Neil Gaiman is long but believe me, it’s well worth reading. (The Guardian)
- “Fake Writer Girls!” A satirical rant by Jim C. Hines, well known in the SF/fantasy world for speaking out against sexism in that field and generally. Worth reading not only because it’s funny and pointed, but for the huge number of amazing women writers cited in the comments. If you’re looking for good SF or fantasy by authors you haven’t tried yet, this a good place to start no matter what your gender.
- “Books Don’t Want To Be Free: How publishing escaped the cruel fate of other publishing industries” (Evan Hughes, New Republic)
- “7 Unconventional Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Books” (Laura Schocker, Huffington Post)
- “Teaching kids to read from the back of a [biblio]burro”. Luis Soriano runs a burro bookmobile, providing books to children in the impoverished Colombian state of Magdalena. Article & video. (Ebonne Ruffins, CNN)
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| The Biblioburro in action. Photo from the Biblioburro blog |
Literary Losses:
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| Oscar Hijuelos, Miami Book Fair International, 1993. CC BY-SA 3.0 |
- Oscar Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, died last Saturday, Oct. 12, in Manhattan. His works focused on the Cuban immigrant experience and assimilation. His best known work, Mambo Kings, became a 1992 movie starring Antonio Banderas and Armand Assante; the screenplay was later adapted as a stage musical. He wrote a number of other novels, as well as a memoir. Mr. Hijuelos was 62. (New York Times obituary)
Book & Movie Announcements:
- Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall will be filmed for BBC/PBS “Masterpiece”. Mark Rylance will star as the influential Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s minister. (Dave Itzkoff, New York Times)
Freebies, bargains, and giveaways:
- Check out the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop: 300+ blogs giving away everything from books to gift certificates. The link takes you to I Am a Reader, Not a Writer, the originator of the hop.
Awesome lists:
- This Map Shows The Most Famous Book Set In Every State. And there’s a handy list by state, in case you can’t quite make out the covers. (Business Insider)
- Library Reads – November 2013 book list — Librarians’ top 10 books published in November.
- 25 Rare Photos of Famous Authors (Qwiklit)
- What 20 of the World’s Most Famous Authors Were Doing in Their Twenties (Daniel Lefferts, PolicyMic)
- The Most Bookish Teens in Fiction (Natalie Zucker, Bookish)
- The Wittiest Things Oscar Wilde Ever Said (Buzzfeed)
Really cool:
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| ‘The Return of the King’, digital art © Jian Guo, breathing2004.deviantart.com |
- 17 Passages from “Lord of the Rings”, Beautifully Crafted in [Digital] Stained Glass. These works by artist Jian Guo are stunning and intricate.
- Check out these gorgeous photos from The Library: A World History by James W. P. Campbell. Will Pryce is the photographer. (Daily Mail)
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| Mafra Palace Library, in Mafra, Portugal. Photo © Will Pryce, from The Library: A World History |
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.
Bea
I love this feature, you do such an awesome job with it. <3
I see that Gaiman was both rejected (New Mexico) and loved (his talk on reading); that’s probably a normal week for him. His books don’t do much for me, though I do like Stardust, but the man himself is pretty darn awesome.
The LotR stained glass windows are amazing, just lovely.
Have a great weekend!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Thanks, Bea! Yes, I agree that Gaiman is awesome — as a human being and as a writer. There are some of his books I just won’t read, because they aren’t a good fit for me, but I do love Stardust, and I’m looking forward to The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Enjoy your weekend! Now I’d better get back to, you know, actual work. *grimace*
Melissas Eclectic Bookshelf
59000 books in your own home? Goodness….I love hoarding books as much as the next bookworm…but I also love that my local library has free books and stores them for me to boot!!
Bea
I’m skeered to count my print books. I don’t have 59,000 but I have too many! 😀 And yes, thank heaven for the library.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Oh, I have too many, too. And I keep trying to prune down, and remember that I can borrow from the library. But there are lots of favorites I want to own because I reread them (often on impulse). Not 59,000, though — that’s enough to start your own bookstore! 😉
readerholicnotes
Lots of great links this week, Lark. That stained glass digital art is beautiful. And I though Jim C. Hines’ rant was so funny!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Thanks, Jan! I loved Jim’s rant, too, and I’m working on a list of women SF/Fantasy writers using all the names in the comments. It’s gonna take a while, though.
kimbacaffeinate
Wonderful quote, and I love the Lord of the Rings stain glass.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
That artwork is just gorgeous, isn’t it? I need to pin them to my Fantasy Art board.
Jennifer Hartling
I always adore these bookish links! 😀 Thanks bunches
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Thanks, Jennifer! 🙂 Have a wonderful week!
Berls
Awesome links – I just opened up a half-dozen new tabs of things I just have to read! And OMG Lawrence Thomas needs to give me some of his books – to think I thought I had a lot!! Awesome post 🙂
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Glad you enjoyed them — and sorry it took me so long to spot and reply to your comment! (Oops!)