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:
- Vote for your favorite books in the 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards
- Indie Bookstores not interested in new Kindle ‘Source’ program which would give them a commission for 2 years on e-books if they sell a Kindle in their stores. (Publishers Weekly) While some stores have expressed interest and even signed up for the program, most remain dubious. As Seattle Mystery Bookshop’s J. B. Dickey told The New York Times, “That’s not cooperation. That’s being complicit in your execution.” Publishers Weekly has more on the program here.
- ‘Library of Congress Names James Patterson Champion — of Literacy’ (Publishers Weekly) Patterson is passionate about children’s literacy and children’s reading.
- The Espresso Book Machine tests the drugstore market in Seattle. (Publishers Weekly)
- Antarctica has a new Poet in Residence (Fast Company)
- Literary prizes:
- Richard Ford wins top French prize for his novel ‘Canada’ (Dianna Dilworth, GalleyCat)
- Claire Vaye Watkins wins Dylan Thomas Prize for her short stories (Annalisa Quinn, NPR Books)
- Matti Friedman wins 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for The Aleppo Codex (Publishers Weekly)
- Jeff Bezos’ wife gave 1 star to a new book about him. (Dianna Dilworth, GalleyCat)
Worth Reading:
- ‘With Fading Memory, Terry Brooks Revisits Carpet People‘ (NPR)
- Margaret Attwood’s humorous poem declining to blurb for new books (Dianna Dilworth, GalleyCat)
- ‘Is the e-book boom over?’ (Sandra Parshall, Poe’s Deadly Daughters blog)
- ‘Confessions of a Booker Prize Judge’ (Edd McCracken, BookRiot)
- ‘Jan Brett and [editor] Margaret Frith Mark 25 Years Together’ (Sally Lodge, Publishers Weekly)
- ‘Amazon Throwing Everything Against the Wall in a Bid to Lure Readers’ (Michael Kozlowski, Good EReader)
For Writers & Bloggers:
- John Green on NaNoWriMo, from a 2009 vlog to his brother Hank (above)
- ‘That’ll Always Be the Dream: National Novel Writing Month’ (Linda Holmes, NPR’s MonkeySee)
- ‘5 Things To Make Your Blog Stand Out From Everyone Else’ (The SITS Girls)
Book & Movie Announcements:
- There’s a new trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (releasing Dec. 13). You can also watch the first film trailer and a teaser.
- ‘Hobbit’ parody to be published by ‘The Harvard Lampoon’ (Maryanne Yin, GalleyCat)
- Scholastic revealed the cover for David Baldacci’s new MG fantasy novel:
Free & Bargain books:
- 30% off coupon from Kobo, good all weekend. Use promo code NOVEMBER30 (may not work in all localities.)
- The Princess and the Hound, by Mette Ivie Harrison ($1.99 Kindle)
Awesome lists:
- ‘The 10 Best Top 100 Book Lists’ (Greg Zimmerman, BookRiot)
- 10 Lovable Things About Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores (Buzzfeed)
Just for fun:
- Word & Film’s Holiday Movie Adaptation Guide is a fun infographic to help you decide which film adaptations you want to watch this holiday season.
- ‘Selections from One-Star Amazon Reviews of Melville’s Moby-Dick’ (Biblioklept)
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.
Greg
I got a kick out of Green’s NaNoWriMo video, and the NPR article was good too. Happy Saturday!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Glad you enjoyed them! Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Things have just been crazy here.
Kimberly @ Turning the Pages
Yesterday Darren (the Mister) and I went to see the new Thor movie and we saw the new Hobbit trailer and it looked amazing! I still haven’t seen the first one but I’m hoping to get to it this week. I’m curious about Baldacci’s MG book since I’ve only read his Camel Club series but I’m liking the cover a lot.
As always thanks for posting Lark! Have a great Saturday 🙂
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
How was the Thor movie? My niece really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see the Hobbit movie!
Bea
I will probably read Baldacci’s MG book, if only out of curiousity. I enjoy both his Camel Club and King & Maxwell series.
I didn’t love the first Hobbit movie so I’ll wait for the second one to come out in DVD. I do love the book though.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I haven’t read any of Baldacci’s books yet, but this looks like an interesting MG series.
Berls
I really enjoyed that NaNoWriMo video – as one of the crazies currently taking on this challenge I totally agree with what he said. I don’t expect to write something that I can turn around and publish come December – but I do hope that by disciplining myself to just get those words out I’ll come up with something worthy of editing for the next year (or so) and potentially publishing.
I still haven’t seen the first Hobbit movie, so I’m not hyped up about the second one – yet. 🙂
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
John Green is pretty awesome. I agree; one can’t write a good book in a month, but one can write a first draft, or at least a good portion of one. One of these years, maybe I’ll give it a try. Good luck to you; I hope you have an amazing NaNoWriMo!