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:
- “Prisoners in Britain denied books, authors launch protest” (Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times)
- Amazon issues credits due to ebook price-fixing settlement. (GalleyCat) I’ve already spent mine.
- A French math teacher uses Game of Thrones spoilers to keep his class in line. (i09)
- Here’s more on the Canadian agency ebook-pricing story — and still more (judge reveals reasons for suspending agreement) (Publishers Weekly)
- Left Coast Crime was last weekend, and here’s a wrap-up. (Publishers Weekly)
- The Indies Choice Book Awards and E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards finalists for 2014 have been chosen. (Publishers Weekly)
- The Hans Christian Andersen Awards and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award were recently awarded. Both are prestigious international prizes in children’s literature. (Publishers Weekly)
- Readmill, a social reading site, was bought by Dropbox and is shutting down.
- Harvard finds three books in its collection bound in human skin. Sounds like fiction, but it’s for real. (shudders) (The Harvard Crimson)
Worth Reading:
- “A Censored History of Ladies in YA Fiction” (Kelly Jensen, BookRiot)
- “They’re Never Just Books” (Martin Cahill, BookRiot)
- “Is Owning Books as Good As Reading Them?“ looks at those piles and piles of unread books some of us have lying about. Check out the comments, too, as there’s discussion about whether owning a lot of books (read or unread) makes sense, and whether it’s hoarding. (Rachel, BookRiot)
- “Out of Body: Reading Gender Through ‘Women’s Fiction'” (Rob Hardy, The Critical Flame)
For Writers & Bloggers:
- 14 Short Story Competitions in 2014 (Aerogramme Writers Studio)
- The Seven Stages of ARCs at On Starships and Dragonwings. Funny and dead on target.
Book Announcements:
- George R. R. Martin put an excerpt from his next ASOIAF novel on his website, and you can read it free.
- Jean Craighead George’s final novel, Ice Whale, has been completed by her children Craig and Twig and will be published by Dial Books in May. (Sally Lodge, Publishers Weekly) George died in 2012 at the age of 92.
- Andy Serkis (‘Gollum’) will direct WB’s Jungle Book. (Hollywood Reporter)
- And here’s the new trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past. OK, I definitely want to see this.
Awesome lists:
- 14 Bookish Posters for Kids (BookRiot)
- World’s 20 Most Stunning Libraries (Fodor’s)
- 10 Literary Facebook Pages You Should Like (BookRiot)
- 10 Best Sentences (American Scholar). Make sure you read the comments; there are a lot of good ones there, too (some of them better than the ones in the article, IMHO.)
- Libraries of the Rich and Famous (BookRiot). This is from 2012, but the pictures will make you drool.
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
Oh, I want to see that X-Men movie. I actually just watched X2 earlier tonight. 🙂
There’s no question in my mind that owning piles of piles is hoarding and I def qualify. And now I’m off to check out the ARC post. *munches chip while patting her books*
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I need to watch X2 first. I’ve seen X-Men and X-Men: First Class, but that’s it. But we picked up several of them when Walmart had DVDs on sale before Christmas, so we should just sit down and watch them!
Yeah, I’m probably a book hoarder, too. I need to prune. Big time. Enjoy your “chips”!