Bookninja - Hearsay Archive December 2005

12/14/05:

Göknar on Pamuk
Pamuk's trial for allegedly blaspheming Turkishness is set for Friday. His English translator considers the outcome of the trial to be a 'harbinger for relations between the West and Muslim nations.' This worries me. It seems to me this is only so if the outcome is negative for Pamuk. A positive verdict will ostracize Turkey from certain other Muslim nations and potentially fuel the fire, no?

“Responses from within the E.U. during the trial will be symbolic, too,” Göknar said. “Politicians in E.U. countries could let Turkey work out its political freedoms or they could try to stir up resentment against Turkish immigrants in their countries and fuel jingoism.”

Pamuk's got a roster of elite literary superstars behind him now, too. I hope this helps because things sure look ugly. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Santa in a Speedo
Ethan Matsuda is so worried about the effect of global warming on the north pole, he's written abook about it called, The North Pole is Sinking.

Ethan is a science fan, an enthusiastic reader of National Geographic Kids. He's been reading about global warming and concerns that pollution and reckless use of energy could be warming the Earth's atmosphere.And that, he concluded, could be threatening the ice around the North Pole.

"There's a lot we need to do," Ethan says. "People should be thinking about Santa."

I wish I could find it cute, but today I just find it depressing. Go and frolick, little Ethan. Fly. Fly. Also, forget about Santa. He's at the mall doing aerobics with the blank-faced believers; he hasn't set foot in the north for years, ever since he was co-opted by a beverage company. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Children are instinctive poets...
And poets, ladies and gentlemen, are... well, you get the picture. Can I get a rimshot, please? The article begins:

At the heart of every childhood is a true innocence, the birthright we all come in with, protected or damaged as we grow, depending on our circumstances. The language innocence attracts to itself (as love, in its different way, does) is the language of poetry - rhyme, rhythm, nonsense, beauty, lyricism, magic, fun - and this language spools out from the nursery rhyme to the fairy tale. "Tell me a story," our children say. "Read me a poem."

See, I have a problem with this Blake shit. Thanks for inventing childhood, Bill, but it's obsolete. There are plenty of children without innocence. I guarantee that if you open your front door right now, you'll see at least one. You may not know it, but come on, a little perspective.

Poetry, in its turn, is the most innocent of literary forms - open, risk-taking, unselfconscious, in a thousand and one different ways. On the simplest level, poetry makes us see things differently.

Oh god, don't even get me started here. But the article's still worth a read. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Philip Roth spits in Death's eye
Roth, interviewed. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Groovy, baby, yeah!
More Esquire covers than you can shake a stoned Go-Go dancer at. (From Boing Boing) (discuss) (Posted by George)

Are you on Richard and Judy's list for 06?
Of course you aren't. Other than Barnes, I don't know any of these books. But that likely says more about my reading habits of late than it does about the list. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Newsflash: Harvard elitist!
Even it's glossy magazines. (discuss) (Posted by George)

We regret the error...
The year in newspaper corrections. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Don't bite the nose that feeds you...
Egad. Can you imagine? A lifetime of knowing the nose on your face was not only in a dog's mouth, but in its stomach. That's halfway to its ass! It's like some terrible Seinfeld nightmare. Here's hoping the kid doesn't start sniffing his friends crotches at parties. Or maybe, on reflection, here's hoping he does... (discuss) (Posted by George)

The US government is spying on its peace activists
When will you people take to the streets with pitchforks and torches? Oh, wait, let me just check this database. I think the date is in here. (discuss ... at your own risk) (Posted by Deep Throat)

12/15/05:

Is publishing going Hollywood?
An interesting piece on how publishers spend small fortunes on acquiring world rights to books (Little Brown acquiring The Historian for a couple mil, for instance) and use the buzz to make large fortunes in foreign sales.

The tipping point, such as it is, seems to be the big sale itself, which brings the foreign publishers to the table aggressively and leverages the risks involved. For LB, I know this was true: the book was essentially preordained to be a money-maker for LB at the time they spent the money -- what was not preordained was that the book would work as well as it has in our market (your point about it hooking readers is well taken on that one).
But I think, frankly, spending $2 million for world rights (knowing when you spend it that the foreign publishers are eager to give you a lot of money back) is a far better bet than spending, say, $400K or more for North American rights.

(discuss) (Posted by Peter)

Marvel online
In what may be the next big thing, Marvel is experimenting with digital comics. The interface is a bit awkward at times but not bad overall. I like it. But when did Captain America become a commie? (From Galleycat) (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

A Christmas Carol
The Penguin podcast. (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

Pamuk on Pamuk
In a comment piece in the New Yorker, Pamuk lands right where you'd expect a novelist to land – right in the space between one and the other, simply observing.

As tomorrow’s novelists prepare to narrate the private lives of the new élites, they are no doubt expecting the West to criticize the limits that their states place on freedom of expression. But these days the lies about the war in Iraq and the reports of secret C.I.A. prisons have so damaged the West’s credibility in Turkey and in other nations that it is more and more difficult for people like me to make the case for true Western democracy in my part of the world.

If people are over-dramatising his case, which, after Göknar's views earlier might lead one to believe, it is not for want of compassion. It may be that it looks like an East-West symbolic trial, even though the defendant sees himself neither here nor there; it's a schoolyard dictum 'two wrongs don't make a right,' isn't it? Maybe, there isn't anything to do but stand by and witness. Now I'm going to curl up in bed and weep all day. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Mr Bean is the reincarnation of AA Milne
An obscure and long forgotten Milne has been republished. Oh, joy. Oh, small joy. It's a collection of short stories for adults entitled The Sunny Side. This one The Guardian has published is the written equivalent of a Mr Bean episode. These are great festive tricks to entertain your guests with over the hols. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Sex sells
An uneducated, illiterate Kerala prostitute, who orally (sic) transmitted her story to a social activist has become a best selling author in India; Indian feminists are not best pleased but:

For her part, Jameela intends to continue with sex work as long as she stays healthy, saying she has had more freedom as a sex worker than she has ever had as a wife. "Looking back, I find life as a sex worker more enjoyable. As a wife one has to listen, to always be dominated by someone," Jameela said. "I like being a sex worker. Some become lawyers, doctors. It was my choice to become to a sex worker."

One has to listen. Oh god, how I know. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Digital dreams
Publishers look to the internet as a saviour. I know I've bought some titles direct from publisher websites, and I've been pretty happy with the results. It's still cheaper to get books through online stores, especially when they're offering free shipping and whatnot, but when it's a smaller press, or a press I love, I try to buy direct from the website, if the structure is available. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Wikitannica
Turns out things aren't so bad at the Wiki after all. A study at the journal Nature reports that Britannica averages three mistakes per article and Wiki averages four. Not bad for a bunch of putzes like us. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Discounting Christmas sales
British chain Ottakar's admits it can't compete with the deep discounting of supermarkets and other rivals. It's strategy? Don't engage them in the price war. Hear that sound? It's the Ottakar's stock price taking a dive. Ouch. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Wharton comes across the pond
Edith Wharton's library is coming to America. Expect hijinks to ensue. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Short on reference texts?
How about mixing things up with a Dodo atlas to highlight the world's extinction hotspots. Coincidentally, they coincide with the world's fat-white- men-vacation-here-to-enjoy-nature-and-kill-it hotspots. Oh, and the indiginous-folk-can-only-make-money-by-razing-their-own-land hotspots. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Organize your library online
Bibliophil. Neato. Free. Really neato! (discuss) (Posted by George)

12/16/05:

The year in menaces to free speech
Now this is the kind of end-of-year round-up we need. How about one dedicated to the top 10 political decisions that didn't cause a violent uprising? How would you choose? (discuss) (Posted by George)

That hideous bastard Philip Roth was wrong. Dead wrong...
About religion and violence. See, religion is about what religious people say. And they say it's not about violence. It's about love and sharing and sharing your love with uncivilized folk even if love isn't needed or wanted. And they'll kill your fucking ass dead if you disagree. (discuss) (Posted by George)

That's their gimmick, see?
Gimmicky books suck as gifts.

Why? Because they're so much easier to give than they are to receive. They're so much more gratifying to gift givers than they are to recipients. And the act of follow-through is not often a big part of these transactions. A gift book may be chosen on impulse, but it can confound whoever winds up with it for a long, long time. Here's a selection of this year's offerings, and a guide to which make good company - and which do not.

(discuss) (Posted by George)

Joan Didion
Interviewed about how she's getting on alone. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Lady Chatterley's garter
DH Lawrence's estate is outraged about the release of a line of lingerie named after the famous novel. No sex please! We're British. And, you know, he hated women, right? Wouldn't want to have him rolling in his grave. (The article stole the best headline. Fucking primary source crimping my style.) (From Maud) (discuss) (Posted by George)

Statistics...
Is there anything they can't prove? (discuss) (Posted by George)

And on the sad side of married life...
Sniff. (discuss) (Posted by George)

It's just like Warhammer 40,000
Has fantasy ruined sci-fi? SF writer Gregory Benford thinks it's ruining the whole damned world. Of course, the bloggers respond. Galleycat has it all for you. (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

Heather Reisman's favourite books
And not a Canadian title to be found.... (From Quill) (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

Did Don DeLillo predict the Buncefield explosions?
The Guardian considers the eerie similarity between the recent explosions in England and DeLillo's White Noise. (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

12/19/05:

Intelligent design: the last word
That just about wraps things up, doesn't it? (Thanks, Art) (discuss) (Posted by George)

Guess what? Controversy sells books, sells out?
The author of a forthcoming book investigating the intricacies of the CIA, James Risen, who is also a staff reporter for The NY Times, has penned a NY Times article disclosing that under the Patriot Act, the National Security Agency has been spying on US citizens (guess what? Your e-mail is not private!) on the eve of the act's possible renewal. Across the States, people have their say. And so far, no one, okay The Right, doesn't seem too thrilled with what The NY Times has done with this information -- information that they apparently withheld for a year (inexplicably). According to a book I'm currently reading by Steve Coll, called Ghost Wars (awesome, by the way), the CIA 'was created to prevent another Pearl Harbour. But in the aftermath of a catastrophic war against Nazism, Congress also sought to protect the American people from the rise of anything like Hitler's Gestapo, a secret force that combined spying and police methods. The CIA was therefore prohibited from spying on Americans or using intelligence it collected abroad to support directly criminal prosecutions in the American court system.' How times have changed, lordy Lord. Is The NY Times noble or incorrigible? Have they interfered with justice? You be the judge. P.S. We post frequently from The NY Times and every time we do, I have this sinking feeling. It's not that the articles aren't interesting or pertinent, it's just that I have a hard time respecting an editorial staff that writes the plural of 1970 as 1970's. If they can't even get that right, how are they on substantive issues?(discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

All that learnin' is gonna get him inta some hat wah-tah...
A UMass student who requested Mao's Little Red Book through an inter-library loan gets a visit from Homeland Security. You know, my Yanky brethren, they'll be making movies about this time in 50 years and shaking their heads that nobody did anything sooner... (From Boing Boing) (discuss) (Posted by George)

Cover up
Books sell by their covers, now more than ever. Give the gift of snap decisions: buy based on a pretty cover today.

As we walk into any bookshop for an impulse purchase, we base our choice on the same superficial attractions as a Casanova walking into a singles bar. And all the new places where books are now sold — the internet, the bookshop’s three-for-two tables, the supermarket — are making us even more likely to judge a book by its cover.

(discuss) (Posted by George)

BA: Not what a sheep says, despite undergraduate claims to the contrary...
This article should go over well at our house, which is hostilely occupied by fifty graduating students' papers. You should HEAR how bad they are. I can't get through five minutes of goofing off without Lady Ninja dragging me back to the office to hear how bad the writing is. She's killing me. She's killing my love of words with the semi-literate essays of fourth-year undergrads. (discuss) (Posted by George)

More on stupid books
Following that NYT story on light books, the Globe notes that it also has something to say, but cleverly ups the ante and calls these books "stupid". Oh, so clever and NAUGHTY! And ironic, considering the source. Take that, pop culture! (discuss) (Posted by George)

The death of mass media
Um. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Orange Prize jury chair picked
You remember what Susan Swan said about the Giller's... you pick your jury and you pick the winner. This Orange thing is shaping up to be a real humdinger. You can cut the tension with a butterknife. I feel all tingly in my --- oh, I can't keep this up until next year. I'm bored shitless already. Okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? (discuss) (Posted by George)

Potable quotables for $1000, Alex
The silliest quotes from the year past? Oh, you mean in print... My data bank of verbal indiscretions is much more detailed. (discuss) (Posted by George)

12/20/05:

Taking a break
Okay, little ninjas. Have you all been good this past year? I know you haven't. Don't lie to me, you smart-mouthed brats. I know! I said, I KNOW, MOFOS! You can't lie to me! I know and see all. And I'm proud of you. But now we Bookninjas have to go to our secret hideout in the deep north where we will scheme, drink, and manufacture a line of razor sharp toys and poisonous doodads for all the good little boys and girls who read the site. (Just to make you jealous.. Last night, I unwrapped a gi ft... Guess what it was?! Woohoo!)

We may update occasionally over the next two weeks, but will certainly not be regular. As you might have guessed, I can be a little obsessive about the posting, so there might be a few things up here and there, as time, turkey and tobogganing permit. The stress of dealing with family (as opposed to "dealing" with family) means that each of us will likely spend most of the next two weeks in a slightly vegetative state; pickled, as it were. Ah. Booze as defence mechanism... The great Canadian Yuletide tradition. Why do you Yanks think we're all so pleasant?

But look for a full return in early January with, Santa-permitting, a redesign of the site. Think RSS feeds. Also, keep an eye out for a New Year's gift in the magazine. And don't forget that the Derek McCormack / Seth Christmas Days excerpts will continue to run, just like an advent calendar, right up until the 24th. So, a very Merry Hanukkah and a Happy Christmas to you. Try to love. (discuss) (Posted by George)

HLS story true?
Was the story we linked to yesterday about a student being visited by Homeland Security agents over the borrowing of a book by Mao completely true? The reporter says so, but some blogger-types beg to differ. The realist in me says, what is truth? The conspiracy theorist in me says, smear job by HLS! Black Ops! Black Ops! Bork! Bork! Bork! (discuss) (Posted by George)

Is fiction... wait for it... wait for it.... dead?
Rachel Giese at CBC just thinks it might be. Ah, the insatiable appetite of the arts journalist/arts journalism reader for stories about the death of arts. Time for the old pin-in-the-ass test, sayest I. I'll ring up some novelist friends and ask them to bare some buttock so we can see if any of them are dead. Dennis! Andre! C'mere! (discuss) (Posted by George)

Making the switch
From corporate honcho to cowboy agent.

Mr. Kirshbaum has long been known as a master salesman. And he ended his tenure at Time Warner in character, with the success of "The Historian," the debut novel by Elizabeth Kostova, published by the Time Warner subsidiary Little, Brown & Company. The book ranked No. 1 on the New York Times fiction best-seller list in its first week on sale, a remarkable feat for a first novel.

"That didn't happen just because Little, Brown printed a few hundred thousand copies and waited for positive reviews," he said. The campaign for the book began a year ahead of time, with the company telling booksellers about it at the annual Book Expo America, then sending early copies to bookstores, setting up dinners between retailers and the author and introducing her to the company's own sales force.

After having tried it all, what's left? Do it all again from the other side of the bargaining table. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Dennis Lee: celebrating 30 years of inciting our children to violence
Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break. You. Humourless. Bureaucratic. Robots. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Was is das mit de novel-zingy?
German novels on the rise. Everybody shore up your borders! (discuss) (Posted by George)

The plight of the modern day crime writer
Ian Rankin selflessly says that snobbery stops the lit prize gravy train one town before Murderville. Those damn snobs. They've been one town over from me too for years! Welcome to the twin municipalities of Poettown and Toughshitsville, Ian. Population: you. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Chabon and Franzen in fight on Simpsons set!
Heh heh heh heh. [Dr. Hibbert laugh] No no, folks. It's all part of the script!

The script calls for Chabon and Franzen to brawl during a dispute about their literary influences, and standing next to each other in the recording room, the friends ready themselves for a fight. Franzen complains loudly that he has fewer lines than Chabon -- ''Only 38 words!'' -- to which Chabon responds, ``I see there's a little counting going on in the Franzenian corner.''

But I bet they secretly made some jokes about Tom Wolfe's get-up when he was in the can. (From Maud) (discuss) (Posted by George)

12/22/05:

Anna Porter interviewed
Porter is interviewed by a business news press about her authors, her writing, about Key Porter and about the book business. Finally, someone out there is optimistic. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Remember when kids could be just that?
Another child prodigy emerges. Listen parents and listen up good. Next time your kid does something clever on paper, ignore it. Just once don't say, 'Aren't you wonderful, Johnny.' Say nothing. How is it going to be for these poor children when they enter the real world? Are you going to hire someone to stand behind them and compliment every brilliant business report they whip off? Please, for the sake of the future of the world, get out of your kid's face. I beg. I plead. Make it a New Year's resolution. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Would you like some Greece on your Turkey?
Turkey has charged a publisher with insulting Turkishness. Apparently, the writer of the book, who is Greek and therefore unchargeable, suggested parts of Turkey were dirty. Who thinks up this stuff? (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

12/26/05:

“Editors are noticed by what they buy, not how they edit.”
The changing roles of book editors. Are they even necessary still? I say yes, but no one ever listens to me.

Though editors have slipped to the foot of the publishing scale of prestige, most editors I know are robust in their defence of their craft. Dan Franklin, the publisher of Jonathan Cape, blames the easy gibes of reviewers: “Whenever they say ‘If only the book had been properly edited’ some poor sod has usually spent two years cutting it from 300,000 to 100,000 words.” Modern publishing just doesn’t allow for the time needed to edit a book well. The brilliant and dedicated men and women who spent their lives transforming books and caring whether they were any good, whose work could add significantly to the sales of a book and who usually did it for peanuts, have come to be regarded as superfluous.

(From the Saloon) (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

The literary prize economy
How will we know what's good without the ever-increasing number of prizes to tell us?

The prize system, with its own cadre of career administrators and judges, is one of the ways in which value gets “added on” to a work. Of course, we like to think that the recognition of artistic excellence is intuitive. We don’t like to think of cultural value as something that requires middlemen—people who are not artists themselves—in order to emerge. We prefer to believe that truly good literature or music or film announces itself. Which is another reason that we need prizes: so that we can insist that we don’t really need them.

(discuss) (Posted by Peter)

Amazon Connect
There are so many new publishing technologies and trends that I can't keep track of them. For instance, I just learned about Amazon Connect, a new blogging program.

Shoppers looking to pick up Meg Wolitzer's latest novel, "The Position," on Amazon.com last week found the usual readers' comments and excerpts from reviews. They also found something unexpected - posts on the subject of literature from Ms. Wolitzer herself.
The entries were part of a new program called Amazon Connect, begun late last month to enhance the connections between authors and their fans - and to sell more books - with author blogs and extended personal profile pages on the company's online bookstore site. So far, Amazon has recruited a group of about a dozen authors, including novelists, writers of child care manuals and experts on subjects as diverse as real estate investing, science, fishing and the lyrics of the Grateful Dead.

(discuss) (Posted by Peter)

12/27/05:

Strong opinions? Or cheap sensationalism?
Why are book reviewers getting meaner?

Newspapers and magazines may need to rethink their book coverage—including, as you say, both reviews of books with literary merit and the more commercially viable ones (two categories that do sometimes overlap). But I don't think the answer is to revert to promoting cat fights and name-calling.

Although Carlin Romano's attack on Dale Peck wildly overstated his case, Romano had a point when he took Peck to task for using such words as "crap" and "suck" in describing books. And is calling an author a "jackass" really very helpful? The coarseness and lack of nuance in the language used these days in many book reviews certainly is something to lament.

(discuss) (Posted by Peter)

The top 15 richest fictional characters
According to the Economist. Make sure you check out the profiles. (From 3QuarksDaily) (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

12/28/05:

What a coincidence... 76 is my lucky number...
Well, it is now. Thanks, CBC. (discuss) (Posted by George)

Sittius downius et movius nottum!
Traumatic injuries to children go down during Potter release weekends. But the respite will end soon. (discuss) (Posted by George)

The statistics of success
How did The Da Vinci Code (known in Newfoundland as "The Da Vinci Cod") become such a blockbuster when it should have been destined for the remainder bin (it only had a 36% chance of success, apparently...)? Scientists, those wacky daffy wild and crazy guys and gals, investigate. (discuss) (Posted by George)

12/29/05

Favourite fonts of 2005
Typographica returns after being banished by Canadian authorities with a list of its top fonts. And it's only Part 1. Santa bless them. (From Metafilter) (discuss) (Posted by Peter)

Someone needs to teach Amazon some manners
Ironic it should be R. Crumb. Hey, Amazon. You're supposed to ask nicely before you go and borrow other people's property. Sheesh. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Oh oh oh oh staying alive
Artemis Fowl is to be translated into the Irish language.

“It is important for Puffin to bring contemporary books in Irish to people,” he said.

“There have been complaints from teachers that there aren’t enough contemporary children’s books as gaeilge.”

He added: “I think it is good to encourage the Irish language, it is not about money or profits, it is just about bringing Artemis Fowl to a new audience.

Sweet music. (discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)

Nafisi plans to outdo Oprah
At least intellectually. Uhm, no mean feat.

Nafisi, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University's School of International Studies in Washington, D.C., is planning an international online book club. She hopes it will be "a place for genuine debate."

(discuss) (Posted by Kathryn)