New books:
Two weeks in a row and no new books? It’s a wonder the publishing industry isn’t in crisis right now.
Posted on Start Narrative Here this week:
Marginalia:
I’m sure you all came across Laura Miller’s controversial Nanowrimo article during the week. Her argument is problematic, sure, but this section jumped out at me:
“Rather than squandering our applause on writers — who, let’s face, will keep on pounding the keyboards whether we support them or not — why not direct more attention, more pep talks, more nonprofit booster groups, more benefit galas and more huzzahs to readers? Why not celebrate them more heartily? They are the bedrock on which any literary culture must be built. After all, there’s not much glory in finally writing that novel if it turns out there’s no one left to read it.”
She goes on to mention a reading challenge as an example of this, but I’m not sure that’s a good example of celebrating readers. Could it be that where the act of writing is aimed outward (outside of the self, toward an audience, toward publication, and so on) the act of reading is more internal, for the self, without larger social connections? Does that make sense? We aren’t celebrated because we, well, we largely read for ourselves, not for other people. Perhaps that’s why the book blogging community is so successful, because of its diversity, community and understanding that we all read different things for different reasons.
For the budget conscious reader, here is part one of Anastasia’s guide to buying books on a budget, and part two, on frugal ways of finding books to read. She mentions BigWords to compare prices, and for Australians I’d recommend using Booko, which serves a similar function, comparing book prices from a number of online stores and listing them from lowest to highest. And best of all, they also include shipping costs as a consideration. Booko’s saved me many dollars, many times. While researching a title we got in at work during the week on Booko, I discovered that a large Australian book chain is selling the same copy at roughly $70 above the retail recommended price. No wonder more and more people are turning toward online booksellers.
Not to forget the writer’s during this intense month of sustained writing activity, Cate Kennedy offers her 10 tips for writers.
I’ve just finished my last assignment of the semester, so I’m all done with studying for 2010 which means a.) work will be intense until the end of the year with the Christmas rush and store events and b.) lots of guilt free reading time! My reading has slowed down considerably since mid-October thanks to last minute studying, but I think that slump is almost ready to lift and I’m up for returning to my voracious reading habit again. I’m still following my “reading only books I own” goal for November, and I’ve got two special, and highly anticipated, books picked out to take with me for my trip to Sydney next weekend.
