by: Andrew Adam Newman
As physical formats and devices have shrunk, revenues for the audiobook industry have grown, since it is more convenient to listen to an iPod while exercising and commuting than fiddling with CDs. Digital downloads grew to 21 percent of the industry’s total sales in 2008, from 6 percent in 2004, according to the Audiobook Publishers Association.
It is all the more odd, then, that Hachette Audio recently announced that the latest audiobook by David Sedaris, “Live for Your Listening Pleasure,” which features readings before audiences, would be available on the least portable of formats: vinyl.
Reminiscent of Blue Note albums from the 1950s and 1960s, the cover features a photograph of a woman sprawled on a white shag rug with a come-hither look, albums strewn about.
Albums are enjoying something of a renaissance, posting $57 million in sales in 2008, more than double the previous year and the best for the format since 1990, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The format is so rare for audiobooks, however, that the Audiobook Publishers Association has never even tracked its sales.
But Maja Thomas, senior vice president for digital and audio publishing at the Hachette Book Group, said she was drawn to the idea precisely because it was quirky. Mr. Sedaris’s “audience is very attuned to irony and is going to find this funny,” Ms. Thomas said.
The 31-minute album, which will be released on Jan. 5 and cost $24.98, will include only two of the five essays on the CD version of the audiobook, but will feature a code enabling purchasers to digitally download the entire program.
Hachette was less kind to another past-its-prime format in 2008. Upon releasing “Sail,” a novel by James Patterson and Howard Roughan, in a cassette version, it declared it would no longer release in the format and held a mock funeral for cassettes in its Manhattan office.
“We had a funeral for one format, but you can think of this as the ultimate zombie,” Ms. Thomas said. “The record is coming back from the dead.”
From: NYTimes
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Stephen King planning possible sequel to The Shining
by: James Grainger
Last night at Toronto’s packed Canon Theatre, fans of Stephen King were treated to a 15-minute reading from the author’s new novel, Under the Dome, and nearly an hour’s worth of typically funny anecdotes and keen observations during an on-stage interview with director David Cronenberg. Then King dropped a fan bombshell on the crowd by casually describing a novel idea he began working on last summer. Seems King was wondering whatever happened to Danny Torrance of The Shining, who when readers last saw him was recovering from his ordeal at the Overlook Hotel at a resort in Maine with fellow survivors Wendy Torrance and chef Dick Halloran (who dies in the Kubrick film version). King remarked that though he ended his 1977 novel on a positive note, the Overlook was bound to have left young Danny with a lifetime’s worth of emotional scars. What Danny made of those traumatic experiences, and with the psychic powers that saved him from his father at the Overlook, is a question that King believes might make a damn fine sequel.
So what would a sequel to one of King’s most beloved novels look like? In King’s still tentative plan for the novel, Danny is now 40 years old and living in upstate New York, where he works as the equivalent of an orderly at a hospice for the terminally ill. Danny’s real job is to visit with patients who are just about to pass on to the other side, and to help them make that journey with the aid of his mysterious powers. Danny also has a sideline in betting on the horses, a trick he learned from his buddy Dick Hallorann.
The title for King’s proposed sequel? Doctor Sleep.
Perhaps sensing that he’d let the cat out of the plot bag a little early, King then told Cronenberg and the audience that he wasn’t completely committed to the new novel, going so far as to say, “Maybe if I keep talking about it I won’t have to write it.”
Let’s hope King doesn’t have too many interviews booked in the next six months.
From: Torontoist
Last night at Toronto’s packed Canon Theatre, fans of Stephen King were treated to a 15-minute reading from the author’s new novel, Under the Dome, and nearly an hour’s worth of typically funny anecdotes and keen observations during an on-stage interview with director David Cronenberg. Then King dropped a fan bombshell on the crowd by casually describing a novel idea he began working on last summer. Seems King was wondering whatever happened to Danny Torrance of The Shining, who when readers last saw him was recovering from his ordeal at the Overlook Hotel at a resort in Maine with fellow survivors Wendy Torrance and chef Dick Halloran (who dies in the Kubrick film version). King remarked that though he ended his 1977 novel on a positive note, the Overlook was bound to have left young Danny with a lifetime’s worth of emotional scars. What Danny made of those traumatic experiences, and with the psychic powers that saved him from his father at the Overlook, is a question that King believes might make a damn fine sequel.
So what would a sequel to one of King’s most beloved novels look like? In King’s still tentative plan for the novel, Danny is now 40 years old and living in upstate New York, where he works as the equivalent of an orderly at a hospice for the terminally ill. Danny’s real job is to visit with patients who are just about to pass on to the other side, and to help them make that journey with the aid of his mysterious powers. Danny also has a sideline in betting on the horses, a trick he learned from his buddy Dick Hallorann.
The title for King’s proposed sequel? Doctor Sleep.
Perhaps sensing that he’d let the cat out of the plot bag a little early, King then told Cronenberg and the audience that he wasn’t completely committed to the new novel, going so far as to say, “Maybe if I keep talking about it I won’t have to write it.”
Let’s hope King doesn’t have too many interviews booked in the next six months.
From: Torontoist
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Ames library to keep teen sex magazine on shelves
by: Jennifer Meyer
A magazine about sex will stay where teens can find it at the Ames Public Library.
The Library Board of Trustees voted 6-1 Thursday to support Director Art Weeks’ recommendation to continue openly displaying and offering free copies of Sex, Etc. in the teen section.
Trustee Melody Warnick, however, said she agonized over the issue before casting the dissenting vote.
“It is very frank and honest in a way that teens need,” Warnick said, “but I agree with the Bannantines’ complaint … that we’re privileging this magazine over everything else that we have in the library.”
Joyce and John Bannantine presented a petition to the board last month with signatures of 118 parents with concerns about the topic and treatment of the magazine, which is written for teens by teens under the oversight of Answer, a national sexuality organization at Rutgers University.
“It is about this periodical being elevated above and beyond others,” John Bannantine said Thursday.
Sex, Etc. is displayed in a rack in the teen section with about a dozen other magazines. Ten copies for which the library pays $15 are also placed two at a time with information teens can take home without requiring sign-out.
“We’re simply asking that it would not be given preferential treatment,” said Tim Borseth, particularly since the articles can be “very difficult for some to read, offensive and biased.”
However, most of the 15 people who spoke at the board meeting attended by about 40 people disagreed.
“Libraries are not just where we keep the books, it’s where we keep the information, and we’ve believe the information at libraries is factual,” Susan Wallace, a writer and editor, said.
After reading the magazine, Wallace said, “I thought, ‘Wow, this is wonderful.’ It is peer to peer. It is professionally reviewed. I would urge you to keep this publication visible, accessible, open.”
Kate Dobson, a junior at Ames High, said cataloguing Sex, Etc. with other periodicals would make it more difficult for teens to access information they need.
“More recently than most people in this room, I went through sex education,” Dobson said. “I came home from school in fifth grade with lots of questions, and I wasn’t sure where to go for that information.”
Etta Thornburg, another young woman, said she sought out that information from romance novels, but “I don’t want kids … getting their information from romances, because quite honestly, it’s not accurate and it’s not very realistic.”
Harold Ault recalled getting information about sex through “word of mouth and the National Geographic magazine.”
“If it was called Comments on Social Interactions from Rutgers University, I don’t think people would get to it,” he said. But in response to the Bannantines’ fears that younger teens not seeking out the information could stumble upon the magazine, he said, “I had to hunt around the room to find it.”
Ray Rodriguez, a parent and sexual-health professional, said that not only do many 12-year-olds know about sex, but “many of them … engaging in sexual behavior are doing so based on myths … that Sex, Etc. and its articles do a lot to dispel.”
Tina Hopkins, who works in teen pregnancy prevention with Youth and Shelter Services, said, “It would be great if they got (accurate information) at home, but that’s not what’s happening.”
Parent Justine Dvorchak-Rodriguez told the board, “Sex, Etc. can help my daughter deal with some of the questions she may not feel comfortable talking with me.”
Trustee Sherry Meier addressed parents who asked the library to restrict access to Sex, Etc. to allow “the parents to be the parents.” She said they can do that by monitoring what their child is reading.
Trustee Al Campbell, said, “This is a library and this is about access to information.”
Trustee Harry Budd said he read two issues of the magazine, which publishes three times each year. An article in one issue made him a little uncomfortable, he said.
“Thankfully,” Budd said, “not everything in this library conforms with my beliefs and values.”
from: Ames Tribune
A magazine about sex will stay where teens can find it at the Ames Public Library.
The Library Board of Trustees voted 6-1 Thursday to support Director Art Weeks’ recommendation to continue openly displaying and offering free copies of Sex, Etc. in the teen section.
Trustee Melody Warnick, however, said she agonized over the issue before casting the dissenting vote.
“It is very frank and honest in a way that teens need,” Warnick said, “but I agree with the Bannantines’ complaint … that we’re privileging this magazine over everything else that we have in the library.”
Joyce and John Bannantine presented a petition to the board last month with signatures of 118 parents with concerns about the topic and treatment of the magazine, which is written for teens by teens under the oversight of Answer, a national sexuality organization at Rutgers University.
“It is about this periodical being elevated above and beyond others,” John Bannantine said Thursday.
Sex, Etc. is displayed in a rack in the teen section with about a dozen other magazines. Ten copies for which the library pays $15 are also placed two at a time with information teens can take home without requiring sign-out.
“We’re simply asking that it would not be given preferential treatment,” said Tim Borseth, particularly since the articles can be “very difficult for some to read, offensive and biased.”
However, most of the 15 people who spoke at the board meeting attended by about 40 people disagreed.
“Libraries are not just where we keep the books, it’s where we keep the information, and we’ve believe the information at libraries is factual,” Susan Wallace, a writer and editor, said.
After reading the magazine, Wallace said, “I thought, ‘Wow, this is wonderful.’ It is peer to peer. It is professionally reviewed. I would urge you to keep this publication visible, accessible, open.”
Kate Dobson, a junior at Ames High, said cataloguing Sex, Etc. with other periodicals would make it more difficult for teens to access information they need.
“More recently than most people in this room, I went through sex education,” Dobson said. “I came home from school in fifth grade with lots of questions, and I wasn’t sure where to go for that information.”
Etta Thornburg, another young woman, said she sought out that information from romance novels, but “I don’t want kids … getting their information from romances, because quite honestly, it’s not accurate and it’s not very realistic.”
Harold Ault recalled getting information about sex through “word of mouth and the National Geographic magazine.”
“If it was called Comments on Social Interactions from Rutgers University, I don’t think people would get to it,” he said. But in response to the Bannantines’ fears that younger teens not seeking out the information could stumble upon the magazine, he said, “I had to hunt around the room to find it.”
Ray Rodriguez, a parent and sexual-health professional, said that not only do many 12-year-olds know about sex, but “many of them … engaging in sexual behavior are doing so based on myths … that Sex, Etc. and its articles do a lot to dispel.”
Tina Hopkins, who works in teen pregnancy prevention with Youth and Shelter Services, said, “It would be great if they got (accurate information) at home, but that’s not what’s happening.”
Parent Justine Dvorchak-Rodriguez told the board, “Sex, Etc. can help my daughter deal with some of the questions she may not feel comfortable talking with me.”
Trustee Sherry Meier addressed parents who asked the library to restrict access to Sex, Etc. to allow “the parents to be the parents.” She said they can do that by monitoring what their child is reading.
Trustee Al Campbell, said, “This is a library and this is about access to information.”
Trustee Harry Budd said he read two issues of the magazine, which publishes three times each year. An article in one issue made him a little uncomfortable, he said.
“Thankfully,” Budd said, “not everything in this library conforms with my beliefs and values.”
from: Ames Tribune
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Borders Website Suspends Book Sales
Borders has stopped taking orders for new books on its website while the retailer "is in discussion with potential buyers".
The firm said that existing customer orders are also being delayed but will be fulfilled.
The Borders Entertainment part of the site - which sells DVDs, CDs and electrical items - continues to operate as normal.
Some publishers are also reported to have severed links with the retailer.
When customers try to order a book on the website they receive a message saying: "Sorry, title cannot be purchased."
Potential buyers
Reports have suggested that Borders, which has 45 stores in the UK, does not have enough cash to last until Christmas. It is thought it could go into administration if no buyer is found.
Talks with WH Smith reportedly collapsed last week. There is also speculation that HMV, the owner of Waterstones, is in talks to buy some of the stores. HMV refused to comment.
Borders, which also owns Books Etc, has suffered from increased competition from online retailers, such as Amazon, as well as supermarkets.
The Borders chain was originally owned by the US book giant of the same name but was sold in June 2007 to Risk Capital Partners.
Risk Capital then sold it on to the private equity firm Valco earlier this year.
From: BBC
The firm said that existing customer orders are also being delayed but will be fulfilled.
The Borders Entertainment part of the site - which sells DVDs, CDs and electrical items - continues to operate as normal.
Some publishers are also reported to have severed links with the retailer.
When customers try to order a book on the website they receive a message saying: "Sorry, title cannot be purchased."
Potential buyers
Reports have suggested that Borders, which has 45 stores in the UK, does not have enough cash to last until Christmas. It is thought it could go into administration if no buyer is found.
Talks with WH Smith reportedly collapsed last week. There is also speculation that HMV, the owner of Waterstones, is in talks to buy some of the stores. HMV refused to comment.
Borders, which also owns Books Etc, has suffered from increased competition from online retailers, such as Amazon, as well as supermarkets.
The Borders chain was originally owned by the US book giant of the same name but was sold in June 2007 to Risk Capital Partners.
Risk Capital then sold it on to the private equity firm Valco earlier this year.
From: BBC
Monday, November 23, 2009
Libraries turn Arizona Highways into shopping bags
by: Edythe Jensen Old Arizona Highways magazines donated to Chandler libraries are never trashed; they're taken apart and turned into shopping bags.
The practice is expected to save the downtown library's gift shop $200 a year, said shop manager Suzanne Kinsinger. Volunteers transform the colorful magazine pages into bags by using natural folds and taping the bottoms.
Now the magazine bags are bringing more compliments from customers than some of the items sold in the gift shop, she said. The project started about a year ago after Kinsinger visited Seattle where she noticed that city's library had shopping bags made from discarded paper items including posters.
Also coordinator for Friends of the Library used book sales, Kinsinger said large quantities of Arizona Highways magazines are donated to the sales but only the most recent ones and vintage issues are popular with buyers.
The magazine bags are ideal for purchases made from the gift shop's large greeting card collection, although more sturdy bags are required for larger items, she said. Sales at the shop and from the book sales support library programs that include children's reading programs, classes and computer labs. Library Manager Brenda Brown said the Friends group contributed $23,500 to those programs this year.
from: azcentral.com
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Purdue students protest librarian's blog post
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Some Purdue University students have called for a faculty member to be fired after he posted comments online urging discussion on what he called the economic cost to society of homosexuality.
Purdue officials said they would not discipline Bert Chapman, who is the university's government information and political science librarian and does not have a classroom teaching assignment.
Chapman wrote last month on the townhall.com Web site that money spent on AIDS would be better used for other health initiatives, such as cancer or heart disease research, and that the current health care debate needed to address "an economic case against homosexuality."
Purdue senior Kevin Casimer on Wednesday started a petition urging the university to take action against Chapman, saying his comments were embarrassing and detrimental to the school's reputation.
"People have confused what we are doing as attacking free speech," Casimer said. "But freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences."
Chapman, who has worked at Purdue for 15 years and has written three books about the military, describes himself on the blog as a conservative Christian. He says he started the blog two years to express his views.
The student newspaper has published several letters urging the university to fire him. Chapman said he was surprised at the backlash.
"It is sad we live in a time when truly free and open debate on controversial issues is characterized by such virulence," he said. "If gay rights opponents advocate removing First Amendment rights of gay rights proponents, there would be justifiable outrage over attempts to abridge their constitutional rights."
Purdue history professor Yvonne Pitts, who is a lesbian, said she totally disagreed with everything Chapman wrote, but that if the university disciplined him for his views it could chill others in the academic community.
"I would be disturbed if he lost his job because I would fear that my job could be in jeopardy for my activism," she said. "It is really good for students to be having this debate. But you can't call for his job."
University spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said Chapman acted within university policy by including a disclaimer on his blog that his viewpoints do not necessarily reflect those of the institution.
"There are many things on the Internet that would be offensive to many but that are protected by the First Amendment," Norberg said. "The best response is to speak up, which is exactly what our students and some faculty are doing."
from: Chicago Tribune
Purdue officials said they would not discipline Bert Chapman, who is the university's government information and political science librarian and does not have a classroom teaching assignment.
Chapman wrote last month on the townhall.com Web site that money spent on AIDS would be better used for other health initiatives, such as cancer or heart disease research, and that the current health care debate needed to address "an economic case against homosexuality."
Purdue senior Kevin Casimer on Wednesday started a petition urging the university to take action against Chapman, saying his comments were embarrassing and detrimental to the school's reputation.
"People have confused what we are doing as attacking free speech," Casimer said. "But freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences."
Chapman, who has worked at Purdue for 15 years and has written three books about the military, describes himself on the blog as a conservative Christian. He says he started the blog two years to express his views.
The student newspaper has published several letters urging the university to fire him. Chapman said he was surprised at the backlash.
"It is sad we live in a time when truly free and open debate on controversial issues is characterized by such virulence," he said. "If gay rights opponents advocate removing First Amendment rights of gay rights proponents, there would be justifiable outrage over attempts to abridge their constitutional rights."
Purdue history professor Yvonne Pitts, who is a lesbian, said she totally disagreed with everything Chapman wrote, but that if the university disciplined him for his views it could chill others in the academic community.
"I would be disturbed if he lost his job because I would fear that my job could be in jeopardy for my activism," she said. "It is really good for students to be having this debate. But you can't call for his job."
University spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said Chapman acted within university policy by including a disclaimer on his blog that his viewpoints do not necessarily reflect those of the institution.
"There are many things on the Internet that would be offensive to many but that are protected by the First Amendment," Norberg said. "The best response is to speak up, which is exactly what our students and some faculty are doing."
from: Chicago Tribune
Friday, November 20, 2009
Library employees fired over censorship of graphic novel
by: Amy Wilson
NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. — Sharon Cook is either a hero or a villain.
She is either due your thanks for doing everything in her power to protect children from obscenity or she is due your disdain for wantonly taking away the constitutional rights of the people of Jessamine County.
She never meant to do the latter. She absolutely meant to do the former.
It all started in the fall of 2008, and she is still doing it. The proof is in her knapsack, in a bright yellow flexible file folder, hidden from prying eyes. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Black Dossier. It has pink and yellow highlighter tags sticking out, marking the pages that contain explicit sexual content.
It is the Jessamine County Public Library's copy, which she has checked out and not returned. She is being fined 10 cents a day for her breach of library contract — and for her moral stand.
She was, she says, simply appalled that a child could find a book that contained so many outright visually obscene graphics in the Jessamine library where she worked. So nine months ago, she challenged its right to be included in the collection, and when that failed, she simply checked it out herself.
In effect, she removed the book from circulation. She checked it out over and over and over with her library card until a patron of the library, unaware of the circumstances of the book, put a hold on it, asking to be the next in line to check it out.
When Cook went to renew The Black Dossier on Sept. 21, the computer would not allow it because of the hold. Cook used her employee privileges to find out that the patron desiring the book was an 11-year-old girl.
This would not do.
On Sept. 22, Cook told two of her colleagues at the library about her dilemma, and Beth Boisvert made a decision. She would take the book off hold, thus disallowing the child — or the child's parents — ever to see the book.
On Sept. 23, both Cook and Boisvert were fired. They were told by library director Ron Critchfield the firings were a decision of the library board.
Cook, 57, and Boisvert, 62, suddenly got support from people they didn't even know who heard about it on the Web or at church or in the news.
What followed has become a battle of principles that is larger than the women ever imagined.
It has become a question of what public libraries are enshrined to do, what role they are to play in monitoring children and whether they get to decide what people get to read.
What complicates this is that the graphic novel in question meets no standard of obscenity by the law.
While it does contain many images of varied and explicit sexual behavior, it has been the subject of academic study. It was named by Time Magazine as one of its Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007 and called "genius," applauded for its ability to "pluck out the strange and angry and contradictory bits that underlie so much of the culture we live and think with today."
On Oct. 21, at its first meeting after the firings, the library board of directors found they needed a policy for public comment. Fifty people showed up unannounced to tell the library what they thought on the board's recent personnel actions.
Also on hand were Cook and Boisvert, who had prepared a power-point presentation of their case. It wasn't, they say, about keeping their jobs. It was about the fact that they had thought the book they found on the shelves of the library had originally been a mistake.
And the shock, they say, was that it wasn't. (The book had been bought originally because a patron had requested it.)
The presentation was created to explain that the Jessamine library's collection "currently contains material, readily available on its shelves, that is improper for children to view."
Moreover, they say they wanted to warn the library board that Kentucky law prohibits distribution of pornographic material to a child and they are concerned that the Jessamine library could be in felony violation.
They wanted to offer a plan for resolution: Because the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1973 that obscenity could be determined by local community standards, Jessamine County citizens should determine what they want their children to have access to.
They wanted to then suggest that the library change its policy on censorship.
Boisvert said she wanted them to know that "because we are a conservative community, we will choose to have our children protected."
Cook and Boisvert were never given the opportunity to speak. Neither was anyone else in the gallery. The reason given: It was not on the agenda.
People left really, really riled.
Director Critchfield has repeatedly said the library will not comment on personnel matters. The library, instead, has been left to try to speak through its policies.
The one most often pointed to is that any child 17 or under must have the consent of a parent or guardian to have a library card. And no child under 11 should be in the library unsupervised. (Parents choose if their children can access the Internet or if they can check out DVDs.)
Last week, new 81/2-by-17-inch posters went up around the library. "Parents and guardians, did you know?" they blare, explaining the policy the parents signed when their children took out cards and how to review the materials the child has checked out.
The Jessamine library had, before any complaint, adopted the American Library Association's policy manual and code of ethics as its own. (It is also the policy and code of ethics adopted by the state library association.)
It states: "Expurgation of any parts of books or other library resources by the library, its agent, or its parent institution is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights because it denies access to the complete work, and, therefore, to the entire spectrum of ideas that the work was intended to express."
Further, in the ALA's Code of Ethics: "We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representations of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources."
Critchfield has made a form of public comment: an open letter in the Jessamine Journal. In part, he wrote:
"As customers of a public library there is a First Amendment expectation to respect the rights of all persons — what one person might view as questionable might be quite important and relevant to another."
As to the charge about Cook's concern that the library was in violation of the state obscenity laws?
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, acting director of the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, says no U.S. library employee has ever been charged with that in a situation like this. Most states, including Kentucky, have written in an exclusion provision to that law, barring prosecution of libraries and education and scientific institutions.
Cook and Boisvert are not librarians. Generally, you must have a master's degree in library science to merit the professional title "librarian." The majority of library employees do not have an MLS. These paraprofessional positions go by a variety of titles depending on the library system.
Cook and Boisvert do not pretend to be librarians. Cook was a full-time employee of the library for four years before her firing. Boisvert worked 11 hours a week for more than two years before she was let go. Both women live in Jessamine County.
Cook says she consulted with a manager at the library at almost every step in her decision-making process about the graphic novel. She says when it first came to her attention, "someone suggested we spill a cup of tea on it. Instead I checked it out."
She then went through the proper procedure of challenging the book, something any patron can do. That required a committee, including Cook, to read the book.
"People prayed over me while I was reading it because I did not want those images in my head," she says.
Read more at Kentucky.com
From: McClatchy
NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. — Sharon Cook is either a hero or a villain.
She is either due your thanks for doing everything in her power to protect children from obscenity or she is due your disdain for wantonly taking away the constitutional rights of the people of Jessamine County.
She never meant to do the latter. She absolutely meant to do the former.
It all started in the fall of 2008, and she is still doing it. The proof is in her knapsack, in a bright yellow flexible file folder, hidden from prying eyes. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Black Dossier. It has pink and yellow highlighter tags sticking out, marking the pages that contain explicit sexual content.
It is the Jessamine County Public Library's copy, which she has checked out and not returned. She is being fined 10 cents a day for her breach of library contract — and for her moral stand.
She was, she says, simply appalled that a child could find a book that contained so many outright visually obscene graphics in the Jessamine library where she worked. So nine months ago, she challenged its right to be included in the collection, and when that failed, she simply checked it out herself.
In effect, she removed the book from circulation. She checked it out over and over and over with her library card until a patron of the library, unaware of the circumstances of the book, put a hold on it, asking to be the next in line to check it out.
When Cook went to renew The Black Dossier on Sept. 21, the computer would not allow it because of the hold. Cook used her employee privileges to find out that the patron desiring the book was an 11-year-old girl.
This would not do.
On Sept. 22, Cook told two of her colleagues at the library about her dilemma, and Beth Boisvert made a decision. She would take the book off hold, thus disallowing the child — or the child's parents — ever to see the book.
On Sept. 23, both Cook and Boisvert were fired. They were told by library director Ron Critchfield the firings were a decision of the library board.
Cook, 57, and Boisvert, 62, suddenly got support from people they didn't even know who heard about it on the Web or at church or in the news.
What followed has become a battle of principles that is larger than the women ever imagined.
It has become a question of what public libraries are enshrined to do, what role they are to play in monitoring children and whether they get to decide what people get to read.
What complicates this is that the graphic novel in question meets no standard of obscenity by the law.
While it does contain many images of varied and explicit sexual behavior, it has been the subject of academic study. It was named by Time Magazine as one of its Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007 and called "genius," applauded for its ability to "pluck out the strange and angry and contradictory bits that underlie so much of the culture we live and think with today."
On Oct. 21, at its first meeting after the firings, the library board of directors found they needed a policy for public comment. Fifty people showed up unannounced to tell the library what they thought on the board's recent personnel actions.
Also on hand were Cook and Boisvert, who had prepared a power-point presentation of their case. It wasn't, they say, about keeping their jobs. It was about the fact that they had thought the book they found on the shelves of the library had originally been a mistake.
And the shock, they say, was that it wasn't. (The book had been bought originally because a patron had requested it.)
The presentation was created to explain that the Jessamine library's collection "currently contains material, readily available on its shelves, that is improper for children to view."
Moreover, they say they wanted to warn the library board that Kentucky law prohibits distribution of pornographic material to a child and they are concerned that the Jessamine library could be in felony violation.
They wanted to offer a plan for resolution: Because the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1973 that obscenity could be determined by local community standards, Jessamine County citizens should determine what they want their children to have access to.
They wanted to then suggest that the library change its policy on censorship.
Boisvert said she wanted them to know that "because we are a conservative community, we will choose to have our children protected."
Cook and Boisvert were never given the opportunity to speak. Neither was anyone else in the gallery. The reason given: It was not on the agenda.
People left really, really riled.
Director Critchfield has repeatedly said the library will not comment on personnel matters. The library, instead, has been left to try to speak through its policies.
The one most often pointed to is that any child 17 or under must have the consent of a parent or guardian to have a library card. And no child under 11 should be in the library unsupervised. (Parents choose if their children can access the Internet or if they can check out DVDs.)
Last week, new 81/2-by-17-inch posters went up around the library. "Parents and guardians, did you know?" they blare, explaining the policy the parents signed when their children took out cards and how to review the materials the child has checked out.
The Jessamine library had, before any complaint, adopted the American Library Association's policy manual and code of ethics as its own. (It is also the policy and code of ethics adopted by the state library association.)
It states: "Expurgation of any parts of books or other library resources by the library, its agent, or its parent institution is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights because it denies access to the complete work, and, therefore, to the entire spectrum of ideas that the work was intended to express."
Further, in the ALA's Code of Ethics: "We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representations of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources."
Critchfield has made a form of public comment: an open letter in the Jessamine Journal. In part, he wrote:
"As customers of a public library there is a First Amendment expectation to respect the rights of all persons — what one person might view as questionable might be quite important and relevant to another."
As to the charge about Cook's concern that the library was in violation of the state obscenity laws?
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, acting director of the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, says no U.S. library employee has ever been charged with that in a situation like this. Most states, including Kentucky, have written in an exclusion provision to that law, barring prosecution of libraries and education and scientific institutions.
Cook and Boisvert are not librarians. Generally, you must have a master's degree in library science to merit the professional title "librarian." The majority of library employees do not have an MLS. These paraprofessional positions go by a variety of titles depending on the library system.
Cook and Boisvert do not pretend to be librarians. Cook was a full-time employee of the library for four years before her firing. Boisvert worked 11 hours a week for more than two years before she was let go. Both women live in Jessamine County.
Cook says she consulted with a manager at the library at almost every step in her decision-making process about the graphic novel. She says when it first came to her attention, "someone suggested we spill a cup of tea on it. Instead I checked it out."
She then went through the proper procedure of challenging the book, something any patron can do. That required a committee, including Cook, to read the book.
"People prayed over me while I was reading it because I did not want those images in my head," she says.
Read more at Kentucky.com
From: McClatchy
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Toronto private school ditches textbooks for digital books
by: Steph Davidson
Students at a Toronto private school are trading in their textbooks for e-books today.
Blyth Academy, which has campuses in Yorkville, Thornhill and at the ROM, is the first in the world to switch to the new technology.
The move will save students hundreds of dollars in textbook fees, according to Sam Blyth, the school’s managing director. He said students spend about $700 a year on traditional texts.
“It will eliminate the cost of textbooks,” said Blyth. “It’s completely free.”
Each student will receive a Sony Reader Digital Book for the duration of their studies. Required e-books will be loaded every term, and students can keep the readers during school holidays. Students will also have access to free e-books via the Sony bookstore and the Toronto Public Library.
Grade 12 students at the academy have the first 150 readers, and the rest of the student body will receive theirs within a couple months, said Mr. Blyth.
Mr. Blyth said the devices were paid for by “the school and Sony. The school paid for most of them. I don’t really want to get into the internal arrangement with Sony.”
Candice Hayman, a public relations specialist for Sony, also refused to ‘‘disclose the financial agreement between the two.”
from: National Post
Students at a Toronto private school are trading in their textbooks for e-books today.
Blyth Academy, which has campuses in Yorkville, Thornhill and at the ROM, is the first in the world to switch to the new technology.
The move will save students hundreds of dollars in textbook fees, according to Sam Blyth, the school’s managing director. He said students spend about $700 a year on traditional texts.
“It will eliminate the cost of textbooks,” said Blyth. “It’s completely free.”
Each student will receive a Sony Reader Digital Book for the duration of their studies. Required e-books will be loaded every term, and students can keep the readers during school holidays. Students will also have access to free e-books via the Sony bookstore and the Toronto Public Library.
Grade 12 students at the academy have the first 150 readers, and the rest of the student body will receive theirs within a couple months, said Mr. Blyth.
Mr. Blyth said the devices were paid for by “the school and Sony. The school paid for most of them. I don’t really want to get into the internal arrangement with Sony.”
Candice Hayman, a public relations specialist for Sony, also refused to ‘‘disclose the financial agreement between the two.”
from: National Post
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
E-Book Market Rekindled in Canada
by: Marc Lostracco
Remember how Canadians were locked out from the worldwide Kindle launch last month? Well, whatever was happening behind the scenes conveniently got worked out in time for the holiday shopping season, so Amazon's Kindle e-book reader is now being shipped to that primitive backwater known as Canada. The thing about e-books is that they last for weeks between charging, can be read in direct sunlight, and product can be downloaded via 3G networks "over the air" without syncing with your computer. If you want a Kindle, be prepared to pony-up a cool US $259, plus import fees (what free trade?), which, in Canadian dollars, is a little over three hundred smackers. Don't discount Sony's similar e-book offerings, but Barnes & Noble's sexy little nook isn't on its way north any time soon.
from: Torontoist
Remember how Canadians were locked out from the worldwide Kindle launch last month? Well, whatever was happening behind the scenes conveniently got worked out in time for the holiday shopping season, so Amazon's Kindle e-book reader is now being shipped to that primitive backwater known as Canada. The thing about e-books is that they last for weeks between charging, can be read in direct sunlight, and product can be downloaded via 3G networks "over the air" without syncing with your computer. If you want a Kindle, be prepared to pony-up a cool US $259, plus import fees (what free trade?), which, in Canadian dollars, is a little over three hundred smackers. Don't discount Sony's similar e-book offerings, but Barnes & Noble's sexy little nook isn't on its way north any time soon.
from: Torontoist
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
New Oxford American Dictionary Picks Word of the Year
by: Jason Boog
Choosing from a crowded field of brand new words that included "hashtag," "paywall," and "sexting," the New Oxford American Dictionary has picked its highly anticipated Word of the Year: "unfriend."
The term has become linguistic shorthand for breaking off a friendship in virtual space, the end of a social networking relationship on Facebook or other site. It was chosen for "currency and potential longevity," according to the press release. GalleyCat caught up with Rebecca Ford, the senior OUP blog editor, to find out more about behind-the-scene deliberations at the dictionary. She explained the creation of the master list: "They pull in sources from blogs, magazines, books, and give us a list of words that are buzzing in new and interesting ways. We sit around and discuss the list--deciding which ones we think are most important."
"It's my favorite time of year," she concluded. "It's a lot of fun, especially when you come up with a list with a word like sexting on it. When we discuss, you have to decide--do you want to go for the word that is most sensational, or the word that will have the most longevity in the language?"
from: GalleyCat
Choosing from a crowded field of brand new words that included "hashtag," "paywall," and "sexting," the New Oxford American Dictionary has picked its highly anticipated Word of the Year: "unfriend."
The term has become linguistic shorthand for breaking off a friendship in virtual space, the end of a social networking relationship on Facebook or other site. It was chosen for "currency and potential longevity," according to the press release. GalleyCat caught up with Rebecca Ford, the senior OUP blog editor, to find out more about behind-the-scene deliberations at the dictionary. She explained the creation of the master list: "They pull in sources from blogs, magazines, books, and give us a list of words that are buzzing in new and interesting ways. We sit around and discuss the list--deciding which ones we think are most important."
"It's my favorite time of year," she concluded. "It's a lot of fun, especially when you come up with a list with a word like sexting on it. When we discuss, you have to decide--do you want to go for the word that is most sensational, or the word that will have the most longevity in the language?"
from: GalleyCat
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Online "Best of 2009" Book Lists
Over at Largehearted Boy, they're compliling a list of every single online "best of 2009" book lists. The list is continually updated as lists appear onine, so keep checking back to see if something new has appeared. Comments noting online lists that have been missed are also welcome. Check it out here.
Thanks to TOSnob for the link.
Thanks to TOSnob for the link.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Bookless libraries?
by: Steve Kolowich
Denver - When does a library cease to be a library?
What started as a debate over whether brick-and-mortar libraries would survive much further into the 21st century turned into an existential discussion on the definition of libraries, as a gathering of technologists here at the 2009 Educause Conference pondered the evolution of one of higher education’s oldest institutions.
“Let’s face it: the library, as a place, is dead,” said Suzanne E. Thorin, dean of libraries at Syracuse University. “Kaput. Finito. And we need to move on to a new concept of what the academic library is.”
Thorin prefaced her comments by saying that for the purposes of the debate she would be taking an extreme position on the fate of libraries. But her argument tapped into theories about the obsolescence of libraries — traditionally defined — that have grown along with the emergence of Web-based reference tools, e-books, digitized and born-digital content, and other technologies that some see as changing essential library functions.
“The scientists have mostly gone online with their library needs,” Thorin said. “Cutting-edge scholars in the humanities are building new disciplines and online environments are are, in effect, libraries themselves; they are diffuse, collaborative, non-hierarchical, always changing.”
Certain major research universities, she noted, have even begun moving their books to off-campus storage facilities due to space issues and a diminishing need for on-site hard copies. Libraries everywhere are eliminating pricey subscriptions to printed academic journals, often opting for less expensive digital versions.
Despite the objections of “a minority of very loud faculty members,” Thorin said, the days of wandering through the stacks are over. “People,” she told the audience, of whom many were librarians, “the world has changed, and so have your students, and so have your faculty!”
Richard E. Luce, director of university libraries at Emory University, countered that just because libraries are transitioning from print to online does not mean they will cease to be libraries.
“The issue is really about library as place, whether you need the bricks and mortar,” Luce said. “So let’s look at that.” Why did thousands of college technologists come to Educause? “To interact with one another — to talk, to collaborate, to think, to communicate, to be with one another,” he said. “Isn’t that what we do in our best libraries?”
The library still is, and will continue to be, the centerpiece of a campus, Luce said. The history of libraries, he said, has been marked by evolution: They were founded as places where materials were collected and stored. Then they shifted their focus toward connecting clients with resources. Then, with the addition of creature comforts such as coffee shops, they became "experience" centered, effectively rendering student unions obsolete.
“Now, in the fourth generation, we’re really seeing the library as a place to connect, collaborate, learn, and really synthesize all four of those roles together,” said Luce. “How do you do that without bricks and mortar?”
One audience member commented that libraries are defined more by what they do than what they look like. While new technologies might be replacing print collections, she said, they are not replacing librarians — whose roles as research guides have become more even important as available resources have multiplied.
“I think it’s important to look at the type of reference question that’s asked,” she said. “If you look at the READ Scale, which is a tool used to assess the complexity of a question that is asked, the number of directional and simple … questions has dropped, because we’ve provided the tools to make answering those questions easy.
“If you look at the number of more difficult, research-oriented questions,” she continued, “we find it has grown as the complexity of the tools to provide answers to those questions has become more intense.”
Although they nominally represented opposing sides of the debate, Thorin and Luce agreed that while the functions and appearance of libraries will likely change, nobody’s about to tear them down just because they have fewer books and more social spaces.
“Maybe the whole idea of ‘Is the library, as a place, dead or not,’ maybe this is a red herring,” Thorin said. “…Maybe the question is, ‘Who knows what the library means anymore?’ ”
from: Inside Higher Ed
Denver - When does a library cease to be a library?
What started as a debate over whether brick-and-mortar libraries would survive much further into the 21st century turned into an existential discussion on the definition of libraries, as a gathering of technologists here at the 2009 Educause Conference pondered the evolution of one of higher education’s oldest institutions.
“Let’s face it: the library, as a place, is dead,” said Suzanne E. Thorin, dean of libraries at Syracuse University. “Kaput. Finito. And we need to move on to a new concept of what the academic library is.”
Thorin prefaced her comments by saying that for the purposes of the debate she would be taking an extreme position on the fate of libraries. But her argument tapped into theories about the obsolescence of libraries — traditionally defined — that have grown along with the emergence of Web-based reference tools, e-books, digitized and born-digital content, and other technologies that some see as changing essential library functions.
“The scientists have mostly gone online with their library needs,” Thorin said. “Cutting-edge scholars in the humanities are building new disciplines and online environments are are, in effect, libraries themselves; they are diffuse, collaborative, non-hierarchical, always changing.”
Certain major research universities, she noted, have even begun moving their books to off-campus storage facilities due to space issues and a diminishing need for on-site hard copies. Libraries everywhere are eliminating pricey subscriptions to printed academic journals, often opting for less expensive digital versions.
Despite the objections of “a minority of very loud faculty members,” Thorin said, the days of wandering through the stacks are over. “People,” she told the audience, of whom many were librarians, “the world has changed, and so have your students, and so have your faculty!”
Richard E. Luce, director of university libraries at Emory University, countered that just because libraries are transitioning from print to online does not mean they will cease to be libraries.
“The issue is really about library as place, whether you need the bricks and mortar,” Luce said. “So let’s look at that.” Why did thousands of college technologists come to Educause? “To interact with one another — to talk, to collaborate, to think, to communicate, to be with one another,” he said. “Isn’t that what we do in our best libraries?”
The library still is, and will continue to be, the centerpiece of a campus, Luce said. The history of libraries, he said, has been marked by evolution: They were founded as places where materials were collected and stored. Then they shifted their focus toward connecting clients with resources. Then, with the addition of creature comforts such as coffee shops, they became "experience" centered, effectively rendering student unions obsolete.
“Now, in the fourth generation, we’re really seeing the library as a place to connect, collaborate, learn, and really synthesize all four of those roles together,” said Luce. “How do you do that without bricks and mortar?”
One audience member commented that libraries are defined more by what they do than what they look like. While new technologies might be replacing print collections, she said, they are not replacing librarians — whose roles as research guides have become more even important as available resources have multiplied.
“I think it’s important to look at the type of reference question that’s asked,” she said. “If you look at the READ Scale, which is a tool used to assess the complexity of a question that is asked, the number of directional and simple … questions has dropped, because we’ve provided the tools to make answering those questions easy.
“If you look at the number of more difficult, research-oriented questions,” she continued, “we find it has grown as the complexity of the tools to provide answers to those questions has become more intense.”
Although they nominally represented opposing sides of the debate, Thorin and Luce agreed that while the functions and appearance of libraries will likely change, nobody’s about to tear them down just because they have fewer books and more social spaces.
“Maybe the whole idea of ‘Is the library, as a place, dead or not,’ maybe this is a red herring,” Thorin said. “…Maybe the question is, ‘Who knows what the library means anymore?’ ”
from: Inside Higher Ed
Friday, November 13, 2009
My Wrestle With The Reluctant Reader
by: Dean Pitchford
For over twenty-five years I have worked at creating the most compressed form of popular art -- the three-minute pop song. Recording artists, publishers and record execs have always demanded the instantly catchy 'hook', the immediately memorable title. "Please don't bore us," goes the old saw, "get to the chorus!" It was drummed into my head from very early on that the audience for which I was writing had a limited attention span, and it was my challenge to provide them with something ear-catching and infectious. In one hundred and eighty seconds.
Go!
Now that I've begun to write and publish young adult literature, I find that my quarter century in the music biz serves me well... up to a point. I know that I have a precariously short amount of time -- just a few pages, really -- in which I must seize the imagination of a reader as firmly as my songs have grabbed listeners' ears. But that's only the beginning of the battle; for, you see, I have found myself writing for a young readership that comes to me with arms folded and a cocky, "Oh, yeah?" curl on its lip.
These are the 'reluctant readers.'
I'd never encountered the term until my first novel The Big One-Oh was published in 2007, and "...this is a great read for the reluctant reader!" popped up in several reviews. Savvy literary types informed me that "reluctant reader" is industry code for... are you sitting down?... boys. Yup. Boys' reading habits are so specific that they have merited their very own euphemism.
Actually, 'boys' reading habits' is misleading, for what I also discovered is that, by and large, boys don't really have reading habits. The lament of modern educators is that boys at all levels of education are lagging further and further behind girls. Who or what is to blame? Is it the six hundred channels of television? The proliferation of video games? Ubiquitous cell phones? Twittering? Texting? What?
The answer is likely 'all of the above.' The hole in the dike has grown too large for a little boy's finger to matter anymore; the flood of technology is reshaping the personalities of today's youngsters in a way that the creators of the Mouseketeers, Sesame Street and Barney -- whose creations deeply affected previous generations -- never dreamed.
On a recent trip to Japan I was struck by a sight I first observed in Tokyo and then saw repeated in city after city. At the end of the school day, armies of uniformed middle-grade students crowded in and around a bus stop shelter, spilling onto the sidewalk and into the street. But these kids didn't talk or joke or roughhouse, the way kids do (or did.) Instead, they waited for their bus in eerie silence, each of them hunched over a handheld device, ear buds firmly in place, fingers flying. The fact that their school uniforms were snow white added a ghostly, other-worldly dimension to this and the rest of my sighting; tableaux of schoolmates with nothing to say to each other. Schoolmates who weren't making any memories together. Schoolmates who could hardly be called 'mates.'
Those images flash through my mind every time I stand up before a classroom of kids or a book store full of parents and children. I recognize the awesome opportunity I am being given, of actually speaking to youngsters who, left to their own devices, would happily return to... well, to their own devices. I've got to act fast!
Here's the interesting part: in all the years I have written pop songs, I have never faced my audience. I have never met (most of) the people who bought seventy million of my records. I enjoyed my relative anonymity, happy to sit home (or in a recording studio), crank out the hits, check the charts in Variety and Billboard, and then deposit the checks.
from: the Huffington Post
For over twenty-five years I have worked at creating the most compressed form of popular art -- the three-minute pop song. Recording artists, publishers and record execs have always demanded the instantly catchy 'hook', the immediately memorable title. "Please don't bore us," goes the old saw, "get to the chorus!" It was drummed into my head from very early on that the audience for which I was writing had a limited attention span, and it was my challenge to provide them with something ear-catching and infectious. In one hundred and eighty seconds.
Go!
Now that I've begun to write and publish young adult literature, I find that my quarter century in the music biz serves me well... up to a point. I know that I have a precariously short amount of time -- just a few pages, really -- in which I must seize the imagination of a reader as firmly as my songs have grabbed listeners' ears. But that's only the beginning of the battle; for, you see, I have found myself writing for a young readership that comes to me with arms folded and a cocky, "Oh, yeah?" curl on its lip.
These are the 'reluctant readers.'
I'd never encountered the term until my first novel The Big One-Oh was published in 2007, and "...this is a great read for the reluctant reader!" popped up in several reviews. Savvy literary types informed me that "reluctant reader" is industry code for... are you sitting down?... boys. Yup. Boys' reading habits are so specific that they have merited their very own euphemism.
Actually, 'boys' reading habits' is misleading, for what I also discovered is that, by and large, boys don't really have reading habits. The lament of modern educators is that boys at all levels of education are lagging further and further behind girls. Who or what is to blame? Is it the six hundred channels of television? The proliferation of video games? Ubiquitous cell phones? Twittering? Texting? What?
The answer is likely 'all of the above.' The hole in the dike has grown too large for a little boy's finger to matter anymore; the flood of technology is reshaping the personalities of today's youngsters in a way that the creators of the Mouseketeers, Sesame Street and Barney -- whose creations deeply affected previous generations -- never dreamed.
On a recent trip to Japan I was struck by a sight I first observed in Tokyo and then saw repeated in city after city. At the end of the school day, armies of uniformed middle-grade students crowded in and around a bus stop shelter, spilling onto the sidewalk and into the street. But these kids didn't talk or joke or roughhouse, the way kids do (or did.) Instead, they waited for their bus in eerie silence, each of them hunched over a handheld device, ear buds firmly in place, fingers flying. The fact that their school uniforms were snow white added a ghostly, other-worldly dimension to this and the rest of my sighting; tableaux of schoolmates with nothing to say to each other. Schoolmates who weren't making any memories together. Schoolmates who could hardly be called 'mates.'
Those images flash through my mind every time I stand up before a classroom of kids or a book store full of parents and children. I recognize the awesome opportunity I am being given, of actually speaking to youngsters who, left to their own devices, would happily return to... well, to their own devices. I've got to act fast!
Here's the interesting part: in all the years I have written pop songs, I have never faced my audience. I have never met (most of) the people who bought seventy million of my records. I enjoyed my relative anonymity, happy to sit home (or in a recording studio), crank out the hits, check the charts in Variety and Billboard, and then deposit the checks.
from: the Huffington Post
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Acclaimed Colombian Institution Has 4,800 Books and 10 Legs
by: Simon Romero
LA GLORIA, Colombia — In a ritual repeated nearly every weekend for the past decade here in Colombia’s war-weary Caribbean hinterland, Luis Soriano gathered his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, in front of his home on a recent Saturday afternoon.
Sweating already under the unforgiving sun, he strapped pouches with the word “Biblioburro” painted in blue letters to the donkeys’ backs and loaded them with an eclectic cargo of books destined for people living in the small villages beyond.
His choices included “Anaconda,” the animal fable by the Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga that evokes Kipling’s “Jungle Book”; some Time-Life picture books (on Scandinavia, Japan and the Antilles); and the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language.
“I started out with 70 books, and now I have a collection of more than 4,800,” said Mr. Soriano, 36, a primary school teacher who lives in a small house here with his wife and three children, with books piled to the ceilings.
“This began as a necessity; then it became an obligation; and after that a custom,” he explained, squinting at the hills undulating into the horizon. “Now,” he said, “it is an institution.”
A whimsical riff on the bookmobile, Mr. Soriano’s Biblioburro is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve this impoverished region, and perhaps Colombia.
In doing so, Mr. Soriano has emerged as the best-known resident of La Gloria, a town that feels even farther removed from the rhythms of the wider world than is Aracataca, the inspiration for the setting of the epic “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, another of the region’s native sons.
Unlike Mr. GarcÃa Márquez, who lives in Mexico City, Mr. Soriano has never traveled outside Colombia — but he remains dedicated to bringing its people a touch of the outside world. His project has won acclaim from the nation’s literacy specialists and is the subject of a new documentary by a Colombian filmmaker, Carlos Rendón Zipaguata.
The idea came to him, he said, after he witnessed as a young teacher the transformative power of reading among his pupils, who were born into conflict even more intense than when he was a child.
The violence by bandit groups was so bad when he was young that his parents sent him to live with his grandmother in the nearby city of Valledupar, near the Venezuelan border. He returned at age 16 with a high school degree and got a job teaching reading to schoolchildren.
By the time he was in his 20s, Colombia’s long internal war had drawn paramilitary bands to the lawless marshlands and hills surrounding La Gloria, leading to clashes with guerrillas and intimidation of the local population by both groups.
Into that violence, which has since ebbed, Mr. Soriano ventured with his donkeys, taking with him a few reading textbooks, encyclopedia volumes and novels from his small personal library.
At stops along the way, children still await the teacher in groups, to hear him read from the books he brings before they can borrow them.
A breakthrough came several years ago when he heard excerpts over the radio of a novel, “The Ballad of Maria Abdala,” by Juan GossaÃn, a Colombian journalist and writer. Mr. Soriano wrote a letter to the author, asking him to lend a copy of the book to the Biblioburro.
After Mr. GossaÃn broadcast details of Mr. Soriano’s project on his radio program, book donations poured in from throughout Colombia. A local financial institution, Cajamag, provided some financing for the construction of a small library next to his home, but the project remains only half-finished for lack of funds.
There is little money left over for such luxuries on his teacher’s salary of $350 a month. Already the family’s budget is so tight that he and his wife, Diana, opened a small restaurant, La Cosa PolÃtica, two years ago to help make ends meet.
Even among the restaurant’s clientele, mainly ranch hands and truck drivers with little formal education, the bespectacled Mr. Soriano sees potential bibliophiles. On the wall above tables laid out with grilled meat and fried plantains, he posts pages from Hoy Diario, the region’s daily newspaper, and prods diners into discussions about current events.
“We can take political talk only so far, of course,” he said, referring to the looming threat of retaliation from the paramilitary groups, which have effectively defeated the guerrillas in this part of northern Colombia. “I learned that if I interest just one person in reading a mundane news item — say, about the rising price of rice — then that’s a step forward.”
Such victories keep Mr. Soriano going, despite the challenges that come with running the Biblioburro.
He fractured his left leg in a fall from one of his burros in July, leaving him with a limp. And some of his readers like the books they borrow so much that they fail to return them.
Two books that vanished not long ago: an illustrated sex education manual, and a copy of “Like Water for Chocolate,” the Mexican writer Laura Esquivel’s novel about food and love in a traditional Mexican family.
And there are dangers inherent to venturing into the backlands around La Gloria. Two years ago, Mr. Soriano said, bandits surprised him at a river crossing, found that he carried almost no money, and tied him to a tree. They stole one item from his book pouch: “Brida,” the story of an Irish girl and her search for knowledge, by the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho.
“For some reason, Paulo Coelho is at the top of everyone’s list of favorites,” said Mr. Soriano, hiding a grin under the shade of his sombrero vueltiao, the elaborately woven cowboy hat popular in Colombia’s interior.
On a trip this month into the rutted hills, where about 300 people regularly borrow books from him, he reminisced about a visit to the National Library in the capital, Bogotá, where he was stunned by the building’s immense collection and its Art Deco design.
“I felt so ordinary in Bogotá,” Mr. Soriano said. “My place is here.”
At times, on the remote landscape dotted with guayacán trees, it was hard to tell whether beast or man was in control. Once, Mr. Soriano lost his patience, trying to coax his stubborn donkeys to cross a stream.
Still, it was clear why Mr. Soriano does what he does.
In the village of El Brasil, Ingrid Ospina, 18, leafed through a copy of “Margarita,” the classic book of poetry by Rubén DarÃo of Nicaragua, and began to read aloud.
She went beyond where the heavens are
and to the moon said, au revoir.
How naughty to have flown so far
without the permission of Papa.
“That is so beautiful, Maestro,” Ms. Ospina said to the teacher. “When are you coming back?”
from: the NYTimes (originally published Oct. 20, 2008)
LA GLORIA, Colombia — In a ritual repeated nearly every weekend for the past decade here in Colombia’s war-weary Caribbean hinterland, Luis Soriano gathered his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, in front of his home on a recent Saturday afternoon.
Sweating already under the unforgiving sun, he strapped pouches with the word “Biblioburro” painted in blue letters to the donkeys’ backs and loaded them with an eclectic cargo of books destined for people living in the small villages beyond.
His choices included “Anaconda,” the animal fable by the Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga that evokes Kipling’s “Jungle Book”; some Time-Life picture books (on Scandinavia, Japan and the Antilles); and the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language.
“I started out with 70 books, and now I have a collection of more than 4,800,” said Mr. Soriano, 36, a primary school teacher who lives in a small house here with his wife and three children, with books piled to the ceilings.
“This began as a necessity; then it became an obligation; and after that a custom,” he explained, squinting at the hills undulating into the horizon. “Now,” he said, “it is an institution.”
A whimsical riff on the bookmobile, Mr. Soriano’s Biblioburro is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve this impoverished region, and perhaps Colombia.
In doing so, Mr. Soriano has emerged as the best-known resident of La Gloria, a town that feels even farther removed from the rhythms of the wider world than is Aracataca, the inspiration for the setting of the epic “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, another of the region’s native sons.
Unlike Mr. GarcÃa Márquez, who lives in Mexico City, Mr. Soriano has never traveled outside Colombia — but he remains dedicated to bringing its people a touch of the outside world. His project has won acclaim from the nation’s literacy specialists and is the subject of a new documentary by a Colombian filmmaker, Carlos Rendón Zipaguata.
The idea came to him, he said, after he witnessed as a young teacher the transformative power of reading among his pupils, who were born into conflict even more intense than when he was a child.
The violence by bandit groups was so bad when he was young that his parents sent him to live with his grandmother in the nearby city of Valledupar, near the Venezuelan border. He returned at age 16 with a high school degree and got a job teaching reading to schoolchildren.
By the time he was in his 20s, Colombia’s long internal war had drawn paramilitary bands to the lawless marshlands and hills surrounding La Gloria, leading to clashes with guerrillas and intimidation of the local population by both groups.
Into that violence, which has since ebbed, Mr. Soriano ventured with his donkeys, taking with him a few reading textbooks, encyclopedia volumes and novels from his small personal library.
At stops along the way, children still await the teacher in groups, to hear him read from the books he brings before they can borrow them.
A breakthrough came several years ago when he heard excerpts over the radio of a novel, “The Ballad of Maria Abdala,” by Juan GossaÃn, a Colombian journalist and writer. Mr. Soriano wrote a letter to the author, asking him to lend a copy of the book to the Biblioburro.
After Mr. GossaÃn broadcast details of Mr. Soriano’s project on his radio program, book donations poured in from throughout Colombia. A local financial institution, Cajamag, provided some financing for the construction of a small library next to his home, but the project remains only half-finished for lack of funds.
There is little money left over for such luxuries on his teacher’s salary of $350 a month. Already the family’s budget is so tight that he and his wife, Diana, opened a small restaurant, La Cosa PolÃtica, two years ago to help make ends meet.
Even among the restaurant’s clientele, mainly ranch hands and truck drivers with little formal education, the bespectacled Mr. Soriano sees potential bibliophiles. On the wall above tables laid out with grilled meat and fried plantains, he posts pages from Hoy Diario, the region’s daily newspaper, and prods diners into discussions about current events.
“We can take political talk only so far, of course,” he said, referring to the looming threat of retaliation from the paramilitary groups, which have effectively defeated the guerrillas in this part of northern Colombia. “I learned that if I interest just one person in reading a mundane news item — say, about the rising price of rice — then that’s a step forward.”
Such victories keep Mr. Soriano going, despite the challenges that come with running the Biblioburro.
He fractured his left leg in a fall from one of his burros in July, leaving him with a limp. And some of his readers like the books they borrow so much that they fail to return them.
Two books that vanished not long ago: an illustrated sex education manual, and a copy of “Like Water for Chocolate,” the Mexican writer Laura Esquivel’s novel about food and love in a traditional Mexican family.
And there are dangers inherent to venturing into the backlands around La Gloria. Two years ago, Mr. Soriano said, bandits surprised him at a river crossing, found that he carried almost no money, and tied him to a tree. They stole one item from his book pouch: “Brida,” the story of an Irish girl and her search for knowledge, by the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho.
“For some reason, Paulo Coelho is at the top of everyone’s list of favorites,” said Mr. Soriano, hiding a grin under the shade of his sombrero vueltiao, the elaborately woven cowboy hat popular in Colombia’s interior.
On a trip this month into the rutted hills, where about 300 people regularly borrow books from him, he reminisced about a visit to the National Library in the capital, Bogotá, where he was stunned by the building’s immense collection and its Art Deco design.
“I felt so ordinary in Bogotá,” Mr. Soriano said. “My place is here.”
At times, on the remote landscape dotted with guayacán trees, it was hard to tell whether beast or man was in control. Once, Mr. Soriano lost his patience, trying to coax his stubborn donkeys to cross a stream.
Still, it was clear why Mr. Soriano does what he does.
In the village of El Brasil, Ingrid Ospina, 18, leafed through a copy of “Margarita,” the classic book of poetry by Rubén DarÃo of Nicaragua, and began to read aloud.
She went beyond where the heavens are
and to the moon said, au revoir.
How naughty to have flown so far
without the permission of Papa.
“That is so beautiful, Maestro,” Ms. Ospina said to the teacher. “When are you coming back?”
from: the NYTimes (originally published Oct. 20, 2008)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Sexism row over Publishers Weekly's top books of 2009
The industry magazine Publishers Weekly has been accused of sexism after failing to include any women writers in its top 10 books of the year.
by: Nick Britten
Female authors said the choices were further proof that the literary world saw women as “second tier”, and there was widespread surprise that Hilary Mantel, whose Wolf Hall won the Man Booker Prize, was not included.
Lionel Shriver, the female American prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, said the selection was further evidence of the "weirdly retrograde sexual sensibility" that dominated publishing.
"Every time a list like this comes out it just helps to propagate the same attitudes,” she said. "Publishing takes men more seriously than women. Female writing is regarded as second tier; there is a default assumption that men are the heavy hitters."
Claire Tomalin, the biographer, added: "It sounds like an eccentric list and it is a bit odd to exclude Hilary Mantel. In my pantheon, there are lots of very good female writers."
Publishers Weekly's choice spanned different literary genres and the globe, and included both fiction and non-fiction.
Louisa Ermelino, the novelist and Publishers Weekly’s reviews director, said it had "disturbed us" that its list was all male, but said: "We ignored gender and genre and who had the buzz. We gave fair chance to the 'big' books of the year, but made them stand on their own two feet."
Publishing Weekly top 10 books of 2009:
Cheever A Life by Blake Bailey
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War by Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan
In Other Rooms by Other Wonders by Daniel Mueenuddin
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
Stitches by David Small
Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
from: the Telegraph
by: Nick Britten
Female authors said the choices were further proof that the literary world saw women as “second tier”, and there was widespread surprise that Hilary Mantel, whose Wolf Hall won the Man Booker Prize, was not included.
Lionel Shriver, the female American prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, said the selection was further evidence of the "weirdly retrograde sexual sensibility" that dominated publishing.
"Every time a list like this comes out it just helps to propagate the same attitudes,” she said. "Publishing takes men more seriously than women. Female writing is regarded as second tier; there is a default assumption that men are the heavy hitters."
Claire Tomalin, the biographer, added: "It sounds like an eccentric list and it is a bit odd to exclude Hilary Mantel. In my pantheon, there are lots of very good female writers."
Publishers Weekly's choice spanned different literary genres and the globe, and included both fiction and non-fiction.
Louisa Ermelino, the novelist and Publishers Weekly’s reviews director, said it had "disturbed us" that its list was all male, but said: "We ignored gender and genre and who had the buzz. We gave fair chance to the 'big' books of the year, but made them stand on their own two feet."
Publishing Weekly top 10 books of 2009:
Cheever A Life by Blake Bailey
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War by Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan
In Other Rooms by Other Wonders by Daniel Mueenuddin
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
Stitches by David Small
Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
from: the Telegraph
Monday, November 9, 2009
Stacks of Tracks (in the Stacks)
By: Nicole Villeneuve"I probably don't even need this microphone, to be honest!" Frontman Odario Williams and the rest of his genre-bending hip-hop group Grand Analog launched the Toronto Public Library's current Make Some Noise series straight from the kids' section of the College/Shaw branch last night, and the alternative venue proved a somehow very fitting setting for an affair that's typically relegated to dark clubs at late hours that no adorable two-year-old would ever be able to attend.
Ranked somewhere after malls, the internet, multi-theatre complexes in the suburbs on weekends, and basically anywhere else, libraries haven't exactly made a name for themselves as a top choice for teenagers to hang out and be really cool together. Make Some Noise launched four years ago as both an effort to document and preserve the country's recent historical musical output by stacking the TPL's music library with the cream of the indie crop, and to engage teens in library and music culture by providing them with more all-ages show options, and broadening their musical scope. The TPL's youth collections librarian Lisa Heggum masterminded the project, and so far, the response from borrowers and artists has been encouraging. "[It's been received] very well. People are placing holds and borrowing the CDs, and the city's music community really seems to love the project. Artists we approach are almost always enthusiastic, and we're often approached by members of the industry who'd like to participate."
One of those eager participants is Soundscapes, the community-friendly record store turned coolness consultants. "Soundscapes has been involved since the very beginning," Heggum says. "Working with them helps make this project the success that it is. Not only do they offer their expertise, professionalism, and organizational skills in helping us build our music collection, but they also offer advice and assistance with the events side of things." Heggum strongly believes in this mutual support, both in the community, and in the stacks. "I don't see why we should favour one format over the other. Our music collection demonstrates the library’s commitment to the local music scene in much the same way our collection of local and Canadian fiction demonstrates our commitment to the local literary scene."
Make Some Noise has branched further into the music scene this year; along with the usual library shows with high-profile artists, there will be information sessions with, among others, Steve Jordan, the founder and executive director of the Canadian indie music mecca, Polaris Prize. "Giving young people a chance to interact with local musicians and industry professionals and explore various topics [gives them] an overall excitement about the possibilities. Another area I'd like to see us become more involved in is local filmmaking. We attempt to keep in touch with those in the know and respond accordingly, and we plan to continue to listen to the community and try new things."
For Heggum, daily validation for her efforts so far can be found right at home. "My two-year-old son is wild about the Sadies' record with John Doe. He requests it repeatedly. It's amazing that I'm not sick of it yet."
Make Some Noise runs until December 1. The next show features the totally library-appropriate Bruce Peninsula and Timber Timbre on Saturday November 7 (that's tomorrow!) at 8 p.m. at the North York Central Library branch (5120 Yonge Street; it's not that scary, it's right at the North York Centre subway!). The full schedule of shows and workshops can be found on the Make Some Noise site. All shows are free and open to all ages. Two-year-olds are encouraged to attend.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Brokeback author donates papers
Brokeback Mountain author Annie Proulx is donating her papers - including an early draft of the short story - to New York's public library.
The 74-year-old, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News, will give a wealth of material including diaries and manuscripts to the institution.
Proulx said there was "an odd sense of balance" bringing her rural US material to the big city.
The 2005 big screen version of Brokeback Mountain won three Oscars.
One of the statuettes was for the adaptation of Proulx's original story.
Early versions of the cowboy romance which will be housed in the library had working titles including Bulldust Mountain and Swill-Swallow Mountain.
Proulx added that it would be an "honour" to be in the company of authors including Walt Whitman and Mark Twain, whose papers are already housed in the library.
from: BBC
The 74-year-old, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News, will give a wealth of material including diaries and manuscripts to the institution.
Proulx said there was "an odd sense of balance" bringing her rural US material to the big city.
The 2005 big screen version of Brokeback Mountain won three Oscars.
One of the statuettes was for the adaptation of Proulx's original story.
Early versions of the cowboy romance which will be housed in the library had working titles including Bulldust Mountain and Swill-Swallow Mountain.
Proulx added that it would be an "honour" to be in the company of authors including Walt Whitman and Mark Twain, whose papers are already housed in the library.
from: BBC
Friday, November 6, 2009
5 reasons why the novel is not a dying medium
by: JK Evanczuk
Since starting Lit Drift, I’ve gotten used to reading a lot of doom-and-gloom opinion pieces about the death of the publishing industry. I’ve read predictions that the paperbound book will be totally replaced by digital books within the decade, or that we’ll all stop buying books and forget how to read, and so on. Most of it I’ve taken with a grain brick of salt, because I think at this point in our current techno-literary revolution it is far too early to tell where we’ll be in five–let alone ten–years.
Still, I can’t shake my anxiety after reading this recent article from The Guardian, in which Philip Roth–one of my favorite writers–says that the novel will be a “cult minority” in 25 years. He attributes the decline of the novel to the popularity of film, TV, and computers. It’s not the first time I’ve heard claims like this. But it’s unnerving to hear it from Philip Roth.
Roth continues:
“The book can’t compete with the screen. It couldn’t compete [in the] beginning with the movie screen. It couldn’t compete with the television screen, and it can’t compete with the computer screen,” Roth said. “Now we have all those screens, so against all those screens a book couldn’t measure up.”
Maybe I’ve been living in a shiny happy non-reality for the last two decades, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. So as much as I love Philip Roth, I have to respectfully disagree.
I have a feeling literature is going to be just fine in the digital age. Here is my reasoning:
#1The media predicted the death of the book upon the advent of radio, and then again with film, and then again with television. It’s happening once more with the rise of the computer and the Internet. It’s possible that this time things are different. Anything’s possible. But based solely on literature’s perseverance throughout the last century, I’m optimistic about literature’s survival.
#2The media has predicted that the Internet would turn us into a bunch of drooling, snarky drones who couldn’t care less about grammar or spelling. But as we’ve said before, people are–on the contrary–becoming increasingly literate thanks to the Internet.
#3Roth says that people can’t concentrate long enough to finish an entire novel, but I don’t think that’s an issue. If you can spend ten hours on Facebook, you can spend two hours reading a book. If you can spend ten hours reading your favorite blogs, you most definitely have the attention span required to spend two hours reading a book.
#4What with innovative techno-literary projects like Neil Gaiman’s crowdsourced Twitter story or Colson Whitehead’s multi-part Internet novel, I think the Internet is proving to be an asset to fiction rather than a hindrance. It’s bringing literature back to the masses. I can’t think of any other time in history when fiction has been so dynamic and interesting than right now.
#5Although Roth says that the Kindle doesn’t make a difference in people’s reading habits, I think it does. Despite my own qualms about losing the experience of reading a paperbound book, the Kindle and other digital readers do satisfy our need for instant gratification. We are a lazy species, and maybe without digital readers many people couldn’t be bothered to make the effort to get a book from the bookstore or the library. But thanks to digital readers we can browse, buy, and read new books all in the span of just a few clicks.
So is the novel really a dying medium? Good God, I hope not. I have yet to publish my first novel, and when it finally comes out I want people to, you know, read it. Things are just changing so fast right now that I think it’s difficult to make any well-informed predictions about where we’ll be in the near future. I think the best thing we can do right now is to sit back, watch what happens, and keep reading.
from: LitDrift
Since starting Lit Drift, I’ve gotten used to reading a lot of doom-and-gloom opinion pieces about the death of the publishing industry. I’ve read predictions that the paperbound book will be totally replaced by digital books within the decade, or that we’ll all stop buying books and forget how to read, and so on. Most of it I’ve taken with a grain brick of salt, because I think at this point in our current techno-literary revolution it is far too early to tell where we’ll be in five–let alone ten–years.
Still, I can’t shake my anxiety after reading this recent article from The Guardian, in which Philip Roth–one of my favorite writers–says that the novel will be a “cult minority” in 25 years. He attributes the decline of the novel to the popularity of film, TV, and computers. It’s not the first time I’ve heard claims like this. But it’s unnerving to hear it from Philip Roth.
Roth continues:
“The book can’t compete with the screen. It couldn’t compete [in the] beginning with the movie screen. It couldn’t compete with the television screen, and it can’t compete with the computer screen,” Roth said. “Now we have all those screens, so against all those screens a book couldn’t measure up.”
Maybe I’ve been living in a shiny happy non-reality for the last two decades, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. So as much as I love Philip Roth, I have to respectfully disagree.
I have a feeling literature is going to be just fine in the digital age. Here is my reasoning:
#1The media predicted the death of the book upon the advent of radio, and then again with film, and then again with television. It’s happening once more with the rise of the computer and the Internet. It’s possible that this time things are different. Anything’s possible. But based solely on literature’s perseverance throughout the last century, I’m optimistic about literature’s survival.
#2The media has predicted that the Internet would turn us into a bunch of drooling, snarky drones who couldn’t care less about grammar or spelling. But as we’ve said before, people are–on the contrary–becoming increasingly literate thanks to the Internet.
#3Roth says that people can’t concentrate long enough to finish an entire novel, but I don’t think that’s an issue. If you can spend ten hours on Facebook, you can spend two hours reading a book. If you can spend ten hours reading your favorite blogs, you most definitely have the attention span required to spend two hours reading a book.
#4What with innovative techno-literary projects like Neil Gaiman’s crowdsourced Twitter story or Colson Whitehead’s multi-part Internet novel, I think the Internet is proving to be an asset to fiction rather than a hindrance. It’s bringing literature back to the masses. I can’t think of any other time in history when fiction has been so dynamic and interesting than right now.
#5Although Roth says that the Kindle doesn’t make a difference in people’s reading habits, I think it does. Despite my own qualms about losing the experience of reading a paperbound book, the Kindle and other digital readers do satisfy our need for instant gratification. We are a lazy species, and maybe without digital readers many people couldn’t be bothered to make the effort to get a book from the bookstore or the library. But thanks to digital readers we can browse, buy, and read new books all in the span of just a few clicks.
So is the novel really a dying medium? Good God, I hope not. I have yet to publish my first novel, and when it finally comes out I want people to, you know, read it. Things are just changing so fast right now that I think it’s difficult to make any well-informed predictions about where we’ll be in the near future. I think the best thing we can do right now is to sit back, watch what happens, and keep reading.
from: LitDrift
Thursday, November 5, 2009
More about Stieg Larsson
Wondering how it's possible that Stieg Larsson is still publishing new works of fiction even though he died five years ago? Check out the official website www.stieglarsson.com.
Family of Steig Larsson at war over book proceeds
The family of Steig Larsson, the Swedish crime writer who died five years ago, are engaged in a bitter fight over the proceeds from the sale of his books.
Larsson, who was largely unknown before his sudden death at age 50, has become one of the most successful writers in the world, selling 20 million of his books to date in Europe alone. Last year he was the world's second best selling author after Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, and his estate is thought to be worth more than £20m.
But because he and Eva Gabrielsson, his partner of 32 years, never married and he died without making a will, the proceeds have defaulted to his blood relations, provoking controversy in Sweden and displeasure from Gabrielsson, the Guardian reports.
Erland and Joakim Larsson, the author's father and brother, this week made Ms Gabrielsson a public offer of £1.75m to settle the dispute, telling the Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet, "We have to move on." Ms Gabrielsson's response was curt: "You don't solve these things via media. It is so low. My lawyer will have to answer any further questions."
She has previously accused the Larsson family of seeking to "make money from someone who can't defend himself", saying it would make her partner "absolutely furious", and accusing Erland and Joakim of not being part of Stieg's life while he was alive.
But Erland Larsson said it was he who had insisted that his son write "something commercial", and that the Millennium trilogy, the third title of which was published in Britain last month as The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, was the result. Gabrielsson, he said, had resisted moves to come to a settlement.
From: the Telegraph
Larsson, who was largely unknown before his sudden death at age 50, has become one of the most successful writers in the world, selling 20 million of his books to date in Europe alone. Last year he was the world's second best selling author after Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, and his estate is thought to be worth more than £20m.
But because he and Eva Gabrielsson, his partner of 32 years, never married and he died without making a will, the proceeds have defaulted to his blood relations, provoking controversy in Sweden and displeasure from Gabrielsson, the Guardian reports.
Erland and Joakim Larsson, the author's father and brother, this week made Ms Gabrielsson a public offer of £1.75m to settle the dispute, telling the Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet, "We have to move on." Ms Gabrielsson's response was curt: "You don't solve these things via media. It is so low. My lawyer will have to answer any further questions."
She has previously accused the Larsson family of seeking to "make money from someone who can't defend himself", saying it would make her partner "absolutely furious", and accusing Erland and Joakim of not being part of Stieg's life while he was alive.
But Erland Larsson said it was he who had insisted that his son write "something commercial", and that the Millennium trilogy, the third title of which was published in Britain last month as The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, was the result. Gabrielsson, he said, had resisted moves to come to a settlement.
From: the Telegraph
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Stephen King writes debut comic book
Novelist sinks teeth into graphic storytelling with American Vampire series.
by: Alison Flood
Stephen King is the latest mainstream author to turn to comics with a new series about a distinctly American vampire, powered by the sun, set to launch next spring.
Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin and twist-in-the-tale novelist Jodi Picoult have both recently dabbled with comics, but although his bestselling books The Stand, The Talisman and the Dark Tower series have been adapted into graphic novels, the American Vampire series will be the first original comic-book writing King has done.
The five-book arc will tell the story of the first American vampire, the murderous, bank-robbing 1880s cowboy Skinner Sweet. His Wild West origins mean he has rattlesnake fangs, and unlike European vampires he is powered by the sun. The series was dreamed up by short story writer Scott Snyder, who approached King for a blurb only to find the bestselling author was keen to get involved himself.
"I love vampire stories, and the idea of following the dark exploits of a uniquely American vampire really lit up my imagination. The chance to do the origin story – to be 'present at the creation' – was a thrill," said King. "I owe big thanks to Scott Snyder for letting me share his vision, and sip from his bucket of blood."
Snyder's storyline will follow the adventures of Skinner's Jazz Age descendent Pearl, a frequenter of Hollywood's speakeasies and dance halls who dreams of becoming a star. Each of the first five issues will feature both Snyder and King's stories, with the ongoing series by Snyder and artist Rafael Albuquerque to trace the histories of Skinner's descendants in different periods of American history. The American Vampire series will be published monthly by Vertigo from March 2010.
From: the Guardian
by: Alison Flood
Stephen King is the latest mainstream author to turn to comics with a new series about a distinctly American vampire, powered by the sun, set to launch next spring.
Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin and twist-in-the-tale novelist Jodi Picoult have both recently dabbled with comics, but although his bestselling books The Stand, The Talisman and the Dark Tower series have been adapted into graphic novels, the American Vampire series will be the first original comic-book writing King has done.
The five-book arc will tell the story of the first American vampire, the murderous, bank-robbing 1880s cowboy Skinner Sweet. His Wild West origins mean he has rattlesnake fangs, and unlike European vampires he is powered by the sun. The series was dreamed up by short story writer Scott Snyder, who approached King for a blurb only to find the bestselling author was keen to get involved himself.
"I love vampire stories, and the idea of following the dark exploits of a uniquely American vampire really lit up my imagination. The chance to do the origin story – to be 'present at the creation' – was a thrill," said King. "I owe big thanks to Scott Snyder for letting me share his vision, and sip from his bucket of blood."
Snyder's storyline will follow the adventures of Skinner's Jazz Age descendent Pearl, a frequenter of Hollywood's speakeasies and dance halls who dreams of becoming a star. Each of the first five issues will feature both Snyder and King's stories, with the ongoing series by Snyder and artist Rafael Albuquerque to trace the histories of Skinner's descendants in different periods of American history. The American Vampire series will be published monthly by Vertigo from March 2010.
From: the Guardian
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Bidding war begins for Nelson Mandela's astonishing archive
by: Sam Jones and Alison Flood
Although the three calculations jotted on the back of a piece of paper do not look like much, the neat rows of black figures offer an elegantly brutal precis of one of the most remarkable lives of the 20th century.
The first reveals the number of years the writer spent in prison (28); the second, how old he was when the law caught up with him (44), and the third, the age at which he was released (72).
The sums would be of scant interest were it not for the fact that the man measuring out his life in ink that day was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
That page – and thousands more belonging to the former South African president – are now at the centre of a bidding war as international publishers scrabble to acquire the rights to a book based on Mandela's private archive.
While the private collection of journals, diaries, letters, speeches, notebooks and personal reflections has yet to be distilled into a book, the raw archive materials seem likely to take this week's Frankfurt book fair by storm.
Mandela himself, who bestowed these "traces of my life and those who have lived it with me" on his eponymous foundation, hopes the collection will afford the world a glimpse into his mind and his past.
"Anyone who has explored the world of archives will know that it is a treasure house, one that is full of surprises, crossing paths, dead ends, painful reminders and unanswered questions," he said.
Jonny Geller, an agent at the Curtis Brown literary agency and the man entrusted with handling the book's worldwide rights, described the collection on offer as an "utterly remarkable" resource.
"I've never heard of a living political leader giving up their entire archive," he said as he waited for his plane to Frankfurt. "I can't think of any other political leader who has opened up their archive without any censorship.
"There's everything from political scribblings to letters to his wife. It's an incredible archive, which will not only have political and historical insights, but which will also provide an emotional insight into the man too. It will give a portrait of the man and his life."
Verne Harris, acting head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said the documents afforded "unique access to Madiba in his private moments, his personal reflections in response to circumstance that helped him to the daily disciplines, the life lessons and to the moral and political vision which inspired, and continues to inspire so many".
According to Geller, the Mandela who emerges from the archive is a flesh-and-blood man and a prolific letter-writer.
"He has notebooks from Robben Island [where Mandela was imprisoned] which are absolutely packed with his handwriting. And he kept drafts of letters he sent, most of which never got through. There's scraps of paper with his notes on leadership."
There is also, in one of the less predictable epistolary partnerships, a letter discussing the role of police in society set down on notepaper emblazoned with both the legend From the Desk of Nelson Mandela and the image of the rotund and lasagne-loving cartoon cat Garfield.
Geller describes the book as "a look behind Long Walk to Freedom", the autobiography that Mandela published in 1995, and which has sold more than 6m copies around the world.
The agent would not discuss how much Macmillan UK had paid for the British and Commonwealth rights, nor speculate on how much the US rights could go for. But he did confirm there had already been offers from eight territories.
Asked how he expected the week's bidding to go in Germany, Geller said: "It's going to be a book that will take over the Frankfurt book fair and become the book of the fair."
According to the Bookseller, which broke the news of the archive's publication, the British book will be called Conversations with Myself and will be published next year to mark the 20th anniversary of Mandela's release from prison.
A new biography, Young Mandela, charting Mandela's life in the early 1960s before his imprisonment, will also be published next year to coincide with the anniversary and the start of the World Cup in South Africa.
Although it remains to be seen what revelations the archive will yield, its 91-year-old creator should not have too much trouble finding favourable blurbs for the book jackets.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has already described Mandela as "a gift to the world", while Hillary Clinton, who has seen the archive, might also be worth tapping for a quote.
"[It] will be a treasure trove of information, of memories, of lessons and guidance for generations to come," said the US secretary of state on a recent trip to Africa.
"You can see in the recording of his days, what he was doing, what he was thinking – in the discipline that he brought to a life filled with so many great achievements, not only for him personally but for South Africa and the world."
From: the Guardian
Although the three calculations jotted on the back of a piece of paper do not look like much, the neat rows of black figures offer an elegantly brutal precis of one of the most remarkable lives of the 20th century.
The first reveals the number of years the writer spent in prison (28); the second, how old he was when the law caught up with him (44), and the third, the age at which he was released (72).
The sums would be of scant interest were it not for the fact that the man measuring out his life in ink that day was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
That page – and thousands more belonging to the former South African president – are now at the centre of a bidding war as international publishers scrabble to acquire the rights to a book based on Mandela's private archive.
While the private collection of journals, diaries, letters, speeches, notebooks and personal reflections has yet to be distilled into a book, the raw archive materials seem likely to take this week's Frankfurt book fair by storm.
Mandela himself, who bestowed these "traces of my life and those who have lived it with me" on his eponymous foundation, hopes the collection will afford the world a glimpse into his mind and his past.
"Anyone who has explored the world of archives will know that it is a treasure house, one that is full of surprises, crossing paths, dead ends, painful reminders and unanswered questions," he said.
Jonny Geller, an agent at the Curtis Brown literary agency and the man entrusted with handling the book's worldwide rights, described the collection on offer as an "utterly remarkable" resource.
"I've never heard of a living political leader giving up their entire archive," he said as he waited for his plane to Frankfurt. "I can't think of any other political leader who has opened up their archive without any censorship.
"There's everything from political scribblings to letters to his wife. It's an incredible archive, which will not only have political and historical insights, but which will also provide an emotional insight into the man too. It will give a portrait of the man and his life."
Verne Harris, acting head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said the documents afforded "unique access to Madiba in his private moments, his personal reflections in response to circumstance that helped him to the daily disciplines, the life lessons and to the moral and political vision which inspired, and continues to inspire so many".
According to Geller, the Mandela who emerges from the archive is a flesh-and-blood man and a prolific letter-writer.
"He has notebooks from Robben Island [where Mandela was imprisoned] which are absolutely packed with his handwriting. And he kept drafts of letters he sent, most of which never got through. There's scraps of paper with his notes on leadership."
There is also, in one of the less predictable epistolary partnerships, a letter discussing the role of police in society set down on notepaper emblazoned with both the legend From the Desk of Nelson Mandela and the image of the rotund and lasagne-loving cartoon cat Garfield.
Geller describes the book as "a look behind Long Walk to Freedom", the autobiography that Mandela published in 1995, and which has sold more than 6m copies around the world.
The agent would not discuss how much Macmillan UK had paid for the British and Commonwealth rights, nor speculate on how much the US rights could go for. But he did confirm there had already been offers from eight territories.
Asked how he expected the week's bidding to go in Germany, Geller said: "It's going to be a book that will take over the Frankfurt book fair and become the book of the fair."
According to the Bookseller, which broke the news of the archive's publication, the British book will be called Conversations with Myself and will be published next year to mark the 20th anniversary of Mandela's release from prison.
A new biography, Young Mandela, charting Mandela's life in the early 1960s before his imprisonment, will also be published next year to coincide with the anniversary and the start of the World Cup in South Africa.
Although it remains to be seen what revelations the archive will yield, its 91-year-old creator should not have too much trouble finding favourable blurbs for the book jackets.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has already described Mandela as "a gift to the world", while Hillary Clinton, who has seen the archive, might also be worth tapping for a quote.
"[It] will be a treasure trove of information, of memories, of lessons and guidance for generations to come," said the US secretary of state on a recent trip to Africa.
"You can see in the recording of his days, what he was doing, what he was thinking – in the discipline that he brought to a life filled with so many great achievements, not only for him personally but for South Africa and the world."
From: the Guardian
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