TOP 100 BOOK SITES
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| No one knows anything, and other dilemmas of the e-book era | Robert McCrum It's even harder to adapt to the digital gale sweeping through publishing when big 'old-media' stories about canonical authors are still grabbing everyone's attentionWilliam Goldman, who wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, is almost as well known for his coruscating portrait of the movie business, Adventures in the Screen Trade. This, in turn, is celebrated for its dictum about Hollywood executives – "No one knows anything" – a phrase that has a way of popping into mind whenever the discussion turns towards the future of books and newspapers.I've noticed that whenever writers, publishers and journalists get together, sooner or later the conversation turns to The Way We Live Now, the ongoing IT revolution, usually with reference to manifestations of the latest innovation (lately, for instance, the Kindle and Twitter). Finally, the conversation usually culminates in a version of Where Will It End? or How Will It Affect My Livelihood?It's at this point that "No one knows anything" comes to mind. Is that why this paradigm shift we're living through can seem so unnerving? Everyone is doing their best to make sense of a confusing picture, but still being blindsided by unanticipated change. And the situation is not helped by the mixed signals we are getting from the world of print itself, the everyday business of newspapers and books.For example, the past two weeks has seen a lot of high-profile "old media" literary news: Annie Proulx, author of Brokeback Mountain, donating her papers; the likely sale of Siegfried Sassoon's manuscripts to the Cambridge University Library; the imminent publication of Vladimir Nabokov's posthumous novel, The Original of Laura, preserved on 138 index cards. All this stuff is pure gold to literary historians, and not one part of it exists in virtual form.In years to come, however, libraries will no doubt acquire, and curate, the hard disks of contemporary greats. (The Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas already has an electronic archive department.) The email correspondence of publishers and agents, and perhaps the digital drafts of important novels, will certainly become part of the literary tradition, picked over by scholars and critics. But it won't be the same. The recent attention focused on these items of "literary" news suggests that there is a visceral fascination with print and paper, and one that is likely to flourish as vigorously as it has in the recent past At the same time, confusingly, the publishing industry is stampeding towards a paperless future. Here, at random, is a selection of headlines culled from the online version of the Bookseller these past 10 days:HarperCollins and Skype have created… Cecelia Aherne's virtual world.Book Apps overtake Games on iPhone.How print on demand will save the publishing industry.Amazon turns Twitter into a marketplace.Let's talk e-book royalties.Barnes and Noble sued over 'Nook' design.And so on. The new technology's impact on the world of books has suddenly begun to intensify in 2008/09. I am not going to make any predictions, except the obvious one that the biggest changes will come from the most unlikely quarters. One thing is certain: this is not the beginning of the end, but it is (probably) the end of the beginning.EbooksAmazon.comRobert McCrumguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
'Going Rogue' Goes to Top of Book Sales Chart The newly released memoir by Sarah Palin sold 469,000 copies in its first week of release, putting it ahead of new releases from authors like James Patterson and Stephen King. feeds.nytimes.com |
Paperback Row Paperback books of particular interest. feeds.nytimes.com |
Paperback Trade Fiction Top 5 at a Glance1. THE SHACK, by William P. Young2. PUSH, by Sapphire3. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson4. THE LOVELY BONES, by Alice Sebold5. THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, by Garth Stein feeds.nytimes.com |
Let's hear it for Rumi | Andrew Brown Our series on the mystic poet draws to a closeToday we've published our last blog on the great Sufi poet, Rumi. Many thanks to University of Chicago professor of Persian, Franklin Lewis, for providing an accessible account of this esoteric master. Those who have followed the series will doubtless want to go over and show their appreciation in the traditional manner (hence no comments here) – or at the very least, cast a last, sceptical look at it. Next week: Giles Fraser on Wittgenstein.ReligionIslamPoetryAndrew Brownguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |