TOP 100 BOOK SITES
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| Art: A Torah Scribe Pushes the Parchment Ceiling In Hebrew the word for Julie Seltzer’s arcane profession is soferet; she’s a scribe, a Hebrew calligrapher who writes sacred texts on parchment. feeds.nytimes.com |
New Moon enters new phase for Twilight franchise The UK has officially caught Stephenie Meyer fever after The Twilight Saga: New Moon's strident opening weekend, and the Coens' A Serious Man deals another little cut to star prestigeThe winnerWhen the original Twilight movie arrived in the UK last December, it opened with a decent £2.51m – not a bad number, considering Stephenie Meyer's books had yet to achieve blockbuster status. But it was far, far behind the US debut figure for the picture: $69.6m (£42.1m). What a difference a year makes. With the first Twilight film a huge phenomenon on DVD, and the Meyer books belatedly reaching a wide UK readership, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan have ascended to iconic characters here, and Britain has succumbed to R-Pattz mania. Now sequel New Moon has debuted in the UK with £11.68m, which is a whopping 4.6 times the opening weekend of the original film. In three days, New Moon has already taken more money at British cinemas than Twilight did in its lifetime. New Moon's impressive number is the second-biggest debut of 2009, just behind the £11.93m Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince earned over the Friday-to-Sunday portion of its five-day opening in July. It's also ahead of the opening weekend grosses of other blockbusters over the past three years such as The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Simpsons Movie, Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End – as long as previews are ignored and you compare takings over Friday-to-Sunday. New Moon just failed to match the opening weekend of 2007's Spider-Man 3 (£11.83m), and is significantly behind the debuts of last October's Quantum of Solace and 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Twilight is not the first film franchise boasting a second entry that significantly out-performed its predecessor. The Matrix Reloaded debuted with takings 3.6 times the opening weekend of the original Matrix, and The Dark Knight's opening was 2.5 times that of Batman Begins. The New Moon success powered British cinemas to their best weekend of the year, with the top 15 films grossing a collective £20.86m. (The official chart compilers record the 17-19 July as the year's best, but that figure is artificially swollen by £7.85m in Harry Potter previews.) The number is a remarkable 163% up on the equivalent weekend from 2008, when Quantum of Solace reigned at the top of the chart for the fourth week in a row.  The plucky underdogReleased on 50 screens, the Coen brothers' A Serious Man was never in any danger of challenging New Moon for audiences. But with eighth place from weekend takings of £321,000 and a £6,422 average, the well-reviewed dark comedy has done as well as could be expected, and can now expand if so desired by backers Universal. It also did a lot better than Steven Soderbergh's corporate-whistleblower flick The Informant!, which began its run with £180,000 from 116 cinemas and a £1,548 average. A Serious Man stars Michael Stuhlbarg and a bunch of similarly obscure character actors; The Informant!, A-lister Matt Damon. Hollywood's faith in the primary efficacy of star power has presumably taken another little knock. The limpetWhile disaster blockbuster 2012 fell a par-for-the-course 46% from its stonking opening, Disney's A Christmas Carol continues to demonstrate admiral durability with a drop from the previous weekend of just 11% (see chart, below for grosses). While audiences naturally decay in the life cycle of a film, a rise in festive feeling as Christmas approaches applies a contrary dynamic in this case. The challenge for Disney will be to retain screens until schools break up for the Christmas holiday, though it will be lucky to hold its 3D sites against James Cameron's Avatar. The futureIf all the films currently in the market fell 50% and no new pictures were released, next weekend would still see healthy takings. New Moon is indeed likely to see a big drop, simply because its rabid fanbase would have made strenuous efforts to see it as soon as possible, although repeat business should soften the landing. It would be reasonable to expect a light weekend for new releases, since the second weekend of New Moon's release is hardly a congenial place to launch a rival blockbuster. But both low-budget word-of-mouth smash Paranormal Activity and Gerard Butler revenge actioner Law Abiding Citizen should function as effective counter-programming to New Moon. The good times for cinemas are not over quite yet. UK top 101. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, 497 sites, £11,683,158 (new)2. 2012, 478 sites, £3,496,202. Total: £12,923,6813. A Christmas Carol, 429 sites, £2,224,044. Total: £8,553,3634. Harry Brown, 354 sites, £724,627. Total: £2,704,2055. Up, 445 sites, £642,134. Total: £33,561,3846. Fantastic Mr Fox, 446 sites, £454,088. Total: £8,289,6957. The Men Who Stare At Goats, 313 sites, £430,319. Total: £3,613,8318. A Serious Man, 50 sites, £321,114 (New)9. The Fourth Kind, 235 sites, £181,105. Total: £2,251,10710. The Informant!, 116 sites, £179,612 (New) How the other openers didKurbaan, 44 screens, £155,492 + £8,976 previewsGlorious 39, 1 screen, £7,654The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, 7 screens, £6,700Valley of the Wolves: Gladio, 2 screens, £3,280Sea Wall, 3 screens, £2,572Examined Life, 1 screen, £1,265Southern Softies, 4 screens, £1,093Machan, 1 screen, £701Ulysses, 1 screen, £558 + £1,439 previewsChristmas in Wonderland, 1 screen, £48 Robert PattinsonStephenie MeyerCoen brothersMatt DamonSteven SoderberghCharles Gantguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Book Buzz: What's new on the list and in publishing A look at what books may be under the tree this Christmas, a very successful little elf, and an upcoming story of baseball in ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Free books for secondaries to get pupils 'hooked on reading' Each school in England is to receive 15 books from a specially designed list to try to get more pupils reading as a hobbyMore than 53,000 free books, by authors from Charlotte Brontë to England goalkeeper David James, are to be sent to secondary schools to try to get more pupils interested in reading as a hobby, ministers announced today.Each school in England will get 15 new books, and the 330 in which more than 30% of pupils are eligible for free school meals will receive an extra 10 tomes each.Evidence shows that pupils from poorer families have less access to books and spend less time reading for pleasure than their richer classmates.Titles on offer on the 260-strong Everyone's Reading list include Brontë's Jane Eyre, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Everything and James' Cup Final Day, a personal account of the goalie's 2008 FA Cup final.Others being sent out are How Loud Can You Burp?, Teach Your Granny to Text & Other Ways to Change the World, and How Much Poo Does An Elephant Do?The latter was named as a personal favourite by schools minister Iain Wright. "It's funny, it's full of fascinating trivia. One of my sons finds it hilarious, and it has a great title," he said. "The book leads you to read other things, which is one of the great delights of reading and literature."Wright added: "Some children don't have the same access to books as others, so this campaign aims to give teenagers the opportunity to get hooked on reading."The Department for Children, Schools and Families said the list had been specially designed to include up-to-the-minute titles as well as "modern classics in new guises" and a few "tried and tested favourites".There is material aimed specifically at boys and at girls as well as books targeted at reluctant and struggling readers, and for students for whom English is not their first language. It is arranged under themes such as "Go Wild", "Boggle" and "Indulge".The children's laureate, Anthony Browne, who is backing the £500,000 campaign run jointly with the School Library Association, said: "Everyone's Reading is a brilliant project encouraging the enjoyment of reading, a reading culture and a pleasure that will last throughout readers' lives."Secondary schoolsLiteracyRachel Williamsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Political Loyalty (or Lack of It) in the Tell-All Era Serve and tattle. Politicians can expect loyalty to come with an expiration date, as the new book “Game Change” demonstrates. feeds.nytimes.com |