Book News, In Brief

If there's really such a thing as 'bookshelf porn,' then consider this the catalyst for bookshelf bukkake: Breathtaking Libraries Around the World.


A recent survey found that two out of three Brits have lied about the books they've read. George Orwell's 1984 tops the list of literary lies, with War and Peace a close second.


Oh, the irony! While The Boston Globe reports on the slow death of alternative weeklies, The Boston Phoenix offers six suggestions for saving your daily newspaper.
(Thanks to Journalista for the first link!)


This is the kind of cultural cross-pollination that I l-o-v-e: A review of Osamu Tezuka's medical manga, Black Jack...in the Canadian Medical Association Journal!
(In case you missed it: The Inkwell's review of Black Jack vol. 1)

Inkwell Michelle's 30 Second Book Review

The King’s English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller
by Betsy Burton
This book is sure to delight the kind of person who can’t pass by a bookstore without stopping to browse. The King’s English is the name of an independent bookstore owned by Betsy Burton. Although subtitled “Adventures of an independent bookseller,” it goes far beyond the business of selling books. Betsy’s intrepid spirit sparkles in this funny and thoughtful memoir of a life surrounded and inspired by books. Her passion for literature is contagious. The reading lists at the back of the book are worth more than the price of the whole book!

Book News, In Brief

Jack Kerouac's 'lost' novel, The Sea is My Brother, is to be published in its entirety for the first time later his year. According to The Guardian UK, it was written during Kerouac's years as a merchant seaman, and is about "man's simple revolt from society."


Amazon has finally done something right regarding e-books, and it has nothing to do with the Kindle! In a move that seemed inevitable, the big A has released a free application which allows e-books to be downloaded onto iPhones and iPods. Note to brick & mortar bookstores: This will hurt.


Desperate not to be left out of the digital market, Barnes & Noble has bought e-book publisher Fictionwise for $15.7 million. For Barnes & Noble's sake, let's hope this works a helluva lot better than their previous attempt at selling digital media.


Only weeks after shutting down two imprints and laying off an as-yet-unreported amount of staff and executives, HarperCollins has announced the opening of It Books, a pop culture, sports and style imprint. I suspect there will be a lot of familiar faces applying for positions.

Go, Look!

GhibliWorld.com has posted a few panels from Hayao Miyazaki's new manga, The Wind Rises. According to the GW, it's the first new Miyazaki manga to be published in over seven years.
Go, Look!

(Thanks to MangaBlog for the tip!)

Today's Book News Is Dedicated To You,The Customer

For your steadfast and loyal patronage...

...your smiles and friendliness...

...your open-mindedness...

...your good taste...

...and your class and sophistication.

It simply wouldn't be the same without you!

Random Assortment of Lit-Related Links

To honor Theodore Geisel's 105th birthday, The National Post has compiled 5 things you never knew about Dr. Seuss.


Researchers at Reading University claim to have found the oldest words in the English language. They're also taking bets on which words are likely to become extinct.


The Book Design Review has collected two pages worth of Haruki Murakami book covers from around the world. They can be found here and here.
Update: RobAroundBooks has even more!


Penguin Books offers sympathetic lip service to struggling indie booksellers in a piece titled, How to Sell Books in a Recession. Oddly, they fail to mention the considerably larger discounts they offer to Big Box and online stores.


The Onion has a humorous bit about a 'Lovecraftian school board member' in MA who argues that "students should return to the fundamentals taught in the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon in order to develop the skills they need to be driven to the very edge of sanity." It's fake but funny stuff.
(Thanks to Book Ninja for the tip!)

Go, Look!

The New Yorker just put up their exclusive excerpt of David Foster Wallace's unfinished novel, The Pale King. Wallace's longtime publisher, Little, Brown and Company, said that the novel will be published in 2010, and runs "several hundred thousand words and will include notes, outlines, and other material."

In addition to the aforementioned excerpt, The New Yorker is also running a 13 page mini-biography of Wallace's writing life, starting with the query letter to his first novel, Broom, and ending with his final tweaks to the manuscript of The Pale King.

Go, look!

Book News, In Brief

In anticipation of the adaptation's upcoming release, Super Punch has compiled their favorite Watchmen links.


Are you an author who would rather spend time with your fictional creations than with your real-life significant other? I think you're creepy, but The Book Deal approves!


Books on the Nightstand has a piece about Fables, a members only bar that's home to Nova Scotia's Loquacious Compendium Book Club. Warning: You'll get a buzz from the photos alone.


Sunday's BoingBoing featured a post about Brain Harvest, a new short story site aimed at science fiction fans with A.D.D. All B.H. stories are 750 words or less (guaranteed!), and the site plans on adding similarly skimpy news, reviews and interviews in the coming weeks.


Amazon has capitulated to criticism from the Author's Guild, reversing their stance on the Kindle 2's text-to-speech function. According to Publisher's Weekly, the big A will give publishers and authors the choice over whether or not to enable the awkward, Stephen Hawking-sounding feature.