After I finished Little Women, a book it somehow took me five months to read, I wanted to read something a bit lighter, quicker, and funny. Applying my self-created rules for classic literature reads, “lighter, quick and funny” don’t abound. The vast majority of classics that I read are 18th ... more >
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Is it a shameful to admit that I’ve never before read Little Women? At least not that I can recall – it may have been one of those books that I started and put down in my youth. Still, I’ve seen both of the ... more >
Book Lovers: Literary Necrophilia in the 21st Century – A very interesting piece from Joanna Walsh on the continually evolving relationship between author and text. The necrophilia in the title relates in part to the conceptual “death of the author,” and the reader’s attempt to mark their relationship to the ... more >
Thomas Adam, junior Fellow of St. Columb’s College at Oxford University, is one of countless English travellers crossing the channel to explore the reopened Continent after the Napoleonic wars. With Boney imprisoned, there is no time like the present to experience French wine and the Italian countryside — at least, ... more >
E-Book Sales Fall After New Amazon Contract – Is anyone surprised? Or rather, does anyone really think that publishers care? Given traditional publishing’s reliance on the hardcover, what, precisely, is the incentive to encourage higher ebook sales? In fact, the comment below about higher sales of paper books suggests a belief ... more >
Writers to Watch: Fall 2015: Anticipated Debuts -Publishers Weekly has posted a list of debut novels for fall, and frankly some of the stories of how these books got published sound as interesting as the books themselves. Ruth Galm’s Into the Valley, for example, was published from Soho Press’ slush ... more >