I’m Too Depressed to Write a Headline for This
Poor James Patterson. His last book for young adults, Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, only sold 192,000 copies. He doesn’t feel badly for himself, mind you–he feels badly for...
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Another Free Book
February must be Give Away a Book Month. Why, here’s another one: Charles Bock’s Beautiful Children (Random House). But is free publicity worth a potential drop in sales? And did I really just display...
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Yet Another Free Book–Sort Of
More free-book madness. For the next month, you can read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for free–as long as you don’t mind sitting at a computer with a live internet connection. On Boing Boing, Cory...
View ArticleSeattle Helps You Decide What to Read
Seattle’s influence in the world of books looms large of late, but Nancy Pearl can’t take all the credit–no, she has to share it with Amazon, Starbucks, and Costco. In the New York Times (“Book Lovers...
View ArticleHow about a “Netflix for DVDs”? Could that work?
OK, let’s see: there’s booksfree.com… BookSwim… Paperspine… and the newest “Netflix for Books,” NovelAction.com, which adds, ahem, a novel twist: instead of just sending them money and getting books on...
View ArticleQuickly: Adichie, Brisingr, Handey, Rapunzel, Blurbs!
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun, 2006) is a genius (“25 Receive $500,000 ‘Genius’ Fellowships,” by Patricia Cohen, New York Times): Ms. Adichie was celebrating her birthday and taking a...
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The Writer of The Dragon Tattoo
Maybe I’m just a soft-hearted guy who’s more interested in books and movies than in news about how much money books and movies earn, but NPR’s segment yesterday (“The Making of a Posthumous...
View ArticleAdvertising Copywriters Take Note
Usually I don’t pick on self-published authors–they already have enough of an uphill battle without me piling it on. But, of the many many many press releases I receive on a daily basis, this one just...
View ArticleQuickly: Great Bookstore, Villainous Bookmen, and Bad Timing
A few recent news stories that have stuck in my head . . . . At a time when independent bookstores seem like an endangered species–when even the chains that have displaced them are closing branches...
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Everything’s Coming Up Apocalypse
Now this is smart: a used books merchant doing read-alikes. A while ago, I got an e-mail from AbeBooks touting their “End of the World Literature – Post-Apocalyptic Fiction” list. While it includes...
View ArticleI Am a Twit
-terer. And I’m not twitting you. You can follow my unvarnished, 140-character musings on life, the universe, and everything (related to books, that is) at http://twitter.com/Booklist_Keir. I still...
View Article2009 Indies Choice Book Award Winners
The results are in for the 2009 Indies Choice Book Awards: Best Indie Buzz Book (Fiction) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (The Dial Press) Best...
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Lazy Awards Round-Up Post
Here’s a quick ‘n dirty look at who won/was nominated for what in the last week: Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader, 2008) won the 2009 Baccante literary prize. She will be recognized at a ceremony on...
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Weeklings: Best-Sellers Past, Present, & Future
I know something happened this week–everybody was talking about it. Writing about it, even. Something, something . . . some guy published a book? Oh, yeah! Dan Brown thrilled the world by...
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Save the Monstrumologist
Pellinore Warthrop, the arrogant, brilliant hero of Rick Yancey’s thrice-starred Monstrumologist series, is in trouble. Snap to, Will Henry, and rescue your master! Or that’s what we would say if this...
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Flappers and Button Men: Touring the World of “Dollface”
I don’t usually write about book launches, but then again, the most interesting thing I could say about most book launches is that a lot of people stood around drinking cheap wine from plastic cups and...
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