RIASS stuff:
Interview: Steve Rossiter on editing an anthology spanning a hundred years of a character's life
Reverse Chronology and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
A multiplicity of points of view and The Ruins of Lace by Iris Anthony
Literary Blog Hop Giveaway: Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald'(open to all);'Giveaway: Arcadian Genesis by Greig Beck'(open to all)
Other bookish stuff:
A look at Maria Popovas'History of Reading'Reading is not merely the attaching of sound to grapheme, which occurs only at an elementary level. Meaning is involved, and in a fundamental way. At a higher level of perception reading can even convey meaning alone, without any recourse to sound.'Therein lies reading's sense-like magic. Yes, I agree completely. Dont you think that its amazing that we can read ancient languages whose pronunciation we can only guess? Or that the different dialects of Chinese share the same characters?
An interview with Joe Hill'I'll never write ten percent of all the stuff I want to write. I'll never read even one percent of all the stuff I want to read. At the same time, I'm always fighting to slow down, to set smaller, more reasonable goals for myself. I'd rather know one acre of ground well then travel the world and never see a thing.
The next big thing in manga'While other YA literature may provide developing trends specifically around content, for manga, the biggest trend is definitely in format. Thanks in large part to Yen Press, we do see more manga and graphic novels that are based on popular YA books (which I enthusiastically support), but I have my fingers crossed that we will continue to see the translation of popular Japanese manga on our shores, along with the re-issue of series that had been stopped cold when their publishing outfits were no longer financially able to support English translations.
Stant Litore on the relevance of zombie fiction'This is a unique time for zombie fiction. The past five or six years has taken this fledgling genre from splatterfest horror to novels of passion and beauty and existential angst, novels and films and television that ask us how we deal with grief and lay bare for us how we treat others ' whether sometimes we look more like the dead than we think. Litore goes on to add that now zombie fiction needs to look in new directions: to offer readers a way to view the grief and suffering in our world and to come to terms with it.
An interview with Robertson Davies: I am at the moment winding up to write another novel, and when I say 'winding up' I mean I am making notes and plans and perpetually building up what I will eventually write; that is the way I work. I make very, very careful plans and a great many notes'so many notes indeed that sometimes they are as long or longer than the eventual book. And sketches of characters and suggestions and references to things that will be useful. All that takes a long time. Getting to work on a new novel is a dismal business, for the beginnings never seem to get any easier with the passing of time.
Ten novels that are scarier than most horror movies
On the problems of reading up'An interesting post in light of my thoughts last week about having parents who dont read. The author of the post was given free rein over her reading habits as a kid, and wasnt supervised in terms of things such as topic or age level. When she had her own kids, she opted for the same approach, but started to find that there were problems with the approach. Harry Potter was the start of it: great for the bigger kids, but tougher for the littlies who wanted to keep up with their older siblings. Her daughter spent an entire year in early primary school reading the books, which meant that she missed out on all sorts of picture books and early readers. She also talks about her kids being precocious readers and reading great YA when they were youngermeaning that although they were perfectly capable of reading the books, they missed out on much of the depth in them.
How cool are these illustrated bookish quotes from this Etsy vendor?
If you could create a bookshop, what would you put in it?'The author talks about the universal dream amongst bookish people that is the owning of a bookshop, and then goes on to discuss his experience working at a not-for-profit bookshop. He talks about what he considers the backbone of a bookshop (fiction, history and classics), and the types of books he avoids (self-help, computer books, wedding planners, and hardcover editions) at length, which is quite fascinating. He also'asks some existential questions: is the bookseller curator an identity thats entirely at odds with the Amazon catalogue approach? Are booksellers important when it comes to making recommendations, or do buyers look to friends, family and so on instead?
Watch out, Random Penguin! Newscorp (which owns Harper Collins) is looking to get in on the act.'Hmm. Penguin Harper'almost has a ring to it.
A look at fiction bestsellers between 1920-29. Interesting that there are quite a few women represented in the bestseller lists, but sadly not on the critically acclaimed/historically significant lists. What does this say about how literature is valued and who judges what is worthy literature?
Planning on walking around quoting Faulkner? Better not, just in case you get sued.
The Melbourne Free University has a forthcoming course on the changing world of media, with some sessions on changes in publishing, journalism and more.
Alain de Botton on how Proust can change your life:
Bookish links 29 Oct: http://t.co/18KQUuA4 the magic of reading, zombie fiction, the problems of reading up & more!