Recently on RIASS:
Reading second-hand books: annotations and underlines:'Does reading an annotated book influence your own experience of a text?
A guest post from Brad Wirz, founder of not-for-profit project GoneReading
Just a note that I'll be tango dancing my way through Argentina in April, and would love to receive some guest posts to feature during that time. Feel free to drop me a line at readinasinglesitting@gmail.com.
Other bookish stuff
On women writers and readers:
Snobbism about women's fiction goes back a long way, according to Belinda Jack of Oxford'University, author of the upcoming'The Woman Reader. And before snobbism stretch millennia of active suppression during which women were prohibited from writing almost anything. Public speech and harlotry were very closely associated, Jack said in an interview, describing the very narrow range and reading and writing permissible to women up until the 19th century.
Why foreign rights are a big deal for small publishers:
While we only publish about 40 to 50 titles per year, we have signed well over 2,000 translation rights deals in our 20 years of existence. Our translation rights revenues account for over 10% of our annual income. Our titles are translated on average into five languages each, and curiously, most of our income in a particular year comes from translation sales of backlist titles, sometimes as far back as the mid-90s, says'Maria Jesus Aguilo of'Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Starred reviews and rounding up:
Someone, somewhere, is going to give a book I LOVE (or even just like) only 1 or 2 stars. I might think the book is worth 3 1/2, so to me, 1 is a bit harsh. I save 1 star reviews for the undeniable crap. Yes, everything subjective, but if I can't understand what the writer is trying to say and nothing makes sense and I start to wonder if the book was written on a different planet in a language that aims to be English but decidedly must not be'then I give it one star. Yet I see some books getting 1 star reviews because the person didn't like the genre! Anyway, this is why I round up. If I think a book deserves 3 1/2 star, I'll give it 4 because someone, somewhere, is sure to give a 1 or 2 star rating that will MORE than make up for (or undermine, if you will) the extra half a point I tacked on.
Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck
What you need to know about bookcases
How to respond to negative reviews of negative reviews
Librarians Talk of Abandoning E-Books
Check out the website for the new film of Dorothy of Oz
SBS subscription channel to screen new books show
NZ National literature awards call for entries
The 10 biggest book burnings in history
The 'end' of agency pricing'if the DOJ can prove collusion
Penguin offers up some new beautiful book covers
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