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Saturday, November 16, 2019

Books of the Year: “…for every book contains a world”


There is nothing that begins so easily and takes us so far as the collecting of books." 
--A. Edward Newton

 "If during the next million generations there is but one human being born in every generation who will not cease to inquire into the nature of his fate, even while it strips and bludgeons him, some day we shall read the riddle of our universe,” the great English writer and feminist Rebecca West (December 21, 1892–March 15, 1983) wrote as she contemplated suffering, survival, and the will to keep walking the road to ourselvesin her 1941 masterpiece Black Lamb and Grey Falcon


BBC Panel Makes A List Of “100 Books That Changed The World”



The works have been organised into themed categories, such as identity, adventure and love, sex and romance. – BBC


Indie Publishers Nervous As Amazon Cuts Way Back On Orders For Holiday Gift Season 



Several independent presses tell PW that the mega-retailer’s weekly orders have fallen since late October; one publisher says the most recent order was down 75% from this time last year. The apparent reason? Amazon’s warehouses don’t have space for the books. – Publishers Weekly  

 
UNEXPECTEDLY: Eyeball tattoos allegedly left ‘Blue Eyes White Dragon’ woman blind for 3 weeks.Plus: “Rarely do such extreme body modifications take place in a board-certified plastic surgeon’s office.”  

  STUDIES, WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT THEM? New study reveals what most of us probably already know: People will say just about anything to get laid

 

“…for every book contains a world.”


Ursula K. Le Guin’s Playful and Profound Letter-Poem to Children About the Power of Books and Why We Read
When asked in the Proust Questionnaireabout his idea of perfect happiness, David Bowie answered simply: “Reading.” But the question of why we read unlatches as many responses as there are flavors of human happiness. Some memorable and poetic answers have come from Hermann Hesse, Rebecca Solnit, Neil Gaiman, C.S. Lewis, and Proust himself.
A thoroughly original and most delightful one comes from the irreplaceable Ursula K. Le Guin (October 21, 1929–January 22, 2018) in her contribution to A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader (public library) — which, as far as I am aware, was her last published piece of original writing at the time the book alighted on the world.
Written in verse, in the voice of an aged dragon — “second cousin once removed” of Smaug, Tolkien’s iconic antagonist from The Hobbit — and illustrated by her longtime friend and collaborator Charles Vess, the letter-poem emanates Le Guin’s signature warm wisdom, syncopating the playful and the profound 

 The Spectator they have the first half of their Books of the year selection chosen by their regular reviewers; these kinds of personal choice-lists tend to be more interesting than the usual collective top-10s, etc
       The BBC now present their list of. 100 Novels That Shaped Our World -- whereby the 'our' isn't the expansive-collective one but rather the six folks -- "leading writers, curators and critics" (Stig Abell, Mariella Frostrup, Juno Dawson, Kit de Waal, Alexander McCall Smith, and Syima Aslam) -- who were asked: "to choose 100 genre-busting novels that have had an impact on their lives". This being a UK media-organization, it seems to practically go without saying (though they do slip it in) that the selections are limited to novels written in English (which maybe limits the range ... enormously, no ?)  
       I've read a few dozen of these, but was initially a bit surprised by how few are under review at the complete review-- but as, presumably, mainly formative books ("had an impact on their lives"), it's not that surprising that I read most of the ones I have read before I started the site (despite that already being twenty years ago ...)  
       The titles that are under review are:

       I'm not sure how high a priority the 'genre-busting'-mandate was in the selection process; that seems like a ... complicated bar. 

      International DUBLIN Literary Award longlist 

       They've announced the longlist for next year's International DUBLIN Literary Award -- 156 booksnominated by libraries from across (much of) the world. Just under a third of the novels -- 50 -- are works in translation, originally written in 21 different languages 
       Only fourteen of the nominated titles are under review at the complete review:

       UWA Publishing -- University of Western Australia Publishing, a leading Australian university press with an impressive list of publications, including fiction -- is apparently going to be shuttered by the university, after 85 years of operation. This is very disappointing news. 
       See Stephanie Convery's report in The Guardian,University of Western Australia's decision to close publishing house sparks outrage, and Emma Young's report in the Sydney Morning Herald, 'We will fight': Writers aghast as university signals closure of UWA Publishing. 
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