Prague’s Gorgeous Old Opera House Set To Emerge From Three-Year Renovation
“The Czech State Opera hoisted an ornate curtain on Thursday as a three-year project to restore the 19th-century opera building to its original glory neared completion ahead of a planned reopening next month. The 1.3 billion crown ($56.85 million) renovation aimed to get the main hall as close to how it looked when it opened in Prague in 1888 while adding some modern twists, such as touchscreen displays on all of the around 1,000 seats.” – Reuters
Prague’s Gorgeous Old Opera House Set To Emerge From Three-Year Renovation
“The Czech State Opera hoisted an ornate curtain on Thursday as a three-year project to restore the 19th-century opera building to its original glory neared completion ahead of a planned reopening next month. The 1.3 billion crown ($56.85 million) renovation aimed to get the main hall as close to how it looked when it opened in Prague in 1888 while adding some modern twists, such as touchscreen displays on all of the around 1,000 seats.” – Reuters
NPD Bookscan reports on the top ten bestselling adult titles in the US in the past decade, in Nonfiction and screen adaptations led U.S. book sales from 2010 to 2019, according to NPD Bookscan -- with actual numbers.
The 'Fifty Shades'-trilogy took the top three places, selling a total of almost 35 million copies. Only two of the top ten titles were by men -- at numbers eight and nine -- including the only one of these titles reviewed at the complete review, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.
Particularly interesting:
When comparing the top 10 adult books each year throughout the past decade, more non-fiction titles topped the NPD Bookscan charts in the second half of the decade than in the first half. In 2010, nearly 80 percent of the top-selling titles were fiction, and by 2019 that percentage dropped to 32 percent.
The top 10 movies of 2019: our experts' guide to the year's best cinema
We asked our film writers to rate their favourite movies of the year. Here is their collective top 10. Let the debate begin.
The top 10 movies of 2019: our experts' guide to the year's best cinema
How To Write A Memoir With Candor And, Well, ‘Nakedness’
Not nudity (though that may, of course, be involved), but naked emotional truth. “Authenticity can’t exist without artistry. Truth in life doesn’t automatically morph into truth on the page. And living people don’t necessarily come to life in print. It takes creativity.” –The Guardian (UK)
The Ten Top-Selling Books Of The 2010s
Though the list is all fiction, overall the trend is moving towards nonfiction on the best-seller lists. According to Lee Graham of the NPD Group, “In 2010, nearly 80 percent of the top-selling titles were fiction, and by 2019 that percentage dropped to 32 percent.” – LitHub
What’s The Best Way To Sell Your Book These Days? Kendall Jenner Being Photographed Reading It
Rarely has the power of “influence” been felt so acutely in an industry in which a media blitz usually involves not much more than a handful of speaking events at local bookstores. For the kinds of people who post Ben Lerner galleys on their Instagram stories to telegraph good taste, intelligence and access, Jenner’s paparazzi images created a sort of cognitive dissonance. – W Magazine
Books Today Are Filled With Obscenity. How Did We Get Here?
She didn’t sound offended. She sounded bored. Ninety years ago, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was banned in the United States. Today, a popular literary novel can contain so many oral sex acts that readers yawn. This is progress, mostly. But how did we get here? –Washington Post