"Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs."
– Malcolm Forbes
"The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work."
– Vince Lombardi Jr.
"My business was boredom. For years, I was the person whose job it was to keep you clicking, to keep you scrolling" MEdia Dragons
How to write a best-seller? Book club selections by Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush Hager, and Good Morning America go a long way »
The history of the encyclopedia is the history of humans’ need for knowledge, and how we convey and preserve it Wisdom
Books are boring, movies are boring, art is boring. Blame the internet for our era of cultural malaise »
“There’s no shame in being a hack,” says Steven Shapin. After all, one way of getting read is to attract people Publicity »
The Daily Habit of Successful People
Neuroscientists call it "involuntary musical imagery." Freud’s protégé called it the "haunting melody." You call it an ear worm 🐛 »
Books of quotationshave been around for centuries. Their long history shapes what they’re now expected to contain »
'Books for the Century'
Foreign Affairs' Foreign Affairs at 100 issue is now out, and in the review-section: "reviewers each selected a set of books essential to understanding the past century and another set essential for imagining the century ahead"; it is now up, at Books for the Century -- an interesting selection.
A young man arrives in New York, hoping to become a writer. He needs a guide. For Darryl Pinckney, that was Elizabeth Hardwick Writer »
The perks of publishing have vanished. No more camaraderie, free books, famous authors wandering the halls, or “stupid parties” Perks »
Critics, sociologists, and philosophers have long attempted to answer a question: Can money, in fact, buy class? »
Is it art if it makes everyone mad? Not necessarily, but in the case of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, yes … Yes …»
In the disaffected New York art world, a large part of a publicist’s job is getting people to show up to parties. Enter Kaitlin Phillips Social Butterflies »
Vanity publishers’ predatory tactics. Fame and riches are yours, they promise — just sign up with them tactics »
Q & A: Geetanjali Shree
In the Business Standard Sandeep Kumar has a Q & A with the author, in Future of Hindi literature set to prosper: Booker winner Geetanjali Shree.
Among her responses:
You have been writing for more than three decades. Can a Hindi writer make a living only by writing ? Are writers financially better off today ?
My plain answer is ‘No’. I cannot detect any improvement in the financial condition of Hindi writers. The same is more or less true for writers in other Indian languages.
See also my reviews of her Tomb of Sand and The Empty Space.
(Updated - 19 September): See now also Rohan Datta's Q & A with the translator of the International Booker-winning novel at My Kolkata, Trust and a sense of shared purpose behind success: Daisy Rockwell on ‘Tomb of Sand’.