Books & Reviews
Sunday, 16 January 2011
A DIFFERENT note comes from those who take the future very seriously indeed. They don't believe in jetpacks either. They see multiple disasters ahead, in a world beset by climate change, resource wars and new epidemics, and the collapse of...
IF YOU really want to hear about it the chances are you will soon be able to, unless you live in north America. A sequel to JD Salinger's novel of teenage angst, The Catcher in the Rye, written by an obscure Swedish publisher, is to be issued in...
GOOGLE said on Wednesday that it had reached a deal with the publisher Hachette Livre, which has broken ranks with its French rivals and agreed to allow Google to scan thousands of out-of-print books for its digital library project. Under the...
Sunday, 9 January 2011
SEEING her frail figure, looking much older than her 38 years, one wonders "Why is she doing this?" This is a lost battle, because the state is stronger than she is. She could be India's Aung San Suu Kyi but because India is a "...
AN ARM slung defensively across his chest, shoulders sagging, Councillor James Powney gave a presentation entitled "Transforming Brent's Libraries".Explaining why the northwest London council was closing six out of 12 was the unenviable...
Sunday, 26 December 2010
While Jonathan Franzen's family epic Freedom (Fourth Estate) will be the novel under most Christmas trees, and David Nicholls's bittersweet romance One Day (Hodder) the paperback to stuff into stockings, our critics found plenty of other...
Sunday, 19 December 2010
THE longlist for the Man Asian Literary Prize was announced Monday, with Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, heading an Indian-dominated field. Six titles by Indian authors were named on the 10-strong list...
MINNEAPOLIS-BASED independent publisher Graywolf Press has bought world rights to a first English-language collection of poetry by Chinese poet and newly anointed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.The poetry collection, entitled June Fourth Elegies,...
ONE of the glories of our print culture is the Economist, a magazine that combines eccentric, neoliberal editorial views with excellent, well-informed reporting. I have been a subscriber to it for more years than I care to remember and every weekend...
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
HOMER started out with a lot against him. Abandoned as a tiny kitten, a virulent infection meant he had to have both eyes removed to save his life.His fortunes changed when he was taken home by Gwen Cooper, an avid cat lover who was instantly...
Sunday, 12 December 2010
THE phrase "horses for courses" is as valid for politics as for other activities. It's as impossible to think of Gordon Brown at the recent Fifa meeting in Zurich pleading England's cause for the World Cup as it is to imagine his...
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange, this week denied bail over sexual assault allegations, with Amazon banning his site from its servers and finances squeezed from all sides, now faces yet another blow as a disaffected former colleague prepares to...
A COPY of John James Audubon's Birds of America became the most expensive book ever sold when it went under the hammer at Sotheby's for £7.3m ($14.6m) on Tuesday, December 7. The auction was a rare chance to own one of the best preserved...
Sunday, 5 December 2010
NICHOLAS Ostler, however, quotes it to make the point that no language's triumph is permanent and unassailable. Like empires (and often with them), languages rise and fall, and English, Ostler contends, will be no exception. English is the first...
GOOGLE is moving into the ebook market from the end of this year with Google Editions, which will let people buy electronic books that they can read in any device with a web browser. The delayed launch, which had been expected by the end of the...
Sunday, 28 November 2010
INSOFAR as it is a memoir of degeneration, mirrored in the fate of his family's Zimbabwean farm, and witnessed in the company of his sister, it is a book that is deeply personal. It is capable, however, of irony, as when Godwin and his sister do...
EVEN before the eat local/shop local movement hit its stride, booksellers around the country were looking for ways to green their businesses from recycling to energy-efficient electricity, and, in a few cases, transforming their entire buildings to...
Sunday, 21 November 2010
WHEN I was asked to review this book, I must admit to a slight feeling of dread. I'm a great admirer of Barack Obama, both for what he has achieved and what he's trying to achieve.
But part of me was thinking: Oh, no, not another "...
WILL she or won't she? Author JK Rowling appears to have ruled out writing another Harry Potter novel just weeks after sparking feverish speculation that another book could be on the way in an interview with US television chat show host Oprah...
A NEW agreement between Hachette Livre and Google could offer a way forward in the ongoing dispute between authors, publishers and the search engine over the digitising of out-of-print books.
Under the new deal, Google will be able to scan Hachette...
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