Few stories have the power to captivate us more than those that remain unresolved. Codes, puzzles and cryptic public art tease us with their intrigue: Why is their message coded? What great secrets might they hide?
Monthly Archives: April 2014
Gabriel García Márquez 101: How to Read the Influential Author
Some could call him a magician, a conjurer of worlds that blended our harshest realities with our wildest imaginings. Gabriel García Márquez, the beloved Colombian novelist and Nobel Prize winner, defined magical realism. Upon his passing on April 17 at the age of 87 and in his home in Mexico City, the Internet was flooded with his quotations—vivid descriptions of the depth of life, the realities of death, and the candid humor for which he was known. As the world mourns the loss of one of the great voices in literature, we find solace in the gifts that he left to us: his books.
Filed under Books
Why Bestselling Authors Give Away Their Ebooks For Free
Last year, author Robert Galbraith published The Cuckoo’s Calling, and, in spite of high critical praise, the book was met with little fanfare from readers. In fact, during its first four months of release, the bookonly sold a measly 1,500 copies.
16 Bookstores You Have To See Before You Die
This board breaks down BuzzFeed’s top 16 bookstores (for sights and books). Travel around the world, through the pages and aisles, of the greatest bookstores — this is what fills the dreams of writers and readers.
Filed under Books
The lowdown on self-publishing
Ernest Hekkanen of Nelson is one of Canada’s most prolific and sophisticated self-publishers.
“The late-blooming desire to write a book does indicate a little something about how much contempt the average person has for writing—if not for literature, in general,” says Ernest Hekkanen. “Anyone who’s able to successfully jot down a list of shopping items seems to think he has sufficient skills to become an author.”
Anybody can publish a book these days. And there are lots of rip-off outfits lurking in the e-bushes to take advantage of would-be authors. Scribblers beware. It takes a lot more than getting your book listed on Amazon to make a buck or two. And don’t assume people in the book trade will take you seriously just because you got one hundred copies printed.
Filed under Publishing
Ebook, Used Book, or New? The Choice Reflects A Range of Values
The other day I walked past a used bookstore. My eyes fell on a dog-eared paperback of Shelley’s Frankenstein. If I purchased and read the copy in the window, I wondered, would my experience be the same as it would if I downloaded it from Project Gutenberg and scrolled through the book on a computer?
Filed under Books, eBooks, Marketing, Publishing
Papering over e-books
ONE might easily think that print publishing is a fussy business: all of that preparation to put ink on paper seems rather last century—or last half millennium. Electronic books have been hailed as the future and the perfection of the codex format, because of their ease of production, distribution, and infinite perfect replication.
Filed under Books, eBooks, Publishing
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