A day at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto and I’m running a wee bit behind, but–better late than never–here’s an evening edition of Monday Miscellany…
Ex-Penguin designer David Pearson hopes to “reaffirm traditional methods of book production” with his new venture White Books according the Creative Review:
“Working on the premise that the ‘classics’ are usually the books that are treasured most, we’re aiming to create a package that stands a chance of ageing as gracefully as the writing within. Owing to the arrival of eBooks, many have prophesied the death of the printed word but we see this simply as an opportunity to turn the spotlight back on the traditional methods and to luxuriate in the craft and tactility of the physical book and the printed page.”
More on White Books at The Bookseller.
David Ulin sees a silver lining in the economic downturn (when am I allowed to start calling it a recession?) in the LA Times:
No more will publishers or writers have time or money for ephemera. During the Great Depression, even popular literature got serious: The 1930s saw the birth of noir. As the money dries up, so too, one hopes, does the gadabout nature of literary culture, the breathless gossip, all the endless hue and cry… [W]ith hard times upon us, it doesn’t seem too much to ask that this signal the start of a more stripped down, less self-absorbed period, in which we set aside the sound and fury and focus on the writing rather than the noise.
But this was the money quote for me:
“Don’t get me wrong: I’m all in favor of new technology, new delivery systems, new venues where the conversation about literature might take place. But the unrelenting insistence on newness has led down any number of blind alleys, perhaps most distressingly the ridiculous (and ongoing) print-versus-Web non-controversy, which has been promulgated almost exclusively by the least insightful people on both sides.”
Yes. Yes indeed.
Agent and former publisher Larry Kirshbaum at the HarperStudio’s The 26th Story:
“I would like to see publishers doing more marginal titles electronically — with creative Internet promotion — as their test market, then go to print if there’s a sufficient response. This is not just a matter of ecology (e.g. avoiding waste), it’s promoting the idea that every book that is published physically will get significant attention by the publisher, the retailer and hopefully the consumer.”
Writer Al Alvarez’s awesome looking chair (pictured).
Author and controversial critic James Wood talks about his recent book How Fiction Works on KCRW’s Bookworm: