Suspend Your Disbelief

Archive for 2009

Shop Talk |

lit and tech linkage

by Anne Stameshkin

Can Twitter help publishers and stores sell books? Check out Ann Kingman’s findings on the Booksellers Blog. David Pogue hearts the new Kindle and answers concerns about the end of print publishing with three words: “Don’t be silly.” But Tim O’Reilly offers this “bold prediction”: “Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years. […] Open allows experimentation. Open encourages competition. Open wins.” Launching in March, Kachingle is a new online service that will encourage people to donate to newspapers, […]


Shop Talk |

r-e-s-p-e-c-t for novels by American women

by Anne Stameshkin

“Can a woman write the Great American Novel?” With this question in mind, Salon’s Laura Miller reviews Elaine Showalter’s new book, A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx: …The bestseller lists, though less intellectually exalted, tend to break down more evenly along gender lines; between J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer alone, the distaff side is more than holding its own in terms of revenue. But when it comes to respect, are women writers getting short shrift? The question is horribly fraught, and has been since the 1970s. Ten years ago, in a much-argued-about […]


Shop Talk |

Mr. Dickens regrets he's unable to lunch today

by Anne Stameshkin

It would be criminal not to link to this great Dickens anecdote, as told on Terry Teachout’s blog; for the whole story, pick up a copy of Jane Smiley’s Charles Dickens (a Penguin Lives Biography). Can anyone think of a kinder way to phrase Dickens’ letter, which justifies breaking a social engagement in order to write? I’ve often longed to say something like this; hell, maybe the key to prolificacy is not worrying about the “kinder” bit. Teachout’s response: I like to think that after firing this off, Dickens burst into tears, then got on the computer and played Web […]


Shop Talk |

recommended reading on Oscars Day

by Anne Stameshkin

Based on my abysmal guesses last year, I can’t provide a reliable cheat sheet for your Oscar pool. But I can provide linkage: an interview with Slumdog Millionaire/Q&A author Vikas Swarup, discussing Simon Beaufoy’s film adaptation of his novel; a thoughtful piece from Garth Risk Hallberg on Revolutionary Road–the book, the film adaptation, and why the latter might not be up for more gold statues; a review of Milk from the New York Review of Books; BookFox’s critique of the adaptation of “New Boy,”one of the live-action short film contenders (FYI, you can download any of the short film nominees […]


Shop Talk |

open letter from Karl Pohrt: How can we save Shaman Drum — and independent bookstores?

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

In the late 1990s, I ran a small, independent bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin, called Canterbury Booksellers. I knew I wanted to be a writer at the time, but I had no idea how to go about the process. Working at the store gave me not only shelter as a writer-in-progress, but also afforded me the opportunity to meet other writers, learn about the publishing industry, and to spend my days surrounded by people who loved nothing more than discussing writing and books. It was, in short, idyllic. But this was also during the era when chain stores were proliferating and […]


Essays |

A Review of One's Own

by Lee Thomas

Over the past decade, book reviews and newspaper book sections have faced, and continue to face, serious danger of extinction. Lee Thomas explores what our culture stands to lose if the edited book review is in jeopardy, positing that book lovers, writers, and critics might yet find a way to profit–rather than suffer from–the sea changes of the publishing industry and online review forums.


Shop Talk |

identity and responsibility

by Anne Stameshkin

In a comment to an earlier blog post, Celeste asked the following questions, which deserve a discussion of their own: I think this is an issue that writers of any minority group–-religious, ethnic, and so on–-face: must we write about our “own” group? Do we have a responsibility to write about our own group? And, on the flip side, if we write only about our own group, do we limit ourselves unnecessarily? Do we risk being dismissed by a larger audience? Thoughts?


Shop Talk |

literary travel companions

by Anne Stameshkin

I’m itching to do some traveling (and the reading that goes with it); in the meantime, let’s talk books. A few months ago I blogged about the wonderful Idlewild Books in Manhattan–a travel bookstore organized by country rather than genre. For more destination-specific recommendations, The Millions‘ Kevin Harnett suggests some fiction (and nonfiction) to take on the road. Last June, Joan Silber also contributed a post about reading abroad. Frommer’s website offers reading recommendations for a huge variety of destinations, among them cities like New Orleans, Buenos Aires, and Toronto, and countries from Japan to Iceland. For inspiration on where […]


Shop Talk |

Murakami accepts Jerusalem Prize

by Anne Stameshkin

In his acceptance speech, Haruki Murakami defends his decision to accept the Jerusalem Prize, which some Palestinian groups pressured him to refuse. Any number of times after receiving notice of the award, I asked myself whether traveling to Israel at a time like this and accepting a literary prize was the proper thing to do, whether this would create the impression that I supported one side in the conflict, that I endorsed the policies of a nation that chose to unleash its overwhelming military power. This is an impression, of course, that I would not wish to give. I do […]




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