It’s time! Audible settles lawsuit over audiobook Captions
We have been closely following the ongoing Audible debacle over the last six months months or so: read our latest coverage here and here. Now ready yourself for the next… Read more »
Petersfield Bookshop gets online boost after “tumbleweed” tweet
In January-is-frigging-awful-let’s-have-some-good-news news, The Guardian and others reported The Petersfield Bookshop’s welcome injection of online orders, following a singularly heartbreaking tweet. The shop, which specialises in antiquarian books, maps and other… Read more »
18th century toilets for the true book lover
You can learn a lot about a person based on the reading material they have in their bathroom. Gossip rags, a dictionary, a few unfinished reads, or (gasp) … nothing.… Read more »
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University discover a lost copy of an early essay on gay rights
In 1873 John Addington Symonds, an English essayist and poet, wrote “A Problem in Greek Ethics,” an essay celebrating the Greeks’ liberal approach to sexuality in contrast to Victorian England… Read more »
Bob Woodward has interviewed Trump for his follow-up to Fear
What comes after fear? Horror? Numbness? Tragedy? Something in between—say, a holding pattern of dazed, ambient anxiety? Better figure that out soon, because legendary reporter of Watergate fame, Bob Woodward,… Read more »
This week in newspeak: Donald Trump, The Environmentalist
Lest we begin to doubt the impact that books can have on the culture, in a backwards and entirely upsetting way, Donald Trump has reaffirmed the power of the written… Read more »
When love turns sour: Romance awards cancelled amidst ongoing race row
The RITA is considered the highest award of distinction in English-language romance fiction. With 13 prize categories, up to 2,000 novels are submitted to the Romance Writers of America (RWA) who… Read more »
Galley Beggar press turns to the public to recoup unexpected loss . . . human spirit prevails
Greta Thunberg named TIME person of the year; jointly scoops Waterstones book of the year
Book prize judge resigns, claiming none of the other judges “had read all of the books in their entirety”
Nobel resignation drama matures into boycott stage
Charles Sprawson, cult author of ‘Haunts of the Black Masseur’, has died
Sad news this week as it was announced that Charles Sprawson, author of Haunts of the Black Masseur, and widely regarded as the forerunner to the modern nature writing / wild… Read more »
Book community rises to the occasion of fighting Australian wildfires
The wildfires currently raging in Australia have burned over 18 million acres and taken a major toll on the country’s wildlife. Twenty-four people have died as a result of the months-long… Read more »
To Kill a Mockingbird will be performed at Madison Square Garden
First, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird made its Broadway debut. Now, the production will grace the stage at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden. For one night only,… Read more »
Book adaptations struggle at the box office in 2019
As noted by Paula Bernstein in Fortune, the big screen adaptations of several blockbuster novels of years past failed the impress critically or at the box office throughout 2019. These… Read more »
Brooklyn Library names Mary Mattingly as 2020’s Artist in Residence
Every year the Brooklyn Public Library hosts an Artist in Residence to connect local artists to the library and its patrons. According to the library website, the program offers library… Read more »
Abe announces most expensive book sales of 2019; Abe wins
Rare book dealership AbeBooks.co.uk have announced their most expensive sales of 2019. Fantasize about owning some pricey antique tomes here! The list, which includes works by Dashiel Hammett, Mark Twain,… Read more »
Getting in the festive mood with these … unusual … retellings of A Christmas Carol
Christmas is now less than a week away, and the BBC is kicking off its festive programming this Sunday with a new rendition of A Christmas Carol. Dickens’ perennial favourite is… Read more »
Galley Beggar press turns to the public to recoup unexpected loss . . . human spirit prevails
Just the other day we wrote about the book that was perhaps the publishing story of 2020—Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann—and the galvanizing effect it was having on our friends at Porter Square Books.… Read more »
When love turns sour: Romance awards cancelled amidst ongoing race row
Greta Thunberg named TIME person of the year; jointly scoops Waterstones book of the year
Book prize judge resigns, claiming none of the other judges “had read all of the books in their entirety”
Nobel resignation drama matures into boycott stage
Big expensive drama for Little Free Libraries
What’s in the box? This question, made famous by the movie Seven, strangely applies to a trademark dispute. Little Free Libraries have been covered for the past several years, garnering praise… Read more »
Original Manuscript of Peter Pan yields surprises
Peter Pan is a story that has been immortalized and ingrained in pop culture thanks to the 1953 animated film by Disney. It has been developed into at least 13… Read more »
Indie bookseller gives a hand for beloved single-sentence book
We often valorize the hard work being done, all across the country, by independent booksellers. There’s no better time than December—a month characterized by mis-shipments, demanding patrons, and the stifling… Read more »
Teens in Argentina push for a gender-neutral Spanish language
Language evolves much slower than vocabulary. It is something the average person probably doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about, but the question of gendered language is a large… Read more »
In conversation with Steve Almond, author of Against Football
It’s been five years since we published Steve Almond’s Against Football, a treatise Newsweek called “a devastating multi-pronged attack against what [Almond] sees as the sins endemic to the sport’s business:… Read more »
Remember when you all got mad about books being shelved page-side-out? Well…bad news…
Last May, an interior design tip to display books so their pages faced the room made it onto twitter.com and incited a day or two of genial outrage. This followed… Read more »
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year is “they”
As 2019 comes to a close, we have even more “Word of the Year” news to report: Merriam-Webster dictionary has announced “they” as their Word of the Year, specifically because… Read more »
Greta Thunberg named TIME person of the year; jointly scoops Waterstones book of the year
You might have heard there’s an election on today in the UK*. Brenda from Bristol: NOT ANOTHER ONE! Yes, Brenda, another one. Because that’s just how we roll over here… Read more »
When love turns sour: Romance awards cancelled amidst ongoing race row
Galley Beggar press turns to the public to recoup unexpected loss . . . human spirit prevails
Book prize judge resigns, claiming none of the other judges “had read all of the books in their entirety”
Nobel resignation drama matures into boycott stage
The votes are in: Melville House’s books are here to help explain the UK’s political mess
The UK has taken to the polls in the third general election in five years—the first December election for almost a century. At the moment of writing, latest opinion poll… Read more »
Book trends of the decade, decoded; Brit critic dips Into lit
The annual deluge of year-end roundups is upon us, made even worse by the inevitable conscious coupling of decade-end lists! It’s gilding the lily, to be sure! It’s piling on!… Read more »
On the cosmic and bureaucratic implications of library book borrowing limits
Looking back on our year in library reporting, it’s been a wild one. We’ve covered a Chinese library burning books, libraries closing all over the UK, the best little library… Read more »
Women writers dominate Italian lit market in wake of Ferrante Fever
One of the decade’s best publishing stories is the breakout success of pseudonymous Italian writer Elena Ferrante. She received the James Wood seal of approval, brought international flavor (and likely some much-improved… Read more »
Diplomat allegedly caught on tape stealing a book
Remember when Winona Ryder shoplifted from Saks and was (in my opinion) unjustly ostracized from Hollywood? It appears that diplomacy world has its own Winona scandal brewing—according to AP, the Mexican ambassador to… Read more »
Melville House 2019 Staff Picks
A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO IMPEACHMENT by Barbara Radnofsky When I recommended this book two Christmas’s ago, I wrote: It’s coming. It may be slow, but it’s coming. And now, it’s… Read more »
A Chinese library burns books and sparks outrage
Remember when time travel was just a really cool idea in science fiction where your biggest concern was either correcting a dystopian future or not hooking up with your mom?… Read more »
Book prize judge resigns, claiming none of the other judges “had read all of the books in their entirety”
Lesley McDowell, one of the five judges sitting on this year’s panel for the Saltire Scottish fiction book of the year award, announced her resignation from the panel on Monday.… Read more »
Nobel resignation drama matures into boycott stage
The Nobel prize in literature has been mired in resignations for years. It all started when a scandal erupted in 2017 involving charges of sexual misconduct and corruption. So many… Read more »
When love turns sour: Romance awards cancelled amidst ongoing race row
Galley Beggar press turns to the public to recoup unexpected loss . . . human spirit prevails
Greta Thunberg named TIME person of the year; jointly scoops Waterstones book of the year
Book prize judge resigns, claiming none of the other judges “had read all of the books in their entirety”
773 UK libraries have closed in last decade
In just ten years nearly a fifth of the UK’s libraries have closed, reports Alison Flood for the Guardian. Correspondingly, “the number of paid librarians has also plummeted” (from 24,000 to… Read more »
New Indie Book of the Month scheme to launch in the UK
Independent bookshops, unite! The Booksellers Association (BA), a membership organisation for all booksellers in the UK & Ireland, representing over 95% of bookshops, is launching a scheme to promote one… Read more »
Is the age of prizes over?
OK this might be a difficult one to tackle in a few hundred words, but here’s the gist: do we need prizes any more? Do we want them? Because, the… Read more »
Not on Fire, But Burning
The Jane Austen Rules
Ada’s Algorithm
Bernie goes to the Vatican Bundle
Red or Dead
The Weirdness
“I Would Prefer Not To” Bartleby Tote Bag
The Dog Walker
Sophia
The Next Next Level
Future Days
Bartleby Mug
Trainwreck
Patience and Fortitude
The Dark Net
Wittgenstein Jr
Cat Out of Hell
Half The Kingdom
La Femme de Gilles
Bolaño
Gnarr!
Bartleby the Scrivener
The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure
Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality
The Ghost Network
We, Robots
Billy Budd, Sailor
Philip K. Dick: The Last Interview
James Baldwin: The Last Interview
The Constitution Demands It
The Dunwich Horror
How to Do Nothing
Rules for Werewolves
An Exaggerated Murder
The Art of the Novella subscription + Referral Rewards!
A History of Money
Spurious, Dogma, & Exodus
The North of God
The Establishment
What We Do Now
The Duke’s Table
Melancholy Accidents
The Philosophy of Beards
The Buenos Aires Quintet
The U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality (Gift Edition)
The Quest for a Moral Compass
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive
Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Last Interview
The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture
Ernest Hemingway: The Last Interview
The Damned Utd
The Dead
Why I Am Not a Feminist
Hannah Arendt: The Last Interview
The Essential Heinrich Böll
The Day the Renaissance Was Saved
The Utopia of Rules
Contraband Cocktails
Happiness
Nora Ephron: The Last Interview
