Bookslut, I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but after this, all is forgiven.
Bookslut, All is Forgiven
Top Potter Town Gets Prize, Boy-Wizard Bragging Rights
Likely aware that most of us are now jaded to the astronomical sales numbers that the Harry Potter books put up, Amazon has grabbed shoppers' attention with an interesting ploy. The site is now looking to inspire further frenzies of buying by pitting town against town. "The Harry-est Town in America" is the American city or town that pre-orders the most copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and with that honor comes a $5,000 gift certificate to be donated by Amazon to a charity of the city's choice. Unsurprisingly, suburban locales make up pretty much all of the top 100 "Harry-est" towns in America, and the D.C.-area suburbs of Northern Virginia appear to have a particular affinity for the boy wizard. Also, following up on yesterday's "limited edition" post, a new box set of Potter books (pictured above) has been announced. It features "a collectible trunk-like box with sturdy handles and privacy lock" and "decorative stickers."
The Novella is Alive and Well and Living in Canada
While writers have never stopped writing short forms of fiction, Quattro is to be commended for giving this literary form some formal shape and focus.
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Dumas Lost and Found
A literary mystery reached its conclusion about two years ago when a lost Alexandre Dumas novel was published in French. The Last Cavalier had been discovered by a scholar in the Bibliotheque nationale de France as researched Dumas' life. The book has now made it here in translation. The New Yorker covers the book in its "Briefly Noted" section, calling it "a breathless seven hundred and fifty pages," which is certainly an apt description of the one Dumas book I've ever read, The Count of Monte Cristo.The CS Monitor raves as well and offers some specifics on how the novel was found in serialized form and how it was turned into a novel, "in much the same fashion Dumas himself did when transforming other epic serials into bound novels."
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A Plague of Sorts
After finding out the Harold Bloom has read pretty much everything there is to read, Sandra announced that she had contracted Bloom Syndrome: "a condition in which the sufferer is unable to read any work of literature unless it is deemed Significant by Harold Bloom." Luckily a number of readers provided various antidotes in the comments.
What people are reading
There were a few readers among the sleepyheads on the train this morning. I have to say, I'm impressed with my fellow readers this morning for the caliber of the books they were reading. Here's what I spotted:Black Boy by Richard Wright (I read this book in high school. Still one of my favorites.)Sabbath's Theatre by Philip Roth (One of the books that made The Prizewinners list I put together last month.)The Magic Mountain by Thomas MannThe Way of the Flesh by Samuel Butler (V.S. Pritchett called it "one of the time-bombs of literature.")Granta 91: Wish You Were Here (I love Granta. This issue includes Ismail Kadare, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Keneally and James Lasdun.)Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt (For all the classicists out there.)Three Junes by Julia GlassAnd a couple of bestsellers:Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. DubnerHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
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Statistics and Commissions
There's an article in the New York Times today about a Princeton undergrad who used statistical analysis to illuminate the biases of New Yorker fiction editors. Katherine L. Milkman read 442 stories printed in The New Yorker from Oct. 5, 1992, to Sept. 17, 2001, and "one main conclusion was that male editors generally publish male authors who write about male characters who are supported by female characters." The 9/11 Commission will release its findings to the public in book form. It's available for preorder at Amazon. And now hitting shelves, the paperback edition of Edward P. Jones' Pulitzer-winning novel, The Known World. I highly recommend this book.
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