Books

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As promised in my last post, here is my interview with the lovely and gracious Julie Wilson (aka The Book Madam). She’s also a hoot and a half.

The interview was done via e-mail. All questions were sent to Julie at once, and she typed up her answers and sent ‘em back.

Grab a beverage. This is a long post.

Enjoy.


Q: First off, how would you describe yourself?

Julie: I wouldn’t say I’m a visionary, because I’m still of the old school where follow-through is everything. Which is ridiculous, because at some point I learned to start calling myself a writer even if I’m not being published. I’m definitely a dreamer. Maybe a sounder-outer? Anyone who’s talked with me knows I go off a lot. Not the same as sounding off, which I also do from time to time. But like any writer, I suppose, I need to edit. So I sound things out. A lot gets tossed aside. And of late I’ve been incredibly lucky to have found a group of people in, or on the peripheries of publishing, who seem to genuinely appreciate that process. Read the rest of this entry »

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In the United Kingdom, over 200,000 books are published each year. In the United States, over 170,000 are published annually. In Canada, the number is around 20,000. These numbers come from UNESCO, which monitors both the number and types of books published each year. The numbers are out of date, which means that the actual numbers for 2009 are much higher than these.

There are ninety-one countries on the list I looked at, and every last one of them publishes some number of books, either large or small, every single year. The top four countries (U.K, U.S., China, and Russia) each publish more than 100,000 books each year. Forty-seven of the ninety-one countries publish more than a thousand books per year.

What I’m saying is: That’s a lot of books.

Hundreds of thousands of books. Millions of pages. Tens of millions of paragraphs. Hundreds of millions of sentences.

All written by people. Read the rest of this entry »

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BookCamp, the un-conference for the publishing industry, is coming to Halifax!

On Saturday, June 5th, 2010, readers, writers, editors, publishers, educators, and technology-type-folks will gather at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University for a full day of listening, talking, discussing, suggesting, thinking, mulling, considering, and brainstorming.

It will be awesome.

Yes, that word is overused. Someone just mentioned that to me today, as a matter fact. Still, the fact remains.

The way information is delivered to us has been changing rapidly over the last few years. Longer than that, actually, but we’ve really started to see a shift in the publishing paradigm over the last decade or so: blogs, e-books, magazine and newspaper websites, RSS feeds, smartphone web browsing, and netbooks have all made their presence known and have made information both easier to grab and easier to publish.

Everyone can be their own publisher now, it seems.

So what about the venerable book? Is it doomed? Will it have to change? Is there room for the dear old thing in this whiz-bang, breakneck world in which we live?

Come to BookCamp Halifax, and let’s talk about it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Stephen King doesn't need my accolades. He's doing quite well for himself. But I thought, since I've been in a rather retro frame of mind the last while, that I'd talk a bit about some of the stuff that King has come out with over the years.

I'm not a King expert. I haven't read everything he's written. Not by half. But what I have read, I've liked.

A lot.

There are those who like to dismiss Stephen King. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's his genre. Maybe it's the fact that he's sold a bazillion copies of every book he's ever come out with. Or maybe it's because he's not "literary" (whatever the hell that means). But there are definitely King-detractors out there. Read the rest of this entry »

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I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today until about about two hours before I started typing. Usually, on Mondays, I write about movies. I found myself a little on the dry side, however, when it came to ideas. I haven't been to a movie this week, and I haven't rented anything, either. So what to do…?

Then it came to me. I've been watching the first season of Trueblood (borrowed the DVD set and am now hooked), so I've slipped into "vampire" mode. (not literally… sheesh…) This got me thinking about a movie I watched a few months back, a little indy piece that made a bit of a splash, garnered some box office, and gave some exposure to its stars.

A crazy little thing called Twilight.

First off, let me state that I have not read the books, nor am I likely to. Teen vampire romances do not appeal to me. But I work in a bookstore and thus am fully and painfully cognizant of how insanely popular this four-part series by author Stephenie Meyer is.

It's off the scale. It's Harry Potter without the restraint. It's David Cassidy, Rex Smith, Justin Timberlake, The Bay City Rollers, and the Beatles all rolled into one.

Except… paler. And… uh… with fangs. Read the rest of this entry »

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Two nights ago I went to see Julie and Julia. I'd been looking forward to it, because I had seen the previews and thought that it looked like it would be a lot of fun, especially with Meryl Streep playing the role of Julia Child.

I'm an enlightened male. I have no problem with going to see a "chick flick", especially if there are good people in it. And Meryl Streep is good people. So is Amy Adams.

I've seen Meryl Streep in a lot of roles, and while there've certainly been some that I've been lukewarm about, she's generally phenomenal. I am in full recognition of her all-around awesomeness as an actress. She's achieved a lot, and she's been in some landmark films.

And Amy Adams is probably the most adorable thing on two feet. I don't mean to sound patronizing by saying that (because "adorable" can be interpreted that way sometimes), but she has this incredibly endearing screen presence that makes you just want to hug her, even when her character is having a meltdown. Read the rest of this entry »

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Recently, I filled out one of those annoying Facebook survey/quiz things. Normally, I avoid them like the plague, partly because most of them are quite stupid and pointless and partly because it seems like they're the only thing most people put in their Facebook "Notes" section.

This one, however, actually, interested me. It was called "Fifteen Books That Stick With Me" (actually, it was "15 Books…" but I'll be correct here and actually spell out the number). It was surprisingly fun to do, and it took me on yet another trip down memory lane (see my previous two posts).

At the top of my list is Audrey Niffinegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. It became my favorite book when I first read it, and I haven't encountered anything subsequently to knock it out of that position.

Read the rest of this entry »

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