Šonedēļ internetā. 18

Grāmatu antikvariāts “Robert’s Books” izsludina konkursu par fasādes noformējuma skici.
Guntis Berelis un Dace Rukšāne cītīgi intervē Latvijas literatūras gada balvas finālistus.
Ja gadījumā kādam ir brīvi divi tūkstoši dolāru, tos šobrīd var vieglu roku iztērēt, iegādājoties izdevniecības “Night Shade Books” mūža abonementu un jau šogad dabūjot 35 jaunas fantastikas, fantāzijas un šausmu (par tām esmu reiz rakstījusi) grāmatas. Nav slikts piedāvājums.
Krievu tulkotāja Jekaterina Dobrohotova-Maikova salīdzina rindkopu no “Haklberija Fina piedzīvojumiem” divos tulkojumos.

Мне показалось интересным показать, что собственно делают переводчики и чего обычно читатель на сознательном уровне не замечает, но именно оно даёт общее ощущение.

Mākslinieks Čips Kids stāsta – joko – par grāmatu vāku radīšanu.

Šeit bieži citētā literatūras mīlētāja, apmeklēdama tikšanos ar izdevējiem, ir atcerējusies lasītāju varu:

Publishers are having to face some inconvenient truths: firstly that too many books are being published, and secondly that most books sell less than a 1,000 copies. [..] I don’t think we readers realise quite how much power we have over the market, and that we will get the book world that we are prepared to pay for. Genre becomes ever more popular with publishers because genre readers tend to be loyal, happy to buy the next Lee Child or Barbara Taylor Bradford novel that gets released. But literary fiction readers are, according to the editors ‘highly promiscuous’. They only want to read the next big thing. Try to make sense of a literary fiction writer’s career! the man said. That author could have a huge hit with his first novel and then simply disappear off the map.
[..] If we want books to be published, we have to buy them, or check them out of the library a lot. We have to spread the word about books that are good among our reading friends, and we have the option of giving feedback directly to publishers in a way we have never been able to before. I’ve heard of bear markets and bull markets, but this is the bookworm market; we should use our powers right now, or we will lose them. [..]
When the agent asked the editors as a final question what they would change to make their lives better if they had divine powers, they found it hard to say. But oddly enough, I felt they should be asking for the literacy hour we impose on schoolchildren every day to be extended to the workplace. If everyone had to set aside one hour a day for reading, think what that would do for the adult book market! I know, it’s not likely, but then we were allowed to play at being divine for our answers, and given the mystery that is publishing, that’s probably the only way we’ll find them.

Papildu atvaļinājuma mēnesis, lai lasītu, ietu uz izstādēm, muzejiem, koncertiem un mācītos, arī būtu labi. Džeimss Vols no “The Wall Street Journal” apgalvo, ka jālasa bestselleri:

But somewhere in the early part of the twentieth-century, novel-writing broke into two diverging paths. While popular fiction continued to please the masses, Modernists like Joyce, Dos Passos, Faulkner and a host of others decided the true job of the novelist was not mere storytelling. In their work, plot and character became secondary to experimentation with voice, plot, and point of view, and a new emphasis on stylistic grace. The novels praised and promoted by the literati were increasingly cerebral and complex. Where in the 18th century novels were thought of as entertainments, they were now fodder for academia, to be dissected and analyzed by my professorial predecessors, who swooped in to stake claim to this esoteric new discipline.