data crunch

Photo: Karlos J. Afonso, DeviantArt

"Amazon is now letting indie bookstores sell its Kindle tablets, and as you might expect, the online giant paints this new program as the best of both worlds: Customers get Kindles, and the stores get a 10 percent cut when customers use the tablet to buy books. […]

     For Becky Anderson, proprietor of Anderson’s Bookshop outside Chicago and immediate past president of the American Booksellers Association, Amazon owes indies much more for what she describes as the retail giant’s 'free-riding' on the marketing and community engagement provided by small brick-and-mortar shops. 'I could not imagine partnering with them on anything. They try to undercut everything we do,' Anderson says. 'To me, this is insulting.'"
— Marcus Wohlson, Wired
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"[…] When I had to read more than a hundred novels for the Man Booker Prize last year, the most obvious thing was to keep them with me on the Kindle 3 that all members of the jury were given for the purpose. But I found myself becoming so impatient with the device that I worried whether it was influencing my view of the writing; the only way to judge the books fairly, I felt, was to read them all on printed pages.
     In my experience, it’s an essential component of reading that one should be able to see around the corner. With a Kindle, Jane Austen would never have been able to make a joke like the one she drops in at the end of Northanger Abbey, nodding to her readers about the novel nearly being at an end: readers, she wrote, 'will see in the tell-tale compression of the pages before them, that we are all hastening together to perfect felicity.'
     This is not a technophobe’s problem; it’s one that technology needs to solve. And it is – I would venture – the reason why ebook sales have slowed among those who were the first to catch on."
— Gaby Wood, The Telegraph
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The Sense of a Middle

I have just finished Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, and I can't for the life of me figure out what all the fuss was about.
     I was hoping that this winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize (He has been shortlisted for the Booker four times; this time he was successful.) would have a bit more clout — some resonance. Granted, the book does have some good bits about memory and what turns the history record of anything into "received" history, if you will. But the tedious ruminations of his protagonist Tony Webster, a schoolboy who never grew up, read a lot like Harry Potter without the magic… in every sense of the word.
     The tragic events that eventually come to light at the end of the novella have prompted many readers to read the book more than once; a quick search of the web reveals that many have sifted through the book for nuanced clues; they have marvelled at Barnes' skill as a technician, at his ability to immerse the reader in the conscience and concerns of the aging narrator. But the plot just doesn't hold up.
     The circumstances that drive the drama of the story are implausible, out of character, contrived. The withholding of certain bits of information, though somewhat vindicated by the first person perspective and Tony's faulty memory, does not justify the murkiness and inauthenticity of the story's unfolding.
     As John Gardner says, in his On Becoming a Novelist (I quote this guy a lot… sorry): "The wiser and more experienced writer gives the reader the information he [or she] needs to understand the story moment by moment…. [the author] counts on the characters and plot for his story's power, not on tricks of withheld information, including withheld information at the end."
     It makes you wonder why this book is a novella rather than a novel. Maybe his editor was on vacation towards the end of the process. Or maybe Mr. Barnes just didn't have the time or energy to put in a middle.
— Michael Hale

Canadian Author Esi Edugyan Shortlisted for the Man Booker

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Alison Pick long-listed for the Man Booker

2011 Elora Writers' Festival reader Alison Pick is one of only thirteen authors from around the world selected for the 2011 Man Booker Prize long-list.

"The list of 13 nominees includes [Canadians] Alison Pick of Toronto, author of Far to Go; Vancouver-born Patrick deWitt, now living in Portland, Oregon, nominated for The Sisters Brothers; and Esi Edugyan of Victoria, author of Half Blood Blues."
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About Alison Pick's book Far to Go:

"[...] very deftly structured and the storytelling is seamless. [...] Far to Go appears poised to gain a wide and significant readership, and deservedly so."
- The Globe and Mail

"Weaving Czech history with a contemporary mystery, Far To Go shows terrific craft and emotional intelligence. A winner. " - NOW
Get Far to Go here...

"You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughta be"—Elizabeth Gilbert

From: Escape from Reality

"For writers, the new opportunities are often double-edged, with each new prize multiplying the chances of not winning. 'I understand that some writers may feel that if there’s a winner, there are obviously losers,' says Elana Rabinovitch, administrator of the Scotiabank Giller Prize. 'That’s hard because right now we have a culture of prizes. But it’s the only downside.' "— John Barber, The Globe and Mail

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The top book-prize jackpots open to Canadian writers, in order of value (all amounts in Canadian dollars):

1. Nobel Prize in Literature: $1,555,870

2. International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award: $139,000

3. Man Booker International Prize: $96,487

4. Man Booker Prize: $80,400

5. Warwick Prize for Writing: $80,400

6. Griffin Poetry Prize: $75,000

7. Cundill Prize in History at McGill: $73,345

8. Writers’ Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Non-Fiction: $60,000

9. Scotiabank Giller Prize: $50,000

10. Montreal International Poetry Prize: $50,000

11. British Columbia National Book Award: $40,000

12. The Donner Prize: $35,000

13. Governor General’s Literary Awards: $25,000

14. Rogers Writer’s Trust Award: $25,000

15. Marion Engel Award: $25,000

16. TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award: $25,000

17. Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction: $25,000

18. Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing: $25,000

19. Trillium Book Award: $25,000

20. Matt Cohen Prize: $20,000

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