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Stories 301 - 320 | << Prev   Next >>

French Mock Sarkozy by Reading Book He Hates

La Princesse de Cleves gets a boost of unexpected popularity as a protest symbol

(Newser) - France is in the grip of a nationwide strike, but dissatisfaction with Nicolas Sarkozy’s reforms is also taking a more cultured form: the reading of a classic 17th-century book the president has said he hates. The book has become an odd symbol of dissent. Sales are climbing as Sarko’...

Sony Reader Gets 500K Free Books From Google

Device's library now bigger than Kindle's

(Newser) - Google is making half a million books available for free on the Sony Reader, propelling it past Amazon’s Kindle as the e-book device with the most tomes, at 600,000, the AP reports. The availability of the public-domain books, all published before 1923, marks the first time Google has...

O'Reilly's Naughty Bedtime Story Sweeps Web

(Newser) - Bill O’Reilly’s 1998 crime novel Those Who Trespass has already caused him some embarrassment, given that one character is a ticked-off TV journalist who murders his rivals. But the Fox News host also recorded an audiobook version, which Village Voice blogger Alan Scherstuhl has mined for gems—namely...

March Madness: It All Started With Larry and Magic

1979 title game made basketball a slam dunk with public, book says

(Newser) - March wasn't always so mentally unstable. A new book claims the whole college roundball craze started 30 years ago, when Michigan State and Indiana State—and their stars, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird—met in the title game. “You couldn't have asked for a better dynamic between these two...

Bucking Trend, 2nd Novel Gets $5M Advance

Niffenegger wrote surprise 2003 hit The Time Traveler's Wife

(Newser) - Defying reports that publishers are in the poorhouse, Audrey Niffenegger, author of the huge bestseller, The Time Traveler’s Wife, has received a nearly $5 million advance for a new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, the New York Times reports. Her agent said the whopping payout from Scribner, a unit of...

'Sexy' Classics We Say We've Read

We think fibbing about reading classics makes us appear intelligent, 'sexier'

(Newser) - The Bible, War and Peace, 1984, and Ulysses are some of the classics people say they've read but actually haven't, a new British study has found. Why? Two-thirds of those surveyed fibbed about their reading mainly to appear intelligent and "more sexually attractive," a researcher tells the Daily ...

Miley Was Bullied, Lonely in High School

Singer was bullied at school, 'friendless'

(Newser) - Miley Cyrus may have a fan club now, but in high school she had the “Anti-Miley Club,” she says in her autobiography, released yesterday. The actress-singer recalls being bullied at her Tennessee high school to the point that a grilled cheese sandwich “pretty much was my best...

WWII Nazi Opus Ignites Passions (Pro and Con)

Publishers roll dice on shocking French work by Yank Jonathan Littell

(Newser) - A novel about a Nazi officer with a taste for sodomy and incest might not scream “bestseller”—especially at nearly 1,000 pages long and translated from French. Yet Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones topped charts in France and precipitated a bidding war among US publishers. HarperCollins...

In Life and Last Novel, Wallace Sought 'Adult Sanity'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace declared war on depression and addiction in writing his last, unfinished novel, D. T. Max writes in the New Yorker. The writer's suicide by hanging last year was the culmination of a struggle to live normally, to achieve what he called “adult sanity," without antidepressants...

New Yorker to Run Excerpt of Wallace's Last Book

In Pale King , deceased writer 'didn't want to do the old tricks'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace fans can get a glimpse of the deceased writer’s unfinished novel tomorrow, when the New Yorker publishes an excerpt from The Pale King, the Washington Post reports. Wallace, who killed himself last fall, had been working on the book for years. The magazine will also run...

Kathy Griffin Lands $2M Memoir Deal
Kathy Griffin Lands $2M Memoir Deal
Feb 24, 2009 1:28 PM CST

Kathy Griffin Lands $2M Memoir Deal

Work-in-progress fetches not-so-D-list price at auction

(Newser) - Kathy Griffin’s upcoming memoir may propel her up from life on the D-list, after the work-in-progress fetched more than $2 million at auction, the New York Observer reports. The comic has earned devoted fans for her turns on Suddenly Susan and My Life on the D-List. Her literary agent,...

6 Books Top Odd Title List
 6 Books Top Odd Title List 



Feb 21, 2009 6:01 PM CST

6 Books Top Odd Title List

(Newser) - Every year since 1978, Britain's Bookseller magazine has awarded the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year, the Telegraph reports. The mag's six-title shortlist just came out:
  • Baboon Metaphysics
  • Curbside Consultation of the Colon

Hollywood Is Fatal to Fabulous Books
 Hollywood Is 
 Fatal to Fabulous Books 
OPINION
Feb 17, 2009 6:43 PM CST

Hollywood Is Fatal to Fabulous Books

(Newser) - Willing Davidson knows his complaint isn't original. But he can't help asking in Slate, "Why does Hollywood take our favorite novels and turn them into crap?" In Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road, readers see their own hopes within those of his characters; in the movie, character replaces plot "and...

Bio Sheds Light on Palin's 'Secret Pregnancy'

Guv nearly outed herself to daughters

(Newser) - Sarah Palin kept her pregnancy with son Trig a secret from her girls until late in the game—but almost outed herself when one of her daughters found an ultrasound scan, People reports. This and other tidbits are revealed in Trailblazer, an unauthorized biography of the guv out tomorrow:
  • Palin
...

Grisham Shelves His Opposition to E-Books

Author nears deal to offer 22 bestsellers for Kindle, other readers

(Newser) - One of publishing's last major holdouts has decided it's time to kill his opposition to e-books, reports the Wall Street Journal. John Grisham is close to finalizing a deal that would make all of his 22 bestsellers—including new legal thriller The Associate—available for Amazon's Kindle reader and all...

Stephen King to Pen Kindle Exclusive
Stephen King
to Pen Kindle Exclusive
UPDATED
Feb 9, 2009 11:51 AM CST

Stephen King to Pen Kindle Exclusive

Novel announced along with new version of e-reader today

(Newser) - Amazon.com may have written a new storyline into the publishing world: Along with today's announcement of a slimmer, faster (but still $359) Kindle reader, the online giant revealed that it has signed horror writer Stephen King to a deal for an exclusive e-book, reports the Wall Street Journal. King...

Bad Book? Vent Your Fury on Amazon
Bad Book? Vent
Your Fury on Amazon
OPINION
Feb 9, 2009 10:30 AM CST

Bad Book? Vent Your Fury on Amazon

One-star reviews offer relief from literary anxiety

(Newser) - Anne Enright's The Gathering won the prestigious Booker Prize and dozens of adulatory reviews, but Cynthia Crossen of the Wall Street Journal didn't find much to admire in the bleak story of a dysfunctional family. Luckily, there's a place to vent such disappointment, she writes: amid Amazon's readers' reviews, where...

Twilight Author 'Can't Write Worth a Darn': King

Horror maven gets vampire books' appeal

(Newser) - Sorry, Stephenie Meyer, but Stephen King isn't among your millions of fans. The wildly successful horror author compared the wildly successful vampire author's Twilight series with JK Rowling's Harry Potter books in a recent USA Weekend interview: "The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and...

Library Ditches Hero Pilot's Fine for Book Sunk in Hudson

Restocked ethics tome to be dedicated to Sully

(Newser) - Hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger's local library has told him not to worry about a borrowed book stuck in the hold of US Airways Flight 1549 that crashed in the Hudson River, AP reports. After he contacted the library to ask for an extension, the staff not only waived all overdue...

New Zagat Guide Gives Dating Advice

(Newser) - Zagat has issued a new guide—not to dining, but to dating and dumping in the big city, the New York Times reports. The survey of residents in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities says:
  • Blind dates: Just 2% considered them a good way to meet partners. Mutual friends
...

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