books

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Thief Grabs Franzen's Glasses, Demands Ransom

Author runs into latest Brit snafoodle at Hyde Park event

(Newser) - A London literary event featuring US author Jonathan Franzen was gatecrashed yesterday by a crazed thief who grabbed the glasses right off the writer's face, left behind a $150,000 ransom demand for them, then leaped in a lake as he fled British bobbies. Franzen was said to be "...

Book: Steering Blunder Sunk Titanic

And we thought it was the soundtrack...

(Newser) - The mystery of the Titanic , like Céline Dion 's heart, goes on and on...and on...and on... But a new book hopes to end the debate over the ship's demise by outlining a new theory: the crew saw the iceberg in plenty of time, but a helmsman panicked...

Internet May Kill Printed Oxford Dictionary

Its full set currently clocks in at 750 pounds...

(Newser) - Add another item to the Internet's hit list : It looks like the Oxford English Dictionary may one day exist in online form only. Its publisher said yesterday that it's uncertain whether the next edition will be printed on paper at all. And it's easy to see why: The digital version...

E-Readers Read More
 E-Readers Read More 
Aug 25, 2010 2:26 PM CDT

E-Readers Read More

Device owners read more slowly, make up for it by reading everywhere

(Newser) - If your New Year’s resolution was to read more, you might want to buy an e-reader. About 40% of e-reader owners say they read more than they used to, according to a new study. On average, they say, they finish 2.6 books a month compared to a traditional...

Readers Swoon for Amish Romance

Novels depicting the simple life fly off the shelves

(Newser) - Getting tired of True Blood? If sex-soaked entertainment has lost some of its punch, you might look to the pure, simple pleasures of Amish life and love. That's right: Amish romance novels are flying off the shelves as readers find that nothing scintillates like the chaste. "It's a huge,...

Romance Novel Publisher Goes All Digital

Dorchester expects e-books to carry its business

(Newser) - With e-book sales constituting a small but growing portion of the publishing industry, one mass-market paperback publisher is ditching its bread and butter and going all digital. Dorchester Publishing puts out 25 to 30 books a month, two-thirds of them romance novels. But the firm saw sales fall by 25%...

Google Counts the World's Books: 129,864,880

Of course, it all depends on what a 'book' is

(Newser) - After a lengthy and surprisingly complicated discourse on what constitutes a "book," a Google software engineer offers up the day's most bandied-about number: 129,864,880. As in, that's how many books exist in the world. After all, a company in the business of digitizing all of them...

Barnes &amp; Noble May Sell Itself
 Barnes & Noble May Sell Itself 
Aug 3, 2010 6:17 PM CDT

Barnes & Noble May Sell Itself

It's in dire straits amid digital revolution

(Newser) - Book retailer Barnes & Noble said its shares have slumped so low it may put itself on the block—possibly selling the chain to an investment group that would include its founder and biggest shareholder, Leonard Riggio. The world's largest bookseller said late today that its board is evaluating several...

10 Smart, Entertaining Beach Reads

They're not trashy, but they're still page-turners

(Newser) - Looking for a page-turner to read on the beach, but just can’t bring yourself to buy a trashy supermarket romance novel? Allow Sadie Stein to introduce you to 10 respectable summer reads “that you can show with pride—but will devour like a tween guilty pleasure,” on...

Dating Site Matches Up Book Lovers

Meet someone else who hated 'The Da Vinci Code'

(Newser) - Tired of meeting up with a girl from Match.com only to discover—horrors!—she’s into Nicholas Sparks ? Sign up for Alikewise , a dating site that matches you based on your taste in literature. It’s the latest in a string of niche dating sites like Cupidtino...

For True Knowledge, Close the Laptop and Grab a Book
For True Knowledge, Close the Laptop and Grab a Book
David Brooks
Jul 9, 2010 11:38 AM CDT

For True Knowledge, Close the Laptop and Grab a Book

For now, old-fashioned tomes beat the Internet for learning

(Newser) - David Brooks rounds up the latest studies on books vs. the Internet as a learning tool and comes down squarely on the side of paper and ink. The web may be better at imparting facts, but books are better at imparting knowledge to interpret those facts. The Internet produces "...

Real Books Faster Than Kindles or iPads

Satisfaction is about the same for all three

(Newser) - People read faster with old-fashioned books than they do with Kindles or iPads, a new study says. Compared to print readers, iPad users finished 6.2% slower and Kindle readers 10.7% slower, reports Mashable . (They read Hemingway short stories.) Reader satisfaction was about the same, however, and the...

10 Toughest Reads in Literature
 10 Toughest Reads in Literature 
Jun 13, 2010 4:20 PM CDT

10 Toughest Reads in Literature

This list might be enough to make your head hurt

(Newser) - Great books can bring great joy—and, in a few cases, great big headaches. Listverse compiles the 10 toughest reads in literature:
  • Finnegans Wake, James Joyce: If you thought Joyce would ride his way onto this list compliments of Ulysses, think again. Written partially in a made-up language of mindbendingly
...

100 Years Later, Mark Twain Finally Tells All
100 Years Later, Mark Twain Finally Tells All
in case you missed it
May 29, 2010 7:00 PM CDT

100 Years Later, Mark Twain Finally Tells All

Per his dying wish, autobiography to be published this year

(Newser) - A century after his death, Mark Twain remains a master at stirring up interest in his books: It was the author's dying wish that his lengthy and revealing autobiography not be published until 100 years after his death—which happens to be this year. The 5,000 pages he left...

This Year’s Hottest Bestseller: The Constitution

Tea Party tied to upsurge in interest in Constitution

(Newser) - With Democrats, Republicans and the Tea Party all citing the Constitution in support of their agendas, ordinary citizens apparently want to get in on the act too: Sales of the US Constitution have skyrocketed over the past year. In March the Constitution reached number 10 on the Government Printing Office...

Vigilante Mom Returns Gossip Girl Books to Library

Orlando-area woman says she made her point about smut

(Newser) - The Florida woman holding her local library's Gossip Girl books hostage because she deemed their content "really inappropriate" has returned them. "I feel like I had done my part to help focus attention on this," Tina Harden tells the Orlando Sentinel , which broke the story yesterday. Since...

Michael Gerson - The 64-gigabyte shape of the future
 The iPad Will Save Print Media 
OPINION
May 7, 2010 1:57 PM CDT

The iPad Will Save Print Media

Finally, a device that makes people want to pay for content

(Newser) - Michael Gerson is a self-proclaimed bibliophile who once loved “everything about used bookstores—the musty smell of decaying paper, the reading copies and remainders, the treasure hunt for a bright volume of an old favorite.” But he hasn’t visited one in years, thanks to his Amazon Kindle,...

Fla. Mom Holds Racy Gossip Girl Books Hostage

She's had them checked out since 2008

(Newser) - A Florida mom is waging a one-woman war on the Gossip Girl books. Determined to keep her teenage daughter—and everyone else—from reading the racy fare, she's had them checked out of her local library since 2008, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Tina Harden says the books' references to sex...

Laura Bush Memoir Bares First Family 'Poisoning'

She also reveals struggle after deadly car crash

(Newser) - The New York Times has snagged a copy of Laura Bush's new memoir, which isn't officially due out until next month. Some highlights from Spoken From the Heart:
  • She suggests that she, her husband, and members of their entourage were poisoned during a G8 summit when they all mysteriously fell
...

20 Must-Read Celebrity Bios

 20 Must-Read 
 Celebrity Bios 
'trashy to tragic to triumphant'
Mar 30, 2010 11:35 AM CDT

20 Must-Read Celebrity Bios

Need a good beach (or bathroom) read? Try these

(Newser) - To understand how women have defined “celebrity” over the past century, you have to read these 20 biographies. Or maybe, writes Tracie Egan Morrissey for Jezebel , you’re just looking for a trashy bathroom read. That works, too:
  • No Lifeguard on Duty, Janice Dickinson: The supermodel is “deliciously
...

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