By: John Mark Boling,
on 10/1/2012
<!--StartFragment--> Autumn is slowly creeping into the atmosphere with its dropping temperatures and beautifully changing leaves, and Overlook has brand new paperbacks to enjoy while you're wrapped up in a sweater enjoying a mug of hot cocoa. From crime thrillers and totalitarian art to celebrity stories and a history of magic, this list will surely provide something for every book lover.
By: John Mark Boling,
on 8/1/2012
Whether you’re heading to sun yourself on the sand or staying inside and watching a thunderstorm brew, Overlook has a brand new paperback for every mood, interest, and forecast. We promise you’ll be too engrossed in literature to count the days left before the leaves litter your walkway. This month we’re releasing super thrillers, probing historical explorations, intriguing memoirs, Russian plays
By: Stephanie,
on 6/26/2012
Bloomsbury wants to know: are you the biggest Harry Potter fan?
The British publisher of the Harry Potter series is hosting a competition to find the biggest fan in the U.K. and Ireland. Fans will only be able to enter the competition by submitting an entry though participating bookshops and libraries. More than 1,800 venues will be participating; a map and list of locations is provided on Bloomsbury's website.
Instructions to enter the competition are as follows:
To enter write in no more than 50 words why you love HARRY POTTER, and post your letter in the special postbox provided in your local bookshop or library.
We are looking for the most creative, clever and entertaining reasons and, while the word limit it set to a strict 50 words, please do draw, doodle or illustrate your letters if you wish.
The grand prize winner will receive a family holiday to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort and a leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th Anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Fourteen runners-up will also be chosen, and they too will receive the aforementioned 15th anniversary edition of Philsopher's Stone.
The competition begins today and will run until July 31st. Good luck to all who enter!
Add a Comment
By: Stephanie,
on 5/17/2012
According to BBC News, a group of more than 60 scholars have congregated at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland to discuss the literary merits of the Harry Potter series over the next two days.
The conference, entitled "A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature," will feature over 50 lectures about the series with topics ranging from the role of paganism, British national identity and how death is dealt with in the books. A complete anthology based on this conference is expected to be published in 2013.
Conference organizer, Professor John Patrick Pazdziora, had this to say about putting together such a conference:
"We can't avoid the fact that Harry Potter is the main narrative experience of an entire generation - the children who literally grew up with Harry Potter.
"The Harry Potter novels are simply the most important and influential children's books of the late-20th and early 21st Centuries."
"For very many people, this is their first experience of literature, and of literary art. So they want to think about it, and analyse it, and talk about it."Add a Comment
By: John Mark Boling,
on 8/17/2010
We were thrilled to see these wonderful pictures of the fantastic Wilton Library's recent Freddy the Pig display. One of Overlook's most beloved series for children, we're re-releasing three titles this fall in paperback for a new generation to enjoy.
Originally published between 1927 and 1958, the 26 Freddy the Pig classics continue to be loved by children young and old (as the pictures show!). This October, Overlook will bring back Freddy the Detective, Freddy the Politician, and Freddy and the Bean Home News.
Stay tuned for much more information on these delightful books.
By: Annie Beth Ericsson,
on 9/10/2010
Anthropologie has the hottest book wallpaper… so in case you can’t get enough real books to stack, you can plaster your walls with Penguin paperbacks!!
Happy Friday, everyone… I’m going to be artsy tonight with some gallery openings, then forgo the cool people at Fashion Week to get my nerd on at the Brooklyn Book Festival instead. I love Fall!
By: John Mark Boling,
on 11/2/2011
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
OP: The legend o
f the Greek messenger running twenty-six miles from Marathon to Athens with news of victory in battle is the inspiration for our modern-day race. Sources suggest that in reality, the entire Greek army marched this distance to defend Athens. Why does this popular myth persist in spite of its historical inaccuracy?
By: John Mark Boling,
on 11/21/2011
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
By: Edward,
on 11/29/2011
Researchers at the University of Calgary have complied a one-of-a-kind collection of 70 translations of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" novels and have published selections from those translations online, reports the Vancouver Sun. Geared to educators, students and Potter-fans alike, the resource "will feature images from international dust jackets and audio files with selections from each of the 70 translations, including Afrikaans, Hindi, ancient Greek and Latin." Russian literature professor and the leader behind this project, Nicholas Zekulin, says:
"It's a work which presents real challenges for the translator," said Zekulin. "How do you translate 'quidditch'? Nobody can... The Ukrainian translation is interesting. They don't have (Hogwarts) school, they have an orphanage. And the reason is that in Ukrainian culture, the idea of a boarding school is completely unknown. The only thing they could conceive of as bringing children together was an orphanage."The 70 translations can be found in the Language Research Centre on the University's website. Add a Comment
By: John Mark Boling,
on 3/1/2012
<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif][if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif][if gte mso 9]>
By: Stephanie,
on 4/26/2012
J.K. Rowling will receive the Freedom of the City of London on Tuesday, May 8 for her services to children's literature, according to a press release from the City of London.
The ceremony will take place at the Mansion House, the official residence of London's Lord Mayor. She will read aloud the Declaration of a Freeman and be presented with a framed parchment certificate.
In a statement, Ms. Rowling spoke of what the award means to her and some special perks:
“Both my parents were Londoners. They met on a train departing from King’s Cross Station in 1964, and while neither of them ever lived in London again, both their daughters headed straight for the capital the moment that they were independent. To me, London is packed with personal memories, but it has never lost the aura of excitement and mystery that it had during trips to see family as a child.
“I am prouder than I can say to be given the Freedom of the City, which, on top of all the known benefits (and few people realize this), entitles me to a free pint in The Leaky Cauldron and a ten Galleon voucher to spend in Diagon Alley.”
The Freedom of the City of London can be traced back to 1237. Today, people are presented with the award because it offers them a link with the historic City of London and one of its ancient traditions.
Thank you to In Honor of Rowling for the tip! Add a Comment
By: John Mark Boling,
on 5/14/2012
Spring is (finally) in the air. Although we officially left winter behind almost two months ago, only recently have the pre-summer months begun to offer their full bounty. Birds are chirping, trees are blooming, flowers are blossoming, and baseball season is in full swing. Because spring is a season to celebrate rebirth and renewal, there's no better time to dive into a paperback. This month
By: Julie Fortenberry,
on 4/10/2007
Pencils made from cremated humans
A 1950s outfit knit from old grocery bags
Pack your bagel in a CD spindle
By: Sondra Santos LaBrie,
on 2/8/2008
By: Rebecca,
on 2/28/2008
Jeff Prucher, editor of Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, has kindly guest blogged for us this week. Below, learn how science fiction has conceived of a crime, which has never been committed.
There have been a number of news reports in recent months that reveal a dark underside to the word of organ transplants. In one case, corpses were illegally purchased from funeral directors, and usable tissues were resold to be used in transplants. In another: (more…)
.jpg?picon=694)
By: Writing for Children,
on 3/1/2008
L.D. Harkrader’s popular middle grade novel, Airball: My Life in Briefs, will be released in paperback next week.
By: Lisa Chellman,
on 12/20/2008
Editorial Ass discusses the pros and cons of publishing paperback originals as an alternative to hardcovers in these tough financial times. I found this article interesting from my different perspectives as librarian and prospective author.
From my public librarian standpoint, paperback originals are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I like hardcovers because they are far sturdier than paperbacks and can handle much heavier circulation. On the other hand, unless a book is very popular or on a school reading list (this includes award-winners), a hardcover book is not likely to circulate heavily—like, enough to fall apart within a few years.
Therefore, in my opinion, it might as well reap the benefits of being a paperback: greater visibility/browsability on our paperback carousels, greater portability for patrons who don't like to lug heavy books, and greater affordability if we need additional or replacement copies. Paperbacks (I'm talking fiction) circulate more heavily than hardcovers, and circulation is the way libraries define a book's success.
The main caveat is that unless they're part of a very heavily promoted series or imprint (e.g., Aladdin MIX) that puts them on our radar, the books must be reviewed, and reviewed positively, in journals such as Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, and VOYA for my library to order them. (Other libraries may treat paperback originals differently.)
From the perspective of a prospective author, I have mixed feelings as well. As EA notes, there's this nose-wrinkling in the industry that if a book was published as a paperback original, it's because your publishing house didn't take the book "seriously."
I have to admit, I've been guilty of nose-wrinkling myself—which was why I was so surprised that three of the first four YA books from Flux to garner starred reviews from major publications were—you guessed it—paperback originals: The Shape of Water, by Anne Spollen, Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, by Maggie Stiefvater, and The Way He Lived, by Emily Wing Smith. (Hopefully I've got that right... And the fourth, published in hardcover, was Everything You Want, by Barbara Shoup.) So, obviously there's no obvious correlation there between literary quality and binding.
And if a paperback's affordability makes it that much more likely for customers to buy my (hypothetical) book? Well, it's hard to say no to that. Sure, a hardcover looks good and feels good. But, having worked in a library for several years now, I've come to view both hardcovers and paperbacks as ephemeral objects. There's no other way to approach the fact that something like 98% of books go out of print within a few years. Knowing I'm unlikely to be one of those authors whose books are in print 20/50/100 years from original publication makes it seem to matter a little less.
Finally, speaking as both librarian and prospective author, if in these tough financial times we're faced with the choice of either severely cutting down the number of books published period or publishing many more trade books as paperback originals than as hardcovers, I prefer the latter. As a librarian, I prefer many voices to few. And as a prospective author, I'd like mine to be one of them.
Posted on 2/13/2009
Scholastic, the US publishers of the Harry Potter novels, will be releasing a new box set of the series this summer. This new collection, which you can see here in our galleries, is available for pre-order via Barnes and Noble, as well as Walmart. Included in the collection are the set of US paperback editions of books one through seven, with the box to feature the Deluxe cover from Harry Pott... Read the rest of this post
Add a Comment
Posted on 3/10/2009
A quick followup this morning regarding this story from last month involving an auction of a rare First Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Scores of you owled to let us know the auction was completed, with the book selling for a record $19,120. The AP reports that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was one of only 200 copies from the first printing issued with illustra... Read the rest of this post
Add a Comment
Posted on 6/1/2009
Scholastic, the US publishers of the Harry Potter novels, have updated their website with a lovely new poster called "Celebrating Harry Through the Years." The poster, available for download via this link (PDF), features a montage of artwork by Mary GrandPre as well as photos of each of the seven books in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Also on the sit... Read the rest of this post
Add a Comment
Posted on 7/4/2009
As readers will recall on Tuesday, July 7th, Scholastic, the US publishers of the Harry Potter series, will at long last release a paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As part of the event, the main Scholastic Store in Soho, New York City will be the site of a release party. Starting at 10:00 am there will be Harry Potter trivia, potions and wand making events, plus fans c... Read the rest of this post
Add a Comment
Posted on 7/7/2009
Just in time for all those summer holidays and vacations, the paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is now available here in the US. Released today by Scholastic, the US publishers of the Harry Potter novels, you can now find the paperback edition of the final book in the Harry Potter series at retailers everywhere. The special paperback box set from Scholastic is also now a... Read the rest of this post
Add a Comment
wow, do you guys like to promote books by women, too?