To end on a high note, The View From Here Magazine, the literary blog to which I have regularly contributed news and features over the last quarter of 2008, is shortlisted for the 2008 Best Weblog Awards.

It made the final ten in the 'Best UK Blog' category. Other blogs in this category include, Melanie Philips from the Spectator, Created in Birmingham which last year won the MediaGuardian Award and Neil Clark .

(Update: Jan 15, 2009 - TVFH came sixth, in the category Best UK Blog 2008.)

Fellow contributor, Kathleen Maher, is further shortlisted alongside the likes of Neil Gaiman and Nathan Bransford, in the best literary blogs category.

Voting is just a two-click process - no registration required. First click on the link, then click on the voting buttons for the poll in which you wish to vote. The polls are open through January 12. You can vote once every 24 hours! To read more about the contest and other notable entrants, click here.

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I have reached my 85th post today, since I began in March. As we come to the end of 2008 and approach the start of a new year, I have paused for reflection. I have come to the conclusion that the more I blog, the less I write. The more time I spend reading and learning from other writers, the less I spend reading my stack of books-to-be-read. So, I have decided to take my leave of the active writing-blogging community, and say a big thank you to all those who have read and commented, encouraged and informed me, in my brief foray in blogging. I don't intend this to be a negative decision, against blogging in any way. Much more it is a positive affirmation, that I want to write other material. The Amateur Book Blogger's scrapbook is just being temporarily shelved.

As the book quiz result told me, "All you wanted was a nice cup of tea when some haggard crazy old man came into your life and told you it was time to do something with yourself. Now you’re all conflicted about whether to stick with your stay-at-home lifestyle or follow this crazy person into the wild." So I'm off into the wild.

I'll continue to follow many of your sites, news and keep up to date with many of the goings-on of the literary world, through new found friends and resources, but not blog myself. This will give me a little more time, which I want to commit to my own writing.

It's been a very difficult debate - on the one hand, by blogging I write something, regularly. And I have the opportunity for feedback and sharing with other writers. But on the other, as a full-time Mum, I have very limited time for writing. I have increasingly felt my first call of writing-duty was to blog, and if that was the only time I had writing in the day, then I made no progress on other projects.

My WIP fiction, is at around 40,000 words. And has been like that since March. The time has come to get back in and finish it. And it is thanks to Mike French, Paul Burman, Patricia Wood, Becky Ramsey and many others whose own writing and energy have inspired me, that I want to drive it over the finish line. It will more than likely become that 'first novel' which lies in a desk drawer and backed up on the hard drive, never to see the light of an editor's desk. But I know that I must complete that first book, before I can get started on number two. And however many more it takes, to get published. Because, as I approach my mid-thirties, and the start of a new year, I realise that every day is a gift. We have no idea how long we have in good health, and if we have dreams we want to achieve, we'd better get on and make them happen. No one else can do it for us.

Still plenty of great reading over at The View From Here. Currently my news holiday postings include guest posts from Becky Ramsey, John Siddique, Jonathan Stroud and MG Harris. Plus a tentative yes, from Bernard Cornwell. These, plus other new books and stories make up the Twelve Days of Christmas Series. And the team's favourite books of 2008 are posted too, on the main page. Certain to be lots of interesting things going on in 2009 there for sure.

What's going to happen in publishing in 2009? Daisy Frost has a great tongue in cheek view of the London scene. I'll be interested to see what happens to the Plastic Logic Reader, Kindle & co and digital books. What will happen to Borders? Will the Google Book Agreement go global? Will there be significant publishing house restructurings or mergers? Will the no-returns policy finally be phased out? What will China showcase at the Frankfurt Book Fair?

So, it's not goodbye, for I will still be around. More of an "Auf Wiedersehen". A very big thank you to all who have stopped by over the last nine months. And a very happy & healthy 2009 to you all.

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This is just too good not to try.

Lizzy’s Literary Life pointed out this great six question quiz, which then defines you (I know, labels, boxes, and so on, but it's just for fun) as a book.

Apparently, I’m The Hobbit! by J.R.R. Tolkien.

"All you wanted was a nice cup of tea when some haggard crazy old man came into your life and told you it was time to do something with yourself. Now you’re all conflicted about whether to stick with your stay-at-home lifestyle or follow this crazy person into the wild. While you’re very short and a little furry, you seem to be surrounded by an even greater quantity of short folks lately. Try not to lose your ring, but keep its value in perspective!"

So true right now. I wonder if all the books would fit somehow, but perhaps not, as I can't really feel the same empathy with 'You’re The Things They Carried' by Tim O'Brian, or Lewis Carroll's 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.'

Just for fun.

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Stella tagged me, so here's my seven fun facts, why not? Mind you, fun is relative, and so since I've never done this before, I'll not try too hard to be funny, just not too serious.

1. I'm the same star sign as Mark Twain and JFK.
2. James Anderson, the first man to lay transatlantic cables in 1866, was born in 1824 in the same town as I was.
3. I am thirteen centimeters shorter than Jennifer Lopez.
4. I love Christmas pudding with custard. This is an exciting month for me.
5. One of my all time favourite fictional characters likes nothing better to eat than snozzcumbers.
6. My husband is six inches taller than Bjorn Borg, doesn't play tennis, but has the same nationality.
7. I'm a Mum of two and a third. (WIP)

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Aloha! So last night was our Book Club's meeting about "Lottery". And the author, Patricia Wood, joined us from Hawaii via skype video conference, to talk about writing the book, its themes, answer and discuss our questions, and share a privileged sneak preview to the prologue of her new book on the way.

At the risk of sounding too fawning, we all thought it was wonderful. Thank you to Pat for taking the time and effort to talk to us, and in her words, "completing the circle" of her book writing process, having reader feedback."You have an idea how you want people to feel when they read it. You can't create art in a vacuum. To have the dialogue, between author and reader, there is nothing greater."

The book addresses a broad range of themes, society's values and prejudice, and the power of unconditional love, narrated from the unreliable point of view, of thirty-two year old Perry, whose IQ is 76. "You have to have an IQ of less than 75 to be retarded. " The story centres on what happens to him, how he is perceived by others and the decisions he makes, after the key catalysts that trigger the action-packed story: his Gram dies and he wins twelve million dollars in the State Lottery. It's funny, it's sad, serious and easy reading. But don't let that fool you into thinking it's insubstantial. The more you delve into the relationships between the characters and Perry's perception of them and theirs of him, you are forced to examine your own prejudices and values. The relationships are all beautifully crafted, authentic and serve to make us question: What weighting to we give to intelligence, beauty and wealth? What do we value in life? What makes a family? "My name is Perry L. Crandall and I am not retarded. Gram always told me the L stood for lucky."

Well last night, we were the lucky ones, to have access to Pat's insights, wisdom and humour for an hour. Her friendly, open manner made everyone feel at ease and able to speak, despite our initial nervousness before the call - "the author herself (stunned silence), what will we say, will we ask daft questions, she'll have heard it all before, maybe I should have re-read it again, what about that bit about..." all unfounded. Afterwards, we all agreed she ranks high up on the list of people we'd love to share a drink and a chat with, and you could talk about anything.

So, with that in mind, here's a thank you toast. " May your success be as deep as the ocean, and your troubles as light as its foam."

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Youth and adults alike are reading less, reported the study by the Stiftung Lesen in Germany today. It is the third such study, carried out by researchers since 1992, of the reading habits of more than 2,500 people over 14 years of age.

Eight years ago almost 1 in 3 read between eleven and fifty books per year, now it's only 1 in 4. Stefan Aufenanger, the scientific director of the Stiftung Lesen, spoke of the "disappearing opportunist reader".

What remains almost unchanged, are the extremes: the number who read zero books remained steady at a staggering twenty-five percent. Three percent manage more than fifty books per year. It's the middle band of average readers, which has declined.

Despite the fact that more people indicated they felt reading was 'important' it seems to be missing for many from an early age. Forty-five percent of 14-19 year olds, say they never received a book as a gift as a child. in 1992, seventy-two percent said they had.

The number of books per household has also fallen.

What is interesting to me, was the stronger emphasis in non-German native households on reading. Thirty-six percent read a book once or frequently a week, eleven percent daily. " German migrants form a new reading 'middle-class' with a significant education potential", summarized Andreas Storm, Parliamentary secretary for Education and research.

My Thursday thoughts: I wonder what impact audio books has had, and whether they were included in the study, or whether it refers only to hard copies? And if only paper formats, who is reading what? I wonder if it reflects other countries' reading trends?

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It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon...

Whilst the Christmas preparations have moved up a gear, my writing slots have become fewer and further between, so apologies for the long absence.

I'm cheered to see The Bookseller report that the UK book trade enjoyed its busiest week of the year last week, with sales passing £50m for the first time, as retailers report what was described as a "genuine uplift" in trading.

However, the tale at HMH seems to have taken on a twist, following the widely report hold on adult fiction acquisitions, the senior vice president and publisher of adult trade books at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has resigned.

As I've spent much of the last week preparing advent calendars for friends and family, I enjoyed a laugh at the literary stocking fillers over at Vulpes Libris.

I've also had some family time which included watching the film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time. I'm interested to see the documentary reported by The Guardian coming up in 2009, which claims to reveal a new third level of meaning hidden in Lewis's writing, medieval cosmology. "This is a piece of Lewis which has remained untouched for 60 years – it blows the dust off, brings him into the light of day with Dawkins and the neo-atheists Pullman and Hitchens," he said. "It's fresh Lewis, as if he was standing up in the debating chair saying 'this is my worldview'. Lewis's stance was incredibly different to that pushed by [today's] bleak populist view."

Although December will be a down month for me, whilst I manage the home front, I just want to share what was in my post box today all the way from Australia. Two discs of exciting ideas for an upcoming book trailer I might be involved in making in early 2009...watch this space.

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The comic and cartoon hero is looking good for eighty, and he's partying with celebrities, dancing Bollywood and travelling worldwide. To read more about the Disney charachter who started out in 1928, see my post over at The View From Here.

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Please, read Lynne Truss's book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves if you haven't already done so. And check out her punctuation quiz - it's fun!

Here is an example of why I love punctuation, but it's so easy to get wrong. Oh, and the typo...how many can you spot?

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I'm stockpiling. I've ordered my Book Club list for the next nine months (6), Christmas gifts (3) and my current 'like-to-haves' (10). I've bought some online and some from my local store. The only problem is now, where will I store them?

I've another five already on the to-be-read-stack. Since I currently do less than one a month, looks like I have my own supply and demand issue to take care of at home. Now that I can deal with. The market may need to take care of itself.

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream [Paperback] Paulo Coelho
Arthur and George [Paperback] Julian Barnes
The Book Thief [Paperback] Markus Zusak
Fault Lines [Paperback] Nancy Huston
First Book of the Recorder (Usborne First Music) [Paperback] Philip Hawthorn, Caroline Hooper
French by Heart: An American Family's Adventures in La Belle France [Paperback] Rebecca S. Ramsey
Granny Was a Buffer Girl [Paperback] Berlie Doherty
If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things [Paperback] Jon McGregor
The Joshua Files - Invisible City (Joshua Files) (Joshua Files) (The Joshua Files) [Paperback] M G Harris
The Lovely Bones [Paperback] Alice Sebold
Manga for Dummies (For Dummies) [Paperback] Kensuke Okabayashi
McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland (A Lir book) [Paperback] Pete McCarthy
Night Train to Lisbon [Paperback] Pascal Mercier
Peeling the Onion (Beim Häuten der Zwiebel) [Paperback] Günter Grass.
The Secret Life of Bees [Paperback] Sue Monk Kidd
The Sleepwalker (CHERUB) [Paperback] Robert Muchamore
The Tower (Der Turm). [Paperback] Uwe Tellkamp
What You Don't Know about Retirement: A Funny Retirement Quiz [Paperback] Bill Dodds
Wicked (Wicked Years 1) [Paperback] Gregory Maguire

Existing Shelf Stack:
Half of a Yellow Sun [Paperback] Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Inglorious [Hardback] Joanna Kavenna
The Irresistable Inheritance of Wilberforce [Hardback]Paul Torday
Moral Disorder [Paperback] Margaret Atwood
The Road Home [Paperback] Rose Tremain
Strawberry Fields [Paperback] Marina Lewycka

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The press is full of the challenging market times we face, whether buying milk, manufacturing cars or publishing books. Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown says encouragingly today, times have been tougher in publishing.

"First, we must remember the advice of the late Douglas Adams and Don't Panic. The book industry has been through worse times than this, people will always read books, books will still be published, and until that changes most of us will still be here."

The American Association of Publishers reported significant year to date increase and decreases in many sales in August. But the range of change was broad.

Winners:
E-books sales jumped up by a whopping 52 percent for the year.

Adult Paperback sales increased by 9.5 percent for the year.

The Children’s/YA Paperback saw an increase of 14.1 percent for the year.

Losers:

The Children’s/YA Hardcover sales for year-to-date dropped by 35.5 percent.

Audio Book sales were down by 26.8 percent.

Religious Books saw a decrease of 7.7 percent for the year.

More recently HarperCollins UK has put a hold on all recruitment until the start of next year "in response to the current economic climate". The decision by HarperCollins UK follows a tough quarter for the worldwide business, with profits down some $33m.


Without wanting to be too pessimistic, we're not out of the woods yet. In fact, we've hardly entered them yet at all. The reality is that the consumer economic climate has only just started to cool and has not yet filtered through its full impact to publishing. Publishers at Frankfurt confirmed to me, that "prices have gone up. Fact." And in an economic climate in which people have less cash in their pockets, any price increase can have a negative affect on sales.

I believe next year will see further increases in book costs as printing costs rise. Q4 has seen an increase in Russian wood export tax and 2008 has seen a succession of printing house closures across China as legislation (both environmental and anti-piracy) has put many companies with lower standards out of business. Penguin UK sourced 60% of their production from China in 2007. At the end of 2007, prices were already increasing and causing consternation at the Beijing Book Fair.

Further, the Chinese printers are looking to western publishers who run on large economies of scale. Matthew S. Chan summed up his feeling from Book Expo America earlier this year, "Chinese printers, are out of touch of the undercurrents going on in the publishing industry... they were happy to cater to American companies that wanted to commit to print runs of 3,000 and more. Many of the Chinese companies wanted print runs of 5,000 or more. However, what they do not yet understand is that “long tail” and the boom of small, independent publishers will continue to erode at the core business of the “big best-seller” that large publishing houses love so much."

China is the largest global importer of Russian wood. Higher import prices will inevitably be passed onto the customers, the publishers. If demand is also met by fewer suppliers, it can only exacerbate the pressure on price. And this will coincide with a publishing market with less buying power looking for small print runs, which will be offered at higher costs. Typically, this reduced demand would result in more closures, and a cyclical process will continue until supply, price and demand get back in balance. This may take some time. Of course there are many printing industries around the world, in Europe and the US too, but if you follow the Paper Index Times, similar issues concern printing companies from Canada to Cambodia.

Quoting Edward Nawotka at Beyond Hall 8 Barnes & Noble CEO Len Riggio wrote an email to his booksellers telling them to brace “for a terrible holiday season, and expect the trend to continue well into 2009, and perhaps beyond.” This is the same Barnes & Noble who has recently told distributors it will not be paying for two months due to anticipated excessive returns.

This expectation seems to be true for all sectors, Children's and adult alike.

So I'm stockpiling. I've ordered my Book Club list for the next nine months, Christmas gifts and my current 'like-to-haves'. I've bought some online and some from my local store. The only problem is now, where will I store them? I'll share the list tomorrow. 19, I just counted, yikes.

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The cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bristol have announced that they will be joining together in a collaborative reading campaign in February next year. The Lost World Read 2009 will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arthur Conan Doyle, and the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Thousands of free copies of Edinburgh-born Conan Doyle’s story The Lost World will be distributed through libraries, schools and supporting partner organisations together with a ‘quick read’ edition and a paperback comic biography on the Life of Charles Darwin. The three cities will be joined by the county of Hampshire, and the 15 Library authorities of South West England.

In The Lost World a group of explorers set out on an expedition to South America to prove that deep in the jungle there is a forgotten world where dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals still survive.

An exclusive cover has been designed for the free edition of the book by Bristol’s Aardman Animations, featuring their most famous creations, Wallace & Gromit. A spokesman from Aardman commented, “Wallace and Gromit are big fans of reading and are so excited about being part of this project. They think it's great that so many people, up and down the country, are going to be joining in."

image copyright Aardman Animations Ltd, 2008 (www.aardman.com)

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Google Books Search Agreement looks like the break that e-books were waiting for. Publishers were all waiting for 'someone' to come in with a global plan, to open the market to mainstream consumers. Amazon must be kicking themselves, or are they? Will Google Books do for print what iTunes did to music? what cut will authors receive and will it affect Europe?

Read more about the agreement and my Thursday thoughts over at The View From Here.

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I'm still catching up from Frankfurt so it's been a quiet on Lake Wobegone recently. Look out for upcoming interviews of Ann Kelley, Luath Press Director Gavin MacDougall and Jenny Tyler of Usborne Publishing soon.

So, this Wednesday's wildcard, is more wild than most. Tom Leppard became a hermit and moved from London to a remote part of The Isle of Skye. But first, he had 99.2% of his flesh tattooed with leopard spots.

Well there's certainly not that many places in the English speaking world that he could have been accepted, survived and then gone into retirement.

If I wanted to 'change my spots' I think I'd crop my hair, dye it blonde and head for central Italy or Capri, or maybe San Francisco. Where in the world would you choose? Follow the links for the full stories.

The Australian Telegraph (photo credit)
"AN EX-SPECIAL forces soldier who covered his entire body with leopard-spot tattoos - earning him the moniker The Leopard Man of Skye - is giving up his hermit lifestyle to move into a retirement home..."

The BBCMr Leppard, 73, said: "I'm getting too old for that kind of life." The London-born pensioner said he was slowly adjusting to his new life in Broadford, on Skye. "It's certainly very strange being surrounded by four walls and a roof but I'll get used to it," he said.

The Independent
Sue Woodcock came to retire from her career as a policewoman. In her old life, back in what she calls "that England", she had become disillusioned by politics, by society as a whole. So she moved north to become a crofter...

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Thought it most appropriate to share this inspiring e-postcard from Paulo Coelho, for this week's photograph. You can download the free e-cards and more, from his most excellent blog here.

Follow his ideas on free book sharing and join in the debate.

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"...Street after street of identical suburban boxes, accommodating all-too-familiar ingredients: the same old beginnings and endings of never-never dreams and recriminations, TV programmes, mortgage statements, the burden of nine-to-five jobs, the stale defeat of drained love, the prospect of a holiday to the Costa Brava in a year's time, and a retirement plan in ten or twenty, or thirty - the cloned lives of Mum and Brian...from all of which I'm feeling remote, because Kate's begun to breathe a different sort of life into me. As long as I don't get lost, as long as I don't lose her."... (p.61)

Paul Burman - The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore - ISBN: 978-0-95510-947-8 (available from PaperBooks)

Other reviews:
The Independent
The View From Here Magazine - Mike French
Interview with the Australian Times


The journey Thomas Passmore makes from Australia to his UK homeland as a settled married man, turns his life, past and present, upside down. We join him at times deeply involved in the action as seen through the eyes of young Tom caught up in the aftermath of his Father's suicide, his best friend's childish pranks, or a budding teenage love-affair, through to his adult journey to find a resolution to his incomplete past.

The narrative style and choice of language makes you feel intensely, as Thomas does. We are made to relive first hand his own experience of love or lack of it, and its development in his relationships; parent/child, boyhood friendship, lovers, wife and that of his own children.

At times I felt so involved in the intensity of emotion that I could sense the edge of the abyss at which Tom teeters to and fro - and I was relieved a narrator viewpoint appeared, to help distance myself from the action as Tom becomes more and more obsessed with tracking down his former flame, and the chain of events become more and more confused, that ultimately lead to his rediscovery of life.

In this aspect, it reminded me of Goethe's 'The Sorrows of Young Werther', in which the joy and sorrow of a young adult living passionately, who becomes so consumed with his own thoughts he ultimately commits suicide. And in another way, it reminded me of the film version of the English Patient - it is poetic, artistic, visual and pulls me into its tragic story sometimes at a deeper level than I feel comfortable. It too, operates with a lot of flashbacks - snippets of impressions, and sometimes images which seem to make no sense. This technique could be off putting towards the end, where events seem to be highly abstract and chaotic - until the denouement makes it all become clear. And I sighed, relieved to be back to normality, and wanted to read it all over again, to make it all fit into place. Just like Thomas Passmore.

If you like love stories, tragedy, making sense of your character through their relationships and other characters' acute perceptions, if you enjoy puzzles and working out a good story, told in a compelling, contemporary language with great narrative drive, you will like this. Everyone will know at least one of the characters or have been there themselves. Scary, and very rewarding.

286 pages, paperback, standard high quality paper, print, and I love the cover.
Available to buy from PaperBooks.

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I've written an article for The View From Here to summarise some of the Sunday activities and my impressions from the Frankfurt Book Fair.

...The Frankfurt book Fair 2008 was one of the 'as good a Fair as there ever was' according to Usborne. The recent turmoil of financial markets seems to have stayed firmly outside...

The Final Day was made more colourful by comics' fans; who attended in their hundreds dressed as their favourite characters. Manga (the Japanese term for comics) and Anime (the TV/Film versions) have become firmly established as the reading of choice for many young European adults. The wave of manga which began around 2000, has become a veritable tsunami.

Come over to The View From Here to read the article.

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The week will end or begin for me, however you place Sunday in your own calendar, with a trip to Frankfurt tomorrow. If you google Frankfurt, you come up with around 120,000,000 entries. It is:

1. the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001.
2. Officially it is known as Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt on the Main River). This is to distinguish it from the other (significantly smaller) "Frankfurt" in the state of Brandenburg, Frankfurt (Oder).
   
3. The three pillars of Frankfurt's economy are finance, transport, and trade fairs.

The first is in international turmoil, the second is experiencing an unusually unreliable period at the moment both in Germany due to train refitting, and in the UK due to 'leaves on the line'; but the third seems to be thriving.

No surprise which one is specifically of interest to me tomorrow. Yes it's the Frankfurt Book Fair (the world's largest). Attendance is up each day on past years. I'm looking forward to a whirlwind visit to see at first hand some of the most interesting developments in the industry, and hear news and views from the week.

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Her Majesty The Queen has invited Blue Peter to a special birthday tea at Buckingham Palace to mark the 50th anniversary of the BBC's landmark children's programme.

- The programme was first aired on 16th October 1958. It had been commissioned to John Hunter Blair by the head of children's programmes, Owen Reed who wanted a programme aimed at children aged five to eight. The first two presenters were Christopher Trace, an actor and Leila Williams, winner of Miss Great Britain in 1957. The initial format involved the two presenters demonstrating different activities, with Trace concentrating on traditional "boys' toys" such as model aeroplanes and trains, and Williams concentrating on dolls and traditional female tasks, such as cookery. Occasionally, Tony Hart, an artist who later designed the ship logo, joined the programme to tell stories. It was broadcast once a week on Monday, for fifteen minutes.- (wikipedia)

Tim Levell, Editor of Blue Peter, said: "Blue Peter has been at the heart of children's lives for 50 years, and we are absolutely delighted that The Queen is recognising this by extending the kind invitation to us."

The new series of Blue Peter started on Tuesday 23 September 2008.

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Black fingertips, the smell of ink and rustle of a newspaper may become a thing of the past, if you take a look at the Plastic Logic Reader.

Look and Feel

The Plastic Logic reader features a bigger readable display than your typical Kindle or Sony Reader, close to DINA4 / US Letter. Yet it's thinner than a pad of paper, lighter than many business periodicals and, get this, it's flexible.

Product Support

The Plastic Logic reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books. It has an easy gesture-based user interface and powerful software tools that will help business users to organize and manage their information. Users can connect to their information either wired or wirelessly and store thousands of documents on the device. The reader incorporates E Ink technology as used in Kindle and Sony Readers, and features low power consumption and long battery life. It's a British invention manufactured in Germany. The Plastic Logic reader is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2009.

I'm going to watch this in comparison to the Kindle and Sony Reader, with interest.

image ©Plastic Logic Reader

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Reading recently of the ongoing challenges in the import/export markets of the UK paper industry, and the recent launch of the Kindle and Sony reader, has made me think how much books and their printing, access and reading has changed in even my limited lifetime. Nathan Bransford linked to this article in the New York Times, discussing the merits and successes of using video games to spark an interest in books in younger readers.

When I left university, the Internet was only beginning to be used by the masses. To me it was an unknown. Tecchie geeks, who hid in the paper-cupboard sized, sock scented room, worked on 'computers', whatever they were. I was an Arts student. I had no idea.

Recently planning permission was refused for the Bodleian expansion, much needed since the library stock has outgrown its cavernous storage system beneath the buildings. It owns over seven million books, stored on an ever growing 110 miles of shelving.

I had the privilege, though I didn't truly appreciate it at the time, of reading in some of the most well stocked libraries in England, probably in the world. I was able to read books from different centuries of history in which I hoped to find the answer to my essay of the week, a quote which would bring enlightenment, or a simple explanation of the subject in hand. Some of the libraries required the books to be ordered, and to be read onsite. You would get nervous as closing time approached, the essay deadline the next morning, and you were not yet finished. A bell would be rung a few minutes before closing time, the signal for readers to finish working and leave. The books could not be removed from the building. Some were incredibly old. Fragile. Valuable. Some were a complete waste of time, in terms of achieving my purpose. And yet, they may have been rare copies of works.

I wonder what will become of paper and books in the next fifty years, or the next hundred?

With carbon emission restrictions and the gradual reduction in pulp production, will we be able to afford books? Will they become an elitist luxury or a treasure to be locked in darkened rooms? What of books that are felt to have no purpose? What if the digital world will require books to become only accessible by electronic means, and the book itself, would be banned for the common man, nothing new printed and unwanted books, destroyed?

Through news of the reopening of the Saatchi gallery, I came across this blend of artwork, sculptures and even furniture made from books, by Jacqueline Rush Lee, originally from Northern Ireland now living in Kailua, Hawaii. It seems almost sacrilegious, but on the other hand, they take on a new life and beauty, beyond the words that were contained within them. What value has the book of itself? Does the printed book matter or is it the writing, once recorded in any format, that gives it it's value? And if it is the writing, then what does it matter if it is available in digital or in a paper form? And yet I think it does.

image © Jacqueline Rush Lee

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After the literary and financial storms of this week, here is a calm view of our local lake Chiemsee. The Alps capped with the first snow of the season in the distance.

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I have spent some time considering the recent comments made by Horace Engdahl, the Permanent Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Literature when he told the Associated Press that American literature is, "too isolated, too insular," and American writers are "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture". So many of the web comments made in response demonstrate a lack of respect for an experienced and educated man in a position of authority. It would appear that many readers believe that someone of his standing would make totally unconsidered remarks not worthy of examining before launching into an emotively charged statement along the lines of 'what does he know about American literature, anyway?' When the prize was announced today, I wondered how it would be reported in the media. I wondered if the announcement of the winner would have been reported as much had there been no controversial remarks made a week earlier? Especially since it appears few have heard of him. I make this assumption based on my own ignorance and the comment made in the Time article:

"The sound of America's literary journalists searching Wikipedia en masse is deafening."
Time magazine

So what could journalists write about, when the author was someone they did not know, much of whose work is currently unavailable to English speaking journalists, untranslated or out of print and getting few hits about his books' background?

The controversy.

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It didn't go to an American author. That's what the headlines of most papers seem to report, of the news that Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature. The Herald Tribune and Fox News carry the same story, and the Washington Post shares the same headline, "France's Le Clezio Wins Nobel Literature Prize". Even the New York Times appears to want to underline the sentiment, by listing previous prize winners alongside their country of birth. The BBC website simply states, "Author Le Clezio wins Nobel prize." Reuters in contrast, reads "Nomadic" writer wins Nobel prize." Where few choose to focus is on Le Clezio's diverse background, ethnicity and extensive writing, with its engaging positions on ecology and humanity. The Post dedicates one paragraph to his writing, and four surrounding 'the controversy.'

(read my complete article at The View From Here Magazine; where I examine the purpose of the Nobel prize and reactions to the news.)

image ©Jan Tik - Flickr

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Here's what may be a crazy idea, but if you read how Jenny Downham finished her prize-winning novel in the interview at The View From Here, it may not be a bad way of getting words on paper. She was NOT involved in this event, but she wrote in an intense way, leaving the editing to later.

I wrote for hours, until the sun came up. I wrote from every angle – others watching Tessa die, inside her head, dark tunnels, bright lights… I had to get rid of all the clichés by writing through them and I had to get rid of the critic (who often sits on my shoulder). In the morning, I had 22,000 words and my arms ached, but I knew the end was in there somewhere.

Sometimes in editing it is easy to get hung up, so that the words don't get down on paper fast enough and some gets lost. This event is a one month challenge, and really designed for fun, rather than a serious way to write a book, but who knows what it may prompt?

The NaNoWriMo story is below, in their own words:

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"National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of c**p. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2007, it had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

There's no sign-up fee for National Novel Writing Month, but they do ask ably-financed participants to contribute something towards hosting and administrative costs. The amount you contribute is up to you.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!"

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For a few remaining hours only, check out a chance to win a critique, but more than that, make a difference in one person's life, at a difficult time:

The Mischief Fights Cancer Raffle

It's closing at 8pm in the US. The Moonrat, editorial assistant's text is below.

And how do I know that it's genuine? Because other blogs I follow know her. And I trust them. (click for sample reference.)

"A friend of mine was diagnosed with Stage IV lymphoma. She is only 28 and is fighting back hard, but her valor is frustrated by the fact that she has no insurance. Medicaid will be kicking in for her in about a month, but in the meantime there are some hurdles that nothing will help her get over but money.

Of course, there are lots of benefits and pots for me to throw money in. Alas... I work in publishing and have no money. I was bemoaning this to my darling Ello, and she thought of this fantastic idea: I should raffle off my editorial services. So that's what we're going to try here.

Raffle for editorial services!!

Prizes available:

-One winner: A full manuscript evaluation (up to 120,000 words)*
-One winner: A partial manuscript evaluation (up to 50 page)*
-One winner: A query letter and revised query letter critique*
-Five winners: A choice from select titles in Moonrat's library, which will be mailed with a love letter from Moonrat, who enjoys writing love letters

I've started this new, temporary blog to host a raffle for my friend. You can buy tickets, check the log, and see how much progress has been made on each of the raffled lots here.

*please note: these are critiques with an eye toward editorial suggestions, and will in no way be considered submissions to me or my company

-The raffle will run between now, Tuesday, September 30th, and 8 pm on Tuesday, October 7th, when lots will be drawn. "

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