Interesting New Yorker article on the state of publishing and the impact of the iPad, Amazon, and Google. The article is long, but worth reading for a behind-the-scenes look at some of the realities of publishing and bookselling today. Best quote: “Publishing exists in a continual state of forecasting its own demise; at one major … Read more
Just read an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal: “Good Novels Don’t Have to Be Hard.” Lev Grossman says the key to the 21st-century novel is “the ongoing exoneration and rehabilitation of plot.” He spends a good bit of time slamming the early 20th-century Modernists for being too difficult to understand. Does it really … Read more
A Ballad for Baghdad—which I had the privilege of editing—is one of the most powerful books you’ll ever read. Ali Turner, an ex-hippie-chick Viet Nam War protester who describes herself as a “recovered socialista/feminista,” tells of the personal transformation that led her to spend 3 years in Baghdad supporting the soldiers she once regarded as … Read more
One of the wonderful benefits of owning your own business is that your future is in YOUR hands and not resting at the mercy of a large corporation or the stock market. Given all the bad economic news lately, wouldn’t it be nice to be the one in control of your future? I wanted to … Read more