Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 25, 2009, 8:38 am
I am worried that the discussion that should be started with the following link will not happen due to a certain holiday this week. Michael Wolff has thrown something of a Molotov cocktail at the pub...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 23, 2009, 8:55 am
Sometimes here at SoTB, we get a little disenchanted with publishing, right? We just think screw it. Where is the hope? Where is the possibility? Where is the potential? In the world of corporate publ...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 20, 2009, 8:50 am
Hi. Sarah Palin's memoir has finally arrived in bookstores after too much build up. Please don't buy it because it will make you stupid and I don't want that to happen to you. Really. So f...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 19, 2009, 8:22 am
So the National Book Awards were presented last night. Winners: Fiction: Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin (Random House) (which pleases me as I'm reading Borstal Boy and feeling all Iris...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 18, 2009, 11:46 am
And besides, "library in a pocket" just calls to mind the horrible school coaches in Texas that were forever accusing us pubescent boys of "shootin' pocket pool." It seemed annoying at the time, b...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 17, 2009, 3:29 pm
Wrong. Edward Cody has an article in the Washington Post that starts so sweet and, ya know, foreign. The lede is all about a funny li'l town square in Poligny, France, where "a bookstore has been...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 9, 2009, 9:30 pm
Yes, of course Christopher's right. I'm anti-fun, while he's a good-time-aholic, rockin' the antiquarian book fair.* Check out this binding, bitches! Anyhow, I'm here to tell you a...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 9, 2009, 10:32 am
Hi all, This coming weekend the Boston Book Fair is returning to the Hynes Convention Center. It is a great place to eat, sleep, breathe, buy, smell books. You can go to their website for all the det...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 3, 2009, 10:14 pm
I'm excited to be attending the Massachusetts Center for the Book's MA Book Awards ceremony at the State House here in Boston tomorrow (Wednesday, Nov 4). Little did I know, there was some exc...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 2, 2009, 3:15 pm
Over at the pop culture festival that is The Awl, every once in a while they have something that is worth passing on to the six of you who check in on a regular basis. The something, in this case, is ...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Nov 2, 2009, 8:14 am
I am not really sure why this hasn't received more press but Suffolk University is commemorating the 35th anniversary of Graywolf Press tomorrow. Hosted by Catherine Parnell of Salamander, the cel...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 29, 2009, 10:37 am
Perhaps I should start by saying outright that Columbia University Press' publicity department sent me a copy of this book. There, is everyone happy? The book in question is The Late Age of Print:...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 24, 2009, 5:00 pm
I have a bit of optimism today due to the incredible turn-out at the Boston Book Festival in Copley Square. Despite some rain and intense wind, even the tents outside were crowded - and not just for t...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 21, 2009, 12:52 pm
Not only am I overwhelmed at work, but I'm also overwhelmed by publishing news. I can't follow it all! There is... - the endless chatter about the Amazon vs Walmart vs Target vs Sears - SEARS...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 19, 2009, 9:48 am
It's been a crazy last week, but I wanted to post after attending an incredible conference in pieces on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of last week. The conference was held in conjunction with an...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 12, 2009, 8:50 pm
I just read a Q&A in Entertainment Weekly with Dacre Stoker, great-grandnephew of Bram, and I had to post. Sadly, I don't believe the Q&A, from the 10.16.09 issue, is posted online.  It seems ol&...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 9, 2009, 11:37 am
First, let me say, dear readers, that I too am surprised by Brian's recent tone in his past few posts. Surprised and in love with it, that is! Yes, publishing is a polite business but sometimes yo...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 9, 2009, 7:40 am
As soon as someone trots out that tired old Rodney King reference - "Why can't we all just get along?" - you know there's trouble. Chances are, the person using it is trying to take the air ou...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 8, 2009, 3:38 pm
I mentioned the Great Internet Burning Panel held in San Francisco last month, sponsored by Books Inc. It sounds like it was, well, hilarious. It was billed as a one-sided event, clearly: "When I thin...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 7, 2009, 2:10 pm
Though admittedly I voiced support for Stephen Elliott's recent criticism of the Huffington Post's new book publishing coverage over at the Rumpus, I am now linking with great enthusiasm to a ...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 6, 2009, 9:03 am
If you're like me, you want to hear all of the wonderful news coming out of independent / university presses. Now you can follow them all on Twitter. (See how comfortable we are here at SotB with ...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 2, 2009, 7:12 pm
Hello, dear readers, I just wanted to respond to one thing I read in the comments over at Teleread about Brian's perceptive and honest post here on self-published ebooks and the possible disappea...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Oct 2, 2009, 10:22 am
It seems my last post caused a bit of a ruckus online. Unfortunately, most of the discussion happened over at Teleread, so the many comments about my thoughts sit there. I still managed to read it thr...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 30, 2009, 2:03 pm
Ya see, I don't mind this so much, and I may even not scoff at the promises made by Apple boosters (though I'm not convinced of all things Mac, and have seen some diehards become quite disappo...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 29, 2009, 9:23 am
This is Banned Books Week. Piss off the conservatives and regressives, read a banned book.
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 28, 2009, 8:17 am
Tuesday, September 29 10:00 am, Porter Square Books Shannon Hale, Forest Born 7:00 pm, First Parish Church Meetinghouse, $28 *E. L. Doctorow, Homer & Langley: A Novel 7:00 pm, Harvard Coop An...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 23, 2009, 9:05 pm
I just finished this book: Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America, by Kenneth C. Davis, and I would heartily recommend it. It is dated, to be sure, as it was published in 1982, but the story of ...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 21, 2009, 3:09 pm
As if there aren't enough award ceremonies in our culture, along comes the National Book Foundation "you pick the winner" contest. Between now and November 18th you, gentle reader, can select "The...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 21, 2009, 2:07 pm
I can't believe the Free Library of Philadelpia almost closed down, but thanks to a letter-writing campaign - who says they don't work?! - it looks like the system will remain open. Just minu...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 14, 2009, 9:09 am
I appreciate the advice provided by the good folks at Georgetown University's Office of Scholarly and Literary Publications via their blog, where they explain: Authors frequently ask "Why didn...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 10, 2009, 3:38 pm
Kassie Krozser provides some insider info about Quartet Press's brief lifespan over at Booksquare. She tries to maintain a hopeful tone with lessons learned, and ends with this moment of optimism:...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 10, 2009, 9:16 am
In odd news, Quartet Press has announced that it is disbanding, after only starting up 2 or 3 months ago. The announcement, linked above, states: For a variety of reasons large and small, Quartet Pre...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 8, 2009, 10:17 am
I'm all for the old adage, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It's a large part of my interest in the current book I'm reading about the "paperbacking of Ameri...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 4, 2009, 1:10 pm
I know Christopher upset everyone by passing along a link to that depressing article in today's Boston Globe, to which I will *not* link. (Insider information: No sooner did Christopher post that ...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 4, 2009, 6:09 am
I don't even really know how to respond to this article in this morning's Boston Globe. Read it for yourself and weep...but they have a $12,000 espresso machine! That's pretty good, right?...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 2, 2009, 10:23 am
We here at SoTB are sad to hear breaking news this week about three editorial cuts at Simon & Schuster. Two editors at Pocket Books - editorial director Maggie Crawford and editor Margaret Clark - an...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Sep 1, 2009, 11:13 am
Christopher recently addressed his concerns as a reader having too much access to low quality information - why read a book on the bus when you can check email and read blogs on your i-phone? But I mu...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Aug 28, 2009, 9:17 am
Technology is great and all, but many of us still love seeing its weaknesses. I don't want a machine to run so perfectly, so efficiently, that one cannot see the human inventiveness behind it. Hen...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Aug 26, 2009, 12:11 pm
Buried in today's installment of Shelf Awareness is a link to this amazing article from the Financial Times by Edwin Heathcote, about a place in South Korea called Paju Book City, about 30 kilomet...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Aug 25, 2009, 12:36 pm
For a while now I have been increasingly annoyed by an aspect of our industry that few people on the outside ever see but those of us inside the business come up against on a daily basis. I am not wri...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Aug 25, 2009, 7:58 am
Wanna pretend that you are the President vacationing on Martha's Vineyard? Well, get readin'! The Big O apparently has brought along the following books to last him through August: The Way Hom...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Aug 24, 2009, 9:56 am
Hello readers, Yes, I'm a-writing to all six of you who still check in with us from time to time to let you know we haven't forgotten you. After essentially a summer hiatus, Survival of the B...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Aug 13, 2009, 9:33 am
We're all talking about healthcare right now, right? And what a conversation! I'm not going to go into the endless frustrations I experience in even hearing the word "healthcare" at this point...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Aug 4, 2009, 8:54 am
I'm all for those with good ideas getting credit, but with book publishing in free fall and everyone trying to figure out how to fix it, maybe some of the larger NY houses can stop acquiring flash...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Jul 30, 2009, 8:19 am
While Christopher and I are too lazy busy to write much, the good folks at the Green Apple Bookstore in San Francisco have bumped it up a notch, not just blogging but creating a series of 10 webisodes...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Jul 27, 2009, 4:00 pm
It's a little tedious at times, but Nicholas Baker's much-mentioned (today) New Yorker piece on the Kindle digs up a lot of interesting points on the Kindle Experience. I recall my partner op...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Jul 24, 2009, 2:36 pm
Friday humor, but still related to the blog topic. Not bad, eh? I found this ridiculous video linked through the HarperStudio blog. This kind of reminded me of me and Christopher in some ways, though...
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Boston B. posted an article on Survival of the Book - Jul 22, 2009, 8:37 am
Despite getting ditched by my co-SOTB scribe Christopher, I attended a fascinating discussion last night at the Boston Public Library titled, Expanding Access to Books: Implications of the Google Book...
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