Blogroll

The book that didn’t exist — until hundreds asked for it

Trump supporters on Reddit last week tried, but failed, to keep Hillary Clinton’s new book from reaching No. 1 on Amazon’s bestseller lists. It wasn’t the first time an effort by a group of people affected the book industry. Perhaps the most interesting one, though, involved demand for a book that didn’t exist.

Jean Shepherd […]

Tim September 20th, 2017 | Tags: , , | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed | |

The start of the paperback revolution

Paperback books helped create my lifelong reading addiction, in large part because they were affordable. I have fond memories of a small bookstore in an alley behind the Post Office in my hometown. Although the location might suggest a bawdy stock, it was actually akin to the small bookstores we would later see in shopping […]

Tim July 30th, 2016 | Tags: , , , | Category: A Reading Life, History | One comment - (Comments are closed) | |

Popularity causes welcome problem for Historical Society Press

Around 1930, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote an autobiography about her and her family’s pioneer experience. No one would publish it. Wilder ended up using it as a source for her wildly successful Little House series. Turn the clock ahead 80 some years and things have changed dramatically. The autobiography was finally published late last year […]

Tim January 23rd, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: A Reading Life | Comments are closed | |

A reader’s-eye view of gender in publishing decisions

There’s been quite a bit in the book blogosphere last month about statistics showing a low percentage of women being published in major literary magazines and books by women being reviewed less frequently than men. I have no reason to doubt or dispute the statistics but at the same time wonder how much of this […]

Tim March 7th, 2011 | Tags: , , , | Category: A Reading Life | 2 comments - (Comments are closed) | |