Category Archives: Book News

There are mumblings in the blogosphere that Amazon is to open bricks and mortar stores. Launch.it offers four possible scenarios: The first scenario: the store could just be a showroom with display units of appliances and “geniuses” running around showing you the top 25 vacuums in action. Or the top 10 juicers actually making juice. … Continue reading

Barnes & Noble has decided not to stock books published by Amazon in their physical stores. According to Jaime Carey, B&N’s Chief Merchandising Officer in an email to Bloomberg Businessweek senior reporter Brad Stone: “Barnes & Noble has made a decision not to stock Amazon published titles in our store showrooms. Our decision is based … Continue reading

Novelist Andrew Miller has won the 2011 Costa Book of the Year, his first major literary award, for his sixth novel, Pure, set in pre-revolutionary Paris in 1785. Pure is published in the UK by Sceptre, the literary imprint of Hodder and Stoughton. It would seem that Pure does not currently have a publisher in … Continue reading

Simply Audiobooks launched a new service today offering unlimited audio books for a $25 monthly subscription. The catch is that because the books are streamed rather than downloaded you have to be connected to the internet to listen to them; also the current selection of 11,000 books is considerably more limited than some other audio … Continue reading

According to the latest Pew Survey, the share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period. The number of … Continue reading

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos has won the John Newbery Medal at the American Library Association’s annual youth media awards. Read more on bookbrowse.com

It looks like Amazon will be moving a data center into Australia soon to take advantage of the increasing number of Australians who buy from stores outside Australia so as to save money. It is likely that Amazon will also enter the Indian market with its Amazon Marketplace platform, “in a bid to overcome FDI … Continue reading

Salman Rushdie has confirmed that he will not attend the Jaipur Literary Festival (India’s largest literary festival) in person, saying that intelligence sources have warned of a planned assassination attempt. The development comes after vice-chancellor of the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani, criticised Rushdie’s planned visit, citing the novel The Satanic Verses, … Continue reading

On Wednesday, the USA Supreme Court upheld a 1994 law granting copyright protection to a large number of foreign works that had been freely available in the public domain including books by J.R.R. Tolkien and George Orwell. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google had hoped that the high court would overturn the law: “Google … Continue reading

Apple have announced a major new move to “reinvent textbooks” through the introduction of three new or updated tools, including “an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive.” Read more on bookbrowse.com