Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, totally worn out and screaming,
"WOO HOO, what a ride!"

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Article - decade in books

I read an interesting article in today's paper from USA Today. Decade in books: Writers work magic, delivery has transformed by author Bob Minzesheimer compares the differences in the publishing world in the last ten years. Stephen King was the first brand-name author to experiment in digital self publishing when he launched a serial novel on his website nearly ten years ago. He asked readers to contribute $1 for every installment. While that particular experiment didn't work out because of lack of inspiration it brought up the issue of how this would affect the publishing world. The article goes on to highlight the changes over the last decade, good and bad, and where we stand now. One encouraging comment:
A 2004 report warned that literary reading was fading away, but a 2009 update found reading on the rise for the first time in 25 years; the biggest increase was among readers 18 to 24.

The author also mentions the ten top selling books of the decade (can you guess?), important memoirs, Oprah Book Club selections, books to movies and the explosion of the e-readers on the market. So many changes in such a short time.

3 comments:

  1. Reading is on the rise? That is encouraging! Must be all the book blogs :)

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  2. I wonder what he attributes the rise in reading. And, are people buying books or using the library? Hmm, guess I need to read the article. Thanks for mentioning it!

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  3. A rise? Nice! Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

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