Monthly Archives: February 2007

Free copies of Kidnapped distributed in Edinburgh

Posted on February 12, 2007 by Keren

In a program to promote awareness of the importance of Edinburgh on the current and historical literary scene, copies of Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Kidnapped are being given away for free this month in the city.

All this February, readers can pick up one of 25,000 free copies of the book from a variety of public libraries across Edinburgh, with plans afoot to leave further copies on buses and park benches and in cafes and bars. Added to this, a month-long events programme encompasses talks, readings, storytelling, drama workshops, film shows, discussions and puppetry.

Copies of Kidnapped will be available in an abridged version, in an unabridged version, and as a specially-commissioned graphic novel.

Read the full Guardian article here.

Posted in Articles, Events, Graphic novels, Reading |

Article at IGMS details the pros and woes of book to movie adaptations

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Heidi Kathleen

Here’s how it works: a producer or production company “options” a book — that is, buys the rights (typically for several thousand dollars) to adapt the book for a period of time (typically from eighteen months to two years). If the producers have not adapted the book when agreed-upon the period of time lapses, the rights revert back to the author. [3] Books are optioned far more than they are produced, and some books have been optioned more than once. But sometimes, a book manages to slog its way through the development process and get filmed.

Is this a good experience for an author?

The rest of the article can be read here.

Posted in Articles, Film, Movie Adaptations, Science fiction/fantasy |

Director hopes Tolkien approves of Lord of the Rings musical adaptation

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Heidi Kathleen

“That was a magical moment,” director Matthew Warchus told reporters on Thursday when presenting to the press the 50-strong cast of what is being billed as the most expensive musical ever staged in London.

“I visited his grave in Oxford to apologize and get his seal of approval. I apologized in case he didn’t like the idea of a stage show,” the British director said.

Link to the rest of the Yahoo! news article.

Posted in Articles, Plays, Science fiction/fantasy |

A Baghdad librarian's journal

Posted on February 11, 2007 by Heidi Kathleen

For a month now, Dr. Eskander’s intermittent diary entries have been appearing on the Web site of the British Library (bl.uk/iraqdiary.html), and they detail the daily hurdles of keeping Iraq’s central library open, preserving the surviving archives and books and, oh yes, staying alive.

The New York Times article can be found here, and the journal itself is here.

Posted in Education, Libraries, Library, Resources, Websites |

Novelist endangered by her book

Posted on February 10, 2007 by Mark

From The New York Times:

It is rarely a simple thing to be a novelist in Turkey. For Elif Shafak, it has never been more complicated.

Her sixth novel, “The Bastard of Istanbul,” was a runaway best seller in Turkey, with more than 120,000 copies purchased. Ms. Shafak had planned a six-city American book tour to promote it, including stops in Chicago and Los Angeles, but sharply curtailed the tour after the murder of Hrant Dink in January. Mr. Dink was a prominent Turkish newspaper editor of Armenian ancestry and a close friend of Ms. Shafak.

Continue reading on NYTimes.com.

Posted in Author Tours, Authors |

Harry Potter 6 most borrowed book in Scotland

Posted on February 9, 2007 by Mark

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was today named Scotland’s most borrowed library book.

The sixth novel about the boy wizard by JK Rowling topped the list of books lent out from public libraries between July 2005 and June 2006.

A Question of Blood and Fleshmarket Close, both by Ian Rankin, were second and third; Mary, Mary by James Patterson was fourth. Read full story on Scotsman.com.

Posted in Libraries |

Dartmoor Literary Festival

Posted on February 8, 2007 by Mark

Tavistock is to host the first ever Dartmoor Literary Festival next year. The event will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Dartmoor Society and will run over the weekend of May 9 to 11 2008.

Planning for the festival is still in its early stages, but it is hoped it will feature a mixture of talks, readings, and workshops, and will cover fiction of all genres — including novels, poems, and plays — written about and on Dartmoor. It is also expected that local reading and writing groups, as well as schools in the area, will have the chance to become involved.

Continue reading on Okehampton Today.

Posted in Events |

The Tenderness of Wolves wins Costa prize

Posted on February 8, 2007 by Mark

Tenderness of Wolves cover artA novel that had to be researched in the British Library because the writer was agoraphobic won one of Britain’s most prestigious literary prizes last night.

Stef Penney picked up a £25,000 cheque after The Tenderness of Wolves won the Costa book of the year – formerly the Whitbread – prize, regarded as second only to the Man Booker award.

[...]

Penney said the landscape she wrote about may have been even more vivid because she had never been there.

Full story available on Guardian Unlimited Books.

Posted in Authors, Awards |

Horror writing big in 2007?

Posted on February 7, 2007 by Mark

Keep all the lights on! Horror is set to be one of the coolest literary trends of 2007, but these ghosts, beasts and ghouls are subtle, not schlocky. Danuta Kean reports on a reanimated genre.

You can view the full story on The Independent.

Posted in Horror |

Library of Congress gets digitization grant

Posted on February 5, 2007 by Keren

The Library of Congress has received a $2-million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to digitize public domain works. The grant emphasizes digitizing “at-risk” titles—or books that are falling apart—and volumes about American history. Dubbed “Digitizing American Imprints at the Library of Congress,” the project will also allow the LoC to invest in such technology as, according to a statement from the organization, “suitable page-turner display” along with a program dedicated to quickly indexing and capturing chapters and other sections of a work.

Article from Publisher’s Weekly.

Posted in Articles, E-books |