Round Up

I always find it riveting to discover other people's favourite books and their reasons behind it. Reading is such a personal past time, and everyone has different tastes, views and opinions. Yesterdays Best Books of the Year: 2010 article in the Observer was therefore of particular interest. Containing a list of favourite books of key figures, the results were truly intriguing. Sam Mendes listed Freedom by Jonathon Franzen as his top choice, whilst Sabastian Faulks surprisingly chose The Big Short, a book about the world of banking, by Michael Lewis. Even more surprisingly, Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, chose Tony Blair's autobiography. The poet Wendy Cope claims that the tone of voice in Hitch 22 is exceptional, whilst Nick Hornby enjoyed How to Live a Life of Montaigne. The list continues as creative, academics, scholars and comedians each choose their favourite book.

The telegraph recently published an equally interesting article entitled Evolving English, a review of the British Libraries new exhibition. Apparently the English spoken in the Appalachian mountains of America preserves the language that Shakespeare would have spoken. There is a 1,000-year-old sole manuscript of Beowulf, still singed round the edges from being snatched from a fire in 1731. Furthermore, slang while being denigrated by those who feel above it, exercises a fascination on them because of a suspicion that slang-users are hiding something from them.

George Bush's autobiography continues to attract speculation, firstly because where is he going to be 1.5 million people that wish to buy his book and line his already rather full pockets, and also because there is now suggestions of plagiarism.

Finally, the Independent has published its list of 50 best winter reads, follow the link to see what you should be snuggling up with this winter.

Predicted Christmas Bestsellers

According to the lovely people who spend their time predicting the future, we will be buying the following books as Christmas presents.

The Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book) - A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race by Jon Stewart

The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values by Sam Harris

Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

A Simple Amish Christmas by Vanetta Chapman

Yet it will remain, and probably always will, that the Bible is the bestselling book of all time. A book that took over forty men hundreds of years to complete, and I haven't even read it! Perhaps thats what I should be reading this Christmas, after all, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ.

What a lot to say

I feel like I have lots to say today! Not that I'm complaining, sometimes I have to scratch my head for something of interest, but not today.

First and foremost today is, of course, Remembrance Day. Without dwelling on the subject too much, or becoming morbid, I would like to express my sincere sympathy to the families who have suffered the loss of a family member in all wars, past and present, and to thank our servicemen, whom do their job without the praise and appreciation they deserve. In the two minute silence observed this morning ' we remember those who fought for our freedom during the two World Wars. But we also mourn and honour those who have lost their lives in more recent conflicts. Today, with troops on duty in Afghanistan and other trouble spots around the world, Remembrance, and this two minute tribute, are as important as ever'.

On to literary news, last night was the annual Galaxy Book Awards, celebrating the very best of British publishing. Terry Pratchett and Martin Amis collected awards for outstanding achievement, Stephen Fry won the Biography category, despite competition from Tony Blair and Lord Alan Sugar. Andrew Marr received the More4 Non-Fiction Book of the Year award for 'The Making of Modern Britain', One Day by David Nicholls was named Popular Fiction Book of the Year and Hilary Mantel was honoured with the Waterstones Author of the Year award. The host of other awards can viewed on the Galaxy National Book Awards website, where you can also vote for the Galaxy book of the year. The ceremony will be televised in the UK on Saturday.

This morning I received an email from Red Room asking all bloggers to advocate the importance of freedom of speech. Coincidentally whilst watching the news this evening I was reminded of this by concern expressed over the murders of journalists and bloggers in recent times. We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard. –Voltaire, Dictionnaire Philosophique, 1764

The British amongst you have no doubt also been following the news of the student protests in London yesterday. Though I absolutely do not condone violence of any form, I was delighted to see such a huge number of students out protesting against the proposed university fee increased. All too often the British have a habit of sipping tea and complaining yet never actually doing anything about it. I hope that the government takes note of the public uproar. University should be available to all that have the ability and want to study, not an elite privileged minority.

Finally, I just thought I'd let you know, I'm thoroughly enjoying reading Suite Francaise and I can't wait to review it.

Christmas is Coming the Goose is Getting Fat...

... please put a penny in the old man's hat!

Christmas really is on the way now, and I've been giving some thought to what to buy people for Christmas. I always try to buy people books, I think a really well chosen book is a delight to unwrap, and it shows thought and sentimentality whilst also providing entertainment. So far I have bought my Mum A Simples Life by Aleksandr Orlov, she loves the adverts and I think she'll have a giggle over the book, and I've got my best friend the annual Ripley's Believe It Or Not book, which always provides hours of entertainment. Also, whilst perusing the internet looking for inspiration, I hopped on the the BookPeople website and found they have a deal on to buy all the books from the Booker Prize shortlsit for just £30, I can't decide whether I should buy this for someone or ask for it myself :)

Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

I always find that at this time of year the bestsellers lists go a bit mad, and become crammed with all kinds of gift books, and much less literature. Not that I'm complaining too much as I love books in all forms; recipe books, autobiographies, picture books, annuals, not just fiction. But I'm always greatful for amazon's fiction only bestsellers lists.

The final delight I stumbled across today was the Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2010, as selected by the Book Review. All the winners looked great, but I particularly love Children Make Terrible Pets, Big Red Lollipop and Henry in Love.

News News News

Publishers have had a hard time of late. A decline in the sales of books and the rise of e-books started creating a problem, then the recession hit and publishers struggled to make ends meet. I had hoped that they were through the worst of it, but it seems that's not the case...

Doom and Gloom in the Publishing World

Overall there has been a fall over -4% in the total value of book sales.

Lagardere Publishing, Hachette's parent group, have seen their turnover fall by 5% in the first nine months of 2010. Though the plateauing sales of Stephanie's Meyers twilight series has been partly to blame, Hachette also cited 'challenging retail conditions' as a problem. Despite this Hachette continues to hold it's position as the leading publishers with a market share of 16.6%.

Penguin is the only publishers of the Big Four to have an increase in sales for the first three quarters of 2010.

Harper Collins saw the biggest decline with a drop of -7%, Bloomsbury too dropped by -7% but their market share dipped only slightly from 2.0 to 1.9%.

Although they managed to hold on the their market share of 13.2%, Random House sales were down by -4%.

Canongate dropped drastically by -45% despite digital sales being ahead of the publishers expectations.

On the plus side
Simon & Schuster and Quercus sales both increased, as did Pan Macmillan.

Moving on

There has been speculation in bucket loads this week about the possible return of Harry Potter. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, when asked about a potential for a new Harry Potter book, J K Rowling said: "They're all in my head still. I could definitely write an eighth, a ninth book." When asked if she would write another book, she replied: "I'm not going to say I won't. I feel I am done, but you never know." In the same interview Ms Rowling also revealed that she turned down an offer from Michael Jackson to turn the books in to a musical. Harry Potter fans are, of course, eagerly awaiting the release of the penultimate film on the 19th of this month.

Negations for a 'X-Factor style' television show entitled Britain's Next Bestsellers for the People's Book Awards are continuing. Current plans  involve thirteen one hour shows involving author discussions and celebrity guests with the hope of glamourising books and engaging more of the public in books.

The hugely popular and prestigious Hay Festival hits India for the first time this week, from 12-14 November. The literary festival makes its Indian debut in Kerala with over 50 authors in the line-up, including Mani Shankar Aiyar, Gillian Clarke, William Dalrymple, Tishani Doshi, Marcus du Sautoy, Simon Schama and  Vikram Seth.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, and that your Monday isn't too depressing!