Category: publishing

Many people were surprised this week that a library-themed hotel in New York was being sued for using the Dewey Decimal System as a theme. Who knew someone actually “owned” Dewey? “The Online Computer Library Center is seeking damages of three times the profits the hotel has made since it opened. Dewey, a librarian, invented the Dewey Decimal Classification in 1874 and devoted his life to spreading it. Over time, it became the most widely employed cataloging system in the world, used today in 95 percent of public libraries in the United States.”

Asne Seierstad’s book “The Bookseller of Kabul” is a runaway hit. It has “sold more than half a million copies in Scandinavia alone. It has been sold to publishers in 17 countries and came out to rave reviews in Britain last month. It is due out in the US in October, and is the bestselling Norwegian non-fiction book of all time.” But the Afghan family on which the book is based is angry at its portrayal and the head of the family is “not only demanding ‘compensation’ and ‘damages’, but says that many people, himself included, ‘would be happy to see it burned’.”

The Booker prize has, for much of its history, been anthrax for the average reader. One thing you could be guaranteed of: you might come out of the experience feeling cleverer, or more high-toned, but you’re unlikely to have had much of an enjoyable time. Furthermore, you are unlikely to have read anything contemporary, or that has anything to say about Britain today. Rather as British art abandoned painting, for decades British writing abandoned story. Plot, good characters and, God forbid, humour, have not only been largely absent from the list of Booker triumphs – they are positively reasons for exclusion, it seems sometimes.”

“The nonprofit library cooperative that owns the Dewey Decimal system has filed suit against a library-themed luxury hotel in Manhattan for trademark infringement. The Library Hotel, which overlooks the New York Public Library, is divided according to the classification system, with each floor dedicated to one of Dewey’s 10 categories. Room 700.003 includes books on the performing arts, for example, while room 800.001 has a collection of erotic literature.”

A new magazine called Walrus launches this month in Canada, with the aim of becoming the Canadian version of The New Yorker or The Atlantic Monthly. Other publishers have tried this sort of thing before, of course, with generally disappointing results. But many in the industry are betting that the time is right for a homegrown mag catering to the highbrow crowd to seize the Canadian consciousness.

“These people, this cultured generation, there aren’t any of them left. I remember how, the first day of summer vacation, women would converge at these stalls with their sons and daughters to stock up on summer readings. Now all kids want are their computer games and Game Boys. Today people have no use for a book unless it’s for their Masters or Doctorate degree. No one reads for recreation. Just look around Ezbekeya at these empty stalls, and then go look at any fuul stand and see how many people are there in comparison.”

Sometimes it seems like big publishers increasingly own everything in the book world. But a new study reports that small publishers are a rapidly growing group. The report estimated total revenues last year for the smallest publishers of $29.4 billion and sales that have grown by 21% a year for the past five years.

In response to enormous criticism, US Attorney General John Ashcroft says that the controversial Patriot Act provision giving federal authorities the ability to check on library and book store records has never been used. “Critics have said the FBI’s authority to obtain the records threatens the privacy and First Amendment rights of library and bookstore patrons, as well as other businesses. Law enforcement officials say the power is rarely used, properly supervised by judges and essential to combat terror.”

It’s easy to see old brittle books and wonder at their fragility. But encountering them later in life one wonders: “What are 20 years to a book that survived the Inquisition? I, meanwhile, am more than twice the age I was when I saw it last. I am married, I have children and I am mourning my father, who died this year. I can’t help thinking that part of the dread I felt seeing those fragile books as a teenager was unconscious anticipation of the moment when I would see them again as an adult and realize that I was the ephemeral one.”

Stephen King is thrilled to be getting an honorary National Book Award for lifetime achievement. “This is probably the most exciting thing to happen to me in my career as a writer since the sale of my first book in 1973. I’ll return the cash award to the National Book Foundation for the support of their many educational and literary outreach programs… . The medal I will keep and treasure for the rest of my life.”