The Year The Booker Prize Lost Itself

“The date on which the award was given was also moved from April to November, creating a gap when a wealth of 1970 fiction could not be eligible. Among the big names in the running for the Lost Man Booker – which will be awarded in May – are Iris Murdoch, David Lodge, Muriel Spark, Joe Orton, Melvyn Bragg, HE Bates, JG Farrell, Ruth Rendell, Nina Bawden, Brian Aldiss and Susan Hill.”

Amazon Gives In To Macmillan On E-Book Pricing

“Amazon [had] shocked the publishing world late last week by removing direct access to the Kindle editions as well as printed books from Macmillan, one of the country’s six largest publishers, which had said it planned to begin setting higher consumer prices for e-books.” By Sunday evening, the online retailer relented, agreeing to restore Macmillan titles “even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.”

Do We Take The Arts Too Seriously?

“Art is often discussed in reverent tones, we invest in it, create daunting palaces for it. … The idea that seriousness is somehow a measure of value and that art needs to be treated seriously all the time is a weird one. Much of the time, people value things that make them laugh, cry, scream, think or [get] inspired – much more than they value the worthy and the serious.”

Five Stages Of Dying? Sure. Five Stages Of Grief? Not So Much.

“Perhaps the stage theory of grief caught on so quickly because it made loss sound controllable. The trouble is that it turns out largely to be a fiction, based more on anecdotal observation than empirical evidence. … In On Grief and Grieving, [Elisabeth Kübler-Ross] insisted that the stages were ‘never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages.’ If her injunction went unheeded, perhaps it is because the messiness of grief is what makes us uncomfortable.”