A New Genre: "Street Lit"

Anne Barnard explains the hugely popular emerging "street lit" genre in a NY Times article from October 23, 2008
From the Streets to the Libraries.

Readers are attracted to the genre because it speaks to their urban environment with authentic descriptions of ghetto life. Many libraries are embracing a sometimes controversial genre of “street lit” in an effort to attract new readers. Urban public librarians think that this genre is pulling in readers and often leads to expansion of their reading interests.

Judy Gressel

The Future of Reading

Is the Internet the enemy of reading, or has it created a new kind of reading, one that society should not discount? Read the New York Times series on the Future of Reading.
Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?By MOTOKO RICH--July 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The second article in the series appears in today’s New York Times.

Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers
By MOTOKO RICH --October 6, 2008
Publishers, authors and even libraries are embracing video games to promote books to young readers. I know that gaming has become very big in libraries, as a way to draw patrons. This article suggests that they really aren’t checking out any books.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/books/06games.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Judging by reader comments, most people are in agreement that video games cannot replace reading. But will this traditional view of reading hold in decades to come?

Early Reviewers: Free advance copies of books

Early Reviewers: Free advance copies of books

What is this? Publishers give us advance copies of books, and we give them to you. You get books for free and before everyone else, and a wide audience for your review.

Check out the rules and Frequently Asked Questions and learn more in the Early Reviewers group.

Eligibility: Publishers do things country-by-country. Check the flags to see which countries the book you want is available in.

The deadline to request a copy of this bonus batch book is Tuesday, September 30th at 6pm, EDT.

Amazon's 2008 election map

Check this new tool out from Amazon.

Amazon's 2008 election map colors each state according to the book-buying habits of its residents on Amazon.com during the past 60 days.

You may choose other two-month periods during 2008, or choose the "2004" tab to find maps for the same periods during the last presidential election.

This map mimics the color-coded maps the networks use on election night, "red state" has come to represent a state favoring the Republican Party and "blue state" represents one that favors the Democratic Party or more liberal beliefs.

To calculate each state's red and blue percentages for their map, books have been classified as red or blue if they have a political leaning made evident in book promotion materials and customer classification tags. To compute totals, they used the 250 blue books that have sold the most during the time period and compared those sales against the 250 red books that have sold the most during the same time period.

Scroll at the bottom to look at red books, blue books and even a purple list. "Purple" books that present themselves as nonpartisan or as books that cross the usual party lines. Enjoy this great find from NT librarian Linda Straube!

Booker Prize finalists

Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence was bypassed this year.

Finalists include:
First time novelist Aravind Adiga "The White Tiger", a story of class struggle in India.
First time novelist Steve Toltz "A Fraction of the Whole", a tale of a son trying to understand his deceased father who travels to Paris, the Thai jungle and the Australian bush.
Sebastian Barry "The Secret Scripture", an elderly woman in Ireland and her psychiatrist who write accounts of their meetings and tragic pasts.
Amitav Ghosh, "Sea of Poppies", a tale of sailors, Indians and Westerners who bond during the Opium Wars.
Linda Grant, "The Clothes on Their Backs", a family tale told by a Jewish refugee.
Philip Hensher, "The Northern Clemency" tells the story of ties between two Sheffield families during the 1970s and 1980s.

National Book Festival Online Author Chats Begin

The Washington Post, has begun to schedule online chats with National Book Festival authors. See details.

The first three have been scheduled, and are as follows:

Bob Schieffer (CBS newsman and author), Monday, 9/15 at 2 p.m. EDT

Arthur and Pauline Frommer (noted travel writers), Tuesday, 9/16 at 10 a.m. EDT

And Alexander McCall Smith, (prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction), Friday, 9/19 at 11 a.m. EDT