LAT books editor David Ulin is “ambivalent” about Banned Books Week. While “we clearly still need such a public affirmation,” it “offers up the sort of toothless, feel-good spectacle that makes us less likely to consider the actual ramifications of free expression. The basic message here is one of astonishment: Why would anyone ban books when literature is such a positive and ennobling force? Yet while I agree with that, I also believe that some books truly are dangerous, and to ignore that is simply disingenuous.” And to focus on well-loved titles that have been challenged in specific libraries or […]
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Scotland Yard Stops Attack on UK MEDINA Publisher
A group of three “Islamic extremists” put a firebomb in the North London home of Gibson Square publisher Martin Rynja late Saturday night, and were promptly arrested by Scotland Yard in “a preplanned intelligence-led operation,” according to a police spokesperson. (The company’s offices are in the same building.) The Sunday Times says “the suspected terror gang was being followed by undercover police and the fire was quickly put out after the fire brigade smashed down the front door.” The police believe Rynja was under attack for his company’s decision to publish Sherry Jones’s THE JEWEL OF MEDINA. Rynja is now […]
Bloomsbury Buys Berg
Bloomsbury has made another addition to its growing academic division with the purchase of Oxford International Publishers Limited, which operates as Berg Publishers, for 1.8 million pounds in cash, 200,000 million pounds in stock, and up to 1 million pounds in deferred compensation based performance. Focused on books and journals for the academic student market in the fields of fashion, design and culture studies, Berg had sales 1.58 million pounds in 2007. Kathryn Earle will continue to run the company.Release
Credit Crunch Ends Informa Buyout Bid
After Informa rejected a reduced bid of 1.9 billion pounds (down from an original bid of 2.2 billion pounds), the consortium of private equity groups hoping to buy out the company “has decided to withdraw its proposal.” The group, led by Providence Equity Partners, reportedly had trouble raising financing for the deal. But the group “said they reserved the right to make or participate in an offer for Informa within six months subject to certain conditions.” In today’s markets, Informa shares are trading over 20 percent below that reduced offer (the group bid 450p a share; the price is now […]
Plus: Waiting for Brisingr; Prosecuting Bush in Vermont; No Bratz for Scholastic
* Booksellers and fans are gearing up for the just-past-midnight launch of Christopher Paolini’s BRISINGR. In the UK, Waterstone’s children’s buyer Claudia Mody tells the Telegraph, “It’s our biggest pre-order campaign for anything since the final Harry Potter novel. Bigger than Sebastian Faulk’s James Bond novel, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight or Delia Smith’s How to Cheat at Cooking. It’s going to be huge.” * The WSJ dubs books like Reading the OED and works of AJ Jacobs as “grit lit,” calling them “the geek equivalent of extreme sports.” Joanne Kaufman adds: “The popularity of such books makes perfect sense. After all, […]
Juicy Bits Returns: Angler
Slate brings back their juicy bits column, pulling “a breezy executive summary” from Barton Gellman’s ANGLER “for those of you who are too lazy or too incurious to read [the] lengthy expose.”Slate