Our new link - Updated 8/16/11

We are now the Books & Entertainment blog on rd.com. Same great taste, fewer calories (or something like that).

Keep up with our Select Editions selections at this link.

We're moving!

We're moving this blog to a new site; we'll publish the URL as soon as it's set. Meanwhile, we'll continue to update the ongoing list of Select Editions titles at this link.

Thanks for your support. We're not going to change much, other than our address.

Thoughts from a literary agent

Andrew Wylie has ruffled a few feathers recently, battling with publishers over digital book rights. You could say he's at the forefront of whatever we're doing in the future, but he's also a solid representative of quality publishing. So the thoughts he shared with Daniel Gross at WSJ.com are worth thinking about.

"So the business we're in is to identify and capture and anticipate the value of books that are inherently classics, future classics. If publishers did the same there would be less of the wild weekend in Las Vegas approach to acquisition that distinguishes the industry and its decline.... We try to avoid people who can't write. You can usually spot them from the first sentence, or from the cover letter. It's a little like sitting in the audience at Carnegie Hall and watching someone walk up to a piano. If you're trained, you can tell the difference between someone who knows how to play and someone who doesn't. Of course, sometimes you want to work with people who have a significant achievement, which is not writing, and so that usually requires closer editing, and ghostwriting. Heads of state are not always the best writers."

Read the article, Andrew Wylie: The superagent on upholding great literature in an e-reading world.

An Aldous Huxley children's book

The Crows of Pearblossom, written in 1944, has been out of print for years. Now republished with new illustrations by Sophie Blackall, it gets a great reading from Daniel Pinkwater and Scott Simon from NPR.

How to review books

We review books all the time, but only for our own Select Editions series, so what we're concerned with is simply whether we think the book is right to be one of our 24 a year. We don't have to write up much except a note on why we recommend a book or not, and it's only among ourselves, so it doesn't have to be picture perfect. But how do actual reviewers do it? A couple of them are interviewed in The Guardian. Linda Buckley-Archer's approach sounds like the best way to handle any writing:

"Writing reviews is like baking bread. You add the yeast to the flour and let the dough rise. Then you give it a jolly good kneading and let it rise some more and only then do you bake it. Personally, I leave at least a day between finishing the book and starting the review. Then, once I've written it, I have to leave it another day and look at what I've written with fresh eyes. I always want to change something—make something clearer, tighten it up, add something..."

Read How do I write a book review?

Walt Whitman was born on this day in 1819

We have a mall named after him on Long Island, and a rest stop named after him on the New Jersey Turnpike. If you're really serious about him, check out The Walt Whitman Archive, where they even have a purported recording of his voice. And if you just wish you had read him, and always meant to, and maybe even keep a copy of Leaves of Grass by the bed, we offer this.

I Hear America Singing

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

The Audie Awards 2011

With a 45 minute commute in each direction, I have become a fanatic about audiobooks. It doesn't take long to devour one and go on to the next. So it's nice to have a list like this of award winners, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association. The big winner was Life by Keith Richards, narrated by Johnny Depp, Joe Hurley and Richards himself. I've listened to it, and I can't argue with its winning status: I've recommended it to everyone I know.

For all the winners (and nominees) in a long list of categories, check out The Audie Awards 2011.