When it was announced that Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller had won the Nobel Prize for literature this year, I had two immediate reactions: a) the by-now-annual stab of resentment that the blokes in Stockholm have – again – not given Philip Roth the nod; and b) oh, dear, I am such an ignorant git, I haven’t read a single one of Muller’s. Read more

Four years after A Long Way Down, his droll, affecting novel about four would-be suicides, Nick Hornby is back. In Juliet, Naked, his new novel, Hornby returns to the territory his long-time fans will instantly recognize: obsession, fandom and popular music, the tropes that made his first two books, Fever Pitch and High Fidelity into bestsellers and him into a literary celebrity. Read more

So here we are with the most hotly debated annual shortlist in the English-speaking books world – the final six books vying for the Man Booker Prize 2009.

What has it boiled down to?

Summerland by JM Coetzee

The Children’s Book by AS Byatt Read more

What does the Man Booker Prize mean for established, perhaps even great writers, who have not become huge mainstream successes? Alan Hollinghurst, who famously takes many years to write a book, said it buys time to write. Read more

A few weeks ago, someone on this blog posted a comment about how he found blurbs from authors on the front and back covers of books to be most useful recommendations. From what he said, it seemed to me that he was the sort of reader who would actually pick up a book because of its blurb(s). Read more

Roth or Updike, Updike or Roth… I have never been able to make up my mind about whom, between the two titans, I admire more.

I have always been torn between these two heroes of mine, and I have been thinking about the matter again after having reviewed John Updike’s posthumously published collection, My Father’s Tears & Other Stories. Read more

Faber & Faber, the legendary London-based publishing house, is celebrating its 80th anniversary. I wrote about it last Saturday, but a blog lets you do what print can’t, so I shall use that advantage now to put up links to some excellent pieces on Faber, and its anniversary. Read more

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Posted by Soumya Bhattacharya on Monday, August 10, 2009 at 7:44 pm 
Filed under Books, Page Turner · Tagged 75th anniversaryAndrew O’Hagan, Faber & Faber, Guardian books blog, Sam Jordison

Words YOU love to hate

12 Comments

Last week, I put up a (brief) list of words I love to hate, and invited you to send in yours. The response has been very enthusiastic, thank you very much. Not a man to go back on my word, I am putting up the list of words/phrases you said made you wince/cringe. Read more

(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Posted by Soumya Bhattacharya on Monday, August 3, 2009 at 8:37 pm 
Filed under Books · Tagged Man Booker Prize, words you love to hate

Which words do you love to hate?

44 Comments

The Guardian’s books blog has reported how some poets at a recent literary festival were asked which word each of them hated and why.
 
Here is what the poet Philip Wells said: “‘Pulchritude’ is certainly up there on my blacklist. It violates all the magical impulses of balanced onomatopoeic language — it of course means ‘beautiful’, but its meaning is nothing of the sort, being stuffed to the brim with a brutally latinate cudgel of barbaric consonants. Read more

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Posted by Soumya Bhattacharya on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 6:38 pm 
Filed under Books · Tagged barbaric consonants, Guardian, Philip Wells, phrases, Pulchritude, words

Cover story — again

12 Comments

I return again this week to a familiar topic: book covers. The London-based publishing giant, Faber and Faber, has always been known for its striking covers. It has now published Eighty Years of Book Cover Design, a magnificent collection by novelist Joseph Connolly of some of its most arresting covers through the decades. Read more

(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Posted by Soumya Bhattacharya on Monday, July 20, 2009 at 8:35 pm 
Filed under Books · Tagged Berthold Wolpe, book covers, Eighty Years of Book Cover Design, Faber and Faber, Lawrence Durrell, Peter Conrad

Next Page »