http://booksnark.net book news, reviews & snarkage Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:06:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I thought this was a timely post since last night our roof started leaking in about ten places. Fortunately, I have nowhere near the collection the National Library of Scotland has. A sprinkler failed last Thursday evening at the library, damaging around 1,000 books and keeping staff members working all night ... http://booksnark.net/books-damaged-in-flood-at-scottish-library/ OK, pardone mi Francais por minuto, but what in the fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck is happening in the publishing industry? First we hear Dubya is shopping for a book deal. Then we get word Laura "Pickles" Bush has nabbed one herself. Ditto Karl Rove. Just recently we learned Condi had landed herself a ... http://booksnark.net/blago-scores-book-deal/ Today's Trailer Park holds a wildly diverse cornucopia of enticements. There's no common theme amongst these three titles, I just enjoyed the trailers. Hope you do too. First up, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith and (natch) Jane Austen. This one has been getting a lot of press, and ... http://booksnark.net/in-the-trailer-park-big-monsters-big-ships-and-big-cats/ A1Books.com, one of the largest online book retailers, is now offering a bonus point program for loyal customers. The A1 Points Program rewards returning buyers by assigning points to their account, based upon the dollar amount spent (e.g. $10.55 equals 10.55 points). When customers come back to A1 to make ... http://booksnark.net/hooray-for-cheaper-books/ Roadtrip! Actually, it would be more of a canoe trip. A very looooong canoe trip. Anyhoo, the grande dame of the mystery novel, Agatha Christie, spent her summers from 1938 to 1959 at Greenway, a history-rich manor near Dartmouth in southern England. She gave the home to her daughter and grandson, who ... http://booksnark.net/agatha-christies-summer-house-welcomes-visitors/ I'm a bit of a crossword puzzle fanatic, but I am so anti-newfangled technology that I greeted this news with mixed emotions. But it's interesting nonetheless. According to Publishers Weekly, Simon and Schuster has launched a new app (whatever the hell that is) that lets owners of the iPhone or iPod Touch ... http://booksnark.net/crosswords-for-your-iphone/ I'm still feeling all poetic and squishy from yesterday's post, so I figured, for something a little different, I'd put up some trailers for poetry books. I haven't read any of these, but I always embrace the opportunity to spread the poetry lovin' around, whether or not the poet's style ... http://booksnark.net/poetry-in-the-trailer-park/ I am, before anything, a poetry freak. Before I am a snark, or a book fanatic, or even a human being, I am all about 'da poetry. One of my new year’s resolutions this year was to incorporate more poetry collections into my reading list, and this move has proved a ... http://booksnark.net/book-reviews-elegy-by-mary-jo-bang-here-bullet-by-brian-turner-and-love-comes-first-by-erica-jong/ The New Yorker, quite possibly the coolest magazine on the planet, launched their own book club yesterday. The mag promises "the book club will be an ongoing collaboration between our editors and writers and our audience." They also promise to choose works that will generate questions, discussion, and debate. According to ... http://booksnark.net/the-new-yorker-hosts-online-book-club/ Oh Jebus, I think I just heard every hobbit fanatic -- including my own beloved snarkpanion -- simultaneously orgasm. Yup, that's right, an obscure manuscript by the Hobbitmeister himself, J.R.R. Tolkein, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in May. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is a retelling of ancient Norse epics and relates the ... http://booksnark.net/lost-tolkein-book-to-be-published/