Ladies and Gentlemen, the opening lines of 1Q84 (courtesy of The Millions):
The taxi’s radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast. Janáček’s Sinfonietta—probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic. The middle-aged driver didn’t seem to be listening very closely, either. With his mouth clamped shut, he stared straight ahead at the endless line of cars stretching out on the elevated expressway, like a veteran fisherman standing in the bow of his boat, reading the ominous confluence of two currents. Aomame settled into the broad back seat, closed her eyes, and listened to the music.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the official Australian/UK cover of 1Q84:
And, because I like you, I’ll let you in on a little competition that Random House have running, where you can win a leather-bound edition of 1Q84. Obviously, I will be winning this, but I just thought I’d let you know. Good luck!*
You might say to me, “Chris, I’m a busy person. Why would I need more distractions? Also, why are you in my living room?” To this, I would simply answer: “All these things will enrich your life and may even save you time, getting you straight to the good stuff and meaning you’re not meandering aimlessly around the internet looking for the best things to read. Also, your windows are not very secure. Sorry about the footprints on your carpet.”
Here, then, are three new places you simply must visit/explore/read/listen to this week.
First off, the very exciting new site that kicked off this blog post is The Rereaders, the brainchild of young Sydney-based writers, reviewers and book industry go-getters Sam Twyford-Moore, Rebecca Giggs and Fiona Wright. Each fortnight you can download the Rereaders Podcast, a literary and cultural discussion based heavily on the Slate’s Cultural Gabfest series. The first Rereaders podcast went live today, and it was terrific. In fact, you’re wasting time reading me talking about it. Listen right here (mp3). Twitter = @therereaders
While you’re in the mood for listening, why not check out the excellent BookTuner, where book editor and tastemaker Nikki Lusk impeccably matches book and music combinations (I can personally attest to the Visit from the Goon Squad and Sleigh Bells match). Twitter = @booktuner
And two more quick links to see you through the week:
So I’ve spent the past two days listening to all major Australian publishers pitching their Christmas lists to indie Queensland booksellers, and can I say, the future looks bright. These are the books that I’m looking forward to, but they’re the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of books that people of any taste will want to read/give as presents this Christmas. Just remember, if you read them here first, you have to buy a copy from an indie bookseller! And remember, there’s more of them than you’d think.
FICTION:
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (late October)
If you’ve followed this blog for long enough, you’ll know I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long, long time. Clocking in at around 900 pages, this is a monstrous (but hopefully amazing) piece of literature. I’ll reserve my judgement on the cover until I see a final version, but needles to say, WHAT THE HELL? I guess when Chip Kidd designs the US cover, you’ve got something to live up to.
Animal People by Charlotte Wood (October)
Set over a single day in Sydney, we follow Stephen, one of the characters from Charlotte’s earlier book The Children as he simultaneously unravels and relearns. I can’t wait to read this, particularly what promises to be an hilarious set piece at a child’s birthday party. P.S. If you don’t follow Charlotte on Twitter you’re a dill.
The Cook, Wayne Macauley
People far more in the know then me have been mentioning Wayne Macauley’s name in reverential whispers for years, so I was incredibly excited to see Text Publishing is bringing his work to a wider audience in October.
Ed King by David Guterson (October) 9781408807477
The author of the magnificent Snow Falling on Cedars turns his hand to the kind of American saga I’m always a sucker for.
The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides (October)
I’ve just finished this book. And it is great. Effortless brilliance. A no-brainer purchase.
The Night Circus by Erica Morgenstern (October)
Halfway through this book at the moment, and it’s very good. It got me in because it’s about two duelling (in a competitive and romantic sense) magicians who both work for a mysterious and marvellous circus, where nothing is quite as it seems. It is full of rich imagination and it’s quite enchanting, but I’m waiting to see if there is enough narrative interest to carry the more fantastical elements.
The Street Sweeper, Elliot Perlman (October)
It’s been a long wait for a new book by Elliot Perlman, author of the excellent Three Dollars, The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming, and the critically-acclaimed (but, in my opinion, highly overrated) Seven Types of Ambiguity. Set in New York, Melbourne, Chicago, Warsaw, Berlin and Auschwitz, The Street Sweeper is a multi-strand epic narrative that promises to be very interesting and will certainly be pushing for major awards.
Triptych, Krissy Kneen (October)
Triptych is made up of three erotic novellas from the Brisbane-based author of the wildly successful memoir Affection, and should build on this book’s success. I have the pleasure of not only working with Krissy, but often writing alongside her, and from what I know about this book, it’s going to blow your bloody socks off. Get set for shock, controversy and a lot of national interest.
What the Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam (November)
This is so exciting. Steven Amsterdam’s first book Things We Didn’t See Coming was one of my favourite books of 2009, and his new one sounds freaking fantastic. From what I could gather, it centres around a dysfunctional family whose members each receive a superpower, but this does not necessarily mean they are able to become a perfect family.
COOKING:
Kitchen Coquette by Katrina Meynink (November)
In the large, potent soup of end-of-year cookbooks, this one easily stood out. Beautifully designed, yes, but also funny an unique. I think I’ll just let the author explain it.
Cumulus Inc. by Andrew McConnell (November)
If you’ve been here for breakfast, you’ll know how exciting this is.
The Family Meal by Ferran Adria
The author of 2008′s beautiful but impenetrable A Day at elBulli (and head chef of the world-renowned restaurant elBulli) Ferran Adria, returns with a cookbook which promises to show us real food. It’s broken up into 100 simple, seasonal recipes, separated into three-course “family meals” (i.e. the food elBulli’s staff eat). The layout is very easy to follow, with plenty of step-by-step photographs. Dare I say it has a Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals feel to it? Probably not.
KIDS
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (October)
The wonderful-looking new book from the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This is a book told through two voices set 50 years apart; one is made up entirely of text, the other entirely of images. It sounds incredible, and the best way to fully explain it is to let Brian Selznick tell you himself.
Star Wars: The Jedi Path by Daniel Wallace (October)
The important thing to remember here is that yes, the book does open like a vault when you press a button and there is a cool noise when you do it. And a flashing blue light. Gotoit, nerds.
The Enchanted Wood and The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (November)
Yes, finally, a reprint of the proper, full-sized books I loved as a child, complete with the original illustrations! The only downside is Dick and Fanny’s names have been changed. Probably to something less “offensive”, like Jaelyn or Breyahnnah.
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick (October)
I know very little about this YA book except the writing is being compared to Haruki Murakami and David Mitchell. Enough said.
Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis (October)
A really great looking tale (The first of “The Wildwood Chronicles”) from husband-and-wife team Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists) and Carson Ellis. At the moment, it’s pure McSweeney’s-bait (with requisite blurbs from Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon), but I’m pretty sure the story will match the potential. In fact, if you like, you can read the first four chapters (PDF LINK). If you’d prefer, you can listen to these fucking hipsters.
OTHER:
The Last Testament: A Memoir by God (December)
Simon & Schuster have scored a real coup here. David Javerbaum, the head writer of The Daily Show, gives us what will without doubt be the funniest (and possibly most seasonally appropriate) book this Christmas. Read an excerpt, or follow God on Twitter. This press release (PDF) is also pretty good.
M C Escher Popups (November)
I’m not prone to hyperbole, but if they pull this off, it will be the best thing ever.
Swainston’s Fishes of Australia, Roger Swainston (November)
I include this book not only because of its breathtaking detail and depth (individual illustrations of over 1500 fish species), but because its scheduled publication for Christmas last year was ruined by a bookmark that left a red stripe down any page it touched. Copies had been printed and shipped to bookstores before the fault was recognised, meaning every copy had to be pulped. So get out there and support this amazing achievement this Christmas!
If you’ve got anything at all to do with the book industry, then this week has been a bloody interesting one. On Monday afternoon, the news broke on Twitter that Pearson Group Australia (the parent of Penguin Publishing Australia) had bought the websites of RedGroup orphans Borders and Angus & Robertson. And if that wasn’t enough, later that evening the news broke that Amazon (#2 enemy of Australian booksellers) had bought Book Depository (#1 enemy of Australian booksellers). These are both game-changers of the highest order to the Australian book industry, and other more intelligent people have already pulled apart what this all means.
However, as I did on Twitter on Monday night, I would like to highlight some of the other game-changing developments that happened this week that somehow went unnoticed.
Bryce Courtenay buys the world’s book binding glue reserves
HarperCollins buys the rights to the phrase “The Next Stieg Larsson”
Murdoch Books announce plans to lease out all even page numbers as advertising space
Amazon fills entire Amazon river with Kindles
J K Rowling offers to come around to your house and individually scream Harry Potter facts into your ear for $1 million
Hachette release new “Sniffbook” format: bestelling titles printed on aloe-infused tissues
Jonathan Franzen copyrights thick black glasses, ennui
PanMacmillan organize homeless flashmob to promote their new eReader, the HoBo
What do you do when you’re a Dutch Bible publisher, and you find yourself stuck with too much Bible paper? If it were me, you would immediately amass a huge squadron of awesome paper aeroplanes, but in the case of Jongbloed BV, you invent a new book format with the strangely provocative “Dwarsligger”. Here is a strangely provocative ad which will give you an idea of what it’s like to slip a Dwarsligger into your back pocket. If you know what I mean.
As you an see, it’s a mobile-phone sized book that flips open vertically, hence the English name, The Flipback. The thin yet strong Bible paper allows a normal book to fit into a smaller, slimmer size. It has been somewhat of a success in Holland, with over 100 titles available in the new format and a million copies in print. Hachette has exclusive rights in Australia, and the first 11 titles will drop July 12. It’s a pretty decent mix of titles:
Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy – John le Carré
The Adventure of English – Melvyn Bragg
Liar’s Poker – Michael Lewis
One Day – David Nicholls
The Other Hand – Chris Cleave
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Misery – Stephen King
Shades of Grey – Jasper Fforde
A Million Little Pieces – James Frey
Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
Piece of My Heart – Peter Robinson
Here’s a little more info. Now with British accents!
I’ve had a chance to play with one of these Flipbacks, and it was pretty great. The important thing to note is that the text has not been shrunk down; what you have to get used to is a smaller page size (and, obviously the “flip” pages. It stays open in your hand well and is indeed pocket-sized! They will retail for $20, making them cheaper than your average paperback.
The main drawback, for me at least, is that (for now) the titles are limited to Hodder’s Sceptre imprint. The books I’d want to read from this initial release I’ve already read, and the next raft of titles (due October) are almost exclusively mass-market thrillers. Critics will say this is just another spasm in the final death throes of the printed word (“Why would I want to buy something the size of an eReader when it’s made of paper?), but in my opinion, anything that may get someone into (or back into) reading is fine by me.
What do you y’all think about the new format? Will it be as successful as this innovation below?
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So about a month ago, thanks to my friends at Hachette Australia, I (along with half a dozen other booksellers) got to have dinner with David Mitchell. Needless to say, I was incredibly nervous to be meeting one of my literary heroes (I had publically admitted to being happy if I only involuntarily secreted one bodily fluid at dinner), but he was, of course, charming, down-to-earth and very likeable. Here we are perusing the very fine menu.
What’s more, he very happily signed my banged-up copy of Ghostwritten. What’s more than more, I had just happened to have brought a copy of my book along, and he accepted it. What’s more than more than more, he asked me to sign it!
Other insights from the night:
1) David Mitchell isn’t that fond of number9dream.
2) He made us play a great after-dinner game where you have to name a book you haven’t read, and you get points for every other person at the table who has read it.
3) His next book sounds INCREDIBLE.
It was a great evening, and I only threw up in David Mitchell’s lap four times!
