Book links round-up: scathing reviews, foggy plot lines, and more

• An excerpt from Eva Gabrilsson’s book about her life with Stieg Larsson
• How much do we actually retain from reading?
• Slate explains h0w not to write a book review
• Stephen King’s The Dark Tower will not be adapted for film
• The book is always better, but better than the app?
• A Literary Press Group/Turner-Riggs survey for poetry readers

Stephen King takes on the Kennedy assassination

For over 40 years, Stephen King has been chronicling America’s fears and collective nightmares. In his new book, he is set to take on one of the most nightmarish incidents in 20th-century American history. According to King’s website, his new novel, 11/22/63, is about Jake Epping, an English teacher in Maine who gets a chance to travel back in time and perhaps prevent the assassination of JFK.

From King’s site:

Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane – and insanely possible – mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life – a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

Alternative histories are nothing new: Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America imagines a world in which Charles Lindbergh is elected president and embarks on a campaign of appeasement toward Hitler’s Nazi government, and Robert Harris’s Fatherland is a thriller set in the years after the Nazis won the Second World War. Still, the Kennedy assassination remains an open wound in the American psyche; King is either very brave to choose this as the focus of his new novel, or else very foolish.

Daily book biz round-up: Jonathan Franzen sells better with Oprah; Stephen King acts; and more

Today’s book news:

• First authorized book on U.K.’s MI6 says that James Bonds existed
• Oprah-stamped Freedom takes Stieg Larsson’s place atop Amazon bestsellers list
• Stephen King guest stars in a TV series
• Toronto mayor David Miller discusses his new book
• Cultural critic, activist, and author Jill Johnston dies

“I’ll have a venti mochaccino and an award-winning book, please.”

In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King advises aspiring writers to avoid writing in coffee shops. Canadian novelist Corey Redekop, by contrast, admits that “the majority of [his] writing occurs in coffee shops.” There is undoubtedly a certain clichéd mystique surrounding writers who find inspiration along with a strong cup of Joe at their local java joint; now there’s even a prize for books written in coffee shops.

Yesterday, the Toronto Star published an article about the first annual Coffee Shop Author contest, which recently announced its inaugural winners. The contest winner is Mississauga resident Ranjini George Philip. Second and third place went to Theresa Wouters of Grande Prairie, Alberta, and Ron Stewart of Komoka, Ontario, respectively.

The brainchild of Calgary resident Susan Toy and Oolichan Books owner Randal Macnair, the contest asked writers to register with the Coffee Shop Author website, secure the endorsement of a local coffee establishment, “then pledge to write the bulk of a novel, short story collection, poetry collection or a work of creative non-fiction at the coffee shop between November 2009 and April 2010.” Entrants paid a fee of $30 and the first-place winner receives a spot at the Fernie Writers Conference in Fernie, British Columbia.

From the Star:

Forty-two Canadians entered the online contest, promising to write most of their submissions — poetry, novels, teen fiction — in coffee shops. A few bent the rules and created in local libraries, and in one case, in rural Saskatchewan, an ice cream parlour.

Writing is a lonely pursuit and has always driven writers out of their houses to find companionship — or distraction or inspiration — in public places.

“I’ve been a coffee shop writer for a long time,” says Philip, 46, who taught at Zayed University in Dubai before coming to Canada with her husband and two children three years ago.

“There’s a lot of solitude and I find I work better when there is a buzz of noise around me.”

According to the Star, the contest’s popularity has convinced Toy to expand next year’s contest beyond Canada. It would appear that there are a significant number of writers out there willing to ignore Stephen King’s advice.

Event photos: Joe Hill grabs life by the horns

On March 22, Joe Hill launched his new supernatural thriller Horns, while (naturally) wearing light-up devil horns at an event hosted by Toronto sci-fi bookstore BAKKA-Phoenix and the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy. In 2007, to prove that he could make it on his own, the author sold his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, without revealing to his publisher that he is the son of horror royalty Stephen King. The move certainly paid off, as that debut won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. (Photo by David McDonald)

Daily book biz round-up, March 29

Your book world news for today:

• Contrary to reports out of Italy, Roth and Grisham both heart Obama
• Stephen King hearts Kindle, hates iPad
• Will e-books put wholesalers out of business?
• Diagram Prize winner: Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes
• Jessica Grant wins Winterset Award
• Get ready for TI2: Long John Silver’s Revenge
• James Franco: dull dramatic actor turned funny comedic actor turned bizarro soap star now becomes author
• Captured on film: Obama purchases books at indie bookstore

Daily book biz round-up, March 17

The green beer can wait. Get some news in ya first:

• Mantel, Moore, and Waters make Orange Prize longlist
• Roy MacSkimming on allowing Amazon to set up shop in Canada
• Comic book and graphic novel retailers still waiting for better days
• Fast on the heels of Colorado dust-up, Amazon threatens Connecticut, too
• How Joe Hill climbed out from under dad Stephen King’s shadow
• Salon’s Laura Miller plays Book Critic Cliché Bingo
• The New York Times on the tricky business of archiving authors’ digital materials
• A contrary view of modern library design
• Kurt Vonnegut meets Rodney Dangerfield, and other literary film cameos

Bookmarks: New app from LibraryThing, voice acting by Stephen King, and more

A few bookish links from across the Web:

• Book-loving travellers, breathe a sigh of relief: Transport Canada explains that the whole “airplane book ban” was just a misunderstanding
• Hundreds of readers offer words of support after Marian Keyes reveals on her blog that “crippling depression” is keeping her from writing
• Toronto-based Scott Pilgrim series is one step closer to the silver screen – watch out, evil ex-boyfriends!
• Need to find the nearest bookstore or book events? There’s an app for that!
• Stephen King lends his voice to a new rock album as a doom-predicting radio host broadcasting his final show
• Does Google dream of Electric Sheep? The family of Philip K. Dick threatens to sue Google over new Nexus One phone

Bookmarks: Generic Wizard Nights, a feline Humbert Humbert, and more

Sundry links from around the Web:

• The Ontario Library Association has announced the nominees for the 2010 Forest of Reading Program. Votes can be cast for your favourite authors at the OLA’s website. Participants have between now and April 23 to read a minimum of 5 of the 10 titles in their chosen category
• Classic literature meets lolcats with LOLerature. Who knew what we were missing?
• A U.K. fan who was forbidden to throw a Harry Potter-themed dinner party throws a “Generic Wizard Night” instead
• Stephen King taps into vampire mania by writing his first comic book, American Vampire. The most terrifying fact, as pointed out by AbeBooks, is that the vampire bears an uncanny resemblance to Kid Rock
• For people who have too much time on their hands like dressing up their pets as literary characters, The New Yorker has been holding an online Critterati Contest. The contest has closed and the winners will be announced later today, but the gallery is still available for your browsing pleasure. (While there are a plethora of adorable Moby Dicks and Hestor Prynnes, this Quillblogger has money on the feline version of Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, caught in flagrante delicto with an unwitting Barbie Lolita)
• The woman who gave us Lestat de Lioncourt is swapping vampires for angels, the National Post reports

Stephen King’s new face of evil: predatory pricing: UPDATED

When you’re an author of Stephen King’s stature, you can afford to be direct. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly (where the mega-selling author is also a regular columnist), King had a message for retailers who are selling prestige titles at steep discounts: “It’s time to give the smaller bookstores a little breathing room (although not much chance of that, with Walmart offering Dome for nine bucks.)”

King’s new novel, Under the Dome, set for release Nov. 10, is indeed being sold for $8.98 at Wal-Mart and Target, which are engaged in a price war with online retailer Amazon. The big box stores are selling King’s hardcover (which has a cover price of $35 U.S.), along with nine other titles by brand-name authors, as loss leaders. The move is expected to adversely affect the bottom lines of independent booksellers, who are heading into the all-important Christmas selling season.

The American Booksellers Association has approached the Department of Justice about the matter, claiming that Wal-Mart and similar retailers are engaging in “illegal predatory pricing.” From EW:

In a letter released [last Thursday], the ABA went on to say that the practice was “damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers.” A top publishing executive tells EW: “They had no choice. Bookstores are simply under siege. On one side, they’re facing the threat of e-books, and on the other they’re staring in the face of these three ugly superpowers.”

Meanwhile, the Toronto Star reported on Friday that similar deep discounting was not being implemented north of the 49th Parallel:

Andrew Pelletier, vice president of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Canada, told the Star Friday morning that the company takes “a Canadian approach” to retailing based on “what is good for the Canadian market” that often differs from how Wal-Mart operates in the United States.

“We are two different countries. The U.S. approach is based on their marketplace,” he said. Wal-Mart Canada also doesn’t sell books online, he said.

Canadian politesse notwithstanding, it may be only a matter of time before consumers here start demanding similar price cuts. In any event, the ABA’s letter contains a dire warning: “The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war.”

This post contains material that has been corrected. The quote concerning “collateral damage” was contained in the ABA’s letter to the Department of Justice. It was erroneously attributed to Canadian Booksellers Association executive director Susan Dayus. Quillblog regrets the error.