Bookmarks: Four magazines die, a classic threatened (again), and the two-timing ways of Archie Andrews

Bookish links from around the Web:

• The foodie bride’s lament: Condé Nast-owned magazines Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride, and Modern Bride all cease publication
• More book banning madness: Toronto parent wants Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird off the Toronto District School Board’s curriculum
• Speaking of writers from the American South, Reuters assures us that Maya Angelou is not dead
• Big Love, Riverdale style: Archie Andrews is set to propose to Betty after wedding her snooty rival, Veronica
• Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero could be adapted for the stage
• Your daily laugh, courtesy of McSweeney’s: introducing the Kindle Gutenberg Bookreader

Bookmarks: Mockingbird, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and Sony Reader’s Library Finder

Sundry links from around the Web:

• “Author whose books are most likely to be found in Oxfam’s secondhand charity shops” is probably not the recognition Dan Brown was hoping for
• Crayola presents kids’ author Eric Carle with a 5-foot-tall crayon named Very Hungry Caterpillar Green
• Eoin Colfer’s sixth book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy “trilogy” is getting its own theme song
• The long-awaited memoir from Senator Ted Kennedy, who passed away last night, will be published in September
• Gizmodo test drives the Sony Reader’s new Library Finder service, which lets you check out e-books from your local (American) library for free, direct to your reader
• Lawrence Hill on To Kill a Mockingbird, and why we should focus more on Canadian stories of slavery, racism, and civil rights

Second time might not be the charm

Newsday delves into the perilous world of the second-novel curse, with many wonderful stories from big-name authors’ navigating the high-stakes world of Novel #2 (and beyond).

Highlights include Amy Tan getting hit with “How does it feel to have written your best book first?” at her first literary luncheon post Joy Luck Club. The Dogs of Babel author Carolyn Parkhurst enjoyed the TV appearances and bestseller status until the stress of coming out with a home-run again took over.

She is one of many (including Sue Monk Kidd) who “have suffered cases of ‘second novel syndrome,’ as it’s known,” including White Oleander‘s Janet Fitch, whose inflated head got her started on a “grandiose” historical novel that she had to abandon, despite the help of a “support group for second novelists.”

According to the story, “the ‘sophomore jinx,’ as the second-novel phenomenon is also called, often seems to boil down to a fear that the public will want the same novel a second time, says Asya Muchnick, Little, Brown editor …. ‘The media and the public get excited about a breakout first novel,’ she says, and second books often don’t win the same attention or sales …. Right now, we’re in a market where everyone is looking for the next new thing.’”

The article finishes with a breakdown of authors with loooong breaks in between titles, and ends with the naively optimistic:

“HARPER LEE

Novel #1: To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960

Novel #2: ????”

Related links:
Read the Newsday story here

This just in: people like being happy

As part of the festivities surrounding the U.K. and Ireland’s World Book Day, which took place this year on Thursday, March 2, results of a survey on the topic of happy endings was released. The questions were all quite predictable and concerned favourite happy endings (Pride and Prejudice was the most popular amongst respondents, followed by To Kill a Mockingbird and Jane Eyre), the effects of happy endings on readers (in giving one a sense of satisfaction, in putting one in a better mood for the rest of the day, etc.), and whether, in fact, readers actually prefer happy endings (apparently, they do, at a ratio of 50:1). One question even asked people to choose what sadly ending-book they would most like to change.

It is this question Ben MacIntyre responds to in a recent article published on the Times website. In it, he discusses the booming literary sequel/prequel industry, citing all the Austen copycats, the gravespin-inducing Gone with the Wind sequel, Scarlett, and, oddly, a sequel to Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. MacIntyre, who feels that a book’s happy or sad ending has little to do with its literary merit or ability to be memorable, nonetheless decides to get into the act, suggesting alternate endings to some of the classics: “Macbeth is much too depressing. In my version the gentle, unassuming and monosyllabic thane settles down at Cawdor, where Lady Macbeth develops a profitable line in soap that leaves the hands spotless. Hamlet finds a shrink, marries Ophelia and goes into insurance…. Pride and Prejudice could be rendered less saccharine by introducing the scene where Darcy explains to Elizabeth that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune still in want of a wife is obviously gay, so he is moving to Tangiers to live with Wickham.”

Related links:
Click here for MacIntyre’s piece on the Times website