July 2004 - Writers Magazine

News Review

• This year the Edinburgh International Book Festival celebrates its 21st anniversary with over 650 events involving 550 authors, and expects to sell more than 185,000 tickets.


• Reading at Risk, the NEA study shows that: 'Less than half of American adults now read literature, but the steepest and most worrying decline is amongst younger age groups, where the decline is 28%.'


• The boom in second-hand books: ‘Used books are to consumer books as Napster was to the music industry.’ Lorraine Shanley


• Hodder Headline on the block, as troubles at high street giant W H Smith force it to consider selling its publishing arm to plug a hole in the pension fund.

Comment

• 'You can have deep, interesting ideas, but the story must be there... No one reads anything without a story to carry them through... '  Nicola Morgan


• 'It's only 25 years ago, but go back to the British book trade of 1979 and you find London dotted with dozens of small, independent imprints run by strong-minded mavericks.'          Robert McCrum, the Observer


• ‘Literary criticism as a discourse available for, and even attractive to, the common reader has all but disappeared.'  James Wood


• In a novel or biography: 'its author can tap the reader on the shoulder, take us aside and share with us his or her own thoughts about the meaning of what is taking place.'               Matthew Parris    

Writers' Quotes

• ‘The sole end of literature should be to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.'           Samuel Johnson

Poster

This month's new poster deals with Experts - who needs them?