Clippings 7

According to Publishers Weekly, Amazon is digging deeper into grassroots marketing by launching Project Vine, a by-invitation-only program in which prolific Amazon reviewers are sent ARCs in exchange for reviews. Which prompts me to ask: do you read those reviews? Do you ever get violently angry about them, like I do? (Though I have written a few myself and probably inspired anger on someone else’s part.) I appreciate that Amazon is recognizing the part their users play in their success. And the launch of Project Vine helps to prove both the silliness of newspapers cutting their books sections and the truth that fiction isn’t dying at all; in fact, readers are turning to each other more than ever to find out what good books are coming off the press. So more fun for us litbloggers, eh?

Canadian writer Yann Martel (author of Life of Pi) is putting his mailbox where his mouth is. To promote arts literacy, he has committed to mailing a book to the Prime Minister every two weeks, each book accompanied by a letter suggesting particular value to be gained by the reading. To date, 10 books have gone out (with one remarkably brief response from the PM’s assistant). Martel is documenting the What is Stephen Harper Reading? Project online. (HT: Indextrious via Semicolon)

Do you remember what you were doing on July 12? I don’t, which is proof that I did NOT attend the “clothing optional” book signing at The Tempest Book Shop in Waitsfield, Vermont. The Boston Globe reported on the promotional event for Jim C. Cunningham’s Nudity and Christianity. Where is the Christianity Today review of this one?

Speaking of CT, Alan Jacobs has a great piece on the Harry Potter series, drawing on the likes of G. K. Chesterton and Umberto Eco to evaluate Rowling’s books. For the first time, I have the slightest interest in reading them…someday.

28. August 2007 by Mindy
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