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Greetings from The Book Snark. This site is devoted to book news, reviews, criticism, and celebration, all with a hefty dose of snark. For more riveting information on the BS, visit the About page. Happy reading, Snarkettes!

The Trailer Park Has Old Timey Visitors

I’ve collected trailers for three different books, all featuring stories set in the long, long ago, when ladies wore corsets, men wore dickeys, and everyone bathed once a month. Damn those were good times.

First up, Gilded by Catherine Karp. This is the story of old timey Emma and her desperate desire to bust out of the restrictions society has placed on her.

Next we have Alanna Coca’s Wyoming Solace, an historical romance with a strong emphasis on the erotic. Melikes those odds, especially when it involves cowboys.

Lastly, we have something a little different. La Bestia Feroce by Andrea Ventura is in Italian. I don’t speak Italian, but I’ve always wanted to learn, and watching this trailer was all sorts of titillating. I have no idea what’s happening, but I can’t take my eyes off it!

January 30, 2009 | Filed Under Trailer Park | Leave a Comment

Adieu, Book World…

In yet another sign of the craptacular financial clusterfuck our country is in, The Washington Post has announced it will do away with Book World, its regular book section. Book World is one of the last remaining stand-alone book review sections in a daily newspaper.

Books will now be a part of the Style and Outlook sections. Great…look for an in-depth criticism of Proust right below an article featuring the latest in pastel-colored legwarmers. Wait. Does anyone wear legwarmers anymore? Or am I the only one?

Deputy Editor Rachel Hartigan Shea, who probably does not wear legwarmers, says the Post prints around 900 book reviews every year. She is hoping the publication will not suffer more than a 25 percent drop in the number of reviews published. Details of the new approach, however, are not definite.

Book World’s final edition will be published next month.

Story Source Yahoo | Image Source The Washington Post

January 29, 2009 | Filed Under Newsies | 383 Comments

Keitai Novels All the Rage in Japan

Cell phones are about as appealing to me as one of those 28-hour compilation DVDs of “SciFi Classics” (a.k.a. movies no one’s ever heard of) my snarkpanion insists on bringing home from the bargain bin at Best Buy. Nonetheless, I found this story interesting.

In Japan, 86% of high school students read cell phone novels. Yup, that’s just what it sounds like: novels that pop up on your cell phone. Authors publish short novels in 70-word increments, specifically targeted for cell phone reading.

The craze had its origins back in the 90s with the onslaught of pagers, but didn’t really get going till 2002, when writer Yoshi wrote Deep Love: Ayu’s Story for the cell phone. Deep Love, about the trials of a Tokyo prostitute, was a huge success and inspired [print] books, cartoons, a TV series, and a movie.

The cell phone — or keitai in Japanese — is wildly popular in Japan. Nearly every adult has a cell phone, and many adults have two: one for work and one for home. “According to a recent government report, 31.3% of elementary school students and 57.6% of middle school students have cell phones. Research firm Net Asia adds that as many as 22.3% self-identify as cell phone addicts.”

The keitei novels are an ideal way for readers to pass the time on long train commutes.

One other thing I found of particular interest about this story. Most of the keitai novelists (and readers) are women. Nearly all of the authors mentioned in the Japan Today article are female, and one is even a Buddhist nun: Jakucho Setouchi, who translated the The Tale of Genji into modern Japanese, has disclosed that she has written cell phone novels.

Story Source Japan Today via Galleycat | Image Source CBS News

January 28, 2009 | Filed Under Newsies | Leave a Comment

WHAT IS A SNARK?

The Snark is a creature created by Lewis Carroll in his poem "The Hunting of the Snark". To give a proper description of Snarks, one must look no further than Carroll himself, who summed them up in one word: Unimaginable.

But this much we do know: some have feathers, some have whiskers. Snarks sleep a lot, yet they are an ambitious lot -- with very little sense of humor. They love bathing-machines and tend to bring them wherever they go; they are also handy for striking a light. Snarks live on a far-off island, a place filled with chasms and crags, and are constantly on the lookout for Snark-hunters. Their mortal enemies are hope, care, thimbles and forks.