Cultural evolution
A novice when it comes to Chinese writing, Lindesay Irvine embarks on a journey into a strange new worldAs the minibus takes our party from Shanghai airport to the first of our hotels, it passes across a sizeable stretch of more or less dead earth. We ...
Lady Gaga: saviour of the book trade?
The jury is out as 15,000 Little Monsters 'like' Gaga's Facebook tip, The Drunk DietAs the internet consolidates its position as the dominant medium(s) of our era, it's not just Amazon's terrifying brand reach - with the new smart phone app that allows...
The rise of the video book trailer
Their quality varies wildly, but video trailers for books are proliferating. Do they work? And what are the implications of the technology for the books themselves?The video trailer above is pitching John Lanchester's novel-of-the-moment, Capital. In u...
JK Rowling announces new novel – for adults
The creator of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, opens a 'new phase' of her writing career with her first novel for grown-upsBooksellers up and down the country will be rejoicing: JK Rowling has confirmed plans for a new novel, this time for adults and "very d...
Slavoj Žižek’s jokes are no laughing matter
His ascent to cultural superstardom has been fuelled by his comic talent, but jokes are a serious business for Slavoj ŽižekOften referred to as "the Elvis of cultural theory", there is a case to be made that Slavoj Žižek is really the Ken Dodd of p...
The imperial age of libraries
A police raid on a five-year-old with overdue books reminds me of a grander age for librariesRecent years have reminded us with such force of the importance of libraries as a social good that there's something strangely nostalgic about the CNN report t...
Serious questions about the standard of modern literary discussion
Would contemporary authors relish the daunting seriousness of a schoolboy questionnaire, sent to 150 leading authors in 1963?Many a contemporary author, weary of the trivialising attentions of the modern media, dreams fondly of an age of higher serious...
Pure enjoyment
Despite its morbid subject matter, Andrew Miller's latest novel, the Costa-shortlisted Pure, is full of ghoulish fun. He tells Lindesay Irvine how he was lured back to historical fictionThe big open skies and wide vistas of rolling farmland that surrou...
Atwood pilots new reading technology
A special edition of Atwood's book on science fiction comes with its own futuristic twistWhat's the very latest, most exciting technology in reading? Smartphones? The Kindle Fire? The iPad? Well, no, as you'll have gathered from the rhetorical question...
Books are made for walking
Readers of the Guardian books blog are well known as on-trend taste-makers. But even so, some of you may still be agonising over the final touches to your autumn collections, particularly when limbering up to ride the "better wave of shoe-wearing" hera...
Michael Frayn’s memoir of his father wins autobiography prize
A supporting role in the story of his parents' lives, My Father's Fortune, wins Michael Frayn the UK's only dedicated award for autobiographyCelebrated for his plays, novels and journalism, Michael Frayn's first work of memoir, My Father's Fortune, has...
