96-year old L.A. blogger pops onto Amazon’s bestseller list

By Carolyn Kellogg

Los Angeles blogger Barbara “Cutie” Cooper has seen a lot in her 96 years: the Prohibition era, World War II, children, grandchildren, a 73-year marriage, the death of her husband Harry in 2010 at age 98, 18 presidents, and countless technological innovations.

But this week she’s seeing something new: her book climbing the Amazon.com bestseller list.

“Fall in Love for Life: Inspiration from a 73-Year Marriage” was published quietly by Chronicle Books on Jan. 1. Co-written with her granddaughters Kim and Chinta Cooper, “Fall in Love for Life” combines long-view wisdom and surprisingly sassy sex advice.

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Dalkey Archive posts world’s wackiest job listing

Unavailable at night or on the weekends? Like a little workplace gossip? Then you need not apply at Dalkey Archive Press.

By Carolyn Kellogg

On Wednesday, the Dalkey Archive Press posted an announcement in its employment section. Founding publisher John O’Brien, it said, will be stepping down. He’s been with the press, which is known for publishing books that are avant-garde and experimental, since its inception in the 1980s. O’Brien’s departure will be a significant change for the Illinois-based press; in 2009, he told The Times, “the press is purely an expression of my aesthetic interests and what I admire and like to read.”

That pending departure may be eclipsed, however, by the world’s wackiest job listing that the publisher posted Wednesday.

Here are the basic qualifications: “The Press is looking for promising candidates with an appropriate background who: have already demonstrated a strong interest in literary publishing; are very well read in literature in general and Dalkey Archive books in particular; are highly motivated and ambitious; are determined to have a career in publishing and will sacrifice to make that career happen; are willing to start off at a low-level salary and work their way upwards; possess multi-dimensional skills that will be applied to work at the Press; look forward to undergoing a rigorous and challenging probationary period either as an intern or employee; want to work at Dalkey Archive Press doing whatever is required of them to make the Press succeed; do not have any other commitments (personal or professional) that will interfere with their work at the Press (family obligations, writing, involvement with other organizations, degrees to be finished, holidays to be taken, weddings to attend in Rio, etc.); know how to act and behave in a professional office environment with high standards of performance; and who have a commitment to excellence that can be demonstrated on a day-to-day basis. DO NOT APPLY IF ALL OF THE ABOVE DOES NOT DESCRIBE YOU.”

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An interview with David Mitchell, the author behind ‘Cloud Atlas’

The young David Mitchell

By Carolyn Kellogg

David Mitchell came to Los Angeles because of an 8-year-old book. Thanks to the movie by Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, Mitchell’s novel “Cloud Atlas” has landed on American bestseller lists — right behind the decidedly less literary trilogy “50 Shades of Grey.” Mitchell sat down with the L.A. Times’ Carolyn Kellogg — in this extended interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, he talks in detail about his writing process, what makes a book last and the “Cloud Atlas” adaptation.

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David Mitchell basks in ‘Cloud Atlas’ boost

With the Wachowskis-directed film version of his intricate book ‘Cloud Atlas’ out soon, David Mitchell finds himself ‘happily bewildered.’

By Carolyn Kellogg

No strangers approach David Mitchell for an autograph as he eats lunch at a Japanese restaurant on Sawtelle Boulevard. Nor does anyone bother him when he stops by Diesel Books in Brentwood to sign copies of his novel. The acclaimed British author of “Cloud Atlas” looks like a slightly hip literature professor, a lean 43-year-old in a wide-wale corduroy jacket.

The $102-million movie version of “Cloud Atlas,” directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, might just take Mitchell from well-regarded to widely known. He even makes a cameo in the film, playing a futuristic double agent.

The movie has already provided a considerable boost for the book, a labyrinthine literary novel first published in the U.S. in 2004. When the five-minute trailer was posted online in late July, orders for the book cascaded in; publisher Random House rushed an extra 125,000 copies into production.

“Random House was surprised, people all over the world who think about the marketing effects of trailers were surprised,” Mitchell says. “I’m still surprised.”

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Watch worldwide book sales, live

  By Carolyn Kellogg

The Book Depository is a British-based online bookseller that ships to countries around the world, for free. To bring that point home, it has built a map that shows who bought what, where, just now. The window of the map moves to reach the most recent purchase, zooming back and forth from Germany to Singapore to the United States to Australia to Norway. In each location, the title pops up. It’s hypnotic. That’s partly because it’s a simple, elegant interface. But it’s also because it shows what books other people are purchasing, and that’s inherently interesting to people who like books.

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Socially networked reading: Hey, take a look at this

With reading moving to e-readers, apps are being developed to enable users to share thoughts via iPhone, iPad and other electronic readers. (Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty Images)

Reading doesn’t have to be a solitary activity. Increasingly, apps are being developed to enable users to electronically share thoughts.

By Carolyn Kellogg

Look ahead: The presents have been opened, wrapping thrown away, and for a few quiet hours you’ve been curled up reading the new Steve Jobs biography, a gift from your dad. You find a surprising detail and call to your significant other, “Honey, did you know …?” but because he is busy making dinner, the idea fizzles away as you turn the page.

Or maybe when you get to that passage, with the swipe of a finger you highlight it and email it to your dad, adding a thanks for his gift. Or you click to add your thoughts to a chorus of readers who found that same passage interesting; or you check to see if there’s a link to a video clip; or you find an annotation from the author; or you post it to Twitter or Facebook or Google+, where others can comment on it too.

That’s called “social reading,” and it’s coming to an e-reading app or device near you.

“Increasingly, the devices we use to read — the Kindle, your iPad, various types of phones and other devices — they’re connected,” says James Bridle, a British writer and publisher who’s been at the forefront of ebook development. “They have a whole bunch of capabilities that the paper book didn’t have.”

Put those connected, capable devices together with books and add the best aspects of social networking — sharing, conversation — and the result is social reading. It is a logical step that’s still taking shape; it’s in its Wild West days, mapping out boundaries, players staking out sometimes overlapping territory.

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Has book blogging hit the wall? William Morrow’s blogger notice

The end of the flow of free books, which will soon be reduced to a trickle.

– Carolyn Kellogg

Has book blogging hit the wall? A marketing department email sent to bloggers on Thursday by William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, indicates some kind of horizon is in sight. What’s on that horizon? The end of the flow of free books, which will soon be reduced to a trickle.

“Message is essentially: if you don’t review enough of the books we send you, in the timeframe we want you to, you’re out,” Rebecca Joines Schinsky tweeted Thursday. Schinsky, who writes and edits The Book Lady’s Blog, is one of the leaders of the latest generation of committed book bloggers.

“Can you imagine them sending this to Horn Book or The NYTimes?” added Pam Coughlin, who blogs at MotherReader.

Many publishers enthusiastically send books to bloggers, and today’s book blogger may rake in free books like leaves after a windy fall day. But it wasn’t always that way.

When blogging about first began, publishers, like many other long-established businesses, looked at the form with justifiable skepticism. If just anyone could start a blog, what role could bloggers have?

Eventually, that skepticism faded. People who like to read books, it turns out, were reading things on the Internet. Those things included blogs. They included book blogs. As time passed, many early book bloggers, many of whom focused on literary titles, moved on to other things — book reviewing, publishing short stories, writing novels, even writing for newspapers.

Full disclosure: I am one of those bloggers. And yes, this is a blog.

As early literary bloggers began shifting into other roles, a new generation of book blogging enthusiasts swelled behind them. The scope of their conversations was broader than ever — in addition to focusing on literary fiction, book blogs emerged where readers could discuss romance, horror, fantasy, and many other genres, some of which had struggled to find mainstream coverage. Book blogs were something publishers began to see as a way to expand the discussion of their books in new and exciting ways.

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Jesmyn Ward wins National Book Award for fiction

From left, National Book Award winners Stephen Greenblatt, nonfiction; Thanhha Lai, young people's literature; Nikky Finney, poetry; and Jesmyn Ward, fiction. (Tina Fineberg, Associated Press / November 16, 2011)

Ward’s second novel, ‘Salvage the Bones,’ about a family affected by Hurricane Katrina, is the surprise winner for fiction. Nikky Finney wins for poetry, and poet John Ashbery receives a lifetime achievement award.

By Carolyn Kellogg

Jesmyn Ward’s “Salvage the Bones,” about a family hit by Hurricane Katrina, receives the National Book Award for fiction. The novel, her second, is a surprise winner.

On a night of literary honors, Jesmyn Ward’s “Salvage the Bones,” about a family hit by Hurricane Katrina, received the National Book Award for fiction on Wednesday at a black-tie gala in New York. Ward’s novel, her second, was a surprise winner.

The National Book Foundation, which sponsors the awards, presented two of its five major prizes to African American women. In addition to Ward, Nikky Finney won the National Book Award for poetry.

The 62nd National Book Awards were hosted by actor John Lithgow, who published a memoir in September, and included an appearance by poet Elizabeth Alexander, who read at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Poet John Ashbery, 84, was presented the foundation’s lifetime achievement award, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In his acceptance speech, he noted that since he began writing, “difficult poetry” had lost traction in the literary world.

Finney’s acceptance speech for her award for the poetry collection “Head Off & Split” combined poetry with a gorgeously stated discussion of race, writing and reading. “That was the best acceptance speech for anything that I’ve ever heard in my life,” Lithgow said, after the applause finally died down. Finney lives and teaches in Lexington, Ky.

Ward, too, is from the South and considers her town of DeLisle, Miss., her inspiration.

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Downtown L.A.’s the Last Bookstore defies trends

Owner Josh Spencer follows his own instincts and moves into a roomier space even as other brick-and-mortar stores — Borders, for example — encounter problems.

By Carolyn Kellogg

This 10,000-square-foot space on the corner of Spring and 5th Streets in downtown Los Angeles is the new home of the Last Bookstore. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Before launching a business, some people invest in market research and feasibility studies. Josh Spencer is not one of those people — otherwise he might never have opened his downtown L.A. used bookstore in December 2009, let alone moved it a few blocks away this month to a 10,000-square-foot space.

“I haven’t really interacted with other business owners or bookstore owners,” says Spencer, owner of what he says is the ironically named the Last Bookstore. “I’ve always just done what I do, and it seems to work.”

Following his instincts means going against the grain. This month, two longtime Southern California bookstores — one in Laguna Beach and another in Pacific Palisades — announced they’ll be closing, and Metropolis Books in downtown L.A. was put up for sale by its owner. In February, Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closing hundreds of stores nationwide. After waves of closures, many have wondered if brick-and-mortar bookstores can survive Amazon and e-books.

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Book award: Did Egan win, or did Franzen lose?

– Deirdre Edgar

Click to buy

The National Book Critics Circle honored Jennifer Egan’s novel “A Visit From the Goon Squad” with its fiction prize, an accomplishment reported by Carolyn Kellogg, who attended the awards ceremony Thursday night in New York.

Kellogg’s article noted that Egan’s win bested “Jonathan Franzen’s widely publicized novel ‘Freedom’ and works by David Grossman, Hans Keilson and Paul Murray.”

But who was pictured with the online version of the article? Not Egan, but Jonathan Franzen, who, the caption noted, did not win. (There wasn’t a photo with the article in the print edition.)

Readers angrily cried foul.

Fanning the flames was the subheadline on the online article, which named Franzen’s book but not Egan’s:

Egan beats Franzen in National Book Critics Circle’s fiction prize

The Jennifer Egan work bests Jonathan Franzen’s ‘Freedom.’ The nonfiction award goes to ‘The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.’

Marjorie Osterhous of Seattle wrote in an e-mail, “Seriously? Seriously??? The news is that literary darling Jonathan Franzen LOST an award, not that (talented but less well-known female) Jennifer Egan WON? Please spend a couple of minutes gazing into your editorial navels today and ask yourselves what happened.”

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