| By TEV on Events Call me TEV.  To begin, I’d like to thank my hosts at the Online Book Fair for inviting me to participate in this exciting event. I’d also like to thank you, the reader, for stopping by here to take a moment and read what I’ve got to say. We’ve all heard the dire reports over the last few years that herald the death of reading in general and the novel in particular. And yet every year, there are more new books released than ever before. Yes, it’s true that book review and short fiction column inches remain under perennial assault from other, emerging media. But the internet has stepped in to fill that void, with online-only magazines like Boldtype and Pindeldyboz offering goods for readers of every stripe. Book festivals (the brick and mortar – or tent and table variety) draw bigger audiences than ever as new ones seem to pop up all over the map. And then there’s the explosive growth in literary blogs. When I started The Elegant Variation three years ago this month, there were a dozen or so literary blogs, four or five of which were firmly established. The literary blogosphere now boasts a glowing firmament of quite literally hundreds of sites, with new voices chiming in every day. Whatever your literary taste, there’s a blog devoted to it, from romance to mysteries to science fiction to experimental fiction to literature in translation. Bloggers have become book reviewers, and book reviewers have become bloggers. There’s even the Litblog Co-op, a consortium of more than twenty literary blogs who make a quarterly book recommendation, and whose new choice is just a few weeks away. (If you’re new to the world of literary blogs, check out the listing to the left of this post. Each of those sites will similarly link to dozens more.) Blogs also allow readers to follow the vagaries of the publishing industry as never before, even inspiring some publishers to set up their own blogs. Because of the unlimited space on websites, the offerings on most blogs are limited only by the author’s laziness. They can offer detailed interviews, lengthy reviews and analysis of publishing trends. There’s no pressure to review the book of the moment, so bloggers can follow their noses or indulge in their passions, which might include creating a repository of author interview podcasts. But what blogs do best, I think, is create a literary sense of community, something very similar to what the Online Book Fair is attempting. At very little expense and at no real inconvenience to readers, we offer a gathering place where ideas are exchanged. Newspapers and magazines are necessarily static, with dialogue limited to the letters page. But blogs and other online forums can foster a real-time conversation which brings in readers from all over the world weighing in on thoughts that matter to them. Anyone who thinks no one is reading any more hasn’t spent much time online. If you’ve come here by way of the Online Book Fair, I hope you’ll check out today’s posts beneath this one, and then poke through the archives here and on those sites I link to. You’ll find a universe of thoughtful literary commentary out there. If you’re a regular TEV reader who hasn’t checked out the Online Book Fair yet, stop over there and see what’s on offer: Hourly giveaways, links to author interviews and readings, book excerpts, and a host of interactive offerings that suggest what the future of the book fair looks like. There are no crowds and you don’t have to pay for parking ...  * Finally, I'm going to offer my own giveaway in honor of the Online Book Fair. I'm going to give away a copy of Kate Atkinson's new novel One Good Turn. It's a follow up to Case HIstories which was the first Read This! selection of the Litblog Co-op, and it follows the continuing adventures of ex-detective Jackson Brodie. To win, just drop a line to me, subject line ONLINE BOOK FAIR and include your full name and mailing address. The first person to do so wins - and feel free to include your thoughts on why you're excited about the convergence of books and the web. We'll throw in a bonus title for anyone who can identify this post's headline's allusion. And make sure you check back both here and the Online Book Fair in the days ahead.
UPDATE: Congratulations to Jon Butters of Chapel Hill, who identified the headline's source as H.G. Wells. (It was also co-opted for a series of 1970s commercials for the ill-fated Triumph TR-7.) He wins both the Atkinson and a bonus copy of John Hodgman's wildly popular The Areas of My Expertise. |
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