This Publishing Company Will Only Publishing Female Authors In 2018

And Other Stories publisher Stefan Tobler and editorial production manager Saba Ahmed

BBC: The publishing company that's only publishing female authors in 2018

When author Kamila Shamsie challenged the book industry to publish only women in 2018 to help address a gender imbalance in literature, just one publisher took up the challenge - the Sheffield-based company And Other Stories.

It was almost three years ago that Shamsie suggested "a concerted campaign to redress the inequality" in publishing.

Arguing that there was a gender bias in book awards, reviews, top publishing jobs and prestige afforded to authors, she suggested that 2018, the centenary of women over 30 in Britain getting the vote, would make a good Year of Publishing Women.

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Bookyards Editor: The reason why they are doing this is simple .... nine out of the top 10 best-selling literary authors were women in 2017.

The Works Of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Bookyards Editor: In 1895 Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist, lecturer and editor who was also an escaped slave, dies of a heart attack at 77. His numerous works can be downloaded from here.

The Works Of Bernard Shaw

Bookyards editor: For Bernard Shaw fans, his ebooks can be downloaded from Bookyards. The link is here.

Take A Peek At The World's Most Exquisite Libraries

CNN: Shhh! Take a peek at the world's most exquisite libraries

Libraries encapsulate the history of knowledge and stand as monuments to different epochs in architecture, interior design and art.

When Dr. James Campbell of Cambridge University could not find a book that traced the history of library buildings through the ages, he decided to write one himself.

With the renowned architectural photographer Will Pryce he embarked on an epic journey across 21 countries, visiting 85 of the world's greatest libraries.

Three years later the result is "The Library: A World History," the most complete account of library buildings to date.

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Bookyards Editor: I am impressed.

Nigeria's First Mobile Library

AFP: On the road with Nigeria's first mobile library

Funmi Ilori once had a dream about creating the biggest library in Africa. Now she drives vans packed with books to poor areas of Lagos to help children discover a love of reading.

"Readers are what?" she asks about 15 youngsters, sitting on little plastic stools in a classroom in a small converted lorry.

"Leaders!" they shout back in unison.

One of Ilori's iRead Mobile Library vans recently stopped at the Bethel primary school in the working class district of Ifako, in the heart of megacity Lagos.

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Bookyards Editor: It is a small library, but it is a start.

National Library of Norway Has Digitized 250,000 Ebooks

Good EReader: National Library of Norway Digitizes 250,000 ebooks

The National Library of Norway has just digitized 250,000 ebooks from physical copies that were all published before the year 2000. The vast majority of titles have some sort of historical importance in Norway or are royalty free and considered classics. Around 4,000 titles has not been published for free, as they have been reserved by a publisher or author.

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Bookyards Editor: You have to live in Norway to have access to these books. :(

Ebooks by George Orwell

Bookyards Editor: Enjoy the works by George Orwell. Free ebooks to download that include 1984, Animal Farm, Burmese Days, Clergyman's Daughter, Collected Essays, Homage To Catalonia, Political Writings Of George Orwell, Politics And The English Language, and more. The link is here.

What Do People Prefer To Read? Audiobooks, Ebooks Or Other Digital Content?

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Good eReader: Do you prefer audiobooks, ebooks or other digital content?

Good e-Reader Intelligence recently conducted extensive research on what type of digital content readers prefer. The vast majority of users continue to be enamoured with ebooks, while audiobooks have made solid gains.

Over a one month period 799 people casted their vote and proclaimed what type of content they use on a daily basis. 491 proclaimed their love of ebooks and they tend to read them on their dedicated e-Reader, such as the Kindle, Kobo or Nook or a myriad of apps for their smartphones and tablets.

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Bookyards Editor: The answer is ebooks.

Aeschylus: Ebooks And Useful Links

Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome. Wikipedia

From Wikipedia: Aeschylus (c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. His plays, alongside those of Sophocles and Euripides, are the only works of Classical Greek literature to have survived. He is often described as the father of tragedy: critics' and scholars' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in theater to allow conflict among them, whereas characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.

Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived, and there is a longstanding debate regarding his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound, which some believe his son Euphorion actually wrote. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work.[6] He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy; his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived.[7] At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece (480–479 BC). This work, The Persians, is the only surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events (very few of that kind were ever written),[8] and a useful source of information about its period. The significance of war in Ancient Greek culture was so great that Aeschylus' epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright. Despite this, Aeschylus' work – particularly the Oresteia – is acclaimed by today's literary academics.

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EBOOKS BY AESCHYLUS

Works by Aeschylus -- Bookyards
Works by Aeschylus -- Internet Classics Archive
The Dramas of Aeschylus -- Internet Sacred Text Archive
Poems by Aeschylus -- Poetry Archive

USEFUL EDUCATIONAL LINKS

Aeschylus -- Encyclopaedia Britannica
Aeschylus -- Columbia College
Aeschylus -- Theatre Database
Aeschylus and his Tragedies -- Theatre History
Aeschylus -- New World Encycpodia
Aeschylus -- Ancient History Encyclopedia
Aeschylus -- Encyclopedia.com
Aeschylis -- Classical Literature
Aeschylus -- Crystal Links
Aeschylus and his tragedies -- Theatre History

USEFUL QUOTES

Aeschylus Quotes -- Brainy Quote
Aeschylus -- Wikiquote
Aeschylus Quotes -- Literary Quotations
Aeschylus Quotes -- Notable Quotes

VIDEOS ON AESCHYLUS

The Egyptian Book of The Dead - Ebook And Useful Educational Links

This detail scene, from the Papyrus of Hunefer (c. 1275 BCE), shows the scribe Hunefer's heart being weighed on the scale of Maat against the feather of truth, by the jackal-headed Anubis. The ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the gods, records the result. If his heart equals exactly the weight of the feather, Hunefer is allowed to pass into the afterlife. If not, he is eaten by the waiting chimeric devouring creature Ammit composed of the deadly crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus. Vignettes such as these were a common illustration in Egyptian books of the dead.

From Wikipedia: The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE.[1] The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw[2] is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day.[3] Another translation would be Book of emerging forth into the Light. "Book" is the closest term to describe the loose collection of texts[4] consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1000 years.

EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD (EBOOK)

Egyptian Book of The Dead -- Bookyards
The Book of the Dead -- Sacred Texts
The Egyptian Book of the Dead -- Translated by E.A. Wallis Budge, The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies

USEFUL EDUCATIONAL LINKS

 Egyptian Book of the Dead -- Ancient History
Teacher's Resource - Book of the Dead -- British Museum
Book of the Dead -- Encyclopædia Britannica
Bookof the Dead -- Crystal Links
What is a Book of the Dead? -- John Taylor, British Museum
The Book of the Dead -- Ancient Egypt Online

USEFUL QUOTES

Book of the Dead -- Wikiquote

VIDEOS ON THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

Editor's Note: As a Sopranos fan, I found this interesting .... James Gandolfini 'read Egyptian Book of the Dead' hours before dying from massive heart attack (Daily Mail).

Tamil Ebooks That Can Be Downloaded For Free

Times Of India: Taking Tamil ebooks to the world - for free 

He publishes ebooks. He uploads millions of words to cyberspace -- and he's proud that he charges zilch for this, even though some of the have seen over 150,000 downloads.

 Thirty-three-year-old T. Shrinivasan, an instrumentation engineering alumni from the University of Madras, runs the freetamilbooks.com site. The site, which turned three last month, already has a collection of over 260 ebooks in Tamil, a language with 70 million speakers.

Apart from Tamil Nadu, where it is primarily spoken, the language has official status in tiny Puducherry, nearby Sri Lanka and distant Singapore.

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Editor: A useful reference to our Tamil readers.

Reading Books Will Help You Live Longer

Bryan Thomas for The New York Times 

New York Times: Read Books, Live Longer? 

Reading books is tied to a longer life, according to a new report.

Researchers used data on 3,635 people over 50 participating in a larger health study who had answered questions about reading.

The scientists divided the sample into three groups: those who read no books, those who read books up to three and a half hours a week, and those who read books more than three and a half hours.

The study, in Social Science & Medicine, found that book readers tended to be female, college-educated and in higher income groups. So researchers controlled for those factors as well as age, race, self-reported health, depression, employment and marital status.

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WNU Editor: Can's argue with this conclusion.

Ebooks By Homer: The Illiad And The Odyssey

Idealized portrayal of Homer dating to the Hellenistic period. British Museum. Wikipedia 

From Wikipedia: Homer (Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος [hómɛːros], Hómēros) is best known as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets. Author of the first known literature of Europe, he is central to the Western canon.

EBOOKS BY HOMER 

Works By Homer -- Bookyards The Iliad (By Homer) -- Bookyards
Works by Homer -- Classics.mit
Books by Homer -- Project Gutenberg
The Odyssey -- Literature Network
The Illiad -- Classical.mit
The Iliad by Homer -- Full Audiobook
THE ODYSSEY by Homer - FULL AudioBook

 USEFUL EDUCATIONAL LINKS ON HOMER 

Homer -- Wikipedia
Homer: Greek poet -- Encyclopaedia Britannica
Homer Biography -- Biography
Homer Quotes -- Brainy Quote
The Odyssey at a Glance -- Cliff Notes
The Odyssey -- Classical Literature
The Odyssey Summary -- eNotes
THE ODYSSEY -- Spark Notes
Odyssey -- Wikipedia
About the Iliad -- Cliffs Notes
The Illiad -- Sparks Notes
The Illiad -- Classical Literature
Illiad -- Wikipdia

 VIDEOS ON HOMER AND HIS WORKS 

Classics Summarized: The Odyssey
Video SparkNotes: Homer's The Odyssey summary
Homer: The Iliad
Classics Summarized: The Iliad

The Legend Of Gilgamesh - Ebook And Useful Educational Links

This is a newly discovered partially broken tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The tablet dates back to the old Babylonian period, 2003-1595 BCE. From Mesopotamia, Iraq. The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq. Wikipedia 

From Wikipedia: The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. Dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 BC), it is often regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about 'Bilgamesh' (Sumerian for 'Gilgamesh'), king of Uruk. These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates to the 18th century BC and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Kings"). Only a few tablets of it have survived. The later "Standard" version dates from the 13th to the 10th centuries BC and bears the incipit Sha naqba īmuru ("He who Saw the Deep", in modern terms: "He who Sees the Unknown"). Approximately two thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

 THE LEGEND OF GILGAMESH (EBOOK) 

The Legend of Gilgamesh -- Bookyards
The Epic of Gilgamesh -- Academia
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Translated by N.K. Sandars) -- HDHS
The Epic Of Gilgamesh (A New Translation) -- Penguin

 USEFUL EDUCATIONAL LINKS 

The Legend of Gilgamesh -- Classical Literature
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Plot Overview) -- The Spark Notes
The Epic of Gilgamesh -- The Spark Notes
The Epic of Gilgamesh Summary -- Enotes
The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish -- E.A. Wallis Budge, Sacred Texts The Gilgamesh Epic -- Cummings Study Guide
Gilgamesh -- Ancient History Encyclopedia Gilgamesh -- Wikipedia
Epic of Gilgamesh -- Wikipedia

 VIDEOS ON THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH 

The Epic of Gilgamesh Lecture -- WatchKnowLearn
Epic of Gilgamesh -- YouTube

Are Apps The Future of Book Publishing?

(Photo credit: John Blyberg)

Are Apps The Future of Book Publishing? -- Forbes

We’re at the dawn of the tablet era now. Earlier this month, Apple sold 3 million of its new iPad during the opening weekend, with some analysts expecting over 60 million of the tablets to be sold worldwide. What’s more, e-book readers are selling even more briskly than tablets. People are using those e-readers, too. On Amazon.com, books for its Kindle outsell its paper books.

What’s more, the explosion of e-books is putting pressure on publishers between demands for price cuts on one hand, and competition from independent authors like Amanda Hocking, who earned over $2 million selling e-books on her own before signing with a major publisher.

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My Comment: Are apps the future of book publishing .... well .... readers are using them so I would have to assume that the answer is yes.

How Brick-And-Mortar Bookstore Thrives Because Of Amazon

The Man Who Took On Amazon And Saved A Bookstore -- Forbes

Certain business ideas seem doomed to fail. You can walk into a restaurant or retail chain and know instantly that its days are numbered.

That’s the gut sense I had when I learned that someone new had bought the Harvard Book Store – a comforting oasis for bibliophiles and casual browsers – just a few blocks from my office in Cambridge. In a town where independent bookstores have been folding faster than Starbucks can open coffee shops in China, this naïve optimist embarked on his new venture in the dark days of the recession, under the shadow of Amazon, and as e-books began their zenith rise.

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My Comment: An exception in the trend of closing bookstores.

'Kinky' Ebooks Sell Fast

The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy is by best-selling author E L James.

'Kinky' Ebooks Sell Fast In Age Of Digital Privacy -- The Telegraph

It's not just Fifty Shades of Grey that is selling fast - erotic novels for women are booming because they can be bought and read away from prying eyes, say publishers.

Sales of erotic novels as e-books are soaring because readers "can get a kinky novel and nobody knows", according to publisher Brenda Knight

The days of furtively buying a saucy tale and hiding it under the copy of a respectable Elizabeth Gaskell novel at the counter are long gone.

With Kindle and Nook allowing for discreet downloading and reading, erotic novels for women are booming. Kensington Books, an American publisher, says its Aphrodisia collection of adult ebooks accounted for 57 per cent of sales in 2011, compared to only two per cent in 2008.

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My Comment: Yup .... sex sells.

Can Fiction Survive The Ebook Age?

A little light reading? ... reading an ebook at the beach. Photograph: Alamy

Can Literary Fiction Survive The Ebook Age? -- The Guardian

Some claim that literary fiction has 'lost the next generation' of readers – but brilliant writing remains as important as ever

The death knell has been sounded for literary fiction often enough that it's great to see someone cheering it on. But when Francesca Main added the words "Go print" to a tweet celebrating the strong performance of literary paperbacks, it was enough to launch a fierce debate about what literary fiction is really for.

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My Comment: If the content is there ... the readers will also follow.

Publishing World Struggles To Adapt To New Lines

London Book Fair: Publishing World Struggles To Adapt To New Lines -- The Guardian

The partying goes on at Earl's Court, but new formats and self-publishing are changing the industry

The trays of free wine and boastful talk of six-figure deals struck at dinner parties might seem to some like the last days of decadence for a publishing world in denial about the digital storm clouds gathering overhead.

But in the main hall of Earl's Court, hundreds of publishers gathered for the 41st London Book Fair have been showing stands of lovely new books as editors meet agents and foreign publishers keen to buy unpublished books, sell foreign rights, and relentlessly talk up their new titles.

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My Comment: A sobering analysis that the hardcover book is the way of the dinosaur.

A Look At The Future Of Books

People looking at an e-book reader app on the Apple iPad.

A Dark Day For The Future Of Books -- CNN

(CNN) -- Wednesday was a dark day for the future of books.

The Department of Justice charged Apple and five large book publishers with conspiring to raise e-book prices. Three of the five publishers quickly capitulated rather than face the risk and expense of a protracted legal battle.

Much of the case revolves around the decision of five of the largest six publishers to simultaneously adopt the agency pricing model immediately before Apple launched the iPad and iBookstore in April 2010. At that time, Amazon commanded about 90% of the e-book market. Amazon priced many books at $9.99 -- which was below the cost at which Amazon was paying the publisher -- in an effort to drive e-book adoption among consumers and capture market share.

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