http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog Author of "The Last Flight of José Luis Balboa" Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:23:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The 2010 Man Booker Prize short list was announced today.  The six books selected are -- Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America Emma Donoghue, Room Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question Andrea Levy, The Long Song Tom McCarthy, C The Man Booker Prize website has more here. David Mitchell's The Thousand ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1403 The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the most authoritative dictionary of the English language.  It is also, by far, the biggest.  Yet even with all those words, neologisms make their way in only after the editors are convinced that the word is being used.  So what happens with those neologisms ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1388 Acknowledgments in books have only recently blown up to heroic lengths, what with the author making sure to thank everyone and everything who had any role, no matter how remote, in the composition of the novel.  Dedications, on the other hand, have always been a part of books in ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1397 If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or, as it were, fondle them—peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on their shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1390 Soon after the long list for the 2010 Booker prize was announced, bookmakers in the UK started taking bets on who will win.  William Hill has David Mitchell and Tom McCarthy at 9/2, and Peter Carey and Christos Tsiolkas at 6/1.  Alan Warner and Lisa Moore have the longest odds, ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1385 Edith Grossman is one of the finest translators of literary works from Spanish to English.  She has translated Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and others. In 2003, her translation of Don Quixote received acclaim from writers and critics alike. In a recent interview, she detailed her method of revision ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1383 An arresting passage from Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of The Odyssey -- The three sages bowed before their sovereign and with a flourish presented a heavy book bound in tarnished silver containing a thousand thick, densely written pages.  When opened the book released a waft like hot iron in ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1382 The judges of the 2010 Man Booker literary prize announced their longlist of 13 books. The longlist is comprised of -- Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America Emma Donoghue, Room Helen Dunmore, The Betrayal Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question Andrea Levy, The Long Song Tom McCarthy, C David Mitchell, The ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1380 The Irish Times reported that UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, today awarded Dublin, Ireland the permanent designation, "City of Literature."  The campaign to be designated by UNESCO was launched last year by Irish officials as a means of increasing tourism to the capital.  The article quoted Mary Hanafin, Irish Minister of ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1378 Last week, I finished reading a copy of David Mitchell's fifth and latest novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.  Mitchell is the author of Ghostwritten, Number9Dream, Cloud Atlas, and Black Swan Green.  Cloud Atlas is brilliant and Ghostwritten is not far behind. The Thousand Autumns of ... http://www.gonzalobarr.com/blog/?p=1374