News Roundup

A very Brtish news round up. Photo by Matt Callow

Howdy Book Lovers!

For those of you who are new to the blog, welcome! For all the returning readers, thanks for coming back.

Read It Ribbit's posting may go a bit quiet in the next few weeks, but that's only because I'm working on some big changes at the moment (watch this space for more info). I'm also putting together some more regular features as the Cheat Sheet seems to have taken off. What do you lot think? Is there anything you'd like us to cover more often? Send us a suggestion in the comments box at the bottom of this post an we'll try to accommodate.

And now for the news roundup:

1)The Book Vow: (see my earlier posts)
Was going exceedingly swimmingly, then I started a course and now I'm bogged down with text books. I am, however, still ploughing away (although at a much reduced rate)at the books on  my shelf I haven't yet read. We're down to around six now and although I'd love to say they'll all be finished by Christmas, I'm being realistic. However, I've decided that the project will end with the year 2011 and I'll once again start buying and consuming library books at my usual rate. So there may be one or two left over on the shelves, but I think a year of a book addict resisting temptation (all be it with a minor hiccup at the Hay Festival where I bought 3 new books but am yet to read said items) is pretty good going.

2) The Nobel Prize for Literature...
This year, the award was given to Tomas Tranströmer, a Swedish poet who's works have been translated into over fifty different languages. If you want to find out more about this years prize, see the Nobel webpage

3) Haruki Murakami's IQ84 is almost here!
British Murakami fans won't have to wait much longer as his much lauded magnum opus IQ84 is due for imminent release in it's various volumes. A million copies of books 1 and 2 were sold within one month when they were published in Japan. Unlike the Japanese, UK readers won't have to wait nearly as long to get their hands on the entire novel as book three is being published a week after the combined books one and two, hit the shelves next week.

4) And now for something unexpected...
Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has been named as editor-at-large for Faber and Faber and will take on commissioning duties for the publishing house. Cocker is set to become a published author himself with the release of his first book, Mother, Brother, Lover next week through Faber and Faber.