Friday afternoon literary thought-provoker – Romance Special

Flowers? For me? Oh, you shouldn't - oh. You didn't. They're for your mother? Fine. Whatevs.

But you did get me a book? Now we're talking.

Despite difficult book relationships at times, a deciding factor in agreeing to domestic bliss with my better half was the discovery of a key shared book. I say I gave the book to him, he says he gave it to me. Potato potahto. (I gave it to him.)

So which book have you found shared love in? Or, for the misanthropes out there, which was the straw that broke the relationship's back?

Once more, I'll post something nice out to whichever answer I like best. Although that will probably only apply to UK people. But come on! Everyone can just join in anyway! Yeay! Hang on – you didn't even get me flowers. Why am I feeling bad about this?

Sam the Copywriter

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Our reading resolutions for 2010…

We asked our Facebook fans whether they made any book-related resolutions for 2010 and got some really lengthy replies – some said that they would like an answer to the question of whether to e-read or not, others just wanted to read more. We realised that having asked the question, we hadn't answered it ourselves. Here we share our reading resolutions…

Anna Rafferty, Managing Director of Penguin Digital
I'm going to read more Modern Classics – I've only read about twenty as I'm always drawn to the Black Classics for escapism and I'm a devil for re-reading favourites like Moll Flanders and David Copperfield again and again, but I know that there are some great new stories in there! 

Aine Fearon, Online Developer
Despite having almost finished this brilliant 1193-page whopper on the fifteen-minute commute clinging to a handrail on the Piccadilly line, I've resolved to make more of my new, longer commute to work and get some proper reading done.

Hannah Michell, Online Marketing Executive
Last year I resolved to read fifty-two books and only managed about thirty books (I'd like to think that this is, in part, because I picked up some real epics like Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda and Paul Murray's Skippy Dies). This year I really aspire to get to fifty-two books and taking inspiration from our 52 Books minisite, I'm also going to try to diversify my reading list to incorporate some non-fiction titles: I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals.

Jo Galvin, Children's Digital Marketing Manager
Being in children's publishing, my resolution would be to make sure I indulge a little in the grown up world of books every now and then. It's going to be a challenge going from lift-the-flap to The Left Hand of God, but I think I'm ready for it…

Jeanette Turmaine, Development Manager
I'm going to read a book in each available iPhone and Android ebook app 😮

Alice Berry, Magnet Editor
To only read my son two stories at night. He always nags me for a third.

Matt Clacher, Literary Marketing Executive
This year I really need to read more than just fiction. Every time I pick up a newspaper, read an essay or whatnot, I measure the experience in time I could have spent reading fiction. And even when I make an effort to read some non-fiction, it's usually by fiction writers anyway. I'm a fiction junky, and while I'm not looking to kick the habit just yet, this year I'd like to spend a little more time eye-balling some facts, such as those in Dave Eggers' Zeitoun, an urgent, timely and unforgettably haunting account of the horrors of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Chris Croissant, Online Marketing Assistant
I toyed with the idea of forty books for 2010, but that's ludicrous, I'm too slow a reader. I think thirty books is far more realistic. This is the reading list so far: I've got some Penguin Classics I want to read in the form of William S. Burroughs, A Confederacy of Dunces and many of the Deluxe Classics which are luring me with their beauty. Then there's all the fabulous literary books coming up, such as The Temple Goers and The Lessons that everyone's been telling me I HAVE to read. But I try and keep a good balance so I've got some non-fiction to get into; one or two autobiographies I've got my eye on. And lastly, there's all the non-Penguin books to read like anything Foster Wallace-related, The Glass Bead Game and Aldous Huxley's Island, both of which are sitting on my book shelf. I might even finish the Iliad…

 

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher
To encourage my son to read things other than Manga.

What are your reading resolutions for 2010?

Happy Reading!

Hannah Michell, Online Marketing Executive

How to win friends and influence people

Last week I was in Paris explaining to 600 French publishers, librarians, booksellers and writers that editors at Penguin were more and more often thinking ‘beyond the book’ when they considered publishing opportunities for their authors. The view that we are in the content business rather than the book business is not one that made me popular in Paris, where the publisher’s role in the preservation of literature is taken very seriously indeed. 

But over the last few weeks I’ve had approaches from a number of Penguins asking whether particular titles might make good iPhone apps, interesting ebook especials, digital learning tools and even an ‘artificial reality app’ (whatever that is!). And at the same time we’ve also started talking to creators of video games about books that might be able to be adapted in interesting interactive ways to create new products which might attract new readers to our authors and their books. 

This, more and more, is what 21st century publishing is going to be like – not just sifting through the hundreds of submissions to find an author to cultivate but also sifting through the growing number of digital channels and platforms to see how best to market, distribute and sell those words.

So it’s really exciting to see one of these initiatives bear fruit and actually go onto the shelves. Last week Electronic Arts launched Flips ebooks for the Nintendo DS and the first four titles, including Artemis Fowl titles and Cathy Cassidy ebooks from Puffin, went on sale on Friday. At Penguin we’ve spent lots of the last year thinking about ebooks and how we should go about getting the thousands of titles we have in print onto devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader. What’s exciting about the Flips titles is that these are ebooks to be read on devices that millions of children already own and use on a daily basis. The hardware is already out there – now there are rich, colourful interactive ebooks to read on them. 

With so much media competing for adults and children’s attention we want books to be represented on whatever screens people are looking at – our future business depends on books being part of the rich multimedia entertainment mix. So it’s positive that a major games developer feel that there is a place for books alongside their games lineup and it will be very interesting to see whether these find their way under the Christmas trees this year.

Jeremy Ettinghausen

Digital Publisher

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Settle down, everyone: Round One…

The gloves were off last night, as Particular Books launched with a head-scratching, brain-teasing, knowledge-dredging Quiz to End All Quizzes at the Ivy House in Holborn. The six-man teams included booksellers and Penguins alike, and ranged from Occasionally Right (Rights), Economic Collapse (Finance) and http://www.winners.com (Online), to the heart-breakingly named Hopefully Better Than Waterstone's.

The first round – English Countryside – had us baffled with questions about swan-upping, but reassured us when our teams got the correct answers for questions about a man being buried with his heart in a biscuit tin (Thomas Hardy) and the misconception of Gypsy provenance (Egypt). The Pubs round brought the teams close to fisticuffs, with quotes from Coleridge, Churchill and Ogden Nash, and all the teams frantically trying to remember the words to Pop Goes the Weasel (fact lovers: it references The Eagle on City Road). Round 3, a fashion round, introduced quizmaster extraordinaire Simon Winder to the world of Jefferson Hack, Kanye West and Milla Jovovich, and made us all resolve to wear a little more colour, a little wilder heels, and accessorise a little neater. Just as long as we can name which film Lauren Hutton starred in alongside Richard Gere in the 80s (American Gigolo. Yesssssssss.) The Weird English Words in round 4 introduced us to B.U.R.M.A., a baby oyster (a spat), the oche and the hiphop female equivalent of 'pimpjuice' ('Milkshake', apparently. Discuss). Aaaand… relax.

Ten minutes to scoff some delicious Thai food, and then onwards into battle. The fifth round, titled 'Q & U', baffled some team-members. After answering 'lacquer', 'Quebec' and 'equals sign' for previous answers, one of our group decided the answer to 'A traditional lawn game involving the throwing of a metal or rubber ring to land over a pin?' was hoopla. Weak. Link.

The Animal Names and Facts of the sixth round gave me enough fascinating facts to bar me from a pub for a month. (Did you know that the deadliest marine animal is the box jellyfish? And that George Washington's teeth were made from hippo tusks? Or that itching powder is made from tarantula hair? Or that the only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat?) The final round saw us reaching deep into our GCSE memories to recall how French we were, with questions ranging from the most hated man in French schools (Charlemagne – he invented school) to the Four Musketeers (no, none of them was called Dogtagnan). Having been in the top three for much of the night, we were cruelly pushed into fourth place, and victory was snatched from the Colophon of Publishers by the seven-strong team, Bardini the Magnificent.

If I've learnt anything from the night it's that a gricer is a trainspotter, Shakespeare's father was an ale-inspector, and I shouldn't do pub quizzes with anyone I have to face the next day.

Sam the Copywriter

Literary laughter is the best medicine

Since it's April Fool's Day, I'm in a jovial mood, and looking at what's occurring currently, we seem in need of some light spirits. In one of our meeting rooms today, I noticed some wag had put a sticker on Ernest Shackelton's Escape from the Antarctic saying, "The inspiration for the BBC's I'd Do Anything", and it made me laugh. Obviously, the original sticker came from Charles Dickens's searing indictment of child poverty, rather than the noted explorer's musical escapades in the South Pole, but it got me thinking – in this vein, which stickers would you like to see? To get the ball rolling:

1984: "The inspiration for Channel 4's hit show Big Brother"

One has to take one's laughs where one can find them.

Sam the Copywriter

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Around the World in 80 Books: the third leg

Again, thank you for all your suggestions. Although I haven't taken up all of them, they are grist to my plodding-route mill and spark off many ideas (as well as bulking up my Amazon wishlist). I think I've got a fairly clear route of where I'm going to go in Europe now, and I think I can even begin to see glimmers of another continent. Hurray! Although I'll regret saying that when all the bedding looks funny and I'm forced to eat three meals a day at McDonald's just to feel like I recognise something.

Third stop: SWITZERLAND! More specifically, Lake Geneva

Book: Hotel du Lac, by Anita Brookner

I have to confess, I'd never read any Brookner before. I think I'd dismissed her as a bit wimmin-y, and although there's the odd phrase here or there that reads a bit heavily-autobiographically, the whole book is neat, and light, and captures perfectly both the sadness of out-of-season resorts and the weight of one's baggage when one flees heartache. Edith Hope, a romantic novelist, has been ordered to Switzerland by her loved ones after a 'shocking' romantic indiscretion. Poor Edith, constantly reminding us that she's been compared aesthetically to Virginia Woolf, is shipped off, carrying her feelings like precious eggs, tuning them constantly but never really examining them, so certain is she of what kind of life she has agreed to.

Although not hugely, uniquely Swiss, I think this conjures up that cold, clear, medicinal travel that only autumn in that kind of place can provide – and I loved Edith's wit, and her sense: in another lifetime, she might have been Elinor Dashwood (and ended up with Hugh Grant SQUEEAAAL). The recognition of her hotel room decor as "veal-coloured" is something that made me snigger out loud on the Tube, and her overactive imagination (and subsequent disappointment) as she views each fellow-guest is something so sadly recognisable.

Earns extra Swiss points by having one character eat lots of delicacies from the Patisserie.

Conclusions as a traveller:

Don't bring your dog to Switzerland. They hate dogs. And probably don't bring your daughter, either.

Right, next stop, Germany. Now these guys are seriously witty, so I am bracing my ribs for some first-class tickling. Please keep the suggestions coming in – although I do have a German book in mind, I'm a bit scared of it.

Sam the Copywriter

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All about pacing

If you’re planning a trip to Paris in the next few days and find yourself on the gorgeous new concourse at St Pancras station, keep an eye out for some seemingly odd behaviour. You might notice people counting their steps, or making strange and random phone calls near the statue of Sir John Betjeman or otherwise looking baffled.

Please, don’t be tempted to call the authorities if you see any of this, for it is likely that these individuals are playing along with our newest project, We Tell Stories. Part game, part exercise in digital storytelling, this launched this with Charles Cumming‘s thrilling Google Maps adventure. A new story, by Toby Litt, will go live next Tuesday and, I can assure you, this will be something completely different. And if you look at the site and still can’t work out why people are wandering round St Pancras, then perhaps you are not looking hard enough…

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher

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ARGhhhhhh!!!

A most pleasant lunch yesterday, with Jeremy Ettinghausen (super power: Digital Publisher and Introducer of Punctuality into people’s lives) and new personal hero (and Penguin author) Naomi Alderman. We found out heaps of top notch gossip about Perplex City from lead writer Naomi, which pretty much blew my mind, even though most of it was just hints along the lines of "Yes, Cube 2/3 does mean something exciting." Bloody hell. Since one of her super-powers is also Buffy, we bored Ettinghausen with some catch-up, but our main conversation was about ARGs.

For those of you who are unaware of ARGs, or perhaps just of what ARG means, here’s a quick guide. Basically, if you’ve stumbled across some odd Dharma Initiative stuff while googling Lost, you’ve found an Alternate Reality Game. Unfortunately, one of the major problems of the ARG is that if you use it to promote something, the game itself can often be more popular that the product itself (witness A.I. vs The Beast) – which is fine if you care only about great gameplay, not so great if you want everyone to see your film/read your book/watch your programme.

The question I kept nagging Naomi with (until I had a horrible feeling she was about to put her head down on the table and start weeping) was this: How do you get people to care about your mysteries? Obviously, it helps not to do something rubbish. And it also helps if whatever you’re basing it on has the rough shape of an ARG anyway (a particularly beautiful example here). But it seems the key is building communities: feeding information and challenging them to get involved, whether it’s a black helicopter pick-up, or a fiendish puzzle.

So that is what the finest minds of Penguin will be attaching their skulls to. Over the next few months, we’ll be attempting to schmooze with those great originators, and will hopefully bring you, Dear Reader, the fruits of our labour.

Sam the Junior Copywriter

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The Game Begins

Begin the trials – game play commences today.

www.maliceboxquest.com

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