@MAOrthofer

M.A.Orthofer = the Complete Review + the Literary Saloon — and the novel, 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑧 (2024)

complete-review.com/saloon/index.htm
Joined March 2009
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So that's the secret: "Above all, he needs a literary agent with far-reaching connections, one who can take him by the hand towards a prize that has shunned the Arabs since Naguib Mahfouz in 1988." kuwaittimes.com/article/5180…

Nobel and the Arab writer - Taleb Alrefai

When Actes Sud published a new French translation of my novel “L’Impossible roman de l’honorable monsieur K.”, I was invited some months ago to a meetin...

kuwaittimes.com
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Shelving books. Not quite complete (some Citadel 'Collected Stories' volumes still in storage elsewhere, e.g.), but the Philip K. Dick shelf (or rather, shelf-top, *sigh*) looks pretty good. Glad to have so many in mass-market paperback format; surprised there's only one DAW.
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In the mail: 'Jain Tales of Moksha', attributed to Shivakotyacharya, from @Harvard_Press in their @MurtyLibrary-series — oldest extant Kannada prose work hup.harvard.edu/books/978067… (Kinda wish they had gone with the Kannada title, however: 'The Great Observance of Sublime Death'.)
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"The pursuit of sublime, ritual death attained through ascetic austerities and renunciation forms the theme, frame, and focus of this narrative text", so this should be fun. (Okay, not fun fun, but, you know .....)
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Earthquake, indeed. elpais.com/cultura/2026-10-1… Gobsmacked to hear that Isabel Allende has won the €1,000,000-Premio Planeta. Also: the winning manuscript is a sequel to 'The House of the Spirits', so we have that to, umm, look forward to.

Terremoto editorial: Isabel Allende gana el Premio Planeta 2026 con la secuela de ‘La casa de los...

La autora, vinculada a Plaza & Janés desde 1982, se hace con el millón de euros para publicar la segunda parte de aquella novela. El finalista es el guionista Sergio Hernández

elpais.com
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New review: Enrique Vila-Matas' latest, 'Camera Obscura' complete-review.com/reviews/…
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Vila-Matas knew who to quote: (only) permissions from the novel. (Though, this being a Vila-Matas novel, it is of course chock-full of author- and text-references and quotes.)
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Lists are already the laziest kind of content, but it takes a special kind of chutzpah to (re)post lists like this. (Headline (and "best new recommendations"-claim / note at the end.) metropolisjapan.com/your-jap…
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Always love the national spin re. @NobelPrize-winner coverage. This one far from the most far-fetched, but, yes, the outlet lives up to its tagline ('The Hellenic Perspective since 1957') neoskosmos.com/en/2026/10/13…
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Yes ! Bring back the mass-market paperback !
Sanjay Sipahimalani@SanSipOct 13
All very well to talk about people reading less, but "could it be that corporatized publishing — with all of its consolidations and centralization — may have enshittified the product to the point where it has abetted the decline in consumer demand?" jacobin.com/2026/10/books-pu…

Publishers Killed the Paperback, Then Blamed Readers

In 1939, the 25-cent paperback made America a nation of readers, delivering thrillers, classics and Pulitzer-winning books. So why did the Big Five publishers just kill the mass market paperback?

jacobin.com
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Still unboxing and shelving (and not finding room for ...) books, so of course ... could ... not ... resist .... some used-book-acquiring to start the week. Hey, they're all compact (i.e. not even trade-size) paperbacks, so it's okay, right ?
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Okay, they're not 𝑎𝑙𝑙 mass-market-paperback size-y. But come on — a Drach I don't have and an Oulipian radio-play by Rühm (hear it here: swr.de/swrkultur/hoerspiel/k… !), for €3.50 apiece ? I don't have near enough willpower to pass that up. (Eight-book total: €15.)
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Michael Orthofer retweeted
Daniel Lefferts@daniel_leffertsOct 11
I am a young person who is curious about reading. I desire intellectual and aesthetic experiences that I suspect screens cannot provide. Let me look at the last standalone book review section in the country as a starting point in my literary journey...
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I tread very carefully on this site re. clicking on posts, to avoid feeding the algorithm and thus shaping what pops up; I've managed pretty well (limited politics; lots of book-shelves/hauls; selected sports/teams) but now, *sigh*, I keep getting updates on this person's doings.
Michael Orthofer@MAOrthoferOct 8
Solid, though have to admit to being so out of the loop I had to Google who this person is. (In the loop enough that I guessed: Don-related, but out of loopness confirmed by fact I had no idea that Don was married to Melanie Griffith, who I had no idea was Tippi Hedren's kid.)
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Was really hoping that, as per this Google-results-summary, the @NobelPrize folk were offering Anne Carson some reading tips. Alas, it's only Anders Olsson suggesting which of ℎ𝑒𝑟 books readers might want "to pick up first". nobelprize.org/what-to-read-…
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New review: Gerhard Roth's "Reise zu den Toten", 'Orkus' complete-review.com/reviews/…
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Solid, though have to admit to being so out of the loop I had to Google who this person is. (In the loop enough that I guessed: Don-related, but out of loopness confirmed by fact I had no idea that Don was married to Melanie Griffith, who I had no idea was Tippi Hedren's kid.)
James@exhaustdataOct 8
Dakota Johnson’s bookshelves include Don DeLillo, Anne Boyer, the complete works of Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Vladimir Sorokin, Roberto Bolaño, an out of print Dalkey Archive edition of Carlos Fuentes, and a separate NYRB shelf.
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Michael Orthofer retweeted
Melissa@magistrabeckOct 8
My interview with Anne Carson from a few years back. So thrilled she won the Nobel! thebookbindersdaughter.com/2…

My Pythian Interview with Anne Carson

The ancient Greek god Apollo, in addition to being associated with the sun, healing, and music, communicated Zeus’s will through a series of arcane messages at his prophetic shrine in Delphi. Betwe…

thebookbindersdaughter.com
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Anne Carson certainly a solid choice for the @NobelPrize nobelprize.org/prizes/litera…

Nobel Prize in Literature 2026

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2026 was awarded to Anne Carson "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary...

nobelprize.org
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The @NobelPrize laureate Elfriede Jelinek's literary archive purchased by @Stadt_Wien for @wienbibliothek (for €600,000). presse.wien.gv.at/presse/202…
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(It's the 'Teilvorlass' they are (now) getting; gotta love the precision of the German terminology for this kind of thing.)
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