Today in books and publishing: The world sees the cover for J.K. Rowling's newest work, Tim Kreider's book increases in sales after New York Times column; a hotel in Britain replaces its Gideon Bibles with Kindles; a start-up looks at e-books in libraries; Richard Costello wins Hemingway lookalike contest on Facebook; evaluating dog books.
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J.K. Rowling book cover: Little, Brown and Company has released the cover and more details about J.K. Rowling's upcoming book for adults, The Casual Vacancy.
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We find the cover image in the spirit of Saul Bass' great old movie posters. (Think: Vertigo and Anatomy of a Murder.) The story apparently revolves around intrigue in a small town. Little, Brown describes the book as such:
When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?
The 512-page book is set to come out September 27. [Little, Brown, h/t]
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His book is busy: Though he may advocate "idleness," Amazon has been pretty busy with sales for Tim Kreider's book, We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons, after his essay, "The 'Busy' Trap," was published in The New York Times. The essay is currently the Times' most-emailed piece. [Publishers Weekly]
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Praying with e-ink: Starting Monday a hotel in Britain replaced the paper copies of the Gideon Bible in its room with Kindles loaded with the Bible, the Telegraph reported. Newcastle's Hotel Indigo is also allowing guests to download additional texts, religious or otherwise, to their room Kindle for extra fees. The digital switch is only for a trial run as of now. After July 16, the hotel will decide whether to keep the Kindles and expand to other outposts of the chain around the world. So why the electronics? Well, to honor Newcastle's literary and publishing past, the hotel's general manager told the Telegraph. It's a little counterintuitive. The Los Angeles Times' Jacket Copy blog has your obligatory "Rocky Raccoon" joke. [Telegraph, LAT]
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Lending e-brary: The start-up Bilbary is working to figure out how publishers can work with libraries to supply e-books. [Forbes]
People think this guy looks a lot like Ernest Hemingway: Richard Costello of Massachusetts was voted the winner of the "Virtual 'Papa' Hemingway Look-Alike Contest" on Facebook. The contest was hosted on the page for the Florida Keys and Key West, and as such Costello gets to vie in person for the honor of being deemed the most-similar to Hemingway during Key West's "Hemingway Days" later this month [Associated Press via HuffPost]
Books to bark for: NPR has their Julie Rovner — owner of Gromit, a champion corgi who competes in obedience and agility — evaluate dog books. [NPR]