The “reframing” power of literature comes from the story’s not being exactly the same as the reader’s story. In fitting the two together, the reader has to shift his point of view and so moves out of what seemed like an immovable and rigid framework. In this way, reading breeds tolerance and sympathy for people and attitudes not seen like this before. Readers revise their view of their own problem by reading of those worse off than themselves. Readers learn to understand the other gender, other sexual orientations, the elderly and the poor. Only a slight shift in perspective is required to make a lot of things seem different” (p. 350).

Joseph Gold: Read for Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System

Bowker, a global firm that tracks people’s book-buying habits, reports some interesting statistics about book-buying in the U.S.

And, in what is no surprise at all, women make 64% of all book purchases.

• Stieg Larsson’s massively successful trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest): “Random has sold a combined 6.5 copies in the U.S. and Germany of his three books in print, e-book, and audio formats.”
• “a 300% increase in digital sales.”

Random House chairman Markus Dohle announced that the company is on track to generate ebook sales of over $100 million, mostly in the United States.

In other ebook news, Publishers Weekly also reports that Sony is releasing

a redesigned and upgraded suite of its three digital readers—the 5”screen Pocket Edition; 6” screen Touch Edition and 7”screen Daily Edition—offering full optical touch screen functionality, nonglare black & white e-ink display along with reduced size and weight. The new devices are not only stylish—they come in silver, black and pink aluminum skins—but also offer stepped up power, crisp page-turning and increased storage capacity. Only one model, the top of the line Daily Edition, offers 3G/wireless. The Pocket and Touch Editions will be available beginning today; the Daily Edition in November.

In a final bit of news, Amazon’s Kindle, already available in select Target stores, will be available in Staples stores this fall.

Another Weak Quarter from Borders; Expands Non-book Offerings:

Watch for changes as Borders scrambles to reposition itself in the consumer world:

Capital expenditures in the quarter increased to $7.7 million from $1.2 million as the company invested in digital programs and Borders said its ‘Area-e’ digital section will be opened in all stores by the end of October. The section will sell an array of (low price) dedicated e-readers. Earlier this week, Borders lowered the price of the Kobo e-reader to $129.99 and on the Libre Pro to $99.99.

To improve the customer experience at its physical stores, Borders said it is adding more non-book product in an effort it said to differentiate itself in the market. ‘We are taking steps to transform our retail model, in part through high-impact strategic partnerships, like Build-A-Bear Workshop, that enable us to offer a compelling mix of lifestyle focused products,’ said CEO Mike Edwards in a statement. ‘By offering a rich and relevant selection of product – both book and non-book – together with an exceptional customer experience, we will differentiate Borders from others in the marketplace.’

In addition to the Build-A-Bear Workshop, Borders is adding more educational children toys and games, adult games and puzzles, stationery and will expand its bargain book and value book segments. According to Edwards, its research shows that its customer base is largely female and that fact will drive all of its strategic efforts moving forward.

The results are in!

The NPR audience nominated some 600 novels to our ‘Killer Thrillers’ poll and cast more than 17,000 ballots. The final roster of winners is a diverse one to say the least, ranging in style and period from Dracula to The Da Vinci Code, Presumed Innocent to Pet Sematary. What these top 100 titles share, however, is that all of them are fast-moving tales of suspense and adventure.

And menace. Critic Maureen Corrigan, who served on the advisory panel of experts for this project, was surprised by how dark many of your choices are. ‘Even the [Agatha] Christie pick, And Then There Were None, is one of her creepier novels.’

How many of these have you read? I weigh in at 40.

And no, having seen the movie doesn’t count if you haven’t also read the book.

There were 460 incidents of people attempting to ban books from libraries last year, according to the American Library Association, including a recent one where a group of parents succeeded in banning an anthology of writings by gay youth from the library of a New Jersey high school and from the local public library. With the 28th annual Banned Book Weeks coming up September 25 to October 2, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is asking booksellers to join the hundreds of bookstores and libraries that already have publicized such incidents.

Amen to all that. It’s almost time to pull out my “I Read Banned Books” button.

Amazon is hoping to convince even casual readers that they need a digital reading device. By firing another shot in an e-reader price war leading up to the year-end holiday shopping season, the e-commerce giant turned consumer electronics manufacturer is also signaling it intends to do battle with Apple and its iPad as well as the other makers of e-readers like Sony and Barnes & Noble.

The ereader dilemma grows ever more complex. . .

Marjorie Kehe is reporting on The Christian Science Monitor‘s book blog that Daniel Craig has signed to portray Mikael Blomkvist, the male protagonist, in the Hollywood version of Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Meanwhile, the search continues for the film’s Lisbeth Salander. The movie is scheduled for release on December 21, 2011.

After seeing the Swedish films of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire, I just wish Hollywood would leave Larsson’s Millennium trilogy alone. The Swedish versions will be hard film acts to follow.

Novelists and screenwriters know that time travel can be accomplished in all sorts of ways: a supercharged DeLorean, Hermione’s small watch and, most recently, a spacetime-bending hot tub have allowed fictional heroes to jump between past and future.

But physicists know that time travel is more than just a compelling plot device — it’s a serious prediction of Einstein’s general relativity equations. In a new study posted online July 15, researchers led by Seth Lloyd at MIT analyze how some of the quirks and peculiarities of real-life time travel might play out. This particular kind of time travel evades some of its most paradoxical predictions, Lloyd says.

Any theory of time travel has to confront the devastating ‘grandfather paradox,’ in which a traveler jumps back in time and kills his grandfather, which prevents his own existence, which then prevents the murder in the first place, and so on.

I certainly don’t have the physics background to understand the scientific concept of time travel, but I’ve always found the possibility to be a fascinating literary device. Here’s a bit of the scientific perspective.

Winners include the following:

• Best Short Story: “A Stab in the Heart” by Twist Phelan, Ellery Queen Magazine
• Best First Novel: Running from the Devil by Jamie Freveletti (HarperCollins)
• Best Paperback Original: The Coldest Mile by Tom Piccirilli (Random House)
• Best Hardcover Novel: The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner (Random House)
• ThrillerMaster Award: Ken Follett