Harry Potter Book Night to return in 2016

If you're a fan of Harry Potter, or perhaps your friends, children, niblings or other relatives are then this is one for you. Bloomsbury Book's 'Harry Potter Book Night' is set to return next year on February 4th, bringing wordy wizardry many are fond of.

This year saw 10,500 parties and events held in the night's honour, with schools, libraries, town and community halls and bookshops all playing their part.

What is Harry Potter Book Night? A celebration of JK Rowling's Harry Potter world. A chance to meet, read, discuss and enjoy.

But more than that, it's a chance to introduce the books to new readers and - we'd hope - inspire them to read widely and willingly. After all, as great as the Harry Potter books may be, there are plenty of great authors out there for all.

Still, if JK Rowling's series is the start of a staggering book-thirst that's not exactly a bad thing.

Anyway, if you want to hear more about events going on near you - or you may want to hold one of your own - head here. Happy...potter-ing.

Grey breaks first-week record

Previously we reported that not everyone was particularly happy with E.L James' latest addition to the Fifty Shades... series. Professional critics and readers alike had some not all too flattering things to say. But that appears to have done very little to prevent the title doing more than smashing Amazon's kindle pre-order record.

Earlier this week Cornerstone, an imprint of Random House, revealed that Grey was proving phenomenally popular and the figures prove it. Now industry sales aficionado, Nielsen, has confirmed it.

In its first three days, Grey sold 647,401 copies in all formats. That beats the previous *five-day* record, held by Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol by some 96,400 units - handing Grey the largest ever UK first-week sales for an adult book. In the US, the title has sold approximately 1.1 million copies.

Of course there have been suggestions there was little in the new title to even warrant its publication. But with new content pined for by fans (and what with it being about a second view of events) that may be somewhat missing the point. The proof, as they say, is in the industry-standard book sales statistics.

Well done E.L James.

The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has now sold 125 million copies worldwide, and Grey looks as though it might continue that trend.

Grey smashes record, faces criticism

Perhaps we have it within us to write bestsellers. And perhaps not... But even if we do, it's clear that such status doesn't guarantee undiluted affection of all works.

E.L James can certainly bear witness, having this week added to her phenomenally successful Fifty Shades... series with the release of Grey,a Fifty Shades book narrated by Christian Grey.

Of course Fifty Shades was the best-selling book since records began, and its film adaptation became a hit at the box-office. The new title was expected to do well, and it seemed on course in becoming the top Kindle pre-order of 2015. However, reviews haven't exactly been gushing with praise for the title:

Jenny Colgan in The Guardian observed the crucial Anastasia-Christian love affair now seemed "...the twisted work of an utter psychopath", adding,

The first trilogy was a fantasy. This book is far more realistic – and creepy beyond belief.

Rebecca Reid, in the Telegraph, wrote that Grey suffers for uncovering that Christian Grey is:

...about a million different shades of sexist.

There is at least one positive professional view. Francesca Cookney of the Mirrorassures would-be readers that the title does progress James' characterisation and provide keener relationship insights:

We learn that his desire for her submission is less about his own control as it is wanting to be loved and trusted, and accepted. Does that make him less attractive? Hell no. In fact I think we’re all about to fall just a little bit more in love…”

Early consumers of the title aren't all convinced. Positive reviews outnumber the less enthusiastic three to one on Grey's Kindle page, but criticism includes it being a "money spinner" and a "waste of money". One reviewer, 'Jen', seems to capture a substantial portion of the mood, noting:

This is essentially FSOG but with lazy asides from Christian.

Oof. Others are more enthused, but the level of disappointment appears pertinent. So, yet-to-read Fifty Shades fans, be warned. For everyone else - for everyone really, we're inclusive - BuzzFeed's 'Can You Tell The Real “Grey” Quotes From The Fake Ones?' quiz[warning, includes some silly erotica] is a fine, fun, aside.

George R.R. Martin asks fans of GoT to let him work

George R.R. Martin likely feels fortunate in many ways. But that doesn't preclude him from needing to remind people to back off a bit. Last year the author of the famed A Song of Ice Fire series - understandably - responded to the Swiss daily, Tages Anzeiger, in strong terms regarding concerns about his age and health. We won't link to that (keeping things fairly polite).

Obviously stressing Martin out isn't going to help him complete the next installment any quicker. And now he's sought to remind fans of the TV series Game of Thrones, adapted from the A Song... books, exactly that. On his 'Not A Blog' livejournal page, Martin addresses one or two other matters and then is quite clear:

Meanwhile, other wars are breaking out on other fronts, centered around the last few episodes of GAME OF THRONES. It is not my intention to get involved in those, nor to allow them to take over my blog and website, so please stop emailing me about them, or posting off-topic comments here on my Not A Blog. Wage those battles on Westeros, or Tower of the Hand, or Boiled Leather, or Winter Is Coming, or Watchers on the Walls. Anyplace that isn't here, actually.

Yes, I know that THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER named me "the third most powerful writer in Hollywood" last December. You would be surprised at how little that means. I cannot control what anyone else says or does, or make them stop saying or doing it, be it on the fannish or professional fronts. What I can control is what happens in my books, so I am going to return to that chapter I've been writing on THE WINDS OF WINTER now, thank you very much.

Hard to argue with, that. We wouldn't want to either - this is the man who in July 2013 destroyed a guitar, with Neil Gaiman for support. Seriously, let's just let him work. After all, it's not like there's a shortage of other great books to read in the meantime.

Pan Macmillan hands Miranda Dickinson six-figure deal

Pan Macmillan has handed Miranda Dickinson a six-figure, three-book deal, the Bookseller has reported. Six figures is sizable, and when the fifth largest publisher in the UK spends such an amount it's probably not on a whim. So just who is Miranda Dickinson, and why the sum?

The short answer is this: Dickinson is a Sunday Times bestselling author, about whom Caroline Hogg (a Pan senior commissioning editor) says, “If you’re a fan of women’s fiction, you’ll know what an inspiration Miranda is within the community."

The deal sees Ms Hogg acquire the world English rights for Dickinson's next three titles, so of course such praise is expected. Still, Dickinson is the author of six novels with the latest (Take A Look At Me Now) boasting a 4-star Amazon average and a 3.78 Goodreads score. And the author clearly has a fair amount of fans.

Miss R. Saberton writes about Take A Look At Me Now:

Well written, sympathetic characters that stay with the reader and, as always, delivered with Miranda's trademark compassion and humour. I loved it.

And a review from Pajama Book girl reads:

My first Miranda Dickinson novel has finally been read and I must say I enjoyed it greatly. Take a look at me now is extremely thorough in explanation and has a quirky and unique way in which it is wrote, this means that you are straight away dragged into the book by your hair!

Pan Macmillan will obviously be hoping for more of the same from the author, who has been delivering her stories like clockwork for the last five years. Since 2009 every late-October or early November has seen a new Dickinson novel.

Following the sequence we'd assume the new deal includes a release later this year, as well as books to be released in 2015 and 2016.

Yep, we've probably jinxed it!

Not everyone may be a fan of the author's work - being cliché and being too twee, the main criticisms - but every author has their critics, and we doubt Pan Macmillan is too worried.

Obviously we wish her well with the new deal. Dickinson herself writes in an update, "I'm moving on to the next big chapter of my writing life – and I’m so excited!"

Mills & Boon hotel 'The Chatsfield' launches

Mills & Boon publisher Harlequin has launched an intriguing online extension to the series' scandalous world - in the shape of a digital hotel, The Chatsfield.

We'll admit we're perhaps not the biggest followers of the series, but both fans and the curious should check out what is an interesting undertaking by the publisher. And one aiming to deliver "the next chapter in storytelling".

That line comes from Harlequin's UK MD, Tim Cooper, as The Chatsfield seeks to deliver an engaging expansion of the Mills & Boon world through a unraveling three month story. And explaining the launch, Cooper adds:

Women are engaging evermore with on-going characters and wanting to interact and learn more about them and are consuming content in different formats across different platforms. So I looked to create an intersection between our series publishing programme and other media.”

The site will act as the home for all manner of  scandal, delivered through a mix of multimedia linked to social media, uncovering a plot involving over 800 bits of content about a hotel which is rich in style, luxury and your typical Mills & scandal.

If that sounds right up your street get over to the site, perhaps 'check in' and enjoy the experience. If it doesn't, you may return to your favoured genre or series.

But before you do, it is worth noting that Harlequin's move is a noteworthy attempt to expand the fictional into the digital; potentially offering many fans another way to connect to their favoured titles. Perhaps the best way to do so is to just read them - but we can't help but admire potential innovation and added content.

We're certainly fans of David Mitchell's recent interactive leanings and - as the unofficial home of J.K Rowling's Hogwarts shows - there's high interest in making digital the worlds which much-loved characters inhabit.

Mills & Boon fans may perhaps already know that the series had a new site launched earlier this year. And with Harlequin becoming part of HarperCollings, support for any evolution will likely be well-backed.

Unpublished Garcia Marquez manuscript revealed

The late Gabriel Garcia Marquez left an unpublished novel featuring themes not dissimilar to his most-loved works, it has been revealed. The Colombian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature died on the 17th of April. He stopped writing in 2004, and the unpublished manuscript, En Agosto Nos Vemos ("We'll See Each Other in August"), was completed around that time.

Garcia Marquez biographer, Gerald Martin, says the new work isn't wholly unexpected, but has changed quite a bit since he was made aware of it:

"The last time I talked to Gabo about this story it was a stand-alone which he was going to include in a book with three similar but independent stories. Now they're talking about a series of episodes in which the woman turns up and has a different adventure each year."

It really does seems the writer was busier in his final writing years than most had thought, shaping We'll See Each Other in August into a fuller body of work - and one which ponders the themes of secret lives, love and eroticism which Garcia Marquez' so masterfully handled.

It would of course be wonderful to have another of the writer's works available, but whether we'll get to see the novel in print is currently undecided.

The decision to not publish it was made by Garcia Marquez himself, and any decision to make it available would now be one for the writer's family. Speaking to the Huffington Post, Cristobal Pera of Penguin Random House Mexico's said such a decision was yet to be made.

For now then, we only have an excerpt from the manuscript - printed in Spain's La Vanguardia newspaper.

It introduces us to a woman in her 50s. The lady makes annual visits to her mother's grave on a tropical island where, each year she has adventures. In the excerpt, which may be the first chapter, the lady has an affair with a man of similar age at the hotel in which she is staying.

Unfortunately, the chapter is only published in Spanish (found here). Non-Spanish speakers might get a functional sense of the story with in-browser translation. But who wants functional? We'd rather (hopefully) wait for an full English language version.

Orchard Books team with National Literacy Trust for school challenge

Orchard Books has joined forces with the National Literacy Trust to deliver 30,000 books to children in the UK through a reading challenge.

The admirable challenge will see around 5,000 children receiving Orchard's highly popular Rainbow Magic or Beast Quest series, and achieve points for progress in reading through their given series.

In a clever 'gamification' approach to reading, points are awarded to children who carry out ten minute challenges - at home and at school - in an effort to complete their books and clock up 11.5 hours  of reading.

To help encourage progress, teachers are to be supplied with wall reading maps, reading logs and challenge certificates - all of which, we're sure are highly useful tools.

To reward those achieving series completion, a chance to win prizes and a visit from a series character is on offer, along with - one of our favourite things - book vouchers.

Susie Musgrove of the NLT believes: "the challenges provide teachers with a platform for encouraging children to read for pleasure – something we know is hugely important for future achievement.”

We loved reading at school, and we couldn't agree more.

Cloud Atlas author offers interactive clues for new novel

We're not going to say much here except to say we think the below visual offering from Cloud Atlas author, David Mitchell is brilliant. What we have is an interactive teaser 'cover' for the author's September 2nd novel The Bone Clocks.

The book is described as a 'metaphysical thriller' - following themes of time and space Mitchell is clearly fond of exploring. Readers will witness the life of Holly Sykes through her years, backdropped against exhausting European oil supplies.

Intriguingly Holly is an "unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world."

More about The Bone Clocks can be found here. Otherwise, have a click away below.

George R.R. Martin offers World of Ice and Fire sample

George R.R. Martin, author of the ASong of Ice and Fire series - which American network HBO commissioned as 'Game of Thrones' - has provided a sample of his new book. The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones, is set to be released in October 2014, with the author posting a generous extract on his website.

The extract isn't easy to find - that's our excuse for not seeing it sooner - but includes a history of the Targaryen king Aegon the Conqueror. Aegon, as Martin fans will know, is a figure often referenced in the author's richly imagined world. Westerosi history recounts 'The Conquest' as Aegon's defining triumph in uniting six of the seven realms under his rule.

In creating the book, being referred to as a companion to his previous works (as well as to the Game of Thrones TV series), Martin has had quite the project on his hands. As the book's pre-release Amazon page offers:

If the past is prologue, then George R. R. Martin’s masterwork—the most inventive and entertaining fantasy saga of our time—warrants one hell of an introduction.

It would be hard to put it better, as Martin looks to offer a comprehensive and detailed history of his world in around 400 pages. Still, the author's UK publisher, Jane Johnson, clearly feels that at least 'comprehensive and detailed' has been achieved. Ms Johnson posted on Twitter last week:

#amreading George RR Martin's World of Ice & Fire, the history of Essos and Westeros. It's fan-bloody-tastic, and coming soon.

The October release should quench some of the thirst for those eagerly awaiting the sixth A Song of Ice and Fire title. There is currently no projected publishing date for the next installment, The Winds of Winter, with Ms Johnson suggesting in January it"almost certainly" wouldn't be published before 2015.

Happily though, we do already have an excerpt from the title to peek at.

And we now also have a Martin book coming this year!

Appreciating... Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Over the Easter holiday, or some time in the near future, you may be in need of a new book to read. Something offering escape, but at once engaging attachment and truth. If that book should also contain masterfully crafted escapism heavy with wisdom, then the late Garcia Marquez' bibliography may provide.

The 87 year-old Columbian author sadly passed away yesterday, but there is little doubt his works will live on for generations. There is little doubt, not because he was awarded the Nobel prize in literature, but because of his skill at guiding wisdom, insight and a personal fascination to his works.

Barack Obama yesterday said the world mourned "one of its greatest visionary writers". Juan Manuel Santos, president of the author's native Columbia gave a hint of the loss his country  feels:

 "A thousand years of solitude and sadness at the death of the greatest Colombian of all time. Solidarity and condolences to his wife and family ... Such giants never die."

Garcia Marquez was, and will remain a Columbian hero, and a global literary icon. But for all those who have yet to experience the author's works, what examples can be offered to convey the quality of his talents?

Well, the height of the acclaim for his works may be enough, yet - though to do so is to pick morsels from what many millions would consider a feast - a look at some of the writer's extracts sheds light. Familiarisation through The Guardian, or even Goodreads, the result will be largely the same.

Among the many perfectly pitched lines, is the often misquoted, perhaps impossible, yet strikingly perfect phrase, "Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry.” Alongside may be placed, “A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth.”

Such semantic elegance might be the hallmark of a brilliant writer, but also of a person who knows something of life and so-called 'universal truths'. Garcia Marquez may not have claimed such a lofty perch.

Born in Aracataca, a place which would inspire his own fictional village of Macondo, he was raised from a young age by his grandparents. A young Columbian, inspired by his liberal grandfather, he would later attend law-school but opt for journalism.

He was a brother, a husband, and father to two sons. He was an observer of life and he felt the lives of individual were fascinating: "All human beings have three lives", he once noted, "public, private, and secret".

It was secret lives which helped produce Love in the Time of Cholera. Concerned with the love of elderly people, the title was inspired by a couple in their late 70s who met every year. One tragic year the couple were murdered onboard a boat by their boatman. Garcia Marquez noted:

"Through their death, the story of their secret romance became known. I was fascinated by them. They were each married to other people."

Of Garcia Marquez' own life we know a fair bit. Perhaps not of any of the 'secret', although a fair portion of the 'private' - such information a by-product of fame and renown. Mostly, we have known of his public life. Yet should we wish to have a hint of the others, his works could at best provide clues.

At worst, they may delight and enrich and inspire our own lives.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez dies

Some very sad news. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Columbian Nobel prize-winning author  has died in Mexico aged 87, the BBC has reported.

Garcia Marquez, was forced to end his writing career in mid-2012 due to the onset of dementia, following a battle with lymphatic cancer beginning in 1999.

The author produced the very highly regarded One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera among his works.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1982.

New site allows Harry Potter fans to Enroll at Hogwarts

The wonder of the Internet has finally put right the slightly disappointing fact that Harry Potter's Hogwarts isn't real (sorry). Now, thanks to an unofficial website, Harry Potter fans can enroll online to study at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry. Really.

The site, Hogwarts Is Here, is a cross between a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC), and a sort of online role-playing game. It allows visitors to sign up and browse or to join one of the four Hogwarts houses, and take courses crucial to the acquisition of magical knowledge.

Studies include Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration and Defence Against The Dark Arts, and are apparently maintained and supported by attentive academic staff (volunteers).

The site seems an incredibly polished and engaging affair, especially for something not officially endorsed or linked to film licenses. With sections on student life, academic standards and a careers page, there's even  a considerable FAQ section on hand. Likely because even Hogwarts students want to see when their deadlines are.

Essentially Hogwarts Is Here is a site created and maintained by fans because they love the world of Harry Potter. And honestly we hope it's able to keep running on that basis.

If you're interested in having a look, why not head over now; you can even generate a Hogwarts acceptance letter. Oh, and one more thing: if you do sign up, perhaps consider joining House Hufflepuff.

They always seem to get the least amount of love, don't they...