You thought the Man Booker Prize was yesterday’s news? Think again! Chinese writer Jiang Rong has won the first-ever Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel Wolf Totem. From Reuters (”Chinese writer wins first Man Asian literary prize,” by James Pomfret):

“He was completely unknown, this book came completely left field,” said Jo Lusby, general manager for Penguin China.

“Something in your gut … and publisher’s sensibility screams out, this is really unusual and there’s something that people have never seen from China,” Lusby added.

Actually, this happened Saturday, so technically, it’s older than yesterday’s news, but I think you get my point.

Furthermore, this isn’t technically affiliated with the Booker other than the fact that the Man Group bankrolls both. But still. Sounds like an interesting book!

Out of the office yesterday, observing (as suggested by the schedule of my younger son’s daycare) Veteran’s Day. So much to catch up on. For instance, Norman Mailer’s passing. The Mediabistro Morning Newsfeed did a great job of rounding up the most noteworthy of the many obituaries and tributes, but I’ll link to only one, Jay Parini’s respectful but clear-eyed assessment in the Guardian books blog (”Mailer’s talent was never as big as his ego“):

The odd thing about Mailer was that he was never at heart a novelist but a remarkably gifted journalist. As a young man, I read The Naked and the Dead (1948) with deep admiration for its epic sweep, the passion and occasionally brilliance of the writing. Barbary Shore (1951) and The Deer Park (1955) left me cold, as they did most reviewers. I tried, without success, to push through Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967). I did so because I liked the image of Mailer: the literary hipster with a good deal of bravado, the outsider, the man who dared to tell society what its faults were. I admired the vast ambition. But it seemed to me he was not much of a novelist.

Another link to the Onion? What is this, Friday? Yes. Their print list of “5 good books made into not-so-good movies” is expanded to 20 online. With YouTube links. If you haven’t seen the film version of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slapstick, you’re in for a…what’s the opposite of treat? From “Lost In Translation: 20 Good Books Made Into Not-So-Good Movies,” by Donna Bowman, Jason Heller, Josh Modell, Noel Murray, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson, Scott Tobias:

3. Bicentennial Man (1999)

Isaac Asimov’s original novella - later expanded into a novel - subtly examines what it means to be human, by telling the story of a robot with a mechanical brain so advanced that he begins to develop emotion and creativity. But big Hollywood movies don’t do subtle well, especially not with Chris Columbus directing and Robin Williams starring. Columbus and screenwriter Nicholas Kazan pour on the schmaltz, while Williams bats his eyes innocently and pats little children’s heads. Meanwhile, moments that are supposed to involve deep ruminations about man and machine become impassive stare-downs, accompanied by 101 Strings. Here’s a tip: If you want to know what it means to be human, don’t ask the creators of Mrs. Doubtfire.

And the children’s-book revelations about sexual orientation just keep on coming. From America’s Finest News Source, The Onion (”R.L. Stine Reveals Slappy From Night Of The Living Dummy Was Gay“):

NEW YORK - Children’s author R.L. Stine broke his long-held media silence Monday to announce that Slappy, the evil ventriloquist’s dummy from the Goosebumps Night Of The Living Dummy trilogy, was a homosexual.

“This is not completely unexpected,” said Goosebumps fan Ned Kosorowski, who has long speculated that the fictional wooden doll preferred the company of men, and has even written fan fiction describing graphic sexual encounters between Slappy and Amy’s father. “Slappy’s constant attempts to break out of the closet that Amy stores him in at night clearly represent his struggle with homosexuality - as well as his deep-seated, repressed feelings for [rival ventriloquist’s dummy] Mr. Wood.”

I Love Libraries has an article from Virginia Libraries (”Text, Image, and Form: The Altered Book Project“) featuring even more altered books. I’m so uptight about my own books that I won’t even dog-ear them, but I love this stuff:

Books with pages missing. Torn books. Books with writing, underlining, and drawing in them. These are usually a librarian’s nightmare, but in a recent collaboration with art faculty and students, they have become the basis of a highly successful class project and library exhibit.

In the Guardian books blog (”Literary TV to put you off reading forever“), Daniel Kalder offers the producers of Book TV some useful suggestions to improve their programming. But here’s the short version:

For the sake of literacy in the US, Book TV must be taken off the air.

Well worth reading.

Myra MacPherson, who wrote All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone (Scribner) has won the 2007 Ann M. Sperber Biography Award. She’ll pick up the hardware (I like to think it’s a golden tape recorder, or perhaps bronze ears) on November 27 in New York.

(Spotted this on The Biographer’s Craft newsletter.)

Elizabeth Hay has won the Giller Prize for her novel, Late Nights on Air (McClelland & Stewart, 2007). From Reuters (”Former broadcaster wins Canada’s top literary prize“):

A novel by a former radio broadcaster in Canada’s north won the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most lucrative and prestigious prize for fiction.

Elizabeth Hay’s “Late Nights on Air” details the loves and rivalries of a cast of eccentric characters at a small radio station in Yellowknife, near Canada’s Arctic.

“I feel very lucky, so lucky in fact that I will probably be hit by a truck tomorrow so it is important that I say my thank-you’s now,” said Hay, who was previously nominated for the prize in 2000 for “A Student of Weather.”

She’ll take home $40,000 Canadian, which goes a lot farther than it used to. It won’t be long before U.S. authors are wishing they were paid in Loonies.

If the allegations are true, then I must say that I am shocked–shocked!–that a conservative book publisher would underpay its authors. Why, that would be like a conservative clothing manufacturer underpaying the workers who sew the shirts and pants. Never happen! From the New York Times (”Conservative Authors Sue Publisher,” by Motoko Rich):

Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent company.

In a suit filed in United States District Court in Washington yesterday, the authors Jerome R. Corsi, Bill Gertz, Lt. Col. Robert (Buzz) Patterson, Joel Mowbray and Richard Miniter state that Eagle Publishing, which owns Regnery, "orchestrates and participates in a fraudulent, deceptively concealed and self-dealing scheme to divert book sales away from retail outlets and to wholly owned subsidiary organizations within the Eagle conglomerate."

Miniter, author of Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror, has an interesting take:

"It suddenly occurred to us that Regnery is making collectively jillions of dollars off of us and paying us a pittance." He added: "Why is Regnery acting like a Marxist cartoon of a capitalist company?"

Um, I’m not a Marxist, but I thought the general idea there was to share the wealth. And that the general idea of capitalism was that the wealth rises to the top. Maybe the plaintiffs should contact Haymarket Books and ask about their profit-sharing plan?

From the Guardian (”Libraries to be ‘new channel’ for direct marketing,” by Richard Lea):

A scheme to put thousands of advertisements into library books will find borrowers taking home a little more than they had bargained for.

Up to 500,000 inserts a month are due to be handed out by libraries in Essex, Somerset, Bromley, Leeds and Southend.

The plan is being run by the direct marketing company Howse Jackson, whose business development director Mark Jackson said the company was “very proud” of what he described as “a brand new channel” for direct marketing.

“In this day and age you have to work hard to come up with new ideas,” he said.

Sure, it’s in England. But bad ideas like this have a way of catching on.