Book briefs: The most well-read cities in America
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Welcome to your weekly roundup of book news and literary highlights from The Thread.
This week, "Brown Girl Dreaming" author Jacqueline Woodson is honored by the Poetry Foundation, and the latest from E.L. James instantly becomes a bestseller.
The most well-read cities in America
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Amazon.com announced its annual list of the most well-read cities in America and — surprise, surprise — the company's hometown of Seattle topped the list. Portland, Ore.; Las Vegas; Tucson, Ariz.; and Washington, D.C. round out the top five.
The list is compiled using their sales data for books, magazines and newspapers — both in print and Kindle format. That makes it more of a "most well-read cities in America whose residents buy their reading materials from Amazon" list, but the data does show some interesting trends: Readers in Washington, D.C. prefer print books to digital, while Las Vegas readers have a soft spot for romance. Sin City residents purchased the most romance titles.
Interestingly, Minneapolis, which was declared the most literate city in America in April, did not make the top 20. Neither did St. Paul.
This suggests Twin Cities residents are buying their reading material from other sources — something Ursula Le Guin would approve of. The fantasy author came out with strong words for Amazon this week, with her article, "Why I Keep Asking You Not to Buy Books from Amazon."
Jacqueline Woodson named Young People's Poet Laureate
Jacqueline Woodson was named the new Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation on Wednesday. The title is given every two years; Woodson succeeds Kenn Nesbitt in the position.
"Woodson is an elegant, daring, and restlessly innovative writer," said Poetry Foundation president Robert Polito. "So many writers settle on a style and a repertoire of gestures and subjects, but Woodson, like her characters, is always in motion and always discovering something fresh."
Woodson's most recent young adult novel, "Brown Girl Dreaming," told the story of her family and segregation in the South. It won the 2014 National Book Award. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Woodson said, "These stories, and the stories I had heard throughout my childhood, were told with the hope that I would carry on this family history and American history, so that those coming after me could walk through the world as armed as I am."
As laureate, she will advise the Poetry Foundation on matters relating to young people's literature and participate in programming designed to instill a lifelong love of poetry in the country's young readers.
Nothing but "Grey" skies ahead
E.L. James announced that the country's long affair with the "Fifty Shades of Grey" series isn't over yet: She's writing another installment, this one from the perspective of Christian Grey himself.
The news titillated the nation — pre-orders poured in and the book instantly jumped to top of Amazon and Barnes & Noble's bestseller lists. The book's publisher, Vintage, has already ordered a 1.25 million-copy first run.
In a bizarre publicity move, the book was announced just two week before it goes on sale; normally titles are announced months in advance. With the book's rabid fan base, it took only a few Tweets to spread the word and drive the book to number one.
