An Ode to Penguin

There once was a publisher named Lane
Whose company changed the game;
He named it Penguin, after the bird,
And dedicated it to the written word,
And now, over seventy years later, it remains.

Posted by: Jeff Gomez, Senior Director of Online Consumer Sales & Marketing

In response to the limerick challenge issued by a certain Ms. Sarah Christensen Fu (Penguin's own Online Content Coordinator), YES, I think I can do better. Because her little poem is not actually a limerick.

As an Irish lit enthusiast & an aficionado of the Limerick form--the standard form of a limerick is a stanza of five lines, with the first, second and fifth having nine syllables and rhyming with one another, and the third and fourth having five or six and rhyming separately. Edward Lear, an English writer, perfect this form--I offer you my Limerick poem addressing the cultural significance of Irish writers.

The Irish have great lit & then some
the culture seems practically winsome
You factor in Wilde
& some Joyce--isn't mild
It's a culture that's second to none.

It's not perfect, but could you do better? Submit your limerick as comments on this blog entry.

Posted by: Clinton Wilson, Online Customer Retention Manager

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In 1651, during a brutal civil war and just after Parliament cut off the head of King Charles I, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes called life, "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short." Life expectancy was 40.

Fast forward three and a half centuries, and thanks to medical science, life expectancy is 80. Life is longer. Yet is it any less nasty and brutish?

My book, Nasty, Brutish, and Long: Adventures in Old Age and the World of Eldercare  considers that question, and wonders whether the dinner-party host who declined to put cut flowers in water was right when he said, "It only prolongs their agony."

Are the institutions in which we place the frail, elderly anything more than water for cut flowers-only prolonging the agony.

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*Warning* Christopher John Campion uses adult language and discusses adult situations.

Poppin' my cherry on this here bloggity thing. I've never blogged before or ever even remotely had the urge. Don't get me wrong. I can be as blustery and opinionated as the next but I'm just not into this whole "constant communication" deal that alotta people are so jazzed up about. I'm not a Blackberry or iphone guy and really don't wanna be tethered to the world every Goddamn second of the day, talking, texting, emailing, and blogging, which is...ummm...uh...what I'm doing right now, I guess. Shit, that hurt. I'm a blogger. Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation as an incorrigible fuckup to protect.

It's 2:20 in the morning and I'm currently pacing back and forth reading aloud from my book, Escape From Bellevue:A Dive Bar Odyssey that's being published by Gotham Books on March 19^th. I got a big reading/ book signing/concert thingee with my band, Knockout Drops (I'm the lead vocalist) the following night at a venue called 92YTribeca here in New York City. It's already sold out and I'm really psyched about that but also a tad nervous. I'm no stranger to unhinged jack-ass-ery from behind a microphone (it's actually part of my stock in trade), but I've never had to read composed stuff to three hundred people before. "Tis a bit daunting, I won't lie, so I'm just up practicing trying to get comfortable with it.

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Penguin Is Celebrating All Things Irish

Once per year on March 17th, America goes GREEN - and I’m not talking recycling (although at Penguin we do believe it's important to recycle every day).

This year the Penguin Blog will have a week long ode to Ireland featuring Irish current affairs, history, cusine, art, and, most importantly our grand Irish authors and books!

Without more ado,
We offer you this history of Ireland.
But please be assured
That all that we've heard
Is almost certainly true!*

(*An attempt at a limerick-like-poem by Sarah Christensen Fu, Online Content Coordinator. Do you think YOU can do better?! Leave your limerick as a comment on this blog post.)

Ten Penguin Group (USA) Titles are Nominated for the Inaugural ABA Indies Choice Book Awards

Booksellers in ABA member bookstores are now voting for their favorite handsell in each of seven categories highlighting the type of books that indie booksellers champion best, and Penguin Group (USA) has ten nominees.

Here's a look at the nominated Penguin Group (USA) titles:

• City of Thieves by David Benioff (Viking) and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Viking) in the Best Indie Buzz Book (fiction) category.
• The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell (Riverhead) in the Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction) category.
• Viking Children’s author Jon Scieszka was nominated in the “Most Engaging Author” category, the author who is an in-store star with a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to the community.
• And in the Picture Book Hall Of Fame category, Corduroy by Don Freeman (Viking); Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (Putnam); The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, illustrated by Loren Long (Grosset & Dunlap/Philomel); Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking); Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (Viking); and The Story of Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf & Robert Lawson (Viking) have all been nominated. The top vote getters in this category will be the first inductees into the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame.

Winners will be announced in late April and the awards ceremony will be held at ABA’s Celebration of Bookselling Luncheon at BEA. To view a complete list of categories and nominees, click here.