Listicle

Britain's Oxford University Press has announced a number of new entries to its mammoth dictionary.  Including "listicle," which is an internet article in the form of a numbered or bulleted list.

And here is the LISTICLE of the new terms and words, courtesy of The Telegraph:

• acquihire, n.: buying out a company primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff...

• adorbs, adj.: (informal) arousing great delight; cute or adorable

• air punch, n.: thrusting one’s clenched fist up into the air, typically as a gesture of triumph…

• amazeballs, adj.: (informal) very impressive, enjoyable, or attractive

• anti-vax, adj.: (US informal) opposed to vaccination

• Bank of Mum and Dad, phr.: (Brit. informal) a person’s parents regarded as source of financial assistance

• bare, adv.: (Brit. informal) very; really (used as an intensifier)

• bedroom tax, n.: (in the UK) informal name for a measure introduced in the Welfare Reform Act 2012…

• binge-watch, v.: (informal) watch multiple episodes of (a television programme) in rapid succession…

• bro hug, n.: (US informal) friendly embrace between two men

• clickbait, n.: (informal) (on the Internet) content…whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page

• cord cutting, n.: (informal) practice of cancelling a pay television subscription or landline phone connection in favour of an alternative Internet-based or wireless service

• cotch, v.: (Brit. informal) spend time relaxing; stay or sleep somewhere on a temporary basis

• cray, adj. (also cray cray): (US informal) crazy

• Deep Web, n.: the part of the World Wide Web that is not discoverable by means of standard search engines.

• doncha, contraction: (informal) don’t you

• douchebaggery, n.: (N. Amer. informal) obnoxious or contemptible behaviour

• dox, v.: (informal) search for and publish private data about (an individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent

• e-cig, n.: (informal) another term for electronic cigarette

• false widow, n.: a spider resembling the black widow, some species of which are moderately poisonous to humans

• fandom, n.: the fans of a particular person, team, series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture

• fast follower, n.: a company that quickly imitates the innovations of its competitors

• 5:2 diet, n.: a diet that involves eating normally for five days out of a seven-day period and greatly restricting the amount of food eaten on the other two days

• FML, abbrev.: (vulgar slang) f— my life! (used to express dismay at a frustrating personal situation)

• geocache, n.: an item…that has been hidden at a location whose coordinates have been posted on the Internet…

• hate-watch, v.: (informal) watch (a television programme) for the sake of the enjoyment derived from mocking or criticizing it

• hench, adj.: (Brit. informal) (of a man) strong, fit, and having well-developed muscles

• hippotherapy, n.: horse riding as a therapeutic or rehabilitative treatment…

• hot mess, n.: (US informal) a person or thing that is spectacularly unsuccessful or disordered

• hot mic, n.: (informal) a microphone that is turned on, in particular one that broadcasts a spoken remark that was intended to be private

• humblebrag, n. & v.: (informal) (make) an ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud

• hyperconnected, adj.: characterized by the widespread or habitual use of devices that have Internet connectivity

• ICYMI, abbrev.: (informal) in case you missed it

• in silico, adj. & adv.: (of scientific experiments) conducted or produced by means of computer modelling or simulation

• listicle, n.: an Internet article presented in the form of a numbered or bullet-pointed list

• live-tweet, v.: post comments about (an event) on Twitter while the event is taking place

• mansplain, v.: (informal) (of a man) explain something to someone, typically a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing

• mud run, n.: an event in which participants negotiate a course consisting of obstacles filled or covered with mud

• neckbeard, n.: (informal) growth of hair on a man’s neck, especially when regarded as indicative of poor grooming…

• octocopter, n.: an unmanned helicopter having eight rotors

• olinguito, n.: a small nocturnal tree-dwelling mammal living in cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador…

• Paleo diet, n: a diet based on the type of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans…

• pharmacovigilance, n.: the practice of monitoring effects of medical drugs after they have been licensed for use

• responsive, adj.: denoting a website whose page design changes automatically according to the size of screen on which it is viewed

• second screen, n.: a mobile device used while watching television, especially to access supplementary content or applications

• sentiment analysis, n.: the process of computationally identifying and categorizing opinions expressed in a piece of text

• side boob, n.: (informal) the side part of a woman’s breast, as exposed by a revealing item of clothing

• side-eye, n.: (informal , chiefly US): a sidelong glance expressing disapproval or contempt

• smartwatch, n.: a mobile device with a touchscreen display, worn on the wrist

• SMH, abbrev.: (informal) shaking (or shake) my head (used to express disapproval, exasperation, etc.)…

• spit take, n.: (informal) (especially as a comic technique) an act of suddenly spitting out liquid one is drinking in response to something funny or surprising

• subtweet, n.: (informal) (on Twitter) a post that refers to a particular user without directly mentioning them, typically as a form of furtive mockery or criticism

• tech-savvy, n.: (informal) well informed about or proficient in the use of modern technology

• time-poor, adj.: spending much of one’s time working or occupied…

• throw shade, phr.: (US informal) publicly criticize or express contempt for someone

• vape, v.: inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device

• WDYT, abbrev.: (informal) what do you think?

• YOLO, abbrev.: (informal) you only live once (expressing the view that one should make the most of the present moment)…

East Coast Encounter

The First Australians remember the arrival of the Endeavour

 Ever since researching the background of Tupaia's iconic painting of three Aboriginals in two bark canoes in the bay that came to be called "Botany Bay,"  I have been fascinated by their reaction -- or conscious lack of reaction -- to the arrival of the great ship with wings that was going to change their way of life so drastically.

See what I mean?  Tupaia, in his inimitable fashion, has captured the emotion of the moment. Father, in his own canoe, concentrates completely on the fish he is about to spear.  The two little boys are both scared and intrigued -- look at their eyes.  But they, too, refuse to react to the appearance of this strange vessel.  Can you imagine how differently we would behave if a space ship materialized in a modern city street?  Yet to them the ship was equivalent to a UFO.

"Warra warra wai!" the Aborigines cried, as the landing party from the Endeavour set foot on the beach -- "Go away!" in the Gweagal language.  As I commented in my biography of Tupaia, this defiance was an act of great courage.  Order lived in the land, which was their spiritual home, while disorder came from the sea.  Anything from the sea was a menace to be sent away, and they were just a few against many.

Eventually, of course, the Endeavour did go away, leaving the First Australians to await the consequences of their discovery by the British, and try to make sense of the situation by incorporating it into their mythology.  In New Zealand, it was Tupaia who became legend.  In Australia, by contrast, if was Cook who became the symbol of dispossession, the man who brought disorder from the sea.

The Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney is encapsulating the moment by staging a remarkably evocative exhibit, called East Coast Encounter.  Surrounding the bark canoe pictured at the head of this post is an array of paintings, plus a remarkably eloquent poem.

It seems both ironic and fitting that the Endeavour replica lies at her moorings outside the museum.

Pirate loot

"What shall we do with the pirate treasure
"What shall we do with pirate treasure
"Earl-lie in the mo-orning!"

From the Business Page of the Dominion Post, credit to clever cartoonist not given.

10 Best Mysteries

Having mysteries on the brain at the moment, I was intrigued by the list of "Ten Best Mysteries" compiled by Edgar winner Thomas H. Cook, and published by Publisher's Weekly late last year.

Here they are -- and what do you think?

1. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - This is still a wonderfully mysterious novel. It is large and sweeping, with skillfully drawn characters, lovely passages and absolutely haunting scenes, a fully formed 19th century novel with all the trimmings. The story is complicated, but it was originally written in serial form, so the story moves forward in carefully measured steps. Much of what became standard in crime fiction was first done here, so it is not only an engaging read, but a fundamentally instructive one.

2. A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne - I have recommended this book many times to all kinds of readers. For me, it is a novel that uses suspense in the best possible way, not by having a character confront one contrived obstacle after another in a mindless stream of action, but by creating an atmosphere of deep moral peril in which the culminating tragedy seems as inevitable as it is, well…tragic. It is also one of those books in which the title become completely apt, and very moving, after one has completed the book. In this case, the “crime in the neighborhood” turns out to be far more profound and long lasting than any single act of violence could be


3. A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell - I confess that this is one of the most beautiful titles in mystery fiction. The good news is that the book lives up to the title. It is intricate, with genuinely surprising revelations, and the depth of the characterizations makes a major contribution to the novel’s suspense. This is psychological suspense for adults, with real people confronting real, and very dark problems.

4. A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler - “It is not who fired the shot but who paid for the bullet.” It is a line that has since become famous, but it is only one of the many literary beauties of the book. Dimitrios, in life and death, is a figure of surpassing fascination, his life a tale of struggle and fierce intrigue that I have never forgotten. The secondary characters are wonderfully drawn. From the moment Charles Latimer meets Colonel Haki and hears of the mysterious Dimitrios, the reader is returned to the lost Balkan world that flourished between the two world wars, a boiling cauldron of expediency and deceit that Ambler renders in exquisite detail.


5. True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne - The novel begins with a crime based on the Black Dahlia murder, and from there steadily deepens into a work of great emotional power, complete with an unforgettable portrait of Los Angeles in the '40s. It is a story of two brothers, one a cop, the other a priest, and by following their relationship along the trail of a gruesome crime, it ultimately becomes one of the most movingly redemptive novels I have ever read. 


6. The Eye of the Beholder by Marc Behm - I read this novel years and years ago, and have never been able to get it out of my mind. It is a story of obsession, with a private detective called only The Eye who follows a nameless female serial killer for more than a decade. The Eye is the classically damaged PI, not just solitary, but deeply lonely, and the woman he pursues is a heartless--yet in some sense comprehensible--hater of men. The macabre dance of death that becomes their lives is one of the strangest and most intriguing relationships in mystery fiction.

7. A Simple Plan by Scott Smith - In this wholly realistic novel, two brothers and a friend come upon a crashed plane in whose shattered ruins they find an enormous sum of money. Before that moment, none of these men has ever needed to concoct a simple plan to keep and conceal a fortune that quite obviously does not belong them. In the midst of doing just that, they become criminals, as well as victims of crime. The story builds steadily as the wages of sin become more and more costly. Here is a classic cautionary tale about the penalty dishonesty may exact upon ordinary, and largely innocent, human beings.


8. Sneaky People by Thomas Berger - This is arguably one of the funniest crime novels ever written. It is set in the 1930s, and its main character is Buddy Sandifer, a used car dealer who wants one very simple thing: his wife dead. The reason is no less simple. He yearns to live the rest of his days with Laverne, a woman who on occasion dimly realizes that sleeping with men for money adds up to prostitution. Buddy’s efforts to plot his wife’s murder creates one of the most hilarious tales of misadventure you will ever read.

9. The Quiet American by Graham Greene - Published in 1955, The Quiet American provides an intensely observed portrait of Vietnam on the eve of French defeat. Fowler, the world-weary British journalist whose observations enrich this fiercely observed novel, provides just the right counterpoint to Alden Pyle, the idealist “quiet American” whose mysterious death provides the narrative heart of the story. Part novel of intrigue, part mystery, part love story, The Quiet American remains as powerful today as when it was first written.

10. Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg - Hailed by the New York Times as the best novel of its kind in 10 years, Cutter and Bone is the story story of one man’s obsession with another man’s crime, in this case, a murder. What makes Thornburg’s story unique is that the “murderer,” a big money man by the name of J.J. Wolfe, may not have committed the crime at all. For that reason, it is Cutter’s mad pursuit of Wolfe, rather that the justice of that pursuit, that gives the book its passionate momentum.

Literary agent turns publisher

How interesting, and what a neat idea.  It's not absolutely new news, but it is new to me -- that New York literary agent Marly Rusoff should found her own press.

I've always thought it must be so frustrating for an agent to find a book she loves, only to pile up the rejection slips from publishers who don't share her enthusiasm.  Is that why Mary Rusoff brought the evocatively named Maiden Lane Press into existence?  I went onto the net and found the same questions being asked in Caroline Leavittville's blog.

So here, taken from her answers, is a selection of Marly's thoughts:

I spent twenty years on the publisher’s side of the desk and have no illusions about how difficult it is to publish well. When it comes to our clients, our first choice has always been and will continue to be working with publishing houses as we have so productively done in the past. We are now and will remain primarily literary agents. However, we know that in the evolving and dynamic literary marketplace, non-traditional publishing opportunities will arise to advance our authors’ careers, and, in partnership with our writers, we want to be able to move quickly to take advantage of these opportunities.

Like many agents, we may decide to selectively reissue out-of-print books by our clients. And I have been itching to produce a few beautifully designed small editions that will appeal to my current author’s fans or to collectors.

I have longtime relationships with booksellers around the country that I value and that have been extraordinarily meaningful to my authors and to me both professionally and personally over the years. The books I represent are what I believe are wonderful books that I would have enjoyed selling to customers if I were still a bookseller. We plan to publish the same kind of work through Maiden Lane Press. I hope booksellers will be proud to have them in store.

Gorgeous logo, don't you agree?  But why Maiden Lane?

There is a stop on the London tube called Maiden Lane and it always intrigued me. Quite honestly, I never got off at that stop, but the name stayed with me. I loved the sound of it.  Perhaps because I’ve always been fascinated by the mews and back alleys of London I well remember how happy I was to find streets named Maiden Lane in many of the oldest cities in America. One exists in Charleston, SC; there is one here in New York, and another in San Francisco.  But the one Maiden Lane I knew best was the little alleyway that ran near the large mansions on Summit Avenue in historic district of St Paul, MN, the place where I was born. I always imagined that these modest homes housed the working women and domestic help needed to staff these grand homes. Recently when I searched for the history of New York’s Maiden Lane I learned that it was the first busy market in Manhattan dating back to the early 1600’s. A river now buried under Manhattan ran along that lane; it was where local woman came to wash their laundry.  A now- buried river? What is it that good writers do but plumb the depths? Besides, publishing is hard work, and it is my nature to work hard so I can’t help but identify with those who do. And once I learned that Maiden Lane was the first street in Manhattan to have gas lamps, I had the idea for our lovely logo. Books: a way to light the darkness.

Books: a way to light the darkness.  Wonderful!  

Since this interview was published, Maiden Lane has published at least four books, including two by Cassandra King -- Moonrise and the Same Sweet Girls' Guide to Life -- Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parkes League by Jonathan Odell, and  Envious Moon by Thomas C. Greene.

Book award fever

Booker prizewinner The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton looks like a shoo-in for both the fiction prize and the overall prize at the NZ Post Book Award ceremony this month.

Well, everyone says so, and I expect that's what will happen.  She's scooped everything else, so it would be a sensation if she didn't get this one. Do the judges have any other option?

It's a pity for the other finalists, because there are some big names there.

One is Damien Wilkins, the current director of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University, whose novel Max Gate is also in the running.

Both books were published by Victoria University Press, who publisher, Fergus Barrowman, must be beaming. This year, it has five shortlisted books -- the two novels, Us, Then by New Zealand's delightful and ebullient poet-laureate, Vincent O'Sullivan, and two debut poetry collections by Caoilinn Hughes (Gathering Evidence) and Marty Smith (Horse with Hat).

VUP also featured in the announcement of both the best first book awards, given by the New Zealand Society of Authors: Smith's book, and Amy Head's novel, Tough.

The Luminaries is also one of the eight longlisted mysteries in the Ngaio Marsh Award, the shortlist and winner of which will also be announced this month.

Another Indie bookstore falls

First it was one of Wellington's iconic bookstores, Parson's.  Now it's Capital Books.

The owners of Capital Books say that the might of online juggernauts Amazon et al have spelled the end of their store.

They will close at the end of this month, after 18 years of trading.

Owners Tim and Glenda Skinner said the impact of offshore book buying and the growth of eBooks are to blame.

Said Tim, customers are driven to the lower-priced options provided by online sellers. "People come in to take photos of our books with their iPhones, that we have so kindly displayed for them," he said rather bitterly.  "And then they walk out."

Meantime, of course, they have used engines like google or bookfinder.com to find a cheaper option.  Obviously, it is hard to compete with that, especially when you have to pay for stock, rent, and so forth.  That the customer has to pay an extra tax -- GST in New Zealand -- on top of the book price is also a factor.  There is no GST on overseas online sales, not until the tax department works out a way to do it.

One wonders, then, why other Indie stores, like Unity Books in Wellington, and Time-Out and the Women's Bookstore in Auckland, are managing so well.  Unity Book owner Tilly LLoyd said that the loss of Capital Books for the customers is a loss for Wellington. Like the stores in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, they had a cooperative arrangement with Capital Books, where they occasionally shared staff, and sent customers to the other store if a requested book was out of stock.

Nonetheless, Unity must have a secret, because that store remains so visible. I was on a bus during the cruise ship season, where the jolly bus driver boomed as he stopped outside Unity: "Unity Bookstore, gateway to the library, the Civic Centre, and the Information Bureau."  Dozens of people dismounted, and most strayed into Unity to have a browse.

Subscription libraries

In the old days (as I often say) there used to be subscription libraries, where you paid a small annual fee, and then paid a little more each time you borrowed a book.  When you returned the the book, you were credited what you had paid for it, less a fee, and so you were encouraged to borrow another book, just to use up your credit.  My mother used to work at one. She had an amazing customer list -- women from the upper echelons of our country town, who did not deign to be seen at the free public library.

Now, in this digital age, it is different.  You pay a monthly fee to a subscription service, and can borrow eBooks for nothing.  You don't return them, obviously -- I assume that when the loan time is up, the book simply vanishes from your eReader.

And, it seems, in the digital book world, it is the flavor of the month.  As DBW says:

Apple's recent acquisition of book recommendation engine BookLamp suggests the company is considering a move into the now-hot ebook subscription service to compete with Amazon's new Kindle Unlimited, Scribd, Oyster and others.

Contrary to popular belief, a good recommendation engine isn't hugely important to a good ebook retail operation, writes Andrew Rhomberg. But, it's very important to any kind of content subscription service.

So, does that mean Apple is definitely going to have one? No. But if it does, you know where you heard it first.

Much more.

Volume Three of A G E

A.G.E. Jones, that is.

Almost thirty years ago, when I started researching wooden-world-whaling, the name of the British researcher was one of the first that I learned.  An indefatigable collector of British whaling data, he made lists that were absolutely invaluable.  And when I wrote to him (rather daringly, as he had the reputation of being prickly and reclusive) he responded in the most gentlemanly fashion possible, sending me copies of his papers, and writing fascinating letters in tiny script on aerograms.  Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet him, because he passed away before I had a chance to get to England.  Unfortunately, too, his demise interrupted the publication of his third volume of collated data.  But now that has been remedied by Australian maritime historian Dale Chatwin, who has edited the book for publication.

And here is the press release.

In 1986, A. G. E. (Joe) Jones and the Roebuck Society published the first volume of Ships Employed in the South Seas Trade.  The work commenced the process of building for the British Southern Whale Fishery an equivalent of Alexander Starbuck’s monumental History of the American Whale Fishery. 

Volume 1 contained transcriptions and indexes to south seas departures, ‘speakings’ and arrivals from the commercial record of shipping in London at the time, Lloyd's List.  Also included were entries for south sea ships from the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen's Registers of Shipping and two short articles on the British Southern Whale and Seal Fisheries. 

Volume 2 was published four years later.  It continued the work of listing and indexing ships involved in the trade from the various registers of shipping published by the shipowners and insurance underwriters.  Accompanying the lists were indexes and lists of names extracted from the Admiralty Protections and further articles dealing with aspects of the trade.

Ships Employed in the South Seas Trade Volume 3 has now been published posthumously as Jones died in 2002.  It contains the final part of Jones’ work on the British Southern Whale Fishery.  

Parts I – III contain an introductory sketch of the trade prepared by the Editor; a series of annual reviews prepared by Jones; and, a long series detailing the movement in the price of whale oils imported into London and sold in the market after 1810.  

In Parts IV and V are detailed the final pieces in the puzzle of what was the British Southern Whale Fishery - records of cargoes for ships in the trade prior to 1815 compiled from annual returns prepared by the Enderby family and associates; and, post 1816 records compiled by Jones from the Customs Bills of Entry for south sea ships into the Port of London.  

Part VI includes information about the expenses incurred during preparation for, and outfitting of a whaling voyage.  Part VII includes a number of statistical tables compiled by contemporary observers inside and outside of the whaling trade, detailing various aspects during its existence.

The British southern whale fishery now has its equivalent of Alexander Starbuck's labour.  In terms of content the three volumes which comprise Ships Employed in the South Seas Trade probably even surpass the level of detail which Starbuck was able to compile and record – all of this thanks to A. G. E. Jones.

SHIPS EMPLOYED IN THE SOUTH SEAS TRADE, 1775–1859 - VOLUME 3

Published in 2014 by Navarine Publishing (in conjunction with the Roebuck Society) Hobart, Tasmania ISBN 978-0-9923660-1-8

Limited to 100 numbered copies

Price AUD $25 plus postage and packing

Available from the Editor - dalechatwin@optusnet.com.au

Quality of eBooks now a major concern

Digital Book World has an ongoing discussion about the quality of eBooks that I find particularly interesting.  Recently, I bought the digital version of a new book by an author I have been following for as long as I can remember, and was so disappointed with its quality that I wrote to the publishers of that edition, saying that I thought she deserved better.  To my surprise, I received a prompt and very polite reply, thanking me for my comments.  And the publisher not only revised his formatting, but sent me a free copy of what was now a very professional eBook, to demonstrate that he had done it.  Hopefully, the rest of her eBooks have been revised equally well.

In my experience, publishers have jibbed at the cost of a well polished digital edition.  They have already paid out large on editing, production and promotion of the print edition, and the eBook is just an optional extra.  Perhaps there is even a perception that eBook readers are not as discerning as print book readers -- that they are the cheap end of the market.  For instance, it was very disappointing to me that Tupaia, the Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator, which was a beautiful, lavishly illustrated volume in print form, was without illustrations in the digital version.  It was a matter of costs, I am sure.  The British Library, which owns the originals of Tupaia's artwork, is not cheap to deal with. But without the illustrations, the book loses much of its meaning, and most of its richness.

Now it seems that the era of economizing on the digital edition is coming to an end, thankfully. According to a new survey on trends in the digital publishing industry publishers are increasingly concerned with quality as they move towards digital productions. Of the respondents, 84 percent are planning to publish digitally in 2014 (an increase of 21 percent over the prior year), and 52 percent of respondents said quality of digital conversion was the aspect of greatest concern. 

The survey was jointly conducted by Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL), an industry leader in organizing and converting content into digital formats, and Bowker®, the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information management solutions for publishers, booksellers, and libraries.