What's with the Beard? - 10-Feb-2010
So why is Brad Pitt sporting a oversized goatie? Seems he's growing it to play the role of British explorer Percy Fawcett in the movie version of The Lost City of Z. His beard has caused the gossip pages to gossip even more with the knock on effect of sending the book up the bestselling charts in the US.
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Gormenghast to Get a Finale - 09-Feb-2010
Random House wil be publishing the fourth novel in Mervyn Peake's 'Gormenghast' trilogy, which was written by Maeve Gilmore, Peake's widow. The book will be titled Titus Awakes.
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Lost Symbol Gets Ready for Screen - 09-Feb-2010
Variety has reported that 'Columbia Pictures is moving forward with The Lost Symbol' - the third adaptation of the the 'Da Vinci Code' franchise. Apparently 'Tom Hanks, who played Langdon in The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, has not yet committed to reprise the role but is expected to.
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Anne Frank's Diary Removed - 06-Feb-2010
The Diary of Anne Frank, the definitive edition, has been removed from school libraries in Culpeper County, US. It seems someone complained due to the book, which is the unedited version of Ann's diary, havin too many sexual references.
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And the Word of the Year is ...? - 06-Feb-2010
The Macquarie Australian Word of the Year is: shovel-ready adjective (of a building or infrastructure project) capable of being initiated immediately as soon as funding is assured. The People's Choice went to: tweet verb (i) 1.
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Moorhouse Boycotts China - 06-Feb-2010
Australian Author Frank Moorhouse has cancelled his March writers' tour of China, as a protest against the imprisonment of Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo. The tour was being funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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Stolen! $240 000 worth of pop-up books - 04-Feb-2010
More than 12,000 copies of a pop-up book written by comedian Ricky Gervais disappeared while on route to an Indiana warehouse--$240,000 worth of books. Flanimals Pop-Up was written by the star of the British television series, The Office and illustrated by Rob Steen.
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Who will win the 1970 Booker? - 02-Feb-2010
Organisers of the Man Booker Prize have announced a special one-off award for books published in 1970, which missed out the first time around. Booker Foundation archivist Peter Straus discovered books published in 1970 had never had the chance to compete when the prize was changed from being awarded retrospectively, to books published that year.
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J D Salinger Dies - 30-Jan-2010
J D Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye. The book was published in 1951 but continues to be a bestseller today.
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Wow, the 100 millionth book! - 30-Jan-2010
Lonely Planet has announced that the publication of the 15th edition of its Australia guide will officially be the publisher's 100 millionth guidebook in print.…
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