Trivia

Salman Rushdie's new writing success

Maev Kennedy writes in The Guardian that Salman Rushdie has set a new world record when he signed his name in full on 1000 books on his book tour to promote his latest, The Enchantress of Florence, in Nashville in 57 minutes. He is said to have broken the previous record by broken wine writer Malcolm Gluck who is said to have signed 10001 books in 59 minutes.

Gluck is quoted: "Well, if that's true, I'm humbled ... I'm delighted to learn of Salman's achievement. I think it's very funny actually, it's like men boasting about the size of their sexual
equipment ... just such a male thing."

The Guardian


No such thing as bad publicity

Tom Bullough books are flying off the shelf, not because he won something but because he didn’t. The writer suffered a "national embarrassment" when his name was wrongly read out as the winner the of Wales Book of the Year 2008 Awards ceremony, and he made his way to the stage to collect the GBP 10,000.00 prize, only to be told the real winner was poet Dannie Abse instead.

Normally no one would hear or remember runners-up. But this gaffe has done Tom Bullough little harm. Yes, he was embarrassed and probably wanted to crawl into a hole and die that night. But his books are selling. Call it sympathy, pity, curiosity or whatever. No one is ignoring him.

Wales Online