Soon To Be a Major Motion Picture

October 11th, 2004 · No Comments
by Booksquare

Or maybe a television series. We can see it now: the wacky adventures of a sane man at a book fair. Our hapless hero tries to fight the good fight (which will have be worked out in story meetings) while resisting the urge to bring literature down a notch:

If The French Suite suggests that nothing works better than literary Sturm und Drang , plenty of Frankfurt’s habitues are happy to enthuse about slightly more ephemeral projects. In addition to the aforementioned vogue for books about war, pestilence and not eating crisps, for example, there is an alleged boom in writing about the iPod. At the Frankfurter Hof, I run into the London-based American agent Ed Victor. He’s keen to tell me about one of his books: a Nick Hornby-esque volume by Dylan Jones, the editor of GQ , entitled iPod Therefore I Am .

Around the room, a few British publishers reckon that celebrations of the iPod may soon make up a surging sub-genre. I think it might be the booze talking: next year, they may be pushing a more dismissive take on the pleasures of listening to songs in random order. In fact, I’ve got the title already: As iPod Lay Dying.

We suspect this round-up of the Frankfurt Book Fair is a lot like being there — sans the inevitable hangover.

  • You read it here first — John Harris throws himself into the drink- and adrenaline-fuelled maelstrom of the Frankfurt Book Fair and emerges with an invitation for dinner with PJ O’Rourke, a chance to join the iPod craze and a tip for the Next Big Thing

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