The death of the book has been much exaggerated, it seems. Figures released recently by the Publishers Association show a marked increase in sales of digital books, with total consumer sales rocketing up 318 per cent since 2009. However, there’s no need to dismantle the bookshelves just yet. The digital slice of the book market still stands at only 6 per cent. Kindles et al might have the upper hand storage-wise; but, on this evidence, good old print and paper has some more puff in it yet.
Beryl Bainbridge, for instance, remains a publishing sensation. Her uncompleted novel, The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, is due for release on May 23. If you can’t wait till then, you can sneak an exclusive preview here courtesy of the Telegraph. Polishing up the unfinished drafts of a dead author is always tricky, though David Foster Wallace’s posthumous volume The
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