Raymond Queneau

Re-discovering the classics

April 2nd, 2012

James Joyce has been in the news recently. N. Quentin Woolf has launched Big Reads, a (free-to-participate) multimedia project designed to tackle ‘one massive book each year’ – beginning with James Joyce’s Ulysses. There will be a monthly podcast, as well as an opportunity for anyone, anywhere to contribute via social media.

Woolf says: “At the end of it all we might just know a little more about the book in question, or we might have more questions than answers – but at least we’ll have read the book.” For more information: email contact@bigreads.co.uk or visit his blog www.nquentinwoolf.com

Also, the Bookseller reports that independent publishers Alma Books are launching a new imprint to make classic titles available via print on demand. Having taken over the Calder Books list in 2007 they already have 300 titles by authors including Raymond Queneau, Dante and F Scott Fitzgerald. Publisher Alessandro Gallenzi promises that the initiative will ‘rediscover more neglected classics and try to bring them to readers inventively and in a new way’.

One hundred of the books are already available via print-on-demand, and Alma aim to have 150 titles available in PoD format by the end of the year. Among the first titles to be published in September – James Joyce’s Ulysses.