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Japan will honor the artists in the comic book field abroad for the first time this summer. The “Nobel Prize of Manga” is another step towards Japan’s pop culture tactics. The International Manga Award will be given to a foreign artist, whose work makes a big contribution to spread the manga form all over the world.

Manga is nothing but a name used for Japanese-style comic books. The Japanese comic books are characterized by mergence of complex stories with drawing styles emphasizing cuteness. The event will be held on July 2 and the winner and three runners-up will receive a certificate and trophy.

The manga artists and publishers who form the core of the awards committee is expected to make its selections around June 22. The prize lacks any monetary reward.

Source:USAtoday

Britain’s Royal Mail has decided to issue a series of seven stamps, each of which will depict the cover of one of the books of the Harry Potter series. The stamps will be issued on July 17, 2007 just few days before the seventh book goes for sale. The stamps are being issued as a part of the post office’s legacy of celebrating social themes and important occasions central to the way of life. Julietta Edgar, who is in charge of special stamps at Royal Mail said, ‘There’s no doubt that JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, published in dozens of languages worldwide, have made a phenomenal impact on our reading habits.’ The seventh edition will see the death of two major characters. The book is scheduled to be out on 21st July.

Source: Sify

Google, one of the world’s leading Internet search engine has decided to digitize some 800,000 books and manuscripts lying at the Mysore University in Karnataka. The list for digitization also includes India’s first political treaty- the “Arthasastra” written in the 4th century BC by Kautilya. The effort is to preserve the manuscripts basically.

The vice chancellor of the Mysore University, Mr. J. Shashidhara Prasad said, “Written in both papers and palm leaves, there are around 100,000 manuscripts in our library, some dating back to the eighth century. The effort is to restore and preserve this cultural heritage for effective dissemination of knowledge. Many manuscripts on ayurveda, mathematics, medicine, science, astrology and economy including ‘Arthasastra’ and several paper manuscripts of the Wodeyar dynasty of Mysore will be digitized first. Depending upon the exclusivity of the materials, we will patent them before making them available on public domain.‘

The manuscripts which are either in Sanskrit or Kannada would be patented and printed after their digitization. Google has offered to digitize them for free. The chief of Google India is ready to provide us expertise, software and even manpower to the university. The University Grants Commission (UGC) is also assisting the cause financially. The digitization will enable students, scholars and historians from all over the country to access the scripts. However, the time for the projects completion is not configured yet.

Source: Hindustantimes

Lloyd Alexander, a well known figure in the world of children’s literature has died due to cancer. He was 83. Alexander died at his home. He has authored some forty books, most of which are fantasy novels. The Chronicles of Prydain has been his most famous contribution to the world of literature.

He started to write at the age of 15. He even served in the US Army during World War II, where he became a staff sergeant. While attending University of Paris he met Janine Denni whom he married in 1946. Janine died just two weeks before his death. He also had a number of awards to his name.

The High King, the final book in the Prydain series, won him the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association in 1969. The Black Cauldron from the same series was named a runner-up for the Newbery Honor Book. The fourth book in the series, Taran Wanderer, was also a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. “The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian,” won a 1971 National Book Award and he also won a 1982 American Book Award for ‘Westmark’. He also received the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for The Fortune-Tellers. The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, his final novel is scheduled to be published in August.

Source:USAToday

Image Credit: Cache

The winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books is finally out. Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness won £10,000 award. There were six nominations for the prize. Each of the runner up received £1,000 at the Society’s headquarters. Professor Colin Pillinger who chaired the judging panel said that all the books were “excellent” and deciding the winner was “extremely difficult”.

He said, “Daniel Gilbert’s voice provides a witty companion throughout this exploration of the science behind the pursuit of happiness. He uses cognitive science and psychology to provide intriguing insights into human nature, helping us to understand why we make the decisions we do.”

Gilbert on receiving the prize said, “I’m absolutely delighted to receive this tremendous honour from the world’s oldest learned society. There are very few countries (including my own - the US) where a somewhat cheeky book about happiness could win a science prize - but the British invented intellectual humour and have always understood that enlightenment and entertainment are natural friends. So God bless the empire!”

Source: BBC

The star of Knight Rider and Baywatch, David Hasselhoff, one of pop culture’s successes, is telling some, if not all, about his life in his autobiography. The Hoff portrayed in this book is a Hollywood hero. And it is indeed an amusing book.

The book contains info on various points like his favorite Baywatch scripts, his chase of a career in music. But he leaves relationships and actually quite ignores them. He has also put some drinking details in the book. A piece of it reads, “I had forgotten to take care of myself. When I was doing Baywatch and Knight Rider, my life had been planned, orderly. The hard times were between shows.” His book is full of instances to prove that fans worldwide adore him and he really is a star, who has actual potential and talent.

Some more extracts from the book read as:
•Sandra Bullock and Paula Abdul both wanted the role of CJ Parker but it went to Pamela Anderson.

•Simon Cowell once told Hasselhoff,”I make massive hits and I absolutely believe in you.”
•At one of the fundraisers, the late Princess Diana told Hasselhoff that he looks good with his clothes on. The text quotes, “Diana laughed, blushed and then looked coy. It wasn’t my imagination - she was flirting with me.” His impression of the lady is described as, “She seemed to be alone and a bit lonely.”

Source: USAtoday

Julie Andrews, 71, a renowned singer and actress, who is also a celebrated children’s book author now, is out with her newest bestseller ‘Thanks to You: Wisdom from Mother & Child’. The book is co-authored by her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, 44. Julie who is married to director Blake Edwards fell into writing by accident because of her stepdaughter Jennifer.

The end result was ‘Mandy’ and then there was no looking back. Thanks to You: Wisdom from a Mother & Child celebrates parenting and cannot be termed child literature exactly. It is more directed towards adults. Julie herself has a big family as, apart from Emma and Jennifer, Julie has three more children, stepson Geoffrey and daughters Amy and Joanna, both of whom she and Blake have adopted. They have seven grandchildren. Julie loves being a mother and grandmother and that’s exactly what her novels portray.

Source: Celebrity babies

Lily Allen, the star was recently in news for her own fashion line. And, here she is again in the news as it has been reported that she will be an author soon. Yeah! I am surprised too! The songbird has been offered around a half-a-million dollars to write a non-fiction book. The book will be called, ‘The World According To Lily Allen‘ and will basically include her views on everything and anything.

Tough job there!

Source: Perezhilton

We all have been expecting the Potter series to end this season and it was no good news for the Harry Potter fans. But J.K. Rowling has just revealed good and surprising news for all those who love the Harry Potter tales. No, it is not a new book By Rowling. The author said that the seventh book due to be out in July may not be the last of the series. Yes, the author has another book in mind for the same series. J.K. Rowling said, ‘I might do an eighth book for charity, a kind of encyclopedia of the world so I could use all the extra material that’s not in the books.’

Source: Stuff

J.K Rowling is a magician of sorts indeed. The seventh book of the Harry Potter series promises to disappear from the bookshelves as soon as it is released and you do not need to utter any magic mantra for that.

Amazon.com Inc. said on Tuesday it had booked more than 1 million advance orders for ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’ scheduled for release in late July.

The online retailer also lowered its price on the book to $17.99 from $18.89 saying that it would honor the lower price for customers who had already ordered the book, the seventh and the last in the extensively popular series by J.K. Rowling about a boy wizard and his adventures in the wizard world.

Advance orders for this book have surpassed those in 2005 for Rowling’s sixth release, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. More than 250,000 copies have been ordered in advance in the United Kingdom, while the figure has gone up to 620,000 in the United States.

The book, which is published in the United States by Scholastic Corp and in Britain by Bloomsbury, officially goes on sale on July 21. Meanwhile, Harry Potter fans can only wait with bated breath and speculate. In her official website the author mentions that she feels both sad and euphoric on completing the series that created a new trend and gave her worldwide fame. With more than two months still left before the d-day arrives, who knows, there may be still more records to be broken, hitherto unheard of, in publishing history.

Image Credit

Source: MSNBC