Inside Jacket

Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo, admits that she has created a monster (in the sense that it has taken over her life), according to an interview in The Independent. I’m sure the creator of The Teletubbies has the same problem.

She sighs, slowly and evenly. “This is all going to be about The Gruffalo, I suppose?” she begins as we sit down and prepare to chat. Julia Donaldson is a well-preserved 61 years old, but has about her a rather distracted air.

Would she rather talk about something else, I ask.

“It’s not that, it’s just that this is the only book journalists ever want to know about. I have written others, you know.”

The monster looks a bit like the rubbery squid from the Bud Light advert. Jane Austen must be turning in her grave.

Sad news this morning – Fantasy author Robert Holdstock died yesterday. His first novel, Eye Among the Blind, was published in 1976 but he is best known for the Mythago Wood cycle of novels – Mythago Wood, won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1985.

Books had a great Black Friday, according to the National Retail Federation, accounting for 40.3 % of sales, and coming in second to clothing. Reports trickled in of “Going Rogue,” the Twilight series, and the Vampire Academy series selling well; the Kindle rounded out its best sales month ever, and the Nook would have, had it not sold out earlier in the week. Of course, to make the sales, booksellers big and small had to lure customers with discounts so deep they could never be repeated—except today, Cyber Monday, on their Web sites: barnesandnoble.com, for instance, is offering fifty per cent off all New York Times best-sellers. Though I’d recommend steals like the “Oxford Atlas of the World,” for $27.50, down from $80; the complete Sookie Stackhouse series, for $35.24; or Ten Years of NYRB Classics, for just $2,366.04 (originally $3,943.40).

In cheerier news, at least one brave soul resisted the gravitational pull of the Black hole. The Lorem Ipsum bookstore, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offered an “Anti-Sale”: “In this special, one-day only event, the bookstore with 19,000+ gently used books will be offering none of them for sale at a discount,” the press release read. Publishing Perspectives called it part of a trend, and hypothesized that “booksellers’ disinterest in Black Friday discounting stems from the fact that books are already drastically discounted year-round.”

The funniest Black Friday-related book push came courtesy of the Web site Welcome White People (“Your official invitation into the African American section of the bookstore”) which informed readers, “They don’t call it ‘Black Friday’ for nothing, people!” and recommended a few titles, including “Wildflowers,” by Lyah Beth LeFlore, and “Shadow Valley,” by Steven Barnes.

And finally, Princeton Press cheekily released the video for its new title “Scroogenomics,” which tells you why you shouldn’t be buying anything at all this holiday season (except, I imagine, “Scroogenomics”).

On-line booksellers are taking advantage of the CyberMonday craze with some outstanding deals. Here’s a sampling:

– Amazon is offering lightning deals (books by J.R.R. Tolkien and Janet Evanovich are up now) as well as "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" for $9.59 (68 percent off), the Oxford Atlas of the World" for $27.20 (66 percent off) and "Dilbert 2.0: 20 years of Dilbert" for $26.67 (69 percent off).

– Barnes & Noble is offering 50 percent discounts on all New York Times best-sellers. That includes Stephen King’s "Under the Dome" at $17.50 and Malcolm Gladwell’s "Outliers" at $13.99.

– Walmart’s discounts include savings of 50 percent or more on John Grisham’s "Ford County" and Michael Crichton’s "Pirate Latitudes."

– Borders is offering a "Buy one, get one at 60 percent off" promotion on all items. Use the promo code BCM1219B.