The new titles on the table in the bookshop, a cast of hundreds, gather for a curtain call. Like the chorus girl who breaks rhythm on the night a talent scout is in the audience, they will try any trick to catch your eye. Series and reprints - Everyman, Penguin Classics, Oxford Reference, Persephone, Faber Poetry, the books of any established author, series of textbooks and so on - do their high kicks in matching costume. But there are now too many publishers for any of them to trust to a brand image to sell new 'trade' books - the titles that get reviewed in the press and are entered for prizes.

LRB 10 September 2009 | PDF Download