Man Booker Prize 2011 shortlist announced

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2011 has been announced:

* Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
* Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate Books)
* Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
* Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail)
* Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
* A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)

Mr Men owner Chorion to be broken up and sold

Company owning assets including Noddy and Paddington Bear fails to renegotiate banking deals to alleviate its debt

Bookshop changes 'women's fiction' label after appeal from 'sisterhood' (UK)

Book store W H Smith is to drop the shelf label 'women's fiction' after two customers complained to the female chief executive about "condescending, pink fluffiness"

Internet and supermarkets kill off 2,000 bookshops (UK)

The number of bookshops in Britain has halved in the past six years and nearly 600 towns have none at all

Burgundy to sell the new IET e-Book collection across Europe

Burgundy Information Services has signed an exclusive agreement with The Institution of Engineering and Technology to provide sales expertise to eleven countries across Europe. The exclusive representation includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia and Slovenia

Brill and Higher Education Press announce new journal partnership

At the Beijing International Book Fair a Journal Co-publication Agreement has been signed between Higher Education Press (Beijing) and Brill (Leiden). As of 2012 Brill will be responsible for the international print and online distribution of six scholarly journals in the Frontiers of China series, while Higher Education Press will be responsible for the Chinese market

Madonna's Sex book is most wanted

Madonna's explicit 1992 coffee-table book Sex is the most sought after out-of-print title in the US of the past 12 months, according to BookFinder.com. The singer's limited-edition picture book caused controversy when it was first released for its risque images and went on to be a collector's item. The book search engine's annual report tracks the 100 most searched-for out-of-print titles. Promise Me Tomorrow, by US romance author Nora Roberts, came second

Sony announces the launch of new lightweight touchscreen eReader

Sony has announced the launch of the lightest touch screen 6” eReader device ever, Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1), providing the most natural and immersive reading experience yet for book lovers

Adonis becomes first Arab writer to win Goethe prize

The Syrian poet Adonis has become the first Arab writer to win Germany's prestigious Goethe prize. The 81-year-old poet, a perennial favourite to win the Nobel prize for literature, was presented with the award by the city of Frankfurt on Goethe's birthday, 28 August. The jury called him "the most important Arab poet of our time", and praised his "eminent literary talent, his cosmopolitanism and his contribution to world literature". The €50,000 Goethe prize is given every three years on Goethe's birthday to an individual whose work reflects the spirit of the German master, and has been won in the past by Sigmund Freud and Herman Hesse, and more recently by the Israeli author Amos Oz

Publishing Technology China launches at the Beijing International Book Fair

Publishing Technology plc has announced its expansion into the Chinese market by delivering local online hosting platforms and domestic sales representation