Last night, I was invited by Gerfried Sperl of Der Standard newspaper, to sit on a panel discussing the UNESCO declaration on cultural diversity, together with Unesco’s Austrian representative Gabriele Eschig, writer Marlen Streeruwitz and Green MP Wolfgang Zinggl. Of course, between us, we considered the Unesco convention to be a positive move in the right [...]

Book markets today have a reputation of being slow, flat, little exciting, except for those breath taking crime novels that top so many bestseller lists around the globe. Yet there is this 3 bn dollar niche market that draw little attent, if not by a few international sales people from wholesalers or large corporations. I [...]

As we screen and analyse international bestseller lists for several book trade magazines month by month, we were puzzled by that the new book of Robert Fulghum, author of many essays, notably All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1986). His new collection of notes, essays, and observations, titled “What On Earth [...]