If languages had all been getting ever easier over all of that time, humans worldwide would just be yelling “ah,” pointing at things and gesturing frantically. Despite occasional appearances otherwise, we are doing better than that. - The New York Times
I knew the context. I knew who was using it. I knew when it should be used. I knew when it was already embarrassing to use it. I wasn’t speaking the language but I was fluent. Now, I’m joining the ranks of the bamboozled elderly and Googling “quiet on the creek”. - The Guardian
“Readers gave AI-generated stories they believed to be written by humans the highest ratings in a new study published by Cambridge University Press, … with researchers noting that ‘participants generally seemed to have poor instincts about how to tell which story was AI-generated’.” - The Bookseller (UK)
Arday is the sociologist who just resigned from Cambridge after accusations of plagiarism and of being, basically, the British George Santos. Despite the possibility that some of what he recounts in his book is untrue, S&S is “proceeding with the publication of Great and Unfortunate Things by Jason Arday as planned.” - The Guardian
The 14th-century Hindu poetess Lal Ded and the 15th-century Sufi Muslim poet Nund Rishi wrote not in the elegant, aristocratic court language, Persian, but with simple words and phrases in Kashmiri, the everyday language of ordinary people These mystics are seen by many Kashmiris as spiritual grandmother and grandfather, even today. - The Conversation
We know that something mysterious is afoot. Someone—if not more than one group or company—has been snapping up massive volumes of books from shops around the world. - The Atlantic
The author accused of using artificial intelligence to craft the debut novel that landed him a multimillion-dollar book deal said he was innocent and that the claims against him were racially motivated. - The Wall Street Journal
Just since May 1, Russian drones and bombs have damaged or burned at least 9.65 million books. That equals 74% of the Ukrainian publishing industry’s output so far in 2026 and nearly 29% of books printed throughout the country in all of 2025. - United24 Media (Ukraine)
Joyce Carol Oates is known for her strict style. One of her students once described her crossing through the first several pages of a story and asking: “What’s the point?” I commiserated with him, but he looked at me and said: “No, that’s what I want. To be ripped to shreds.” - The Guardian
“According to its website, Giggle Academy is a nonprofit and was started by cryptocurrency mogul and Binance founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao in 2024. It also claims to have one million users in 182 countries.” Hundreds of poems, evidently copied from the Poetry Foundation’s website, are on Giggle Academy’s website without permission. - Publishers Weekly
The book, The Antiquities of Athens, published in 1858, “was discovered inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace.” Normal place to put a book down and then never see it again, right? - Salon
Virginia Woolf with Flush, Paul Auster with Timbuktu, Garth Stein with The Art of Racing in the Rain, and now another Paul - Yoon - with Etna. Why? Yoon says, “I deeply believe dogs have superpowers and secrets.” - The New York Times
“‘We’d always been very wary of working together because we’d quite like to stay together,’ says Sharp wryly. She looks at her partner of 13 years. ‘You don’t generally like to work with others.’” - The Guardian (UK)
Try one of Andrew Sean Greer’s comic novel recommendations, even though he says, “nobody knows what a comic novel is. And once you start discussing it, all the fun runs out.” - The Guardian (UK)
