Every time you sit down to write, you’re doing something your brain registers as socially risky. Translating private thoughts into language means exposing yourself to judgment and for most of human history, judgment wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was dangerous. - LitHub
“Freedom Letters … (is) one of a growing number of cultural organizations that have joined forces with bookstores, wholesalers and book-fair organizers to build a literary resistance among the Russian diaspora. Together, they publish, sell and distribute books that can’t get through Russia’s restrictive new censorship laws.” - Bloomberg
I don’t want to totally wave away the issues these pieces are gesturing towards, but I’d argue the fear that we’re sliding into a post-literate society rests on a category error that feels endemic at this point. - Becoming Literary
Before we ask our students to read difficult material, those of us who teach in college owe it to all of them to explain that reading books in their entirety matters. If we won’t, or can’t, then higher education will have a bleak future. - The Conversation
Once focused on helping libraries, distributors, and book shops find and sell books, ISBNdb now helps AI companies bulk-buy anywhere between 1,000 to one million books per order, according to 404. - Futurism
“Much of the Japanese fiction translated into English fits into broad categories – cats, crime, coffee shops – but one surprise bestseller stands alone. Sales of books by Osamu Dazai, who killed himself in 1948 aged 38, have rocketed in the last few years.” - The Guardian (UK)
“It is important to follow a balanced diet on holiday. … You need to be able to chop and change depending on your mood, which means fiction and nonfiction. And finally, you need to be able to throw all of these rules out of the window.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Covers today are expected not only to attract readers in bookstores, but to circulate fluidly through Instagram posts, TikToks, Substack photos, and carefully curated apartment interiors. Books are now asked to function simultaneously as texts and as lifestyle objects.” - LitHub
Reading Joyce “was, and continues to be, one of the most glorious reading experiences of my life. Even your text messages fizz after you’ve been reading Joyce.” - The Guardian (UK)
Authors said that their comments criticising the festival for its lack of representation under a post on its Instagram page were deleted, with the original post later removed and comments limited on other posts. - The Guardian
An unread book is a good example. It may remain closed for weeks or months, but the brain has already recognised its potential value, enjoying the prospect before the first page has been turned. - The Conversation
The unfinished six-page story, titled “Pryce’s Buoy,” was known about by Turing experts but never before studied. Says scholar Sarah Dillon, “He’s been seen as socially unaware, entirely concerned with logic and numbers, and pretty isolated. His short story reveals a different man: playful, cheeky, literary, and someone who really liked sex.” - The Guardian
Henry Hodges, a musical instrument salesman, sent the letter from Queenstown (now Cobh), in Cork Harbour in Ireland, the ship’s final stop before crossing the Atlantic on its first and last voyage in 1912. The document provides a little-seen look at accommodations and activities for second-class travelers. - Smithsonian Magazine
