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The Struggle To Protect Mauritania’s Medieval Library Town

Chinguetti developed as a trading post on the trans-Sahara caravan route to Timbuktu — and, as in Timbuktu, over the centuries Chinguetti families came to amass important collections of medieval manuscripts on religion, law, and science. Now, as the population dwindles and the desert sand encroaches, preserving these collections is a challenge. - The Dial

Idaho Legislature Changes Book Ban As Court Challenges Continue

The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit wrote that HB 710 enables a “system of informal censorship” and potentially “encourages formal censorship through the legal process. The First Amendment does not tolerate either outcome.” - Publishers Weekly

The Guardian Now Has More American Readers Than The Washington Post Has

“(The Guardian) has found a lane in the U.S. news market as a progressive alternative to institutional American media, … backed by a voluntary contribution model that has attracted 700,000 supporters, 500,000 of them recurring. Reader revenue has grown 35% a year for the past two years, with a still-growing 150-person newsroom.” - The Rebooting

Lost Copy Of Oldest Surviving English Poem Turns Up In Rome

“Scholars from Trinity College Dublin uncovered the manuscript that contains Caedmon’s Hymn at the National Central Library of Rome. Bede, the medieval theologian revered as the father of English history, recorded the nine-line poem in the eighth century.” - The Guardian

State Legislatures Tweak Library And School Laws Concerning Books (To Protect Them)

“We’ve had success in blue states that want to protect from book banning at the local level, but these efforts have moved to purple or even red states, to the point of Alaska now moving this forward." - Publishers Weekly

“Ghost Imaging” Recovers Text Of 1,500-Year-Old Biblical Manuscript

The 6th-century Codex H included a Greek-language copy of the New Testament's letters of St. Paul. Sometime in the Middle Ages, though, the monks of Mt. Athos broke the book up and re-used the parchment. Fragments have since been identified, but the original text on them was considered irretrievable — until now. - Artnet

Docs: Adelaide Writers Week Sacrificed To Save Arts Festival

Adelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show. - The Guardian

How AI Looks Set To Change The Actual Printing Of Books

“A new report from the Book Manufacturers’ Institute on the state of the book industry predicts that printing is on the cusp of potential major changes.” - Publishers Weekly

Did Shakespeare Bring Down McCarthy?

Or was it Kit Marlowe, getting some long-delayed revenge on conservatives in government? - The Atlantic

As Anyone With Literary Chops Knows, This Is A Big Deal

Haruki Murakami has a new novel coming out, and the narrator is … what? A woman?! - LitHub

The German Government Really Isn’t Happy About This Guy’s Popular Novella

A fiction author gets a phone call from the government: “Jügler was asked to explain what historical source material he had consulted for Mayfly Season and which period he was planning to tackle in his next book.” - The Guardian (UK)

How Are U.S. Libraries Doing Amid Book Bans And Culture Wars?

It’s rough in these reading streets. “Librarians across the country are fighting to maintain students’ access to books and to keep their jobs amid cuts to library programs and persistent efforts to restrict reading materials.” - Salon

It’s Been A Century Since The Term ‘Scientifiction’ Was Coined

That was for Amazing Stories, a magazine that published Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and other stories driven both by ideas and some possibly limited characters (who could, however, fill science books with their thoughts). - NPR

As Indie Bookstore Day Gives Stores A Boost, They Talk About Battling Amazon

“There are about 70% more bookstores now than there were six years ago in the United States. After 20 years of declining numbers, they’re coming roaring back.” - Fast Company

no the english language is not like literally goin to pot as we watch lol

While these common gripes point to eccentric speech patterns, they don’t point to grammatical annihilation. English has weathered far worse. … English has lost almost all of the more complex linguistic trappings it was born with to become the language we know and — at least, sometimes — love today.” - The Conversation

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