The new director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival has warned Scotland is at risk of losing arts events “every other week” without more public funding for culture and revealed that she would have had to scale back its programme. - The Scotsman
The problem is that "fastest" could, in this context, mean four different things. Syllables per minute? Amount of information conveyed per minute? And so on. Quantitative linguist François Pellegrino tried to figure all this out in a study of 17 languages (which did not include Malayalam, the best candidate). - Atlas Obscura
Millions of books, including self-published titles, are issued every year. But, according to an Economist/YouGov poll, 46 percent of Americans did not read a book last year. There are any number of explanations for this statistic, but one in particular stands out based on my experience. - Washington Post
A single scribe is said to have written the codex, which is made up of 52 leaves - or 104 pages - over a period of 40 years at a monastery in upper Egypt. - CNN
The Trilogy firms—which are controlled by Canadian billionaire Gerald Schwartz, an Indigo board member and the husband of Indigo founder and CEO Heather Reisman—already own 60.6% of all of Indigo’s shares. - Publishers Weekly
During her 16 years at Random House, Morrison wrote hundreds of rejection letters. Usually typed on pink, yellow, or white carbonless copy paper, and occasionally bearing Random House’s old logo and letterhead, these are now filed among her correspondence in the Random House archives. - LA Review of Books
Benjamin Franklin, who founded the Library Company of Philadelphia In 1731. "(It) allowed members — at first, largely male artisans of modest means — to purchase (low-cost) shares in the library. … After early successes, the Library Company soon began allowing non-shareholders to borrow books, too, requiring only a small fee as collateral." - Smithsonian Magazine
Well, first he spent two weeks considering suicide. Then he realized that, with today's technology and his international contacts, he could set about recreating the books he lost. - The Guardian
"The closing of the distributor sent shockwaves throughout the entire independent publishing community, as it came with little warning. … SPD provided distribution to about 400 publishers, including a large number of literary presses." - Publishers Weekly
"Frost remains one of the greatest literary enumerators of a particularly modern darkness, regardless of his reputation (among those who refuse to read him carefully). ... Now, on the 150th anniversary of his birth, it’s worth considering that Frost is our great American poet of darkness." - The Hedgehog Review
In an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of each book, they’re tweaking fonts, layout, and even the ink used. And so far, these subtle, imperceptible tweaks have saved 245.6 million pages, equivalent to 5,618 trees. - Fast Company
Classics is no longer sleepy. The legacies of ancient Greece and Rome have reemerged as key cultural battlefields fought over by everyone from left-wing scholars to gun rights advocates. - LA Review of Books
We talked to a few super-readers, who routinely finish hundreds of books a year, about their habits and goals — and asked them about what tips they have for the rest of us. - Washington Post
