Through its 149th and final show, which took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday, Swift’s tour sold a total of $2,077,618,725 in tickets. That’s two billion and change — double the gross ticket sales of any other concert tour in history and an extraordinary new benchmark for a white-hot international concert business. - The New York Times
It does not have to be clear or obscure. In the voyage out between these binaries – between the oil spills, thistles and phantoms a novel might pass on the way, between desire, disappointment and the people who clean offices at dawn on page 33 – a novel can reach for understanding and re-examine meaning. - New Statesman
Copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster's first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye. - Creative Blog
Detractors of year-end lists argue that they too frequently reward work that has already been heavily promoted and acclaimed, especially in a category like books, in which an individual can’t evaluate everything released in a year; another common argument is that they privilege known voices and forms over bold experiments. - The Atlantic
"When Barnes & Noble took over they were saying, 'Hey, this is the Tattered Cover. The name Barnes & Noble will be nowhere in the store.' And then we got all this stuff, like machines, that said Barnes & Noble on them. - Westword
"In the early days of GenAI tools, I would share these bullet-point lists of ideas with my team, and it would be met with a similar reaction: Wow! And nothing would happen because the next step is a big and difficult one." - Fast Company
A report this year, from nearly 200 philanthropic leaders, noted that as 20 million households dropped out of giving, from 2010 to 2016, the organizations that have suffered most are community-based groups whose existence depends on small-dollar donors rather than on mega-philanthropists, and those that “provide the backbone of civic life.” - The New York Times
And Emila Pérez is in. Of course, “the Globes have been in turmoil since 2021,” and last year’s ceremony was a rushed stinkbomb of an experience for everyone. But hope springs eternal when celebrity-infused cash is involved. - The New York Times
“The phenomenon of the lesbian pulp paperback — and it was a phenomenon, both culturally and financially — … was both problematic and pioneering, although neither word adequately describes something that was at once a cynical business proposition and a burgeoning art form.” - The New York Times
“Between 750 BC and 400 BC, the Ancient Greeks composed songs meant to be accompanied by the lyre, reed-pipes, and various percussion instruments.” Now there are some reconstructions of the sounds of millennia ago that may be fairly accurate. - Open Culture
“Some of the critics’ critics miss the old days because they conflate harshness with honesty. This logic assumes that most nice reviews are written by compromised liars. For starters, I think that’s pretty condescending.” - LitHub
“The protesters interrupted the literary award ceremony in November 2023 carrying signs that read ‘Scotiabank Funds Genocide,' referring to the then-title sponsor's investment in the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.” - CBC
Chiung Yao "helped shape the idea of romantic love for generations,” with more than 60 novels and short story collections published, and countless movies and TV adaptations from her work. - The New York Times
