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Spotify Promoting Audiobooks Using Some Music Industry Techniques

Combined with the promo page and countdown clock, the feature allows authors to engage in fandom in a way that is more typical of music than publishing. It’ll launch in mid-April. - The Verge

Historical Fiction Is Hot Right Now. Why?

Can historical fiction even be considered a genre of its own? Its many varieties share few common attributes other than that they all take place in the past. Even the simplest qualities are hard to pin down: for instance, how far back do you have to go? - The Drift

Libraries Struggle to Afford Access To E-Books, Which Are More Expensive Than Paper

While one hardcover copy of a novel costs the library $18, it costs $55 to lease a digital copy — a price that can't be haggled with publishers. And for that, the e-book expires after a limited time, usually after one or two years, or after 26 checkouts, whichever comes first. - ABCNews

Pianist Byron Janis, 95

In 1944, Janis became Horowitz’s first student and made his orchestral debut with conductor Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony Orchestra. At 18, he was signed by RCA Victor Records as its youngest artist. - The Hollywood Reporter

The Ideas Behind The Harlem Renaissance

That aggregation of talent, energy and audience created what felt like a moment of rupture and renewal, a chance to reinvent Black life and Black consciousness, to escape the self-imprisoning consciousness that Du Bois anatomized and the even more debilitating quiescence and accommodation advocated by Booker T. Washington. - Washington Post

Germany Adds Berlin’s Techno Scene To UNESCO Heritage List

A German nonprofit, Rave the Planet, hoped for years to add techno to the intangible cultural heritage list. Five other new German entries "include fruit wine and mountaineering a parade in Bavaria known as the Kirchseeoner Perchtenlauf, where attenders dress as furry monsters." - The Guardian (UK)

Tech Bros Are Such Drama Kings

"It’s hard to know whether this performative strain in tech culture reflects something essential about the industry.” But … could they just, please, for the rest of us, stop? (Maybe join a community theatre?)- The Atlantic

Publishing Should Not Rely On Gig Workers

"Look a little more closely, and ‘growing pool of freelancers’ is a terrible euphemism for ‘jobs are disappearing and more and more of us are fighting for scraps by competing for freelance gigs.’” - LitHub

Minnesota Sculpture Park Sells Sculpture For Scrap

"The artist, John Hock, said he thought it was a theft and reported it to the Chisago County Sheriff's Office.” (The Franconia Sculpture Park, unsurprisingly, has a different story.) - Minnesota Public Radio

A Second Man Has Been Charged In The Theft Of Judy Garland’s Ruby Slippers

And it’s appropriately dramatic: "The indictment says Saliterman knew they were stolen, and that he threatened to release a sex tape of a woman and 'take her down with him’ if she didn’t keep her mouth shut about the slippers." - Seattle Times (AP)

What We Keep When We Death-Clean Our Shelves

"What is a home for if not to fill it with books? What would I do without them? I can’t get rid of these stories, even though I’ve internalized them. They’re part of me. They’re mine, and the physical reminder of that needs to be here, on the shelf.” - Reactor

What Happens When You Let A Computer, Or Close To It, Write A St. Patrick’s Day Rom-Com

Whew, Netflix, why? "Irish Wish is a thinly veiled Trojan horse for the conservative agenda, a crypto-fascist work of art cluttered with right-wing dog whistles and dialogue that could have only been written by a malevolently programmed artificial intelligence." - Vulture

Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth Will Be Filled With Every Woman

Actually, that’s spelled Everywoman, a sculpture that will adorn London’s public art playground. The deputy mayor: "The sculpture prize has entertained and brought out the art critic in everybody for 25 years, and I have no doubt these two very different pieces will continue that fine tradition." - The Guardian (UK)

The Gender Of Crossword Puzzles

"What kinds of intellectual work is considered worthy of our attention? What boxes have women historically been permitted to fill?” - The New York Times

Everyone Needs An Oldies Station

“There’s considerable static between heaven and earth, and innocence is an oddity. We are all dancing as best we can, to the music we can hear, and we step on each other’s toes and end up with scrambled eggs dripping down our chins." - The Smart Set

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