By taking a similar look at "excess word usage" after LLM writing tools became widely available in late 2022, the researchers found that "the appearance of LLMs led to an abrupt increase in the frequency of certain style words" that was "unprecedented in both quality and quantity." - Ars Technica
“While the library patrons say removing the books constitutes an illegal government squelching of viewpoints, county officials have argued that they have broad authority to decide which books belong on library shelves.” The review may back the county. - AP (US News & World Report)
“Once a niche that independent booksellers largely ignored, romance is now the hottest thing in the book world. It is, by far, the top-selling fiction genre, and its success is reshaping not only the publishing industry, but the retail landscape as well.” - The New York Times
“Natalie Miroshnyk was at the Warsaw Book Fair for Ukrainian publisher Vivat when she heard that a Russian missile had hit her country’s biggest printing house, killing seven workers, injuring 22 others and destroying 50,000 books.” - Irish Times
Australia’s largest online bookseller announced the move on Wednesday, two weeks after it went into a voluntary suspension of share trading. - The Guardian
We make something more likely, more widely believed, by saying and repeating it. Our rhetoric encourages or discourages. Which is why sports teams chant a version of “I believe we will win.” - LitHub
"Just as modern-day government workers suffer neck and spinal injuries from sitting at desks and arching forward to stare at screens, ancient Egyptian scribes endured comparable physical stresses from hunching over papyrus for prolonged sessions." Scribe skeletons show evidence of serious osteoarthritis in the neck, collarbone, arm, thigh, and spine. - Artnet
Especially cruel realities face a struggling field like literary studies, with its disappearing majors, budgetary pressures, abysmal job market, fears about academic freedom, and more. Literary critics have good reasons to be downcast. Downcast and, at times, spiteful. - LA Review of Books
"Works targeted for banning typically involve race, gender and the LGBTQ+ communities. … Although scattered through different states and cities, the cases have a common factor: there are usually politicians behind them, and in most cases, they support the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro." - The Guardian
Steven Monte talks about Ariosto's Orlando furioso, finding an equivalent to the original's eight-liner rhyme scheme in relatively rhyme-poor English, and the episode he chose to translate, a character's voyage to the moon. - Asymptote
Many “rules” beloved of self-appointed grammar constables were simply made up quite recently by irritable ink-stained wretches. Using “hopefully” as a modal adjunct, for example. - The Guardian
She learned “to express my thoughts and opinions. I wasn’t used to that. I was never asked my opinion in India; I just kept quiet and listened to others. And then I’d go back to India and ... they’d all look at me and say, what’s happened?” - The Guardian (UK)
“In an effort calls ‘Books Not Bans,’ she sends titles about queer history, sexuality, romance and more — many of which are increasingly hard to come by in the face of a rapidly growing movement by conservative advocacy groups and lawmakers to ban them.” - NPR
