"The country’s most famous drag star … (is) one of three business partners behind Allstora, which will ... provide writers with a greater share of profits than other online booksellers do. … (Allstora) will send a rainbow school bus from the West Coast to the South to distribute books targeted by bans." - The New York Times
Shortz, who has been crossword editor at The New York Times for three decades, "shared the health update in a recorded message that aired on Sunday at the end of the puzzle quiz segment during the NPR program." - The New York Times
They were remodeling an old hotel in Waco, Texas. “Upon Joanna’s request for 'a ton of books,' Chip purchased around 300,000, the entire collection of Larry McMurtry, the Texan writer who died in 2021.” Only about 2000 are on display. Where did the books go? - The Paris Review
"There is simply no way that whiteness and Blackness will mingle as they have in music, cuisine, gesture, greeting styles, dating, and multiracial identity, and yet for some reason be halted at language. One might wish to enforce an artificial blockade here, but it’s far too late." - The New York Times
"In 40 years, it’s gone from a politically suspect niche to one of China’s most successful cultural exports, with author Liu Cixin gaining an international following that includes fans like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. But it’s had to overcome obstacles created by geopolitics for just as long." - AP
"Scholars had estimated that there were about 70,000 books waiting to be rescued. (Aaron) Lansky went on to gather 1.5 million Yiddish books — a trove that evolved into the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., one of the nation’s leading Jewish cultural institutions." - The New York Times
"It is permissible in English for a preposition to be what you end a sentence with," the dictionary publisher said in a post shared on Instagram last week. - NPR
User numbers of an app called “Bookclubs,” designed to help organize clubs, grew 240% from 2020 to 2021. Since then, its user base has been roughly doubling annually, the company says. The app currently has just under one million users with accounts. - The Wall Street Journal
For instance, moderators at the Perth Festival Writers’ Weekend in Australia were sent a memo titled "Facilitator safety tips." Among those tips: discussing with panelists in advance what are off-limits topics and ending (or simply forgoing) audience Q&As if they risk becoming too inflammatory. - The Guardian
All told, there are more endangered languages in and around New York City than have ever existed anywhere else, says Perlin, who has spent 11 years trying to document them. - The New York Times
Al-Kalima joins a long list of destroyed libraries. In addition, “the Central Archives of Gaza (which contained 150 years of records pertaining to Gaza’s history) and the Great Omari Mosque (which contained one of the most significant collections of rare books in Palestine) have both also been destroyed.” - LitHub
The great success of Fifty Shades has turned publishers’ attention to the wealth of stories found in online fan fiction archives. These stories sometimes have huge loyal readerships. - The Conversation
