ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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The Kinds Of Books You Want To Read Over And Over

There are certain books where even if you’ve already solved the murder, even if you already know how it’s all going to turn out, you still don’t mind reading it again because the pleasure there isn’t really the ending but rather the journey. - LitHub

US Publishers Charge Libraries Exorbitant Prices For E-Books. Some State Governments Want To Change That.

How exorbitant? A license for a digital copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 costs $51.99. Connecticut has already passed a law (not yet in effect) to rein in such pricing; New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Hawaii have similar legislation in the works. - The New York Times

The Biggest Mystery In Chaucer Was, It Turns Out, Probably A Typo

Okay, there were no typewriters then; it was a scribal error — and it led to serious confusion about genre. The eureka moment by two researchers at Cambridge makes sense of that confusion. - Mental Floss

Beetles Are Eating Their Way Through One Of Europe’s Oldest Libraries

At the Pannonhalma Archabbey, founded in 996, conservators are removing 100,000 books from the library shelves for disinfection from an infestation of bread beetles, which like to eat the gelatin and starch-based adhesives used in medieval books - AP

AI Slop Is Swamping Publishing

Creative professionals have long found themselves amid an existential crisis in a market where profits are slim and the vast majority of them will not make a living wage solely from their art. Those matters have become exacerbated tenfold by the speedy implementation of generative-AI technology within their spaces. - Paste

The Harvard Linguist Who’s Figured Out How Algorithms Have Shaped Our Language

“I want to balance being a ‘ha-ha funny’ TikToker with academic credibility. It’s a little hard to strike that balance when you are talking about ‘Skibidi Toilet’ on the internet.” - The New York Times

Navigating The Cluttered World Of Author Newsletters

Authors love to write, and some choose Beehiiv, Ghost, Buttondown and other alternatives to converse with a similarly word-obsessed public. Here are a few of the best. - The Guardian (UK)

Clare Chambers Learned How To Expand A Novel By Reading Iris Murdoch

Upon reading The Bell, she says, "I realised that a novel, if perfectly executed, could be about absolutely anything.” - The Guardian (UK)

The Salt Path’s Author Had A New Book Coming Out, Then Came Last Week’s Revelations

“Penguin, publisher of The Salt Path, is delaying author Raynor Winn’s next book after reporting cast doubt over the truth of the 2018 memoir. The decision was taken to 'support the author.’” - The Guardian (UK)

How The Author Of Space Raptor Butt Invasion Went Legit This Summer

“Perhaps the best way to understand Tingle’s career plot twist is as part of a trend in horror fiction that speaks to contemporary identity issues.” - Slate

A Poet Reaches The Final Stretch Of Her Two Decades With Dante

One of the things Mary Jo Bang had to change: Rhyming. “I knew I could not maintain the rhyme scheme that he had invented for that poem. English is a rhyme poor language compared to the romance languages.” - NPR

When A Writer Becomes A Bestseller, She Longs Never To Be Recognized In Public

“Early in her career, she published five novels that were critically acclaimed but only moderately successful, while managing to avoid the industry pressure to concentrate on a single genre or series.” Then came Mexican Gothic. - The New York Times

Famous Art Detective Arthur Brand Recovers Stolen Documents So Historic That They’re UNESCO-Listed

The cache of papers, dating from the 15th through the 19th centuries, was stolen from the National Archives of the Netherlands in 2015. Among the recovered papers are archives from the early days of the world’s first multinational corporation, the Dutch East India Company. - France 24

Does America Really Have A Youth Literacy Crisis?

“How much panic over kids’ literacy is warranted? Scholars who study the subject, concerned English professors, and experts in the ‘kids these days’ phenomenon told me that the literacy landscape is a lot more nuanced than either of my gut impulses would have led me to believe.” - Vox

Australia’s New Funding Body For Literature And Writers: What Will It Actually Be Doing?

“On the surface, this is welcome news for Australian writers with its funding package of $26 million ($8.6 million per year) over the next three years. But what exactly does this new support look like in the wider context of Australian literary sector funding over time?” - ArtsHub (Australia)

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