It’s difficult to summarize the myriad changes taking place in American public libraries, but one thing is certain. Libraries are no longer hushed repositories of books. Here at the Central branch in Memphis, ukulele flash mobs materialize and seniors dance the fox trot in upstairs rooms. The library hosts U.S. naturalization ceremonies, job fairs, financial literacy seminars, jazz concerts, cooking classes, film screenings and many other events—more than 7,000 at last count. You can check out books and movies, to be sure, but also sewing machines, bicycle repair kits and laptop computers. And late fees? A thing of the past. Read more
Category: Miscellaneous
Rare first printing of U.S. Constitution sells for record $43 million
The document offered for sale was one of 13 known copies of the first printing of the Constitution and one of only two in private hands. This printing of the Constitution was last sold in 1988, when real estate developer and collector S. Howard Goldman bought it at auction for $165,000. Read more
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French dictionary accused of ‘wokeism’ over gender-inclusive pronoun
A French reference dictionary has defended its official recognition of a gender-inclusive pronoun, after traditionalists pounced on what they called the latest incursion of US-inspired “wokeism”. Read more
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The hottest new book merch is… NFTs
Gary Vaynerchuk, a business author and NFT creator, included one NFT as a freebie for every purchase of 12 copies of his new book Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success. (You know, like cereal box prizes, if each cereal box prize burned down several hundred acres of the Amazon.) And, because everything I ever thought I knew about finance, books, and art is wrong, the book’s pre-orders now stand at over a million books—“one of the industry’s biggest advance orders for a single title in a 24-hour period,” according to the Wall Street Journal‘s reporting. Read more
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The 12 scariest books we’ve ever read
Horror is a cathartic genre, a place where we can explore our deepest anxieties and traumas, relive our worst nightmares and purge ourselves of the nagging fears that could otherwise overwhelm our psyches. Plus, it’s more fun and cheaper than therapy. Read more
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The Black Mountain Institute will cease publishing venerable Believer literary magazine
Founded in 2003 by authors Ed Park, Vendela Vida and Heidi Julavits and originally published by McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers’ independent publishing house, the Believer is known for its offbeat content and upbeat critical philosophy. Its articles by authors both established and emerging have earned multiple nominations for National Magazine Awards. Nick Hornby, Peter Orner, Amy Sedaris, Susan Straight, Anne Carson, William T. Vollmann and others have contributed to the publication. Read more
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Will a screenwriter ever win the Nobel Prize for literature?
The Nobel Prize began in 1901, and 120 years — and several hundred thousand movies — later, no writer whose primary work is for the screen has been awarded the top literary prize on Earth. Read more
Three Men Win Million-Euro Literary Prize Having Posed as Female Author
Speculation on the identity of one of Spain’s most prominent crime thriller writers, who wrote under the name Carmen Mola, ended on Friday when three men rose to accept the 2021 Premio Planeta literary prize — worth one million-euros — for Mola’s currently unreleased work “The Beast.” Read more
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Sally Rooney Declines to Sell Translation Rights to Israeli Publisher
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney said on Tuesday that she would not allow the Israeli publishing house that handled her previous novels to publish her most recent book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You,” because of her support for Palestinian people and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Read more
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Sue Grafton’s Alphabet Novels to Be Adapted for Television
A TV adaptation of the late Sue Grafton’s million-selling Kinsey Millhone mystery novels, a prospect the author once swore she would return from the dead to prevent, is now in the works. Read more
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