U.S. copyright law protects all kinds of creative material, but recipe creators are mostly powerless in an age and a business that are all about sharing. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Category: Miscellaneous
Playwright Is in Exile as Cuba Uses an Old Playbook to Quash Dissent
Yunior García, a rising star of the Cuban protest movement, fled to Spain. He is one of a young generation of artists who say they have chosen exile over imprisonment. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Einstein manuscript with relativity calculations sold for more than $13M at Paris auction
A rare manuscript featuring early calculations that led to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity sold for just over $13 million at an auction in Paris Tuesday, becoming the most expensive manuscript by the famed scientist. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Tolkien estate blocks ‘JRR Token’ cryptocurrency
The Road might go “ever on and on” for Bilbo Baggins, but it has come to a sharp end for the developer of a cryptocurrency called JRR Token, after the estate of JRR Tolkien took legal action to block it. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
How Memphis Created the Nation’s Most Innovative Public Library
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
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
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
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
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
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
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
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
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
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
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
