"With more than 77 billion views globally to date, TikTok's collection of literary-minded creators and clips, ... (has) (a lot of) drama, much of which has practical implications for the book world and beyond.... Here's a look back on the biggest, baddest, and oddest BookTok controversies of the year." - Vulture
"The conflict is spawning a new lexicon. Some of the words and phrases that have entered wider usage in Ukrainian society date back to the beginning of the war in 2014, others to ... Soviet-era military slang that has become popularised again, and others are entirely new coinages." - The Guardian
The return of shoppers to physical retailers was good news for bookstores. ABA reported a record number of members, while Barnes & Noble began opening new outlets in the year and expects to open 30 new stores in 2023. Total bookstore sales through October were up 7.5% over the comparable period in 2021. - Publishers Weekly
"The crusade against Gender Queer has largely driven its popularity and increased the size of (Maia) Kobabe's royalty checks. The memoir has sold more than 96,000 copies and has been translated into Spanish, French, Polish and other languages. It's on the racks in airports." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
I figured, Hey, if I don’t know what to write, I’ll just pop something in there and it will get me going, and I’ll be right back into the book I left a week ago. It didn’t quite work out that way. - The Verge
The adult protagonist has become a rare figure in American children’s books. With a few notable exceptions most children’s books today are deeply child-centric. - The New York Times
"Some of The Guardian's tech infrastructure and 'behind-the-scenes services' have been impacted, according to the publication. Employees were asked to work from home for the remainder of the week. The Guardian has still been able to publish stories on its website and app." - Endgadget
Instead of writing boilerplate corporate memos, managers will soon assign them to bots. Insight and beauty are still rare, but serviceable prose isn’t. - Virginia Postrel
Since 2019, Ms. Hager, 41, has highlighted nearly 50 books as part of her “Read With Jenna” book club promoted on “Today.” Most became chart-toppers almost immediately, selling over a million print copies in total. Since fall 2021, Ms. Hager’s picks have outpaced the overall adult fiction market by almost 60 percent. - The New York Times
You can tell it to write a 500-word essay about “The Great Gatsby” or the Spanish Inquisition. So I did what any masochistic tech journalist would: I pulled a “Billy Madison” and went back to school. - The Wall Street Journal
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... All right, it was mostly still the worst of times." LitHub looks back at the publishing giants' blocked mega-merger, the strike at the other publishing giant, a horrifying attempted murder, and everyone's favorite new word game. - Literary Hub
Detached from agency, the meanings of new terms drift. Nonprofit organizations alert supporters to “donation opportunities,” though “a chance to give” has half the syllables. Now, “donation opportunity” may also mean the organization’s chance to land a gift from a donor. - Hedgehog Review
This month saw the inauguration of Jashn-e-Rekhta, an annual three-day festival devoted to Urdu verse, old and new. Attendance was over 300,000 —notwithstanding the fact that Urdu, while very, very closely related to Hindi, is commonly associated with Islam in a country awash in Hindu nationalism. - The New York Times
When someone talks about a “good writer,” the phrase suggests a way with words, an ear for rhythm, maybe even a structural vision. But often the phrase means more than that. - LitHub
"(Robin Miles) has been the voice of the Antiguan American novelist Jamaica Kincaid, the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Russian journalist Yelena Khanga, and the Californian Vice-President Kamala Harris. On this day, she voiced both sides of a conversation between New York and London." - The New Yorker
