The most obvious is that, for the first time, all are by writers of colour. A glimpse between their covers reveals something else though. Namely, an embrace of magical realism and the unsettling that have been a feature of mainstream Canadian and international fiction for a while now. - The Globe & Mail (Canada)
"Where a mens' retailer once stood in the boutique clothing and cafe mecca of Little Collins Street, changing rooms have been transformed into cozy mirrored reading booths. ... (These are) areas that were aching for some love following the crippling impact of six lockdowns over 19 months." - Bloomberg CityLab
"(It's) like staining all the color out of our words, and it happens with overuse. Another way to describe it is supply and demand. When we use a word too much and there are too many excellents and beautifuls floating around, each becomes less valuable." - Literary Hub
"This will adapt the book industry to the digital era by restoring an equilibrium between large e-commerce platforms, which offer virtually free delivery for books," said a government statement "The €3 delivery fee is not dissuasive for book buyers and the €35 threshold will favour grouped orders." - Euronews
The actor, who died in 2016, kept impeccable diaries with sketches and accountings. About the first Harry Potter: "The film should only be seen on a big screen. It acquires a scale and depth that matches the hideous score by John Williams." - The Guardian (UK)
"By 1999 I’d gone through 15 years of formal education, including a three-year English degree, without ever being given a book to study that made any reference whatsoever to the presence of individuals like me in the country in which I was born." - The Guardian (UK)
Of course, it's a win after a long fight. "Amazon has done the right thing for once! In this case, the right thing is closing a loophole revealed by a TikTok about 'reading hacks.'" - LitHub
"Booksellers are lucky, because we get to sell whatever we want to sell. So we can sell the banned books, but what they're doing to schools and libraries, for that generation coming up ... is not the right way to go." - NPR
"Scary books give children the tools to deal with fear off the page. ... Banning books shuts that gateway to the good and the bad, the funny and the terrifying, and the knowledge that difficult paths may lead to happy endings." - The Atlantic
"A staggering 82 to 97 percent of book challenges go unreported on. That means these books, the overwhelming majority, don't even make it beyond the school-board minutes and into the local paper. And this question of how much attention a book gets ... is a crucial factor." - MSN (The Atlantic)
Books carry knowledge, and knowledge is power, which makes books a threat to authorities – governments and self-appointed leaders alike – who want to have a monopoly on knowledge and to control what their citizens think. And the most efficient way to exert this power over books is to ban them. - BBC
It’s ironic. Texting was meant to make communication easier, but it can be much harder to discern someone’s tone over text, especially with inflections as subtle as sarcasm. - Prospect
"Ordering a coffee in a foreign country or translating lyrics can only do so much harm, but think about emergency situations involving firefighters, police, border patrol, or immigration. And without proper regulation and clear guidelines, it could get worse." - Slate
For instance, was there any connection between Gutenberg's first printing of the Bible in 1455 and the first known document ever printed, 77 years earlier in Korea? That's what a team of researchers assembled by UNESCO's International Center for Documentary Heritage is investigating. - Atlas Obscura
Remember, it's not only the right that sometimes wants to eliminate certain books from the curriculum. (Think of Huckleberry Finn, frequently condemned for its copious, period-accurate use of the n-word.) Deborah Appleman suggests approaches to keeping a text in the classroom while mitigating potential damage or controversy. - Literary Hub
