"The elimination of Maus from a Tennessee county language arts curriculum does not live up to its more hysterical billing. It is not a ban, and it does not seem to be motivated by outright bigotry." However: There's something far more sinister on the horizon. - Slate
"In Wordle, your own language skills, memory, and the Wordle dictionary mean that no human (with the possible exception of an eccentric memory champ) could correctly identify 12,972 eligible words in as many guesses." - Slate
Even as international travel restrictions are being lifted, some writers say they will continue to carry on with virtual events because they are more convenient and accessible. They say this has the additional benefit of leaving them with more time to focus on their craft. - BBC
Four scholars offer their answers in a roundtable — including the observation that, in the rare instances when that does happen, the book itself isn't always very good. (Also, no cheating by calling the King James Bible literature.) - History Today
"That Ulysses was an event nearly everyone will agree. However, can we say even now, a century later, what kind of event it really was in Irish or world literary terms? And is Ulysses really a novel at all in any case?" - Dublin Review of Books
The Betrayal of Anne Frank, by Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan, released on Jan. 18, caused a sensation when it said investigators had named Arnold van den Bergh as the main suspect. Other researchers later criticized the findings, saying they were "full of errors." - CBC
The response of artists and writers was to remake their work: a way of seeking either to control the strange and uncontrollable, or simply to portray it more truthfully. - BBC
Says one puzzle constructor, "It becomes an endless series of judgment calls. Is this slang term offensive? Is that world leader merely unpleasant, or too toxic to even mention?" Adds one maven, "You have this responsibility to be aware of what it is that you're feeding those people." - Kotaku
The book, “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” by the author “Dillon His Self,” had drawn so much attention by the end of January that 56 people were on the waiting list to check it out, said Alex Hartman, the manager of the library branch. - The New York Times
It wasn't hard to identify Filippo Bernardini once the FBI got involved; he didn't cover his email tracks very well. But none of the unpublished work he stole ever appeared on the black market, where it would have been nearly worthless anyway. So what was his motivation? - The New Republic
As a Black author, what do I do with the knowledge that the cruel and senseless murder of a Black human being led to an increased interest in books by Black authors like myself? And why do Black people need to be brutalized and even killed so publicly and so horrifically before some entities decide that Black stories are...
"As the pandemic has spurred an entrepreneurship boom, many public libraries have stepped in to meet a growing need among new business owners, particularly those without the resources to seek paid help," such as people without a high school degree and the formerly incarcerated. - Bloomberg CityLab
The newspaper said that it paid an amount "in the low seven figures" for the game, which was released in October and gained hundreds of thousands of players within three months. The Times says that Wordle will remain free to users. - Ars Technica
Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall. - The New York Times
