Al Saqi, a literary institution that opened in 1978, will close at the end of 2022. One of the owners: "You'd meet Arabs in London, and they would say, when I - when my family visits from abroad, I take them to Big Ben and to Al Saqi Books." - NPR
Quote from the people who have lived there for some time: "We are not tenants, we have a major share in the house and have put in hundreds of thousands of pounds of our own money. ... It’s our home and we have no plans to move." - LitHub
We tend to imagine the memoirist as a naive spiller of information about their life, as in religious confession, rather than the intentional constructor of a narrative. - The Atlantic
Either way, here’s what I know: I’m tired of losing outlets to conglomeration. I’m tired of culture being under siege because of money, of corporations and the wealthy buying platforms and destroying them just because they can. - Los Angeles Times
In ancient India, the grammarian Pāṇini developed a set of rules that basically constitute an algorithm, allowing any word or phrase to be coined in perfect Sanskrit. But modern scholars could never figure out Pāṇini's instruction on what to do if rules conflict — until a Ph.D, student's eureka moment. - Vice
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has documented many of the words that these new communities of English speakers have added to the vocabulary. - The Guardian
"The outcome of the strike, which began Nov. 10, ... may have a ripple effect on jobs across the publishing industry. Its impact may be seen in the quantity and diversity of books that are published for years to come." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"Some prisons have organized their own literary prizes, but the inmates' Goncourt" — Goncourt des détenus, as it's called in French — "is unprecedented in size and reach, with about 500 people detained in 31 prisons taking part. It is also prominently backed and promoted by the French government." - The New York Times
I understand that handwriting imprints the memory better — I notice it even in adulthood — but I am skeptical that there is a reason the handwriting is better done in cursive. - The New York Times
"For all their informal organisation, these virtual reading groups led by a famous figurehead have emerged as a driving force within the publishing industry, and a factor in many of its biggest recent successes." - The Guardian
"The question of alphabet reform is hardly new for these countries — over the last 150 years, Kazakh has been written in Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic, each prevailing at different points in the language's history," depending on the imperial ruler. The same is true for Uzbek, Turkmen, and Kyrgyz. - JSTOR Daily
Basically, nobody can figure them out: the Times rankings frequently don't match publicly available sales figures, and while the paper says it uses various sources and formulas to keep bulk purchasers from gaming the lists, nobody knows what those are. Speculation that some editorial bias is involved is rife. - Esquire
Just days after its parent company, Artforum International, was acquired by Penske Media, the literary journal announced that the current issue is its last. Among the other titles owned by Penske are ARTnews, Art in America, Billboard, Rolling Stone, IndieWIRE, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter. - TheWrap
Since all reading at that time occurred out loud rather than inside one’s head, the study rooms were a modern librarian’s nightmare: no one seemed to understand the requirement to shush. Silent reading, when it eventually arrived, seemed highly suspect and slightly sneaky. - The Guardian
