When Luís Soriano began teaching, he saw that his students made little progress — and ultimately realized that, in their isolated homes, they had no books. For 20 years, he and his donkeys have traveled for hours each day to bring books to those kids. - Atlas Obscura
It was a scary path. "Archaeologists placed the 'conglomeration' of squashed pages, leather and turf in a walk-in cold store in the museum at 4C. But there was no manual in the world to guide Gillis on how to go about the task." - The Guardian (UK)
The novelist, who says it doesn't get any easier no matter how many you've written, has a few tips like, well, write what you know; stop drinking so much; and use his "patented technique called WNW." - LitHub
Following up on pledges made during protests in 2020, Penguin Random House did a self-audit for diversity. What it found: "The demographics of its authors, illustrators, translators, and other creators 'do not reflect U.S. reader demographics when it comes to race and ethnicity.'" - Publishers Weekly
The book's "widespread fame is relatively recent. Though Goodnight Moon was published in 1947, sales dropped low enough in 1951 that the book nearly went out of print—all because the children’s librarian of New York Public Library hated it." - LitHub
In 2020, both the United States and the United Kingdom saw their largest annual increases in over a decade — a worldwide paper shortage and a global shipping crisis mean they're having a difficult time keeping up with that demand. - CBC
Because younger people are starting to use it, lexicographers at Le Petit Robert added the pronoun iel (a portmanteau of il and elle). The education minister huffed on Twitter, "Inclusive writing is not the future of the French language," and one MP complained to the Académie Française. - AP
The price was $43.2 million, and the anonymous winner outbid an impromptu group of cryptocurrency players who raised money via blockchain over a few days and said they planned to put the document on public display. - Artnet
“We’re seeing an unprecedented volume of challenges. I’ve worked for ALA for 20 years, and I can’t recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis.” - Time
Historically, in America, the true strength of the Classics and of a Classical education has not been among the elite but among the rising middle class. - Los Angeles Review of Books
Mott's Hell of a Book won for fiction; Miles's All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack for nonfiction; Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club for young people's literature; Espada's Floaters for poetry, and Elisa Shua Dusapin's Winter in Sokcho for literature in translation. - AP
BookTok, as it's known, is an unusually lively corner of the mini-video app's subculture: the most popular reviewers can get a couple hundred thousand followers, the most watched videos rack up a million or more views, and yes, they can affect sales. - The Guardian
The particular crimes he's accused of this time are insulting Atatürk and making fun of the Turkish flag in his latest novel, Nights of Plague. A judge in Istanbul had rejected the case, but the attorney who brought the charges successfully appealed. - The Guardian
Over the course of fifteen years, until his death in 1613, Bodley would oversee the transformation of Oxford’s library from this empty shell to the finest institutional library in Europe. - LitHub
From the start of World War I, for about 50 years, scientists and the government were convinced that using another language alongside English decreased brain function as well as making one less than fully American. Finally we're getting to understand why and how that's not true. - Literary Hub
