"Plans (are) to relaunch it in January as a parody of conspiracy theorists. 'Our goal in a couple of years is for people to think of Infowars as the funniest and dumbest website that exists,' said Ben Collins, The Onion’s CEO. 'It was previously the dumbest website that exists.'" - AP
Calkins’s critics say that her refusal to acknowledge the importance of phonics has tainted not just Units of Study—a reading and writing program that stretches up to eighth grade—but her entire educational philosophy, known as “balanced literacy. - The Atlantic (MSN)
Everyone seemed to know which books the term picked out, what the generic bones of the novel were, and why novels mattered. People talked about “the death of the novel” as though it could mark an inflection point in the history of civilization. - The New Yorker
In a classic case of life imitating parody, the liberal-leaning humor outlet ("America's Finest News Source") purchased Jones's conspiracy-mongering far-right website at a bankruptcy auction held to cover part of the $1.5 billion verdict Jones owes for slandering families of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims. - CNN
Even beyond social media, the internet seems to flatten prose. This is likely due to the distinct ways our brains interpret text – or, how they have been user-engineered to do so –when reading online. - Spike Art
Librarians around the country are struggling to reconcile their desire to serve their communities with their need for self-preservation, especially as libraries have become hubs for social services and battlegrounds for the culture wars. - The New York Times
"Harvey’s tale of six fictional astronauts on the International Space Station was 'unanimously' chosen as the winner after a 'proper day' considering the six-strong shortlist, according to the judging chair, the artist and author Edmund de Waal." - The Guardian
"As cultural detectives, they cast a wide net, creating a history for a nation that did not yet exist. The idea of one Germany was itself a fairy tale, a political construct shopping for an origin myth." - The American Scholar
The idea came as she was copying annotations she’d made for Tom Lake. “In the copying, I could see what I had done and what it was worth. Wouldn’t there be readers who would want to see a book taken apart in order to show how it had been put together?” - LitHub
Sure, the money’s on Percival Everett to win for his clever, excoriating James, but of the five others, four would also be worthy winners, and are worth your investment of money and/or time to read. - The Observer (UK)
“Probably there will always remain a snobbery about the optimistic; certainly there endures the belief that optimism is inherently naive.” But if you need that, buy these books in print now, we guess. - The Guardian (UK)
Sigrid Rausing: “When you’re working on a text there’s always a sense of loss when it’s done. But finishing the translation of a book by my best friend who had just died brought a much greater sense of loss, because I was no longer with her.” - The Guardian (UK)
Since the presidential election results became clear early Wednesday morning, Margaret Atwood's novel has been high on Amazon's list of top-selling books, as are Orwell’s 1984 and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. All three were popular during Trump's first term. - AP
