The man who invented the deep state "wasn’t just a writer and soldier. He was an anti-communist intelligence operative who helped define U.S. psychological operations, or psyops, during World War II and the Cold War. His essential insight was that the most effective psychological warfare is storytelling.” - The Atlantic
In honor of yesterday’s Independent Bookstore Day (which, of course, we could all celebrate every day), here’s a visual analysis of some of the bookstores of New York. - The New York Times
"Court etiquette of the Sengoku era, as well as the gender politics of the time, mean a lot of things cannot be said explicitly. Even if you speak the same language as someone, you can never fully know them, and yet you all have to work together." - Vulture
Until approximately the tenth century, when the practice of silent reading expanded thanks to the invention of punctuation, reading was synonymous with reading aloud. Silent reading was terribly strange, and, frankly, missed the point of sharing words to entertain, educate, and bond. - The Atlantic
The DOJ’s lawyer collected data on 58,000 titles published in a year and discovered that 90 percent of them sold fewer than 2,000 copies and 50 percent sold less than a dozen copies. - The Elysian
"Chicago-based firm Global Tetrahedron — which shares a name with a mock corporation that served as a long-running gag on the satirical news site and was featured in its staffers’ 1999 book Our Dumb Century — has purchased The Onion (from) G/O Media." - HuffPost
The rewriting of old books is hardly a new practice, though it’s one that critics often like to complain about. Doesn’t anyone have an original idea? Can’t we just leave the classics alone? - The New York Times
"Today Dallas is home to one of the most dynamic, international literary scenes in the country, inspired in many ways by the infectious, D.I.Y. energy of Deep Vellum, now one of the country’s largest publishers of translated literature, and (independent bookstore) Wild Detectives." - The New York Times
"Minnesota is one of several Democratic-leaning states where lawmakers are now pursuing bans on book bans. The Washington and Maryland legislatures have passed them this year; Illinois did so last year. It was a major flashpoint of Oregon’s short session, where legislation passed the Senate but died without a House vote." - AP
"Delegates from the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska sought the return of five items, including a 170-year-old clan house partition. … One Tlingit and Haida cultural resource officer (said) that the Denver Art Museum was 'probably the worst museum' they had dealt with." - Alaska Public Media
Another meaning of the word “magazine” is a store of munitions. My own addition to the arsenal of the free press, Standpoint, was founded in 2008. I was editor for just over a decade, during which we made the magazine essential reading across the political and cultural spectrum. - The Critic
Publishers, writers, and progressive organizations across the children’s book industry aren’t letting the book bans hold them back. Instead, they’re turning the bans into a rallying cry to publish even more diverse characters and points of view. - Fast Company
"Facing widespread unhappiness over its response to the Israel-Hamas war, the writers’ group PEN America has called off its annual awards ceremony. Dozens of nominees had dropped out of the event, which was to have taken place next week." - AP
Many of them gleefully share misinformation or repackage basic facts from WikiHow behind a title that’s been search-engine-optimized to hell and back again. Some of them even steal the names of well-established existing authors and masquerade as new releases from those writers. - Vox
“His reaction to The Magic Eye showed Kubrick’s image-control obsessions taken to extremes. He didn’t just make edits – he erased the entire project.” But now, after the director's death, Neil Hornick's 55-year-old manuscript has been prepared for publication. - The Observer (UK)
