"Written in Montreal in 1956 – the year Cohen published his first poetry collection – A Ballet of Lepers focuses on 'toxic relationships and the lengths one will go to maintain them'." - The Guardian
In the mid-15th century, the mass production born of Gutenberg’s press began to make the index a regular feature of the bound book. But its very ubiquity — and very utility — would make it an intellectual flash point. - The New York Times
A new CBS News poll offers data that should prod Democrats into rethinking these culture-war battles. It finds that surprisingly large majorities oppose banning books on history or race — and importantly, this is partly because teaching about our racial past makes students more understanding of others’ historical experiences. - Washington Post
Having come of age at a time of unprecedented prosperity and opportunity, many have been spoiled and are referred to as “little emperors,” doted upon by their parents, kitted out in designer labels, and free to think only about themselves. - LitHub
As a literary critic, Gates made an impact on the field by helping to establish a canon of African American literature—one that was neither separatist nor a mere appendage to the traditional, white canon. - The New Yorker
Two teams of forensic linguists say their analysis of the Q texts shows that Paul Furber, one of the first online commentators to call attention to the earliest messages, actually played the lead role in writing them. - The New York Times
"As with any compartmentalizing of genre, there is something in the title that implies a diminishment, as if today, as in ancient Greece, the act of eating were too frivolous to be worthy of serious meditation." - T — The New York Times Style Magazine
"As far as the journalistic establishment was concerned, crosswords were another mindless fad used (by tabloids) as a substitute for good editorial, to keep readers coming back — much like BuzzFeed quizzes were in the 2010s." Yet the ways that establishment described the effect of crosswords were tabloidesque. - The Big Think
What happens when a press does more than increase its roster of writers of colour? What happens when diversity is built into its very structure? Mémoire d’encrier suggests that the results can be transformative. - The Walrus
The Shakespeare and Company Project is a relational database and web application. The Project uses documents from the Sylvia Beach Papers at Princeton University Library and other libraries to give researchers and the general public access to the world of Shakespeare and Company. - Cultural Analytics
Tom Engelhardt, then at Pantheon Books: "The feeling that I simply had to do Maus was one of the two least rational decisions I ever made in publishing. … In some gut way, I simply knew that a world without this book would be a lesser place." - TomDispatch
“It seemed too soon to be writing about the pandemic, which we were living through, but it also seemed hard to be writing about anything else. If it’s set now, it has to be part of the story.” - The New York Times
It is perhaps true that blurbs are rarely the deciding factor. Most likely a potential reader has heard word of mouth recommendations, read reviews, or simply seen the cover all over the place before they even pick up the book to see the blurbs. But that’s actually the point. - Countercraft
The academic insistence on using bibliographic citation techniques developed for the printing press feels increasingly eccentric now that reading materials and essays exist in a digital (and therefore interconnected) form. The norms concerning what counts as a credible source, or a legitimate quotation or paraphrase, have been under pressure for some time. - London Review of Books
Developers have a little thing about looking at source script - "the digital equivalent of popping open the hood to see what’s underneath." - Make Zine
