English alone counts for almost half the internet; add other European languages plus Chinese and Japanese and it's 95%. For other languages — even those like Arabic, Bengali, and Amharic used by many millions — AI tools have relatively tiny datasets to train on. Here are some people addressing that. - Deutsche Welle
"Some authors are using A.I. as a writing and editing assistant that can help them brainstorm, organize material, develop characters or create an outline. … Many in publishing are taking action to protect their work." - The New York Times
The board voted 4-1 to fire longtime library director Terri Lesley after months of tension surrounding her refusal to weed out the library’s shelves based on a vague new policy aimed at shielding children and teens from sexual content. - The Daily Beast
The opening ceremony, rather than being in a stadium, will be a parade of boats down the river through the city, and authorities say that about 570 (60%) of the bookstalls must be temporarily moved in order to provide adequate security. The stalls' proprietors are protesting vigorously. - The Guardian
Called 8th Note Press, the proposed entity seems to sit at the intersection of a major publisher and a site like Amazon or Goodreads, but with a social media twist. - The Walrus
Lawrence’s bristling, inflamed, impertinent language provides a reminder that criticism is not just the work of the brain, but of the gut and the spleen as well. The intellectual refinement of his argument is unthinkable without the churn of instinct and feeling beneath it.
There seems to be a transgressive quality to some translated fiction. Is that appealing? “That genre of ‘messed-up’ books has just exploded on TikTok.” - The Guardian
It's a temporary injunction, but still, "the executive director of Central Arkansas Library System, Nate Coulter, said the judge's 49-page decision recognized the law as censorship, a violation of the Constitution and wrongly maligning librarians." - NPR
After the leaks, "certain incidents began occurring that resembled the fictional action. ... A fight broke out during the mixed doubles tennis tournament. ... There were rumours of marital affairs. A complaint was made that the tennis players were too 'cosy' with yacht club members." - The Guardian (UK)
Charlie Jane Anders, formerly an active Twitter user, has some thoughts. "I wish we had a more robust book-o-sphere generally. The lifeblood of book culture is word-of-mouth and celebration of other people's stuff, and that doesn't have to happen in a sewer like Twitter." - Happy Dancing
In the nineteenth century, "The tears were a form of praise. The femaleness of response, though, became a negative." Until the trauma plot, and the meme "Do you even cry, bro?" - LitHub
It does feel a bit ironic, but it's good to have, for instance, Ukranian writer Vasily Eroshenko's "set of Esperanto fairy tales — stories about mice and flowers and paper lanterns — that are quaint on the surface but also scathing critiques of Western civilization’s deficiencies" in English. - Washington Post
Besides being a poetic masterpiece in its own right, ‘The Exaltation’ bears the distinction of being the first known work of literature that was attributed to an author whom we can identify in the historical record, rather than to an anonymous tradition or a fictional narrator. - Aeon
"NBP has been at the forefront of braille publishing since 1927. … Today, NBP produces and distributes braille books, reading materials, and technologies for the nation, with clients ranging from individual blind readers to the Library of Congress." - Publishers Weekly
The world-ending devastation of the first scathing review. The righteous indignation at the first three-star review. No one understands me. Are these people even literate? Am I even literate? It’s all too much; it doesn’t make you a better writer. Block the site and focus on your work. - The Guardian
