Category: words

And are they OK for the brain? Some studies show that people retain information from a printed page much more than from an audiobook. “it might be that the particular cadences and timbre of an actor’s voice in audiobooks provide musical information that helps longer-term recall, just as the visual and tactile information of where a passage lies in a printed book can.” – The Guardian (UK)

In her new bookstore in Chicago – the only one owned by a Black woman – owner and curator DL Mullen has more than books. “What might be most visually striking about the space is the art itself, like the mural which dominates the shop’s north wall. Street artist Ahmad Lee painted it in one 11-hour stretch, vividly depicting two of Mullen’s favorite artists: Frida Kahlo and Jean-Michel Basquiat.” There’s more art upstairs, and the books are also curated in a grand book and art experiment. – Chicago Magazine

Cressida Cowell, laureate for children’s literature and a writer whose fame has greatly benefitted from film and TV, says, “Books are a kind of transformative magic that offer magical things that films aren’t as good at creating in children: empathy, creativity and intelligence.” – The Guardian (UK)

Ouch, why did you have to zing all of us who have ever been on vacation, NYT? – The New York Times

Her work, much of which is being reissued, is still incredibly relevant. “A crucial idea in Murdoch’s fiction is the reality of others, a material fact that we are confronted with daily but, in our innermost selves, seem hardly able to grasp. We glimpse them in continually evolving contexts inflected with our own agendas, which may also remain mysterious to us.” – The Guardian (UK)

“It turns out that language has a much more powerful role to play in ecological survival than just describing [today’s] disturbing environmental outlook.” For example, the languages of indigenous peoples are often full of information about the natural world that urbanized folk overlook. “And if we can effectively use language to help to save the natural world, well, language may also end up saving itself.” – JSTOR Daily

In 2004, six-year-old Alex Malarkey’s skull and spine were separated in an automobile accident and he spent months in a coma. Six years later, his father (who was driving at the time) published, with himself and Alex listed as co-authors, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, an account of the visions of (Christian) heaven Alex had while in the coma and afterward, and it became a major bestseller. Six more years later, Alex (still a quadriplegic) turned 18, said that nothing in the book was true, and sued the publisher. Journalist Ruth Graham talks to Alex, both his parents, and others about the writing and publication of the book and the messy family history behind it. – Slate

Karl Ove Knausgård devoted several autobiographical volumes to everyday failures in My Struggle, and since then there has been a deluge of ‘fail-lit’, both in fiction and non-fiction. Could failure be the new literary success? And if so, doesn’t that mean it’s not really failure at all? – BBC

“She felt poetry might be able to help mend some of the divisions that the election had highlighted. Her plan was this: to put together a collection of poems from living poets, called American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, that she felt were in some way relevant to our moment, and to hit the road — visiting community centers, senior centers, prisons, and colleges.” (audio) – The New Yorker Radio Hour