To be looking for bigger or better words is thought to be pretentious. But why? Isn’t it better to be able to communicate with more precision? – The Outline
Category: words
A Small Quirky Library Of Manuscripts Conceived In A Literary Dream
The 300-plus volumes in the Richard Brautigan Library are private creations made publicly accessible, thanks to an impractical fictional concept that became an impractical reality, and resisted oblivion through persistence, grief and — in true Brautigan fashion — a series of odd, benevolent coincidences. – Seattle Times
Why Some Writers Reject Writing On Computers
The reason these writers choose old-school tools is that when it comes to writing, computers are too efficient and make changing things too easy, and this ease can slow things down. Writing by hand allows writers who pen their drafts to proceed in a linear fashion rather than continually being tempted to rearrange words on the screen before they know precisely where the story is going. – Quartz
The Joy – And Reality – Of The American Library In Paris
If you’re an English-speaker jaded about the City of Lights, head to the library. “As I learned more about the American Library and its place in the history of literary Paris, I recovered some long-repudiated belief in the city’s magnetic pull and inspirational force. Conjuring scenes of my old heroes in the library’s reading rooms made me swoon all over again, decades after their work first moved me.” – LitHub
What Britons (Of All Races) Talk About When They Talk About Black People
Jeffrey Boakye: “The Cool Black Myth helps the white mainstream to understand and handle black identity. There’s something enigmatic about blackness that, coupled with the illicit appeal of black culture, makes black people seem cool by default, without even really trying.” – The Guardian (UK)
Two Decades Of A Publisher, And Now Bookstore, Of One’s Own
London is book-focused enough that, mirroring almost exactly the rise of Amazon, Persephone, a publisher (and recently a bookstore too) that focuses on forgotten early and mid-20th-century books by women, has been thriving. “The idea at the beginning was that if you like one of our books, you’ll like them all. … That has worked almost entirely. It’s quite rare for someone to dislike any of the books. I hate to use the word brand, but we are something of a brand.” – The New York Times
Author Beverly Cleary Just Turned 103, And Her Most Important Creation Helps Kids And Adults Make Sense Of The World
Ramona Quimby “is a plain girl in the suburbs. Nothing remarkable happens to her, no one notices her particularly, nor does she have the power to make her own magic.” And yet. – LitHub
Happy National Poetry Month, And Please Enjoy These Cat Poems
Apparently, cat poems are a thing, and LitHub wants you to know that the cats did not write the poems (in case anyone was confused). The list starts with the 18th century English poet Christopher Smart’s “in-depth, ecstatic, truly ludicrous and wonderful consideration of his cat, whose name is Jeoffry.” – LitHub
The Winners Of The LA Times Book Prizes Cover Today’s Hot Topics
And also the hot topics of 80 years ago. While Rebecca Makkai won best novel for The Great Believers, “Julia Boyd won the History prize for chronicling the Nazi party’s ascent to power in Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism 1919-1945, a project that relied heavily on nearly century-old pieces of paper. ‘For anyone out there who has a box of letters in their attic and is thinking of throwing it out, don’t. Please,’ Boyd said.” – Los Angeles Times
Mark Redhill: The Trap Doors That Make Good Poetry
“Poetry has an inherent ability to not be linear, not be logical, be at times more about sound or suggestion than about direct meaning. This sounds a little bit like how the logic of dreams work.” – Toronto Star