“Te reo is undergoing a revival in New Zealand, with jam-packed classes and waiting lists now common. Māori language teachers from Auckland in the North Island to Dunedin and Invercargill in the South say they are unable to meet demand for their services and free classes routinely draw hundreds of students.”
Category: words
Think You Have A Book In You Yearning To Be Free? Naaah.
“A story may be things that happened, embellished for interest, but that’s not a book. Many stories don’t get good until the end. Some stories — true ones even — are hard to believe. Other stories are just too short, don’t have enough tension, or frankly aren’t that interesting. The stories we tell that enrapture our friends and families may be extraordinarily boring to those who don’t know us. Those stories are not a book.”
What’s Being Lost As English Conquers The World
“Because English is increasingly the currency of the universal, it is difficult to express any opposition to its hegemony that doesn’t appear to be tainted by either nationalism or snobbery. … [Yet English] draws the same circle Humboldt described around its speakers as each of the other 6,000 human languages. The difference is that we have mistaken that circle for the world.”
Translation Matters
History is littered with more consequential mistranslations — erroneous, intentional or simply misunderstood. For a job that often involves endless hours poring over books or laptop screens, translation can prove surprisingly hazardous.
Study: Do Sci-Fi Readers Make Better Lovers?
The cliché of fans of these genres being lonely geeks is clearly mistaken. No doubt they have difficulties with relationships like everyone else. But it apparently helps to have J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin as your unofficial couples counselor.
Remains Of 1,800-Year-Old Library Discovered In Cologne
The walls of the structure, which dates to the second century, included niches for storing several thousand scrolls. Access to the ruins will be preserved when the construction project that unearthed them is complete.
A Graphic Novel In The Man Booker Competition? It’s About Time
At the end of the day, the inclusion of “Sabrina” on the Man Booker long list is far from an insult to novel-writing or the written word. Rather, it’s a forward-looking acknowledgment that the literary world is changing, and that art can take unexpected forms.
Publishing Sales Up 5.5 Percent In 2018
The strongest performing trade format was downloadable audio, where sales jumped 36.1%. Sales of physical audio, however, continued to struggle; they were down 11.4% in the four month period. Hardcover sales rose 11.8% in the period, and trade paperback and mass market paperback sales inched ahead 1.4%. In a bit of a surprise, sales of board books, which had been growing quickly, fell 5.5%.
Most Academic Texts Aren’t Written To Be Read. Why?
“After I earned my doctorate in 2015, I was left with a persistent disquiet about how people read and write in higher education. Because gutting or breaking a book easily is only possible if books are written in a way that allows them to be gutted easily.”
A Literary Agent Wants You To Know That You Really Do Not ‘Have A Book In You’
Ouch, but also, too real: “Every story is not a book. A story may be things that happened, embellished for interest, but that’s not a book. Many stories don’t get good until the end. Some stories — true ones even — are hard to believe. Other stories are just too short, don’t have enough tension, or frankly aren’t that interesting. The stories we tell that enrapture our friends and families may be extraordinarily boring to those who don’t know us. Those stories are not a book.”
