Category: words

“Chanson Douce, [Leïla Slimani’s] second novel, sold six hundred thousand copies in its first year of publication, making Slimani, who lives in Paris, the most-read author in France in 2016. Elle put her on the cover, in red lipstick and a jumpsuit: ‘leïla slimani superstar.’ Politicians of varying persuasions clambered to reheat themselves in her glow. … Emmanuel Macron, now France’s President, reportedly invited her to be his minister of culture. ‘I love my freedom too much,’ she told me when I asked about it.”

Samantha Ellis argues that the March sisters end up squelching themselves as they marry (except, of course, for the one who ends up dead), and each of the sequels, starting with the immediate one (Good Wives) is harder than the last. And this could all be quite deliberate on the part of Louisa May Alcott, who never wanted to write Little Women in the first place.

According to new figures from the Booksellers Association, in 2017 the number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland grew, rather than shrank, for the first time since 1995. The growth is minuscule – this year, the total number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland increased to 868 stores, up one on 2016 – but the BA believes that independent booksellers’ “fortunes are reversing”, ending the yearly decline recorded since 1995, when numbers stood at 1,894.

“Words are really not so different from sofas and armchairs. They are external objects that do things in the world and, like other objects, they produce effects in our brains and thus eventually, through us, in the world. The only real difference is that, when it comes to what we call thinking, words are an awful lot easier to juggle around and rearrange than bits of furniture.”

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was turned down 121 times by publishers; Stephen King’s Carrie, 30 times; Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, 36; Catch-22, 22 times (of course). Emily Temple’s list includes other surprising titles – including (!) The Diary of Anne Frank.

Unlike the Mayans, the Incas never developed a system of writing: they recorded information in intricately knotted and colored sets of string called khipu or quipu. No one in the modern age has been able to figure out how to read them, because there’s no equivalent of the Rosetta Stone. Then, three years ago, then-19-year-old Manny Medrano made a key discovery.

“Unless you’re just about to board, bookshop browsing can be a deeper and more untethered exercise than other kinds of shopping. Just opening a book and reading a few lines can draw you partly into another world, one you might not have planned to visit. According to Vancouver publishing consultant Thad McIlroy, only 40 percent of bookstore purchases are premeditated. All the rest are decided on impulse.”

“The entire fate of the Taushiro people now lies with its last speaker, a person who never expected such a burden and has spent much of his life overwhelmed by it.”

Does anything top the Christmas feast in James Joyce’s short story “The Dead”? Well, maybe if you like Turkish Delight – or perhaps, as in Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes, a Pavlova.

The owner, who was just awarded a $50,000 Knight grant to expand the store: “I’m committed to helping comic book creators perfect their craft, partnering with artists, editors and writers in helping them figure out what can make their art stand out. Many of these creators haven’t had the same opportunities as other artists. There will be a new multipurpose room, which will serve as a space for a creator college. You have to be knowledgeable if you’re pitching comics to people.”