Category: words

“Regency historicals are filled with heroes disabled both physically and psychologically by the horrors of that battle, of heroines who lost brothers, husbands, fathers, and cousins, coping with a very different landscape than the one they were taught to navigate in.”

“In theory, the Librarian could do whatever he or she wants,” in terms of granting exemptions, says Jonathan Band, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who specializes in technology and intellectual property law. “They could be more aggressive and grant more exemptions and broader exemptions.”

“Wherever you are in the world, visiting a bookshop is always a treat – but with their numbers dwindling, independent stores that offer something unique are increasingly becoming a destination in themselves.”

“The heirs of Hergé, the creator of the popular Tintin comics, were dealt a crushing blow in Dutch court this week. In a shocking decision, the court ruled that they do not have the rights to the iconic boy reporter character.”

“Can a font inspire empathy, or any emotion for that matter, in those who read it? Research around typography’s emotional impact has always tried to measure subjective responses. Psychologists, curious to know how a typeface makes people feel, will often ask questions like: Does Comic Sans make you feel a) happy b) sad c) enraged?”

“Over the past decade, Kansas has cut 25 percent of its public school librarians. In many schools, librarians are being replaced by media clerks, who are paid hourly wages and may lack teaching credentials.”

Laura Dave: “The best thing I ever wrote might be in the trash. Still, I believe it’s a critical gamble. That, regardless of what is left behind, sometimes throwing out is the only way that I’ll get to the stories I was meant to write.”

Everyone knows that Wikipedia is huge, but it takes the physical book — still a “cognitively useful” unit of measure, Mr. Mandiberg said — to grasp just how huge.

And why didn’t anybody think of a word for it before now? And will this word catch on?

“In honor of Bloomsday – our annual and reverent celebration of James Joyce’s account of just another day in Dublin – we asked the staff at Kramerbooks in Washington, DC, to suggest some other fine books that take place over the course of a day.”