Category: words

“Recent figures showed the number of independent bookshops in the UK has dropped below 1,000 for the first time; the rise of Amazon and e-books, and the decline of many British high streets has pushed the figure down to just 987.”

“The Golden Age of comics was chock-full of angry, violent male superheroes, so Marston created an alternative. He believed that women were superior to men, and that they would soon take over the world and usher in an age of peaceful matriarchy. Wonder Woman was his way to prepare young minds for the idea of a strong, capable woman, so as to better facilitate the coming matriarchy.”

“There was the shy bookworm my mother described, and the charismatic young literary star who drank with F. Scott Fitzgerald my uncle remembered being told stories about. The Skull and Bones member. The World War II spy. The man who took Carl Jung’s hand at an open window in his study and astral projected over the skies of Manhattan. The short-tempered redhead. The gay, closeted alcoholic. The failed poet. The fading not-quite retiree who read manuscripts at his apartment on 96th Street until he died.”

It’s an interesting cultural moment: on the one hand, the self-appointed cyberhustler experts in the “future of news” spend their time mocking the fustiness of old media; on the other hand, a star online destination wants to sound more like one of its paper-based predecessors.

Not only that, argues Stefan Fatsis, but the contest was won by the equivalent of ballot-stuffing.

A better parallel, suggests Noah Berlatsky, is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

“Among a sample of South Texas teens, those who read ‘banned books’ were more likely to be engaged in civic activities such as volunteer work.”

It’s the 100,000-Euro Impac Dublin Literary Prize. The 10 shortlisted books were nominated by libraries in 39 countries – including Australia, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and South Africa.

“Bathed in the rainbow-colored light of an old Baghdadi window, Ali al-Makhzomy explained his plan to get technology-obsessed young Iraqis to read books – old-fashioned books, with pages.” He says, “We really want Baghdad in the 1930s or ’40s or ’50s to return. It was more civilized. How do we know? We read about it.”

“She loved lightning. It wasn’t her favorite weapon – fire was, or knives. But lightning has a brutal, beautiful efficiency, and she used it to good effect, once frying alive a pair of lovers. Lightning seemed to seek her out, too. It struck her houses repeatedly, and on one occasion caused a nearby bell tower to come crashing down into her bathroom.”