Studies find that people are finding more time to read and their brains basically can’t process books anymore
Ahh, the age-old conundrum. According to the Guardian, a survey of 1,000 people in the UK claim that their reading time has nearly doubled, that is from 3.5 hours a… Read more »
Hemingway look-alike competition cancelled
In unsurprising but nevertheless noteworthy news, the 40th annual Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest has been cancelled. The competition, which is run by a bar called Sloppy Joe’s, will be rescheduled… Read more »
Looks like everyone suddenly found time to finish that novel
Agents are reporting an inundation of submissions in recent days. As told to the Guardian: Literary agent Juliet Mushens, of the Caskie Mushens agency, usually receives between 10 and 15… Read more »
BookExpo is rescheduling for late July
Shelf Awareness and Publisher’s Weekly are reporting that BookExpo, Unbound and BookCon have moved their May 27-31 convention to July 22-26. This is a bullish and heartening response from the… Read more »
IndieBound tells us how to keep support indies during the outbreak
Times are tough—not just tough, but terribly uncertain. But some things remain unchanged, and one of them is that we are never going to stop championing independent bookstores. So with… Read more »
Edmund de Waal mourns lost British libraries in latest installation
Contemporary artist Edmund de Waal, known mostly for his installations of row upon row of porcelain vessels, has a new installation on view at the British Museum. This time around,… Read more »
PenguinTeen goes viral on TikTok and you are now officially old
Hello, everyone. We come to you this bright Monday morning to sit you down and remind you of your advancing age and terminally increasing lethargy. Grab a coffee—let’s break it… Read more »
Mary Beard was vetoed as British Museum trustee for her politics
Mary Beard, the famed classicist, Cambridge don, and author of reader favorites like SPQR and Women & Power was rejected by the UK government as an appointee to the board… Read more »
Parents are upset that kids are upset by climate change books
In a recent piece in the Guardian, Patrick Barkham writes up what he calls the “Greta Thunberg effect”—the creation of a new canon of children’s books about climate change, which… Read more »
Bespoke subscription book service? Sure, why not!
The Guardian wrote a piece about Heywood Hill bookshop, a posh-sounding British bookshop (I’m sure I didn’t use that word right—“posh” that is, not “bookshop”) that once employed Nancy Mitford… Read more »