The annual deluge of year-end roundups is upon us, made even worse by the inevitable conscious coupling of decade-end lists! It’s gilding the lily, to be sure! It’s piling on!… Read more »

Reportedly, Mark Twain claimed to be the first author to use the typewriter, and his entire manuscript for Life on the Mississippi was submitted to the publisher in typeface. But, despite his… Read more »

So, is it worth shelling out the big bucks for a glorified typewriter?… Read more »

We have, over the years, had ample cause to ridicule a good number of faddish “book technologies,” each of which was certain to “change the nature of reading, at scale” or “revolutionize the… Read more »

Nicholas Wade at the New York Times wrote earlier this week about a groudbreaking archival project currently underway at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. If all… Read more »

A new biography of Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney is in the works, and its author is scrambling to save a treasure trove of ancient documents that will reveal many secrets. I refer,… Read more »

What are libraries for? Apparently, they’re tool storage facilities where people can also be at work. At least, that seems to be the understanding of Rebecca Stavick, executive director of Omaha, Nebraska’s… Read more »

Traditionally, if one wanted a book, one would walk or drive or take the train to the nearest bookstore, where they would make their selection, hand over a couple bills,… Read more »

Joan Didion famously wrote: We tell ourselves stories in order to live … We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder… Read more »

The New York Public Library has just released high-resolution versions of its massive collection of public domain images, all completely free of charge. Under the aegis of the library’s Public… Read more »