When police officers in NYC conducted a surprise overnight raid on Occupy Wall Street last fall, seizing thousands of books from the “People’s Library”—and then returned very few of them—I wanted to cry. No matter your politics, seizing and destroying books is a big no-no in my, ahem, book. And that’s why I’m thrilled that OWS is suing the city of New York.
Speaking of New York, my mom sent me this awesome visual library of New Yorkers reading on the subway.
I’m a nerd, so I loved this post about comma mistakes.
Here’s an interesting infographic about YA covers.
The Orange mobile services company has announced that it will no longer sponsor the Orange Prize, which annually awards the best female-authored English book.
An essay on A Model for the New Bookstore.
I was really struck by this essay about poets in Britain. I’ll definitely be looking up some of these collections.
Maile Meloy, one of my favorite short story writers, on J.D. Salinger.
And lastly, a discussion of whether or not J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series merits academic study. Detractors say no, because it’s “not serious,” written as it is for children. Personally, I think the “written for children and therefore not worthy of study” opinion is ridiculous. Children grow up, and the things they read in their formative years are important; that’s not even touching the fact of Harry Potter’s sweeping influence on popular culture. Does the writing itself measure up to the clarity of prose in, say, To Kill a Mockingbird? Well, no. But that’s a high bar to clear. Twilight, on the other hand…
