The Guardian
The borrowers: why Finland's cities are havens for library lovers
8 min · · Helsinki’s state-of-the-art Oodi library will stand opposite parliament and boast a cinema, recording studio and makerspace. It’s a perfect fit for a literate nation taking public learning to the next level · Shared by 51, including Rick Powell, Jane, Thomas Power, Merkstatt@troet.cafe 📯, Florian Hanke 🍎
The Guardian
‘I don’t care’: text shows modern poetry began much earlier than believed
3 min · · Academic finds that lines widely reproduced in the eastern Roman empire are ‘stressed’ in a way that laid the foundations for what we recognise as poetry · Shared by 40, including Ada Limón, David Owen, Ian D. Morris, Rick Powell, Ailish Hopper
The Guardian
Patti Smith: ‘Reading Mark Twain gave me such anxiety I threw up’
2 min · · The author and musician on Jean Genet, Little Women and crying over Charlotte Brontë · Shared by 40, including Tauno, Rick Powell
Longreads
On Keeping a Notebook: A Reading List
11+ min · · In this reading list, Jeanne Bonner ruminates on the joys of writing by hand and keeping a notebook. · Shared by 36, including Rick Powell, Katja Evertz
Aeon+Psyche
The allure of cosmopolitan languages to courtiers and pop fans
6 min · · The song Despacito tells a truth about cosmopolitan language, or the ‘mistress tongue’ – we desire it before we know it · Shared by 34, including Mariella Petrigni 🌍 Translator, Rick Powell
Slate
Conlangers Invent Languages for Science, Pleasure—and the Occasional Hoax
6 min · · What do J.R.R. Tolkien, professional linguists, and a sneaky French teenager all have in common? · Shared by 27, including Esther Schindler, Jennifer Ouellette, Rick Powell
The Paris Review
Italo Calvino, The Art of Fiction No. 130
15+ min · ·
Upon hearing of Italo Calvino’s death in September of 1985, John Updike commented, “Calvino was a genial as well as brilliant writer. He took fiction into new places where it had never been before, and back into the fabulous and ancient sources of narrative.” At that time... · Shared by 23, including Rick Powell, Howard Getson, Alex Barrera, Christopher D. Long
The Guardian
White professor investigated for quoting James Baldwin's use of N-word
3 min · · Laurie Sheck, who teaches at the New School, says inquiry followed a complaint that she had discussed Baldwin’s use of the slur · Shared by 20, including Rick Powell
Open Culture
How to Argue With Kindness and Care: 4 Rules from Philosopher Daniel Dennett
3 min · · Photo by Mathias Schindler, via Wikimedia Commons Drawn from Aristotle and his Roman and Medieval interpreters, the “classical trivium”—a division of thought and writing into Logic, Grammar, and… · Shared by 20, including Katja Evertz, @grzewap@mastodon.social, Rick Powell
The Guardian
Don’t Believe a Word by David Shariatmadari review
4 min · · A myth-busting account of how languages emerge, change, and influence the way we think · Shared by 18, including Rick Powell, Jane, Liv 😷
Longreads
Shapes of Native Nonfiction: ‘The Basket Isn’t a Metaphor, It’s an Example’
20+ min · · The editors of “Shapes of Native Nonfiction” talk about the craft of writing, the politics of metaphor, and resisting the exploitation of trauma. · Shared by 18, including Rick Powell
London Review of Books
LRB · Andrew O’Hagan · Not Enough Delilahs: Lillian Ross
14+ min · · I’ve never met anybody who hated as many people as Lillian Ross did. She would count their names off on her fingers, regularly within spitting distance of them, and her voice wasn’t quiet and she… · Shared by 17, including Rick Powell, Howard Getson, Rob Weinert-Kendt
The Guardian
Bowie’s Books and Why Bowie Matters review
5 min · · David Bowie has been canonised, and his cultural enthusiams are obsessed over. John O’Connell and William Collins appreciate his pick’n’mix habits, but have they forgotten the music? · Shared by 14, including Rick Powell
Jezebel
Judith Krantz Was the Most Important Writer of the 20th Century
7 min · · Reading Judith Krantz is like running errands around town in a Lamborghini driven by somebody coked to the gills and very, very bad at figuring out the most straightforward route, but the running… · Shared by 14, including Rick Powell
The Paris Review
Natalia Ginzburg, the Last Woman Left on Earth
6 min · · In his never-before-translated review of ‘The Dry Heart,’ Italo Calvino lauds Natalia Ginzburg, whom he likens to Chekhov and Maupassant. · Shared by 12, including Rick Powell
The Paris Review
Proust and the Joy of Suffering
11+ min · · I had the sense, while I was reading Proust, that I was “reading Proust.” I was having a packaged experience like a tour of the Louvre. · Shared by 12, including Rick Powell