News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Book News
- Walt Whitman’s lost novel The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle found. (The Guardian)
- Oxford English Dictionaries add “clicktivism” and “haterade” as new words for angry times (The Guardian)
Literary Losses
Dick Bruna, the artist and author of the Miffy series of books for small children, died February 16, 2017, at the age of 89. Bruna was born and lived most of his life in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The first Miffy book (in Dutch, Nijntje) was published in the Netherlands 1955, and in Great Britain in 1963, when the the translator changed the rabbit’s name to Miffy because it was easier for English readers to pronounce. Bruna would eventually publish a total of 124 books. His 32 Miffy books are beloved throughout the world and have been translated into more than 50 languages. The character spawned an extensive line of merchandise, including toys, stationery, night lights, educational games, and even socks.
Obituaries: The Guardian; NPR; Publishers Weekly
Worth Reading
- Do North and South Korea speak the same language? Yes, but not quite. (The Guardian) Deborah Smith writes about the challenges of translating the first short stories smuggled out of North Korea. As someone who is interested in both language(s) and the study of cultures, I see translation as an exercise that deals with both… something this essay makes clear.
- Overcoming Bias: Authors and Editors Discuss Sensitivity Readers (Publishers Weekly)
- Dictionaries to the Rescue: On the Importance of Words in a Post-Truth World (BookRiot). In addition to the dictionary publishers mentioned in the article, you can also follow the Oxford English Dictionary on Twitter: @OED.
- How Fantasy Made Me a Feminist (BookRiot)
- Preferring Certain Types of Books as Ebooks More Than Print. (BookRiot) It’s a clunky post title, but she makes a case for preferring digital books in a categories I hadn’t considered.
For Writers & Bloggers
- Why does your Twitter name matter to me? (by @BerlsS at Fantasy Is More Fun)
- How to Internet Less and Read More When You Have No Self-Control. (BookRiot) Wow, is that me all over.
Awesome Lists
- The Five Most Brain-Warping Theories About Books (Barnes & Noble blog) If you can ignore the hyperbole in the post title, the theories outlined here are actually pretty intriguing.
Bookish Quote
Freelance illustrator Simini Blocker designed 12 book-quote posters for a yearly planner for the Uppercase YA book box subscription. This one is for April. (Courtesy of Simini Blocker’s Tumblr.)
That’s it for this week!
Berls
So interesting about the changes to the dictionary! I knew they updated based on usage, but I’m surprised that words from just a couple years have made it in already! I always assumed it took longer.
Thanks for the mention 🙂
And I LOVE the book quote art!! I may need to grab that planner! Happy Saturday 🙂
Berls recently posted…Bunny and the Bear | #Mytbrl #coyer #2017hw review
Lark_Bookwyrm
Now that dictionaries are mainly online/electronic, they can update much more quickly. But I think they still wait to see if a word has enough usage and traction before adding it.
You’re welcome! And I wish one could buy the planner—I’d be on it in a heartbeat—but you have to subscribe to Uppercase book boxes, and I think it’s an add-on now. So I guess I’ll keep going with my trusty bullet journal.
Stephanie
Some especially fascinating links this week! I particularly enjoyed the articles about translating a North Korean fiction book and sensitivity readers. Translating fiction seems like it would be such an incredible challenge to begin with and then adding to that a layer of unknowability and no communication with the author to parse meaning plus political implications. It’s fascinating!
Stephanie recently posted…Saturday in the Garden | 70 Degrees and Snowing
Lark_Bookwyrm
The complexity of translating under those circumstances boggles the mind, doesn’t it?