News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Bookish News
- Tenn. Comic Shop’s Maus Fundraiser Garners $90K (Shelf Awareness)
- After Hearing, Maryland’s E-book Law Hangs in the Balance (Publishers Weekly). Meanwhile…
- Tennessee, Missouri Introduce Library E-book Bills; Illinois Bill Advances (Publishers Weekly). Meanwhile…
- PRH Continues Temporary E-book, Digital Audio Terms for Libraries, ” as well as its temporary story time permissions.” The extensions run through June 30, 2022.
- Library use [in Britain] plummeted in 2021, but e-visits showed 18% rise during lockdown. (The Guardian) Britain’s lockdowns were more stringent than those in many US states. However, judging by my nearby regional library system, which remained shut to visitors during at least part of 2021, the situation in the US may have been similar. Our regional library system already offered catalog browsing, ebook borrowing, and print book hold requests online, even before the pandemic. It implemented curbside pickup of holds in spring of 2020; these remained in effect even after the library reopened to masked visitors (and through its temporary closure during the height of the omicron surge.)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Forget Wordle! Can you crack the Dickens Code? An IT worker from California just did (The Guardian)
- In Defense of Slow Reading (Book Riot)
- Why (And How) You Should Keep a Commonplace Book (Book Riot)
Books, Movies, and TV
- A Show of Hands for Amazon’s The Rings of Power: Speculating on What We Know So Far. The character photos recently released by Amazon are pretty cool; they show characters’ torsos and hands, usually displaying the hilt of a sword, or in some cases holding a staff or other object. So you get a nice, close-up view of the costumes and props, which reflect much of the culturally rich design and attention to detail that went into character design for the original LOTR movies. Tor.com’s Jeff LaSala speculates (drawing on extensive knowledge of the history of Middle-Earth) on who or what each photo represents.
Lists
- 6 Great SFF Love Stories (Everina Maxwell, Tor.com)
Bookish Quote
Since it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, here’s a bookish quote from a romance novel:
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
I keep a commonplace book, though mine is more like a journal than anything else. I color in tabs on the edges of the pages so that I can find specific topics later, and it’s been working for me. Though I love the idea of adding quotes! I think I might see if there’s a way I can incorporate that to what I’m already doing.
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…#PondathonII ~ Foodie Companion Quest
Lark_Bookwyrm
The tabs are a good idea!
I have a notebook where I jot down book reviews, journal entries, and other stuff. I used to use it as a planner as well, bullet-journal style, but that proved to require too much weekly prep work (making layouts), so I switched to a separate planner with daily pages I can print out. Now I’m thinking of turning the notebook (which is about 1/3 used at this point) into a commonplace book focused on my reading. It will still have notes on the books I read (and I’ll try to be better about keeping up with them!), but also quotes and related thoughts and even maps and pictures, if I can get my color printer working.
I also found a small notebook in which I used to hand-letter quotes that I found inspirational and/or good for spiritual reflection. I’m thinking I will revive that, as well. (In my copious spare time, as my husband likes to joke.)
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
That sounds like the perfect way to use that journal! I use to do a bullet journal as well, but as you mentioned I found that it just took too much time. I’ve been using a Kokuyo Jibun Techo instead, since that’s a more traditional planner which still has some blank pages that I can use to track things like reading and new recipes. Plus, it’s a Japanese planner and the paper they use is both thin and fountain pen friendly, so it’s still easy to take it with me.
Now that you mention pictures… I have a small color photo printer (kinda like a Polaroid replacement that prints out phone pics onto sticker paper) and that would be a great way to add more multi-media stuff to my commonplace book without too much extra work. 😉
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Book Review: Tristan Strong Keeps Punching (Kwame Mbalia)
Lark_Bookwyrm
I looked up your planner; it looks really cool! I like the way it sections off a planner, a set of blank/idea pages, and a section for addresses and other stuff that doesn’t change much from year to year, and replace the planner and idea sections as needed. And your little phone photo printer sounds great.
We have a B&W laser printer for most printing, and a combination color printer/scanner/fax for color printing. But if I don’t use up the ink pretty quickly, it dries up and becomes useless… and the cartridges are expensive, so it really wastes money. As a result, we have basically stopped using it. But maybe if I pulled the ink cartridges out and taped over the nozzles when I’m not using the printer, the ink would last longer? I would really like to have some sort of color printing available.