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
- Barnes & Noble Being Sued in Virginia Beach over Gender Queer, A Court of Mist and Fury. (Book Riot) Not content with banning books in school and public libraries, the book-banning movement is now going after stores that sell books they don’t approve of. (NOTE: Thanks to commenter Emily, here is a link to a web page with more about this lawsuit, courtesy of the Violet Fox Bookstore.)
- High School Activist Given PEN Award For Organizing Protests Against “Don’t Say Gay” Bill (Book Riot)
- Margaret Atwood and PRH are auctioning off a flame-proof copy of The Handmaid’s Tale in protest of widespread efforts to ban it and other books. (Literary Hub)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Why Difficult Books Matter: How One Line From a Book I Read As a Child Helped Me Heal (Tracy Shapley Towley, Book Riot)
- U.S. Book Show: The Pandemic and Publishing: How Has Covid Changed the Industry for Good? (Publishers Weekly) The article looks at the benefits and drawbacks of work-from-home, discusses the possibility of employing people from outside New York, and touches briefly on labor issues and collectivization.
- Indie author Carrie Lomax tweeted about readers buying, reading, and returning her books. (Twitter) I wrote a whole post about this earlier in the week.
- A thread on app technology in a 16th-century book. Yes, really! Well, if you expand the definition of “app” a bit. (Sonja Drimmer, on Twitter)
- For shame: Bram Stoker was a serial defiler of library books, and other tales of the London Library. (Literary Hub)
- Dispelling myths about wearing gloves when working with old archives: books, photographs, and papers. (video from the Smithsonian Archives, below)
Just Plain Interesting
Lists
- The Worst Covers of Classic Books (Book Riot) The shark subbing for a whale on the Moby Dick cover cracked me up.
Bookish Quote
Emily
Regarding the book ban in Virginia, its important to note that the judge is deciding whether it should be legal for any citizen in Virginia (adult or minor) to sell or own these books. The Violet Fox Bookshop has started a website with more information as well as a petition to stop this ban.
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thank you for clarifying; I didn’t realize that. I cannot imagine that a ban on individual citizens owning a particular book would hold up, even given the current Supreme Court. Publishers are likely to fight it tooth and nail, for one thing. But that doesn’t mean we can afford to be complacent.
For anyone who wants to know more, here’s a linke to the Violet Fox Bookstore’s website page about the book ban case in Virginia mentioned in your comment.
Wendy
I just love that video of Margaret Atwood trying to burn her flame-resistant book! and that gun inside the bible is way cool!
Wendy recently posted…Stacking the Shelves #43!
Esther Dauvillier
That quote is SO TRUE! Have a great week 🙂
Esther Dauvillier recently posted…Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
I was also going to mention the link to the Violet Fox post. I’ve signed the petition on that site, and have it scheduled to go up in my linkity post coming this weekend. 😉
I love the idea of an unburnable book. (Plus, it’s GREAT marketing.)
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…#Wyrd&Wonder Top Ten Tuesday ~ Fantasy Comfort Reads