Weekly Round Up: Sept 28th
By Joni Di Placido
Hello hello! Thanks to Marina for keeping this going while I was flitting around NYC last weekend! Chrissy is in NINC this week, so watch out for her updates in the KWL newsletter on Monday!
Other than NINC, what’s been happening in the literary world over the last seven days?
How to use subtitles correctly
BookNet Canada with some really insightful metadata tips—are you including subtitles in your book titles, and are you doing it effectively?
Don’t do what Donny Don’t does: Misusing subtitles
There’s a marketing trend sweeping the nation(s) and it can be described in one word: terrible. That word is “terrible.” Maybe you’ve seen it and it’s also made your skin crawl? What I’m talking about is this: Digital marketing is an evolving art form, one that typically rewards ingenuity and innovation.
It happens to everyone: writers on writer’s block
If you’re feeling stuck, know that you’re not alone: LitHub collected the experiences of several famous authors on how they experience writer’s block.
Is It Real? 25 Famous Writers on Writer’s Block
You know the feeling: you’re staring at the black computer screen, blinking occasionally-staring and blinking, staring and blinking, until the cursor starts to blink back and you have to go to bed for a while. Maybe you’re staring and blinking at an actual, physical blank page, in which case you should definitely go to bed for a while if it starts to blink back.
The Nobel Prize in Literature may not return next year after all
Well, this is grim:
The Nobel Prize In Literature Scandal Just Keeps Getting Worse & Worse
Terrible news, everyone. It turns out that the Nobel Prize in Literature might not return in 2019 after all. The Guardian reports that the “prize… will not be awarded in 2019 unless trust is restored in the scandal-plagued Swedish Academy.” That’s…
Banned book week
Ron Charles of the Washington Post (link behind a paywall) asked this week if we really still need Banned Book Week, positing that the practice of banning books is “largely confined to our repressive past”. I’d argue that yeah, we do. Because while, yes, adults in the Western world can now—for the most part—acquire whatever they want to read, there are still tiresome people restricting what children and young adults can read. And let’s be honest, the most challenged books are those featuring marginalized characters—The Hate U Give, Drama, I am Jazz. How about, instead of pretending that violence, sex, swearing and LGBTQ people don’t exist, we teach kids to read critically, form opinions and use books as a platform for discussion?
During Banned Books Week, reflecting on the dangers of censorship
Those of us in the book-loving business need to be ready and willing to fight book banning wherever it may come and in whatever form it might take. Sept.
An unexpected bestseller: The Wonky Donkey, by Craig Smith
We dare you to watch this video of a Scottish woman reading aloud to her baby grandchild without dissolving into giggles. It’s so good.
The Wonky Donkey: viral video of grandmother makes picture book a bestseller
A Scottish grandmother’s reading of the 2009 children’s book to her grandson has seen demand for it skyrocket around the world
Daily struggles of a librarian.
This is a great article on the struggle of technology in libraries. Let’s all take a moment to appreciate librarians and all they do.
I Am a Librarian, I Am a Tech Whisperer
Nobody tells you that librarianship means understanding how to operate heavy machinery, yet here I sit, once again digging out the smoking guts of a jammed copy machine. When I ask what the patron put into it, they tell me they “found it that way,” though they look at the floor, the ceiling, their hands, anywhere but me or the grunting, squealing, broken monster in front of us.
And that’s a wrap! Let me know if I missed anything in the comments, and have a fabulous weekend!
Staff Book Recommendation:
Jen McKenzie, Partner Ops Team Lead
Just One Damned Thing After Another
“I’m on book three of this series and there have been multiple instances of inappropriate giggling in public. What happens when you take a bunch of eccentric historians, wind up their curiosity, feed them too much sugar and tea, then give them the ability to time travel?”
One Response to “Weekly Round Up: Sept 28th”
I really enjoy the St Mary’s series. For me, it’s just the right combination of fun and well-researched history 🙂