Reading about the reading life: April 20, 2018 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Reading about the reading life" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is where I collect stories about reading and the reading life. Basically, these are items related to reading, maybe writing and literacy, that I find interesting and think my four readers might find interesting as well with a little commentary. As with other features I do on this blog, I do it when I have time or feel like it. Comments are always welcome (within reason).

I have found quite a few stories  since the last time I did this feature, so let's get started.

• In New York City news: 
• There is a bookstore that only opens once a month. The owner is in no rush to get customers. Story via The New York Times.
• Read about the librarian who was right there in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. Via Atlas Obscura.
• People magazine featured a profile of Cafe Con Libros, a new Afro-Latino bookstore in Brooklyn. 
• In pearl clutching news:
• Yet another article bemoaning the death of handwriting. In this one, some snobby calligrapher is fine with it so calligraphers can keep the monopoly apparently. Story via The Times Literary Supplement.  On a side note, a colleague and I were looking at a recent display our library set up that contains some old letters, written in cursive. He was lamenting how cursive is not taught anymore, so over time, newer generations will be unlikely able to read those letters.
• In stories from around the world: 
• In Mexico, the largest floating bookstore has recently docked in Veracruz as part of the ship's Latin America tour. Story via The Hindustan Times. 
• In Berlin, a local bookstore is not putting up with  Neo-Nazis marching in their neighborhood, so the bookstore took action. Story via The New York Times.
• Book Riot has a post highlighting London's radical bookstores. 
• In New Zealand, a library weeding project brings fears the weeded books will be incinerated. Story via Radio NZ. Fears are not unfounded as previously weeded books have been incinerated.  Usually another library weeding story would be under "pearl clutching," but this one I wonder if better efforts could not be made to transfer books elsewhere before burning them.
• In Amazon news, which are mostly about Amazon's fuckery: 
•  They are making "sex" a dirty word. Story via The Rumpus. 
• They are pulling reviews without explanation nor reason, often hoping you will not notice. Story via City Book Review. Honestly, why anyone would use Amazon reviews for anything is beyond me given how unreliable and even shady they can be. As a librarian who does collection development, I would not be caught dead relying on an Amazon review for a purchase decision. There are plenty of more reputable review sources out there. But I suppose we need some sympathy for poor authors who need those Amazon reviews to stay alive in the game, and it IS a game when it comes to Amazon, as in an often rigged game. 
• About authors and writers: 
•  Noah Webster's dictionary endeavor? Today his dictionary is known for using social media to fact check the Pendejo In Chief and his Party of Stupid administration. However, that was not always the case. At the start, it was just another American nationalist project. According to this article from The Paris Review, "Merriam-Webster’s resistance to an administration steeped in nativism, however, is complicated by the dictionary’s original goal to create and preserve a monolithic American culture. Noah Webster Jr., the dictionary’s founding author, was one of the first American nationalists, and he wrote his reference books with the express purpose of creating a single definition of American English—one that often existed at the expense of regional and cultural variation of any kind." 
• In an interview, Alberto Manguel speaks of being a reader for Borges as well as a new book. Story via LitHub.
• For all the ragging Playboy often gets, people tend to forget that at one point it featured great journalism and writing. Many great authors wrote for the magazine. James Baldwin had some radical writing in the magazine looking at questions of masculinity and what we would likely call now toxic masculinity. And yes, Playboy went ahead and published it. Story via LitHub.
• Gabriel García Márquez may no longer be with us, but he left us some good writing advice. Story via LitHub.
• Some stories written in Spanish: 
• Lecturalia asks what will happen to your books once you die.  
• Editorial Bruguera, which has been in and out of life support, is making a comeback once more. Via Libropatas.  Penguin Random House, owners of the brand, are bringing it back. 
• Did you know the first academic library in the Americas is located in Mexico? Read more about it at Infotecarios.
• In books and money, or stories that could have gone over to "Signs the economy is bad."
• I will admit that looking for bestsellers at the dollar store is not something I do. I keep my expectations pretty low when it comes to the remaindered and liquidated books you might find at a dollar store. High quality is not something you will see in our local dollar stores here when it comes to books. So I really want to know which Dollar Tree this author at Book Riot shops at because the one here is nothing like that. Anyhow, never hurts to look. 
• In other miscellaneous stories: 
• Real Simple offers some suggestions to get you to read more books. 
• Astrology, divination, so on seems to be rising among Millennials and younger generations. Can't imagine why. Anyhow, this interest is also reflected in recent popular books, and Tor takes a look at "Five books that reconnect us to astrology."
• Turns out 1920s porn has nothing on modern porn. If anything, was more wild and hardcore than you may think. Story via VICE. (Article does have some NSFW images). 
• Black independent bookstores are increasing and rising. Via Publishers Weekly. 
• PEN America released a statement condemning right wing violence and threats against left leaning bookstores. 
• Another story of valuable historical book found in some garage, this time a copy of Thomas Paine's "American Crisis." Via Fine Books and Collections blog. 
• The #MeToo movement and increasing allegations of sexual harassment are having effect in the publishing world as book deals get canceled for troubled authors, including getting books pulped and destroyed so they do not see the light of day. Story via The New York Times. 
• Via Lifehacker, a list of 1923 copyright works that will be enterting public domain in 2019.
• Americans have always loved advice columnists and writers. Story via LitHub. It does not mean they take any of the advice offered. 
• Melville House's blog asks if Trump books, referring mainly to books about the Pendejo In Chief, are selling as much as they seem to be. Well, it may depend on how you look at it. 
• Finally for this week, Electric Literature asked librarians what are the rules for lending their personal books. I do not know which librarians they asked, but I can tell you this librarian had a good laugh out of the article. I have a simple rule: you do NOT lend your personal books to anyone. Period.