Category: words

The magazine, an icon of culture, “played a critical role in forming the culture and image of lowriding, its lifestyle and aesthetics. Particularly popular among Mexican Americans, the magazine was as much a statement about Chicano identity as it was about the long, ground-hugging vintage cars.” – Los Angeles Times

There are really only two rules, says a man who knows a particularly painful story of an inscribed book that had been passed on. “‘The first is, always save a receipt’ – the reason being, if a book has jumped into your mind as the perfect present for someone, it has doubtless occurred to someone else. … And the second rule? ‘Never write an inscription in a book, unless you’ve written it yourself.'” – The Guardian (UK)

Sinéad Gleeson, an Irish Book Award-winning author, says that reading offers connection and perhaps an escape – unless you’re slogging through the “great American” canon. – The Guardian (UK)

“On Monday, in a small step to preserve this tradition, the House passed the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Programs Reauthorization Act, named after the legendary Tewa linguist. With the Senate vote already in the bank, the measure is headed to President Trump’s desk. Like a variety of other set-term appropriation bills, the legislation, which was first passed under George W. Bush in 2006, has to be renewed by Congress every five years to maintain the funding. And like so many other necessary pieces of legislation, it is still deficient.” – The New Republic

“[Biography] was once thought, as Michael Holroyd called it, ‘the shallow end of history’, unable to provide sufficient context and with a tendency to exaggerate the role of individuals in the passage of time. … Many a biographer still falls in love with his or her subject, making the hope of objectivity even dimmer than for conventional history. And arguably the whole conceit is flawed.” – History Today

“(Literature) should not be reduced to politics, obviously, because human experience is more than politics. But also, human experience is never without politics.” – Toronto Star

“In the ’60s, estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 people could speak Hawaiian fluently, and just a few dozen of them were children. But then something remarkable happened. An unlikely Hawaiian renaissance blossomed in the ’60s and into the ’70s, initially driven by artists who sought to reclaim traditional music and dance. … Today, roughly two dozen of Hawaii’s public schools teach exclusively in Hawaiian, about a third of them charters. The number of Hawaiian speakers in the state is now 18,000, roughly half of them fluent.” – The Atlantic

There is an ever-increasing fear that smaller publishing houses may be put out of business as a result of potential changes to requirements surrounding distribution of literary materials. – The Boar

“The US dictionary … said that look-ups for ‘they’ increased by 313% in 2019 compared with the previous year, as the public investigated the word’s shifting use [as a singular pronoun for gender non-binary individuals] and its increasing prominence in the news.” – The Guardian