Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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This Week in Indie Boosktores
A charity bookstore in Swansea, Wales, had so many copies of Fifty Shades of Gray that the store built a fort. A Georgia store needs a superhero after more than $200,000 worth of comic books were stolen. One of the…
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Does Commercial Success Hurt Literature?
Publishers are offering big paydays to debut authors—that’s the good news. The bad news is that the books earning big money aren’t particularly literary. Tom Leclair at The Daily Beast takes to task Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s novel The Nest as too…
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Notable NYC: 3/26–4/1
Monday 3/28: Sallie Tisdale and Meghan Daum discuss Violation, Tisdale’s collected essays. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Tuesday 3/29: Rob Spillman presents All Tomorrow’s Parties, a memoir. Housing Works, 7 p.m., free. Alexandra Kleeman, Deirdre Coyle, Aurvi Sharma, and Morgan Beatty…
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Living Wages Cost More Money
A new study has revealed why academic adjuncts are paid so little: living wages would cost universities a lot more money. A new study says that converting adjunct faculty to tenure track positions would cost $27 billion dollars. The study…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
A Buffalo bookstore owner was the target of an FBI investigation for more than two years, and now he wants to know why. Can independent bookstores survive in the state that gave us Antonin Scalia and Tony Soprano? San Francisco’s Castro…
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Notable NYC: 3/19–3/25
Saturday 3/19: Esther Lin, Rajiv Mohabir, and Jonathan Alexandratos join the Oh, Bernice! Reading series. Astoria Bookshop, 7 p.m., free. Dawn Lundy Martin and Rosemarie Waldrop join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., free. Abigail Welhouse launches Too Many…
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The Most Literate Nation
Finland tops the charts for most literate nation, with the United States coming in seventh. A new study looks not just at literacy rates but at literacy behaviors. These behaviors include counting libraries, newspapers, and years of schooling. Ranking nations…
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A Library for Prisoners
Parsons School of Design students collaborated with the New York Public library to design better book carts to serve incarcerated readers. The carts are intended to facilitate easy browsing. The partnership has produced four carts that will be used at…
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Publishers Lobby to Lift Cuban Embargo
Publishers want access to Cuba. The longstanding trade embargo with Cuba includes books and educational materials, but publishers have been lobbying the White House to lift the embargo. The island nation has a literacy rate near 100%.
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
Famed Indian bookseller Ram Advani has passed away at the age of 95. He had planned to continue visiting his shops until was 99. Elton John has a favorite Los Angeles bookstore: Book Soup. Seattle’s only bookstore dedicated to poetry…
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Harper Lee’s Estate Kills Low Cost Edition
The estate of Harper Lee will no longer allow the publication of the mass market paperback edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee’s estate is expected to earn higher royalties from the trade paperback, which sold 22,554 copies so far…
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Notable NYC: 3/12–3/18
Saturday 3/12: Aaron Kunin and Rae Armantrout join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 3/13: Cynthia Cruz and Maya Pindyck read poetry. In How the End Begins Cruz explores a move toward faith. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free.…