“Every separation is a link.” — Simone Weil
Lots of questions today:
- Can bookstores compete by combining traditional strengths with innovations? : Is the answer really as easy as Espresso Book Machines?
- Does reading fiction make you more empathetic? : An Ohio State study finds readers can be more sympathetic to others who are different from themselves
- Is most human discourse plagiarism? : Let’s ask Mark Twain
- What would happen if Maurice Sendak collaborated with Tony Kushner? : Might some prints remain to be published?
- What did Jorge Luis Borges sound like when he lectured? : This fellow had a lot to say
- What is the future of book publishing? : “The bottom line is it’s a mess and everybody’s worried.”
Duly quoted (Mother’s Day weekend edition):
- “Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother’s love is not.” — James Joyce
- “Mothers are all slightly insane.” — J.D. Salinger
- “I believe that always, or almost always, in all childhoods and in all the lives that follow them, the mother represents madness. Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we’ve ever met.” — Marguerite Duras
- “David Stern should get with the mothers of the NBA and let the moms decide what the dress code should be. I asked my mother if I could wear a chain, and she told me yeah.” — Shaquille O’Neal