The Paris Review

“I was speaking to Mde. B. this morning about a boiled loaf, when it appeared that her master has no raspberry jam; she has some, which of course she is determined he shall have; but cannot you bring a pot when you come?”

—Jane Austen to her sister, Cassandra

• Brace yourselves: great books as emojis. (Yes, that’s The Grapes of Wrath.)
• The Royal Mail is producing a series of (quite lovely) Jane Austen stamps.
• Tolkien’s cover designs.
• A heartening series of people shopping for books around the world.
• “‘Bookseller,’ say the books. ‘Can we do the Harlem Shake?’ ‘No!’ I shout. ‘There’ll be no novelty dances here. You’re better than that.’”

• “The ordinary, mild-mannered bookstore had stripped off its everyday shirt to reveal its superpowers, moving with a slamming shift into warp-speed pleasure.” A paean to vanished bookstores. 
• How to (if you must) divest yourself of books. 
• Here is a trademark lawsuit involving both space marines and superheroes. Yes, I said space marines. 
• “The precision and spirit of Austen’s novels derive, in part, from the cherished objects with which she and her heroines were in daily contact—things that might well have been overlooked or spurned by everyone else.”
• Washington, D. C. earns the title of Most Literate City. The Most Romantic crown, however, goes to Knoxville, Tennessee. (If you define romance as only shopping at Amazon.com, of course.)