Lewis Carroll’s original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland manuscript.

That’s “freshly ground black pepper,” not “freshly ground black people”: why you should proofread.

29 mini essays by Joe Brainard, via. Some samples:

AMERICA
That a giant economy-sized box of “Supreme—Three Ply—Extra Soft—De Luxe” cleansing tissues only costs 39¢ ought, it would seem, to restore one’s faith in something.

PEOPLE
If I’m as normal as I think I am, we’re all a bunch of weirdos.

PRIDE
Pride creates its own banana peels.

The Hypothetical Library invents new books by well-known authors, via.

Aaand because it’s hump day, here are some sassy librarians. Read more »

Unfortunately, our favorite literary characters don’t always shack up with the perfect mates. So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a list of hypothetical couples that should make any dedicated reader swoon. Read more »

The press is declaring that digital will overtake print within the decade. The visions that this news inspires are numerous and, occasionally, bizarre: a subway full of commuters with heads bowed over e-readers instead of morning newspapers, libraries with dozens of empty bookshelves hovering ghostlike behind radiating computers, multimedia diginovels with holograms jumping off every page. And that may only be the beginning.

So let’s engage in a thought experiment. Here is a world I have envisioned, wherein society has wholly purged itself of paperbound books, and digital readers have become the norm. Some of the events I will describe sound a little outrageous, but then again, some events have already come to pass. It’s a brave new (digital) world: Read more »

Uh. Is that what I think it is?

Where famous writers delivered their first (and last) words.

The Caustic Cover Critic on Tutis, a publisher that takes public domain works and puts “ridiculously inappropriate covers on them” (see left), via The Second Pass.

The five stages of grief publishing.

Seven books that changed the world, if only they actually existed.

“I can’t control the kittens. Too many whiskers! Too many whiskers!” This and more from a husband who talks in his sleep, broadcast to the world by his adoring wife. Via The Millions.

The WSJ discusses the death of the slush pile, and M. A. Orthofer of The Literary Saloon responds.

Oh, this is sad. An anonymous visitor who is known to leave roses and cognac on Edgar Allen Poe’s grave for the writer’s birthday has broken tradition for the first time in over sixty years.

Lit 101 class in 3 lines or less, via HTMLGIANT.

Aaaand just for kicks, the Spampersand: Read more »