Saturday Miscellany—6/21/25

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Could the Semicolon Die Out? Recent Analysis Finds a Decline in Its Usage in British Literature and Confusion Among U.K. Students
Why Read: Seven Books About Our Passion and Need for Reading
Books About Books: Why We Write Them and Why We Read Them: On the charms of the bookish mystery.
While we’re on the topic, Carol at Reading Ladies posted this check-in yesterday: Bookish Books
Bad People, Good Art—James Lloyd Dulin wrote a very good guest post on a (sadly) evergreen topic. I think he’s onto something with his approach, FWIW.
My School Experience Barely Seems Reflected in Books
Maggie Stiefvater’s The Subtle Terror of Rereadability and the joys of turning pages slow, not fast might be the best thing I read online this week (says a life-long fast page turner)
Places with Teeth: Genius Loci and The Living Worlds of Speculative Fiction—Which isn’t to cast aspersions on Tabler’s work here (would love her to revisit this in an expanded version)
Coffee Table Books- Books You Can Dip into and Savour in Small Sips—you can never have too many of these around (sadly, due to my grandkids, dogs, and lack of coffee-table mean that mine are tucked away on shelves)

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
Schmudgeon of Curmudgeon talked to JCM Berne (video link/audio link)—they covered a lot and had a lot of fun. Berne may have convinced me to revise my opinion of the opening of Wistful Ascending, too. (I think that means that I have nothing bad to say about the book at all)

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz
Crossed Blades by Kelly McCullough—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea by Helen Lewis—”a timely and provocative interrogation of the myth of genius, exploring the surprising inventions, inspirations and distortions by which some lives are elevated to ‘greatness’ – and others are not”
I Think I’m in Love with an Alien by Ann Aguirre—A “quirky sci-fi rom-com” where “alien meets adorkable” looks like silly fun. Which sounds really appealing right now.