literature.cafe

FTA:

*The decision Thursday went against a judge who had advised the Oklahoma Board of Education not to revoke the license of Summer Boismier, who had also put in her high school classroom a QR code of the Brooklyn Public Library’s catalogue of banned books.

An attorney for Boismier, who now works at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York City, told reporters after the board meeting that they would seek to overturn the decision.*

FTA:

*Imagine that your local public library is inhabited by an undiscovered race of tiny people. They’ve hidden themselves in the racks, tucked behind books and magazines, amidst history and fiction, new media and old. If you’re lucky, you might spy them — or at least their tiny homes, which are filled with minuscule beds, microscopic stools, itty-bitty flowers and furniture fashioned out of found objects such as board game pieces and one-use spice bottles.

And these little folks need help. You have been cast as a “Teeny Tiny Beings Residential Specialist,” charged with finding the micro-humans new homes. It appears the librarians — giants, like us, at least to the microscopic persons — have been moving things around. *

FTA:

*Three weeks ago, waist-high cardboard boxes filled to the brim with books cluttered every aisle of this industrial Georgetown warehouse. Stacked in rows, the still-to-be-processed books packed 90 boxes at its peak.

Now, two months after a ransomware attack shut down many of Seattle Public Library’s services, library workers are celebrating: They’ve finally finished sorting and processing a backlog of thousands of borrowed books. *

FTA:

*Toronto Public Library (TPL) experienced the largest spike between 2022 and 2023: in 2023, the library had 2,334 incidents, up from 1,362 the year before — a 71 per cent jump, the data shows. TPL also reported a 529 per cent increase in the number of suspected overdoses between 2022 and 2023. *

I recently read Harold by Steven Wright, and I loved it. I enjoyed reading a book where I honestly could not predict what would happen in the next paragraph, yet it still coalesced into a coherent whole.

The only other author I know who could write like that was Richard Brautigan, and I was hoping the community could recommend some other authors to try.

I did a book review of an overlooked metafiction classic: The Affirmation by Christopher Priest

Warning: mental health, violence and sexual triggers throughout.

Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

"State has ordered books by 13 authors, 12 of them women, to be removed from every public school, classroom and library"

I would like to present a narrative about a medical and technical professional named Victor Amell. He is a lead engineer and tester for the recently renovated and rebranded NASA, which is currently engaged in a conflict with an alien race. The narrative requires the protagonists to relocate humans, with the setting shifted to the planet Kepler-452b. This planetary environment will feature the introduction of dragons and other creatures, though guidance is sought on the development of their species. For instance, the objective is to create a dragon with a more aerodynamic bone structure, enabling enhanced control and agility during flight.

Additionally, there are specials of dragons with more formidable jaws, reduced wingspans, and impressive terrestrial locomotion abilities. Lastly, the possibility exists for the inclusion of a system of miniature-breed dinosaurs and dragons as domesticated animals.

Be careful out there, my thrifty bibliophiles.