Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:
A new study from Scholastic has found that 25 percent of the more than one thousand six-to-seventeen-year-olds surveyed count texting with friends as reading, 28 percent count catching up on Facebook as reading, and 39 percent said that information they found online "is always correct." In brighter news, 66 percent of the group said they will always want to read print books despite the increasing prevalence of e-books.
The free e-reading software Blio was launched on Tuesday to mostly negative reviews. (Publishers Weekly)
Google has launched a Latin translator. (Pocket-lint)
Former president Jimmy Carter has canceled two upcoming promotional appearances for his book White House Diary while he remains hospitalized in Cleveland after getting sick on a flight from Atlanta on Tuesday. (New York Times)
Popular authors Greg Bear and Neal Stephenson have launched an app that is actually a novel released in weekly serialized segments, hearkening back to the nineteenth century heyday of the serial format. (USA Today)
According to Publishers Weekly, a Texas appeals court on Wednesday heard "a key defamation case that will decide whether books will get the same First Amendment protections as other media, such as newspapers, in the state of Texas." No ruling is expected until early next year.
According to the American Library Association, "library visits and circulation climbed nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2008," 82 percent of the nation's sixteen thousand libraries now have Wi-Fi, and many libraries are developing their own smart phone apps. (Associated Press)
On the occasion of the news that reality TV star Snooki—who told the New York Times in July that she's only read two books in her life—will soon publish a novel with Simon & Schuster, Huffington Post rounds up the seven most absurd celebrity books.
