What do you call it when you watch a bunch of episodes of your favorite show back-to-back? If you call is “binge-watching,” then you’re a part of a trend in the English language. Use of the term “binge-watch” is on the rise, and that’s led Collins, a UK dictionary, to name it the Word of the Year. Collins Word of the Year 2015 is BINGE-WATCH #collinsWOTY pic.twitter.com/3rh7cDAxQY — Collins Dictionary (@collinsdict) November 5, 2015 The term is growing ever more popular thanks to a rise in streaming services like Netflix, but it’s actually waited in the wings for a long …
The six shortlist includes three novels, a short story collection, a nonfiction book, and even a book of poetry.
When you forget your breakfast as you run out the door, you can grab something from the vending machine in the train station. But what if you forget your book? Well, if you live in Grenoble, then there’s a vending machine for that, too. French publisher Short Édition has come up with a very clever way to distribute short stories: they’ve installed eight literary vending machines around the city of Grenoble, France. The machines print short stories on long strips of paper. They’re like your CVS receipts, only more fun to read. Inauguration de la borne distributeur d’#histoirescourtes de @short_edition pour …
Agatha Christie’s 1930 short story collection The Mysterious Mr. Quin has found new life as a mobile app. Called simply “Mr Quin,” the new app invites users to explore a mystery in real time. EastEnders’ Rebecca Scroggs and Games of Thrones’ Gethin Anthony star as Christie’s main characters in the app. The app went live last week, with users following in real time as clues were revealed in an updated version of Christie’s classic. The app’s interface replicates a typical social media feed. The trick, of course, is that all of the comments, images, and videos being shared on the feed are clues …
In the wake of the tragic attacks on Paris, sympathy and support poured forth from social media. That’s a good thing, but poet and blogger Karuna Ezara Parikh wondered why other tragedies around the world didn’t prompt the same reaction. She responded with a poem on Instagram, and her work has since gone viral. Parikh’s poem takes the world of social media to task for its muted reactions to tragedies in Beirut and Baghdad. “[N]ot one person’s status update says ‘Baghdad’,/because not one white person died in that fire,” Parikh writes. Parikh is supportive of France, of course, but she …
