The Great Passage is a 2016 one-season anime about Genbu Shobo, a major publishing company, and a young man who takes over a dictionary project from a veteran lexicographer. For anyone whose interests overlap at anime and dictionaries, its premise...
Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scribes sometimes added a curse to the first page of those books that was supposed to keep thieves away — and some were as vicious as...
Trevor from Waxahachie, Texas, wonders: If you find a typo or other error in a book, should you let the publisher know? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Who Do You Tell About Typos in Books?” Hi there, you have A Way...
Which is correct, toward or towards, meaning in the direction of? If you’re in the United States, the far more common term is toward. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Towards vs. Toward” Hello, you have A Way with...
An Upper Michigan listener with a form of dyslexia told us he wrote to Kurt Vonnegut years ago about his frustration with trying to become a published writer. Vonnegut wrote back, assuring that when you care enough about your subject, the right...
Another overly optimistic query to the book agent at SlushPile Hell reads in part: “My dog has written a book on how to be a success.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Dog Wrote a Book” Another query letter...

